Expanding your job search approach
Even though it may seem that the world has changed, the routes to finding jobs have not changed and so it’s vital to ensure that your activities are spread across the various areas of the market where jobs are to be found:
Your Personal Network
At this time, although you won’t be meeting your family and friends make the effort to keep in touch regularly by email, text and video calling. Find out what’s happening in their world, especially those who are working. Some of their employers will be looking for staff and your network may not immediately think about you, particularly if the roles are different to your past experience. Let them know that you are open to considering a wide range of roles at the moment. Ask them to share internal job board postings, remind them to ask people in their own networks about opportunities.
Social Media
This is the time to use your social media profile to do much more than share cat pictures! Make sure you let everyone you are in contact with know that you are looking for a new job. Follow up any comments that people share about being super busy at work at the moment, as that may mean they need more people. Ask others in the same situation as you what resources they are finding helpful at this time.
Increase your LinkedIn activity, post and share more, follow employers you are interested in and watch out for their job postings. Make sure that you’ve registered for job alerts. Ensure that your profile has a wide range of key words relative to the types of role you will consider so that recruiters will identify you in their candidate searches.
Recruitment Agencies
Agencies will be working extra hard to maintain their vacancy flow and to secure placements for their candidates. Many of them will be very pro-active in identifying where hiring is continuing or increasing and at the same time they will encourage applications from a wide range of candidates. They will have more short term contract vacancies and many of them will have employer partnerships in place to manage volume recruitment requirements in sectors which are hiring rapidly, such as retail or warehousing.
In a normal market we would advise not to register with too many agencies but in the current market our advice is to register with as many agencies as possible. Look at national agencies such as Reed, Hays, Michael Page or Adecco who cover a very wide range of vacancies as well as niche agencies relevant to your sector or role type, plus local agencies. Cast your net wide to give you the best opportunity of success in the short term.
Online and Traditional Adverts
Make sure that you have registered for job alerts on as many agency job boards as possible, as well as the larger job boards such as Reed, Indeed etc. Jobs will be updated very frequently so build time into your daily schedule to check your job alerts frequently.
Speculative Approaches
Don’t forget that many employers may actually be too busy at the moment to post vacancies promptly. Making a well-timed, targeted approach may help you to progress your job search. The key is presenting you as the ‘solution’ to the company’s needs and challenges at this time. A tailored, succinct CV and cover note is critical to success. You should clearly outline the experience or skills that you believe will add value to the organisation and if possible send this to named individual – an HR or recruitment manager or a senior executive.