Job hunting can be a stressful activity, filled with uncertainty - it's difficult to know where to start and what to do. At 11 Recruitment, we have put together some advice to help guide you.
Where to start
First, you need to work out what you want. While you may have numerous transferable skills and preferred industries, it's important to narrow your search to the most relevant roles. List your skills and compare them to:
This will become your wish-list, acting as a reference point when applying for roles. This will help ensure that you are not wasting your time by applying for unsuitable positions.
Going into job hunting knowing exactly what you want and what you bring will lead you to success.
A different approach to job hunting
Looking at job boards is the most popular method of job hunting. As such, it's highly competitive. You could also contact an employment agency directly by emailing them or submitting your CV to their online portal. However, competition here is also high.
We suggest you take a different approach.
LinkedIn is an extremely valuable platform that enables you to:
The layout of LinkedIn is not particularly useful for conducting a job search. You can post your profile for millions to see. You can also apply for jobs. While there is the potential for employers and employment agencies to find you, the odds are against you. So, what should you do to stand out?
How to use LinkedIn like a marketer
To effectively use LinkedIn, you must learn to utilise it the same way a marketer or salesperson does. Recruiters at employment agencies are used to being approached and they accept connection requests from everyone. Once you have sent out some requests, you should:
You can initially send out a maximum of 3,000 connection requests. I advise limiting your connections with people who work at an employment agency to not more than 10% of your total connections.
Now, let’s do the maths. You send out 1,000 LinkedIn connection requests. An average Manager directly manages six employees. That means your 1,000 connections supervise 6,000 staff. If an employee stays for three years on average, that means that 2,000 of these current employees will resign per year, in other words, there are 167 job opportunities per month!
The trick is to connect with people who employ staff with your background. This is why it is so important to be selective when deciding which employment agencies and employers to connect with. If you you take these steps, then statistically, you will be in the right place at the right time!
If you want to start sending your CV out to potential employers but are finding it difficult to decide what you should and should not include, you may also be interested in our CV writing service. Click the button below to find out more.
