Getting Ready To Find A New Job
Essential Resources For New Job Seekers
Finding a new job takes foresight and planning. You want to make sure that you are fully-prepared and fully-equipped to impress potential employers and make yourself stand out as much as possible in a competitive hiring environment.
There are several key areas you’ll want to focus on as part of your job search preparation.
According to The Balance Careers, “A resume is a document that provides an employer with a detailed statement of a job candidate’s prior work experience, education, and accomplishments. The resume often supplies an employment objective; a summary of skills, knowledge, and potential contributions; a summary of civic, professional, and philanthropic volunteer work; a list of certifications; and mention of any additional, relevant coursework.”
Employers use resumes to sift through volumes of candidates to find people that, at least on paper, meet the broad requirements of the job. It’s important to have a clear, concise, and properly-structured resume before starting your search in earnest.
If you need help creating or updating your resume, check out our how-to guide here.
Letters Of Recommendation And References
As a job seeker, you’re probably all-too-aware of how difficult it can be to actually find the right position. What you may not realize is how difficult it can be for employers to find the right candidate.
There are so many factors that go into determining whether or not an individual candidate is the right fit for a given company’s needs and culture. Selecting the wrong candidate can cause problems on both sides of the equation. When it comes to working relationships, flow and natural alignment are incredibly important.
The trouble is that everyone puts their best foot forward in the interview process. This is not to say that candidates try to be deceptive during the interview. However, it’s only natural to try your best to align with the desires and needs of the employer so that you secure the position you want.
Letters of recommendation and reference checks can be an important tool that employers can use to get to know the “real” you and determine whether or not you’ll be a fit for the company over the long-term.
While it might be uncomfortable or a bit scary to ask someone to formally write down their opinion of you, a solid foundation of references and recommendations can go a long way in helping you find your next job.
If you plan ahead and compile a list of references so that you can get your recommendation letters now, it will ensure you’re prepared when a prospective employer requests a reference letter, or two.
It pays to plan ahead. Your search for references should start before your search for jobs. You’ll want to secure three to five people who are willing to write letters and make themselves available for one-on-one conversations with hiring managers.
Who to Ask for References
According to Chron, employers check three references on average for each candidate. However, you can’t have too many people in your corner, and it can be helpful to have a selection of people vouch for you who are knowledgeable about different aspects of your abilities. That way you can choose the best references for each type of company you’re
applying to.
How To Approach Someone For A Recommendation
Asking for a letter of recommendation requires a bit of finesse. Be sure to frame the request in an honest and thoughtful manner. Examples that work include “Do you feel you know my work well enough to write me a good recommendation letter?” or “Do you feel you could give me a good reference?”
Don’t forget to thank your reference writers with a thank you note. People like to feel appreciated and when they know they’ve been a big help to you, they may be more likely to help you in the future. An email thank you note is fine, but a hand-written thank you note may appear to be more thoughtful and might make a bigger impression.
Have you ever left an interview wishing you had said something differently? Forgot to say something you had planned? You are not alone. Nerves, distractions, and other mitigating factors during an interview can leave people feeling like their careers are completely out of their control.
For some, LinkedIn can be daunting because it feels similar to preparing for a job interview. However, LinkedIn offers a platform to present yourself to the professional world with complete control. Follow this guide to start taking the steps to gain confidence in your professional presence through your LinkedIn profile.
Check out our comprehensive guide to creating the ideal LinkedIn profile
Find Your Ideal Job With A Personality Assessment
Finding your ideal job isn’t easy. Sometimes, we toil through education and training in order to win the job of our dreams, only to find out that the dream doesn’t live up to our expectations. Often, this is because the jobs we think we want don’t necessarily align with our personalities.
Use Assessments To Change Careers
Nothing saddens me more than seeing people living their lives in quiet desperation, stuck in careers that are both uninspiring and unfulfilling. As James Taylor once said, “You can play the game and act out the part, even though you know it wasn’t written for you.” In the world of business, this tragic situation occurs when an individual’s natural skills and proclivities are simply not a fit for the career they chose. That’s why I believe that finding the right fit, both in terms of natural skills and interest, is the most important factor when it comes to success.
When people find their fit, they experience a state of happiness and creativity called flow. According to Forbes, “the concept of flow was popularized by Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the early 1990s. According to the theory, flow manifests itself when a person’s natural skills align with the challenges they face. When people operate outside of their flow, problems arise. For example, if an individual works in a highly challenging environment in which their natural skills are outclassed, they tend to experience terrible anxiety and stress. Conversely, if an individual’s advanced skills are wasted in an industry that is neither interesting nor challenging, boredom and apathy quickly set in”
Flow is an important concept in life and in business. When things align naturally and people find their personal flow, happiness increases, and productivity rises. One way to find your flow is to take a personality assessment. These tests and career assessments help to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses as well as your personal values and skills. Your ideal job is often found at the intersection of these personality traits. You might just be surprised by what you find.
Use Assessments To Change Careers
These assessments are particularly important when seeking a new job or changing careers. In addition to showing gaps in training and experience, the assessments can help to highlight the unique skills you bring to the table.
Of course, these assessments don’t act as a black box that magically spits out the answer to your life’s work. They can, however, help frame the way you think about potential jobs.
Personality assessments may help you discover things about yourself that you didn’t already know. This, in turn, can lead you down the path to new and exciting career opportunities that you never thought about before.
Create Your Personal Mission and Vision Statement
Now that you’ve completed an assessment and learned which jobs fit your personality, it’s time to begin targeting jobs and companies that align best with your core values, skills, and goals.
Creating a personal mission and vision statement makes it easier to navigate industries and positions on your search while staying true to your goals. You should avoid thinking that mission and vision statements are silly or just fluff. In reality, they’re the single most important part of your job search.
You cannot hope to find your mission in life if you don’t know what really matters to you. Working through the process to identify your vision can help you better understand yourself and your opportunities.
How To Write A Resume Cover Letter
We reviewed thousands of resume cover letters and know what it takes to stand out. Follow our expert advice and examples to learn how to quickly write a cover letter that can lead to landing an interview for your dream job.
On the job hunt, yet getting slowed down by the need to write that perfect cover letter? We’ve got you covered with the tricks of cover letter writing that will help you stand out in the pile of applications.
This guide includes expert advice on the following topics:
- A sample cover letter is broken down into simple components
- What information is good to include vs unnecessary
- Formatting tips
- Example cover letters that stand out from the crowd
Check out our guide to cover letter writing here.
Be sure to take your time and thoroughly prepare for your job search. These resources are the tools that will help you along your journey towards a new future.