Planning your job hunt

With a 2019 just around the corner, you may feel motivated to look for a new job or even a complete career change. The mantra of ‘New Year, New You’ applies to your professional life too. 

The weeks leading up to the New Year are the perfect time to audit your candidate profile and make sure you’re in perfect shape for the job hunt.

Your CV

First impressions are key, and the first thing a potential employer will see is your CV. Ensure that it is tidy and properly formatted. Overly stylised CVs can be off putting, so remember simplicity and readability are key.

Always include a personal profile which highlights your career highlights to date.

Avoid clichés like “good team player” and words like “passionate”

Perhaps most importantly, always tell the truth on your CV.  Potential employers will do their research and pre-screen candidates before offering employment. What may seem like a white lie, could be the difference between being starting your dream job so put your best, most honest, foot forward!

Social Media

In this modern age, employers will often screen candidates’social media accounts.  Ensure that any personal profiles have the correct privacy settings, keeping those holiday snaps and boozy party pictures for friends and family alone. Remember that your profile picture will still be visible, so have something that you feel will represent you well to potential employers and recruiters.

LinkedIn is an important social media platform when job seeking, and ensuring that your profile reflects your correct work experience i paramount. Ensure that your CV and your LinkedIn details are the same.  Almost all employers will use Linked in as their second port of call after looking at your CV, so don’t neglect your LI profile.

Use recruiters

Having a recruiter onside who can best showcase you can be the difference between a job you can do and a job you can love. Do your research to ensure that the agencies that you register with are best suited to your needs, that have an understanding of the roles that you are seeking and are specialised to your field.

Personal and Professional

Ensuring that you present yourself professionally across the board will increase your chances when seeking new employment.  Make sure your email address is personal and professional, we recommend variations on first name/last name addresses – avoid nicknames or joke names: yes “friskykitten@gmail.com” I do mean you!

There’s an old adage saying that getting a new job is a full-time job in itself. Treat your New Year job hunt with the same level of professionalism as you would your first day at work.