7 Ways to Boost Your Impact and Reputation During a Job Search

RESUME READINESS

Always be prepared for a career opportunity. That means your resume needs to be ready at a moment’s notice. You don’t want to make hiring decision makers wait for you while you polish up your resume. It may be too late by the time you’re done.

CAREER FOCUS

Make sure you have clearly defined for yourself the types of jobs and industries you’re targeting. Otherwise, you’re wasting precious time if you’re all over the place. Employers see that as unfocused, which is the kiss of death. It equates to this: “unfocused resume and job search = unfocused at work if I hire this person.”

SOCIAL MEDIA

This is a must during a job search, especially LinkedIn. If you Google yourself, chances are that your LinkedIn profile comes up within the first 10 listings under your name. That’s where recruiters and employers are going to go first. If you’re not social media savvy and do not incorporate this into your job search strategy, you can bet that it’s definitely part of a competitor’s suite of career marketing tactics.

NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK

If you want high quality results, don’t post your resume only on job boards. It has a 5% effectiveness rate, whereas networking to find those hidden job opportunities has more than a 50% effectiveness rating. In today’s market, jobs are being filled before the general public even knows there are openings. This is where doing your company research and contacting the right people—especially decision makers—within those companies comes in. Read company/employee blogs, press releases, tweets, Facebook pages, LinkedIn updates, etc. and connect through those channels. Do it now.

HIRING TRENDS

Since these are constantly evolving, be familiar with these trends. If you haven’t adapted your current job search to the shifts in recruiting, hiring, and labor markets, it’s a sure-fire way to position yourself as an out-of-touch job seeker who doesn’t know what it takes to be competitive.

JOB HUNTING

Treat it like it’s your business. It’s your full-time job, so work 40 hours a week on it if that’s what it takes and stay vigilant until you land your perfect-fit opportunity.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Continue training and developing yourself professionally. It means added marketability during a job search.