RSI LONDON Group | Russian Specialist Recruitment Consultancy
Changing jobs might be quite exciting and interesting, but often it involves dealing with some doubts. How do you make a decision on where to go next? In this article, we will give you a few ideas on how one could approach a job hunt by looking into job search strategies.
Typically people tend to choose an entry level job based on only a handful of criteria: salary, location, and the company’s name. Often, people skip the full description of what the job entails, and end up, due to this lack of understanding, not knowing what the routine of the job is going to look like on a daily basis. That, in the future, may lead to a quick disengagement from work and dissatisfaction with the new job. Generally, people also tend to send the same CV to as many as possible job adverts, which does not necessarily increase the chance to get a suitable job.
According to Blau (1993 & 1194), the typical process of a job hunt is the following:
– Gathering information and exploring what’s out there.
– Identifying which jobs and organisations that might be of interest.
– Engaging in an active job search – applying, sending CVs and attending job interviews.
But what if you add one more important step prior to gathering information – set your own career goals and formulate your own strategy to get there (Saks and Ashforth, 2000). To do so, you might want to speak to a career coach or consultant, or complete career tests to start with.
Setting a goal, different from just ‘to get any job as soon as possible’ may bring you to a better role that will be more satisfying and lead to something bigger in the future, such as a career progression or promotion.
Awareness of your personality traits, strengths, skillset, preferences, and interests may provide an effective framework for exploring options within the thousands of jobs listed online.
Sometimes, investing more time into preparation for a particular job is more effective that sending many CVs everywhere.
Tailoring your resume according to the job specification is a good idea. Of course, if you have the experience, qualifications or transferable skills that apply to a particular job, highlight this. Please avoid telling lies because in the future when it gets discovered, the situation may backfire you in a very unfortunate way.
Set up a particular time slot you want to invest in a job search and do it on a regular basis.
Analyse the job advertised in a way that it gives you a lot of information to make your decision on: check out Glassdoor, ask questions if you’re working with a recruiter, carefully read every line of the responsibilities and duties of the job, research the company’s website to learn more about its culture, values and future direction.
Ask yourself questions to dig deeper. What is there for you and what will you bring to the company? What value you will add to the business? How will the experience of working in this job and company contribute to your career goal(s)? What about your lifestyle and quality of life – is it far from home or nearby? Is it a small or large organisation? Is overtime expected or is it 9-5?
When you have all of the information that you need and you feel confident about taking the next step, read our article on how to optimise your chances to get a job.
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