Great Tips For Job-seekers

If you have recently found yourself unemployed or have been looking for work for some time, you will probably know how competitive the employment sector is at the moment.  There seem to be too many people looking for work when there aren’t enough available vacancies.  This means you need to do all you can to make yourself come across as better than everyone else and take various approaches.

What if you have already registered with numerous temp recruitment agencies, tweaked your CV and cover letter until it is as good as it possibly can be, and are already regularly looking and applying for jobs online with City Calling?  In the following article, you will find some handy tips and advice for making yourself stand out and helping you secure employment.

Don’t Underestimate Networking

We all know that network can be tedious and that it is not much fun trying to schmooze employers, but it is still an essential part of any job-seeking strategy.  Rather than worrying about attending every single industry and job fair that comes to your local area, the thing that you should be paying attention to is your address book of contacts.  You need to make sure that all of your contacts, from former colleagues and employers to clients, friends, family members, and school teachers, know that you are looking for work and in what field you are looking for work.

Contact Potential Employers Directly

Although it would be unwise to stop looking at sites such as City Calling, you should widen your search by not only looking at the various job boards and contacting prospective employers directly.  Compile a list of employers and companies in your area who are likely to have positions suitable for your skills and experience.  Send your CV and cover letter to the HR manager of each company.  Although you may only get a bog standard reply, if they even reply; it is estimated that around 80-% of the jobs available at any one time is not actually listed on job boards.

Do Something Different

As already mentioned above, one of the reasons why it is so hard to get yourself hired is that the job market is flooded with lots of people looking for work.  The aim is to try and get your foot in the door and the trick to having a better chance of doing this is by making yourself stand out from your fellow job-seekers.  Staying up to date with topical news and events can help you.  If you are applying at Christmas time or early December, you could send a Christmas card along with your CV and cover letter.  While it may seem a bit cheesy, it is also memorable, and rather than just being another CV in the pile yours will be remembered for your card.  Another way you can do this is if you know the company you are applying for has received a recent award you could send a congratulatory message or card with your CV.  As well as helping you stand out from the crowd it will also show that you are keenly interested in the company and its progress.

What Does Your Online Profile Say About You?

In this modern day and age, most companies now have an online presence of some description.  Couple that with the fact that most people use social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter and it makes sense that a prospective employer may look at your online profile to see whether you are a good candidate for any positions they may have.  It is wise then to run a search of yourself in Google to see what the results are like.  If you are virtually invisible, it may be time to up the ante and pay closer attention to your dormant Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts.  On the flip side, if you are a frequent user of Twitter and Facebook and are known to post questionable content, you may want to delete old messages and change your tact while using these kinds of sites.