Searching for a Job: Steps-by-Step Guide

It’s becoming more important to have a job position that adheres to the work-life-balance concept. For those searching for a new job now, we prepared step-by-step instructions, so you would achieve your career goals faster. Follow these simple steps when searching for a job, to overcome challenges and realize your professional potential.

Let’s dive in.

Searching for a job in 2024

The years after the pandemic are more promising with position listings for job seekers. The job employers are ready to provide employment and you have all you need to succeed. Still, your effective strategy is vital in searching for the job you really want.

Set your goals right

Planning, time management, and setting goals are must-have tools to ace a job search successfully. It’s one thing to find a job that will provide. Another thing is to be happy with what you do for years to come and gradually move to your dream job and payment level. And there is no catch here to set the right goals, apart from time commitment:

Define what job positions or responsibilities are a no-no for you. Since professional skills can be applied to different positions, reflect on what you dream of or what will be an everyday torture for you. Picture that? Let’s proceed. As we spend most of the time at work, let it be the role you enjoy.

Set a strategy. The starting point may vary for job candidates. If you start in a new professional field, then you might look more into job experience, paid training, or internship. It’s a proven strategy to start from a junior position and work your way through up, say, within a year or two.

Another way to do it is to step up in your career when you feel you’re ready for an upgrade in every way: position or salary-wise. Set the goal validly and search for a job you aim at. Moreover, you can highlight it effectively in a cover letter (we’ll get to that in a minute).

Create an appealing resume for job search

Let’s get the key points that are crucial for your resume, and what are no-gos.

Use standard recommendations

• Build your resume as a readable comprehensive piece.
• Depending on a job position, you can go for a more creative design, or be more orderly arranged.
• Attach links to your portfolio, use cases, and/or recommendation letters. But don’t get too abundant and wordy.
• Structure well and use fonts and italics for your piece (no wall of text). Save an HR’s time, and you’ll be rewarded.
• Customize your resume for the job.
• Take time to elaborate on the cover letter for the position/company.
• Answer the interview questions in full.
• Negotiate a better salary for employment.
• Of course, attach your appropriate welcoming photo.

Stand out by tailoring your resume for the job openings

• Do an initial search and see what a potential employer looks for in your skills, experience, tool and system knowledge, and personal characteristics.
• Decide if job sharing is an option for you.
• Do not put all your experience out there, only what’s relevant to the position.
• Be consistent and sympathetic to your potential interviewer avoiding irrelevant information.
• If you need a bit of training on the tools and skills to fit the position, take a short course.
• Brush up what you might have learned as a second-year student. Cover the small gaps for the position.
• The good old soft and hard skills are your friends when searching for the job you want. If your job search is urgent and you can’t be too picky, highlight your soft (transferable) skills first. You focus your potential employer’s attention on the right spot to have more chances to get the job quicker. For instance, business writing, time management, organizational or tech-savvy skills, problem-solving set of mind, proactivity, etc.
• Be specific putting your hard skills. Whether it’s machine learning, graphic design, physics, SEO, or accounting, prove that with cases, challenges, and goals you have achieved professionally.

Boost your personal brand, while searching for a job

The digital era is all about personal brand. Even if marketing is not your cup of tea, take a little time to “beautify” your social media profiles and presence on LinkedIn. Show your expertise. No irrelevant images, but a friendly profile photo and backdrop, in line with your set goals we mentioned above.

Interact with posts related to trends in your industry and share original articles. Increase your activity on LinkedIn together with Social Selling Index, which helps elevate visibility for human resources.

Research companies while in job searching

It goes without saying, that homework will give you more job opportunities over other job seekers. So why not research what may be advantageous in a job search for you? These are the things you might look up before meeting a hiring manager:

• Company background.
• CEOs.
• Products/services.
• Company fields of expertise.
• Company news, plans for development.
• Company culture and reviews. You need to have some assuredness that you can stay at a job long enough. You need to evaluate all the pros and cons, whether it’s your kind of team and corporate culture, so you won’t hop jobs very soon.

Then study the job description. Your best strategy here is to harmonically apply your education, soft and hard skills, work experience, and even interests to the role. Remember you should not be overqualified for a position. Sometimes, recruiters are more willing to onboard someone with a smaller skill set for future talent growth, rather than an overqualified specialist who will leave the position in a year or two.

Applying effectively when searching for a job

When searching for a long-term steady job, the spray and pray is not your best practice. Follow the two proven strategies here:

• Apply for the job advertisements that you really like.
• Send your resume for 7-8 positions a day during workdays.

Don’t get frustrated after a month while job hunting. It might take 3-4 months to find what you’re aiming at. Don’t worry! You’ve got this! It’s not always about your resume, but about the ebb and flow of the market, rough patches, peaks and valleys based on the economy. Also, remember that hiring trends are seasonal with peaks in October-December. The low spot covers January through March.

Ask for referrals from your connections during job searching

Job search referrals work wonders. It means that another person is confident in your skills. It’s a powerful tool to accelerate your calls for job interviews over other candidates. Getting a job search referral increases your chances of being taken seriously.

Searching for the right job by writing a tailored cover letter

A tailored cover letter probably is the most crucial part of your job-searching process. Hiring managers, heads of companies and departments love cover letters. Such letters clarify uncertainties for potential employers from the beginning. It becomes obvious what you can bring to the table, and if you’re on the same page with the team. You can show off your expertise here in detail that will fit your resume as a missing puzzle bit. Show perspective on future collaboration.

Ace the interview while job searching

Resort to your interview skills. As usual, you have to show that you are the right person for the job. Google the common questions and be ready to answer them confidently. Show that you’re systems-oriented, people-oriented, and self-oriented. But still, try to be the real you. It’ll be easier to fit a new team if you’re frank and straightforward from the very start.

Ask questions too. This is a two-way street and you need to know as much as possible to make the right decision about your future career in this company. At the same time, it’ll show your genuine interest in the organization.

If you take a virtual interview, you have more options to get well-prepared for the session. Fix your light, software, hair, and clothes. In any interview, it’s better to stick to a casual business dress code to contribute to your self-presentation skills.

It’ll be best to show your communication skills too. Be involved in the conversation, respond by nodding, gestures, and mimics, and have eye contact.

Follow up when searching for a new job

There are a few tips to follow. First, send a thank-you letter within 24 hours to be polite and to be on top of all the application messages in the job board system. Second, avoid bombarding the recruiters once the interview is over and you’re waiting to hear back from your job application. Follow the agreement if so. Otherwise, make a short inquiry in a week to follow up your interview.

Choose a job research board in 2024

Job websites are a convenient way to advertise yourself and find a position that matches your expectations. While searching for the job you want, it might be handy to track job openings, go through job listings, and use resources like career coaching, resume tailoring, and blog posts with career tips. Choose among the most popular job search engines like Indeed, Monster, Glassdoor, FlexJobs, Ladders, Wellfound, LinkedIn, Getwork, and Snagajob.

If you’d like to use international job boards with job postings, visit LinkedIn, Monster, Indeed, and TheMuse.

There are also niche job boards for IT specialists and designers like Hired.com, Dribble, Behance, WeWork Remotely, Flex Jobs for remote work, and AngelList to work with startups.