3 Pieces of Job Hunting Advice You Need to Know
By: Amarachi Ngwakwe
Tags: Jobs, Job Hunting, Recent Graduates, Employment

Finding a job can be a taxing process. If you’re reading this, you are likely in the middle of the job search or beginning the journey. I’ve been applying for jobs for a few months and here are a few tips to help you through the process.

Don’t get attached to jobs you apply for.

Applications are like a two sided coin, it could work out, but it also might not. While it never hurts to apply, until you hear back position, it is best to level the amount of energy and excitement you put into an application. I would spend hours working on applications only to never hear from a company. The rejection, or lack of response, was discouraging partly because I put too much energy in from the start. Applying for a job is like the tango, it takes two to make it happen.

You can only work at a company if they hire you. So once you put in an application, keep applying to other jobs and keep things pushing.

Who you know isn’t everything, but it is a BIG-thing.

Being on the wrong side of nepotism sucks, but when you’re on the right side — it feels so good.

After four months of applying to jobs, I can confirm that my most successful applications occurred when I connected with someone inside the company.

To do this, I would message an employee on Linkedin and make a genuine inquiry about their career. Through our conversation I would mention my interest in working at the company and ask for career advice.

Finding an internal employee is a good way to build connections and increase the chances of someone looking at your application.

For one position I applied for, connecting with an employee online helped me progress to the screening round of an application.

Hiring managers have hundreds of applications to review and an internal reference can do wonders to move your application to the top of the pact.

Start early, you’ll be searching for a while.

If you are in a high demand field like travel nursing, especially during the pandemic, you could start a contract position next week, but on average landing a job takes several months. Given this, it is best to start searching for a job well before you would like to start working. (I suggest starting at least 6 months in advance.)

As a recent grad, I’ve had friends who secured jobs before they even graduated and many who took upwards of three, six, eight months, and even a year to land a job.

Several factors that impacted this:

Connections : Individuals who interned for a company the summer of their junior year, often were able to secure full time positions with the same company after graduation.

: Individuals who interned for a company the summer of their junior year, often were able to secure full time positions with the same company after graduation. Major : Engineering and Business Majors, secured jobs the fastest as their education training directly correlated with skills in demand in the market.

: Engineering and Business Majors, secured jobs the fastest as their education training directly correlated with skills in demand in the market. Location : Positions in a big city, or a city where an industry is saturated and everyone wants to work, will be more competitive to land and jobs in smaller cities tend to have less applicants.

: Positions in a big city, or a city where an industry is saturated and everyone wants to work, will be more competitive to land and jobs in smaller cities tend to have less applicants. Work Experience: While educational training is valued, in the job market, work experience is King. Work experience is evidence that you can do a job. This is a prime example of the chicken and the egg, because you need a job to get work experience, but how could you have work experience without a job?

I bring up these factors to highlight that the length of time it will take you to find a job depends on a variety of things. I suggest starting six months in advance, because finding positions you are interested in, developing your application materials, applying to the job, hearing back from the company, preparing for interviews, and landing the job, can take a long time. It is better to have more time than you need than to be racing against the clock and finances to land a position.