You were dismissed? Resigned yourself? Or just finished college? There are many reasons to find a job as fast as possible. For example, it looks good to have a gap-free resume. That's why it's advisable to start checking job ads as soon as possible. Make sure you adopt the following strategies to increase your chances to get hired considerably.
1) Networking everyone you know should know about your job hunt
If you see a shooting star or blow your birthday candles, you're not allowed to tell your wish or it will never come true. In fact, that's a lie!
- Tell everyone you know that you are looking for a job. You never know who might know someone whose friend's uncle is hiring.
- Don't be too shy to ask people if the company they're working at is hiring. Try to find opportunities anywhere.
- The more people you tell that you're seeking work the higher the probability that someone can help you.
- Use your acquaintances' reach by asking them to ask around among their relationships for you. Reach out to former colleagues, chefs, lecturers, etc. and find out if they have heard about open positions.
- Post on social media that you need a job to reach out to acquaintances that you don't see regularly. Join groups in which job offers are shared and follow companies that your are interested in to see their vacancies first.
2) Apply anyway
In job advertisements companies describe their ideal candidate. Most of the time they have to accept compromises like everyone else. It's very rare that you find your perfect job, the same applies to companies looking for their ideal candidate.
Dare to apply anyway - even if you don't fulfill every single specification they list. As long as you match the main requirements there's a good chance they'll hire you because they can't find anyone better. You can probably learn the less important skills during the training period or do a course on the side.
3) Take advantage of the classifieds
- Buy some newspapers and check out their classifieds section. They still have sections about the job market with job ads you might not find online.
- Also check out classifieds websites. There you can find thousands of jobs usually grouped by location and professional field.
- A third option are classifieds search engines, that collect and list job ads from several pages. They help you save time and effort because you don't need to check multiple pages. Nevertheless, you should research if you can find other pages that have vacancies that are not listed in the classifieds pages.
See the next tip to learn how you can use websites that list jobs as efficiently as possible.
4) Get the most out of job websites
Most aggregators provide features that facilitate finding the right search results. Use these by exploring the enhanced search options: For example search by keyword, location, job title etc. or try combining several parameters to get better results.
No matter if you are on a job search website or a classifieds site, they usually offer free email alerts. There you can register with your email address, choose the right keywords or even save an advanced search and they will send you new job listing via email. That way you don't have to check the pages over and over again. Instead you get the newest job postings automatically to your inbox.
With these functions you can make sure that you don't waste your time on job aggregator pages that don't have the jobs you are looking for. Yet, you can still keep up to date if they gain matching vacancies.
5) Ask for feedback
It's hard when your job application is rejected. It's even harder when you put great effort into your application and really wanted that job. To improve future applications you should not want to leave it here. Overcome your pride and ask them for the reason they turned you down. The answer might hurt, but that's the only way to learn from your mistakes. Maybe the HR representative can give you a helpful advice that makes you get the next job you're going to apply for.
6) Just keep applying. Just keep applying.
This advice not only relates to situations in which your application was turned down and you need to move on and apply to other companies. But you also should keep on applying for jobs while you are waiting to hear back from a company. Even if you're absolutely sure that they are going to hire you, don't stop applying until you signed a contract, because unexpected events can always happen. The worst thing that could happen is that you get offered more than one position and will be in the lucky situation to choose.