Hello everybody!
January is finally over! 😀 That was a long month, wasn’t it? Anyway, it’s given us the time to set our goals for 2020, right? For some of you this means finishing your January exams and starting to think about the second semester and for others 2020 is the year when you will take your first steps into the job market. Today we are going to focus on the latter. Introducing……
Job hunting 2.0!
Back in the 90s or even the first decade of the 2000s, job hunting was pretty straightforward: write CV » look for job offers of your liking » send your CV » cross your fingers! That’s all that Rachel had to do to get her first job (Ok, if you’ve watched Friends you know it wasn’t a very good one but, still, you get the idea 😉 ). However, the boom of social media and networking sites has had an enormous impact on this process, altering the very roots of it as well as the order of the steps to take. Whether you’re looking for your first job or looking for a better, more suitable one, this post is for you, scroll down for the step by step guide to a successful job application!
- Browse through, clean and spruce up your social media sites and pages. Let’s face it, you are going to be Googled and your Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok, LinkedIn and any other sites you use will be checked and, if you are in the final interview, scrutinised. This means that not only is it time to get rid of all of those photos of that trip to Mallorca but also that you may want to start adding some more serious posts that show your commitment and reliability to your prospective employer. This will, of course, depend on the social media site. We all post different content on Snapchap and LinkedIn so if you’re thinking of creating a few good posts and copy-paste them you may as well make your accounts private, as this last option is held in better standards than the sloppiness and laziness that unoriginal content may convey. This is probably the most crucial part of the process since, if done properly, it will make a great first impression. Remember, less is more, your pages cannot be all let’s-go-crazy but neither should they be employee-of-the-year like, as nobody will believe them. The key is to brush existing content and create real posts.
- Google yourself. What’s the first thing you do when you want to find information about a company or person? That’s exactly what the HR department is going to do with you. This is when you check that your “cleaning” of social media has worked and that there is no other harmful information laying around.
- Reflection time. Now that you have the image you want and need on social media and the Internet it is time to think of the type of job and company you want to target. What field are you interested in? What companies or enterpreneurs do you admire? Google them, follow them on social media and start learning, not copying, but learning. Why are these people successful? What type of employees do they have? What do these people have in common? Needless to say that if these companies have got a HR social media site this should become your new best friend.
- Write your CV and cover letter. Now that you have a list of companies you’d like to work for, or at least the field, it’s time to work on your resume. The time when we had one CV to apply for 20 different jobs is long gone so each and everyone one of your job applications must be tailored for the company to are targeting. There’s a really good article on how to write a good CV here.
- Networking. Undeniably, one of the pillars of building a successful career in almost any field. LinkedIn is a great site for this: Connect with those you know and those you want to know, create a professional circle with people that inspire you and that you can learn from. Also, when you think you have a good professional circle and you’re done networking, go ahead and network some more.
- Find the right fit and apply for your dream job! All of the previous steps may take months! But you’ll see that it will all be worth it once you find that job offer, that one that gives you goose bumps and could give you everything you’ve been working for not only for the last months, but years! Tweak your resume and cover letter for that specific offer and send it but don’t stop the work! Keep posting regularly on you social media sites and keep networking as this will help you whether you get the call or not!
- I’ve been selected for an interview, what do I do now?
Yes, you’ve guessed it! Now you prep some more! If you wanna know how, keep your eyes peeled and follow us on Facebook and Twitter to make sure you don’t miss our next post!
Have a great week and start networking! 😉
The Red Lobster 
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