A DIFFERENT APPROACH TO JOB SEARCH
By: Bhagyalakshmi R
Tags: Job Search, Talent, Career Development, Recruiting

Placements, job search, referrals, internships are the most common words we come across from the time we were about to graduate and enter corporate world. It’s full of opportunities, yet some find it way too hard to land a job. I am sure, one or the other point in time we all have been there either searching, switching jobs or hiring people. Some switch every possible year and some strive for longer period. While some keep searching for job and some find it way to easy to switch careers. We all have that one friend — every time we talk to them, they have either just switched jobs or between jobs. This make us wonder how can she/he switch jobs so often and where am I going wrong.

One of the biggest mistakes as a job seeker all the time is reaching out to people randomly or applying to companies randomly with a standard message “Do you have any opportunities for me”? or “I want to apply to your company”. Forget about getting an interview call, this will not fetch you a response most likely.

I would like to share in a different context and how it can be looked at it differently.

Landing a job is as good as a recruiter closing a position. Imagine you are a recruiter, you have a TAT (Turn Around time) to close a position and it’s hard to hire skill. If a recruiter reaches out to any random candidate and sends a standard message, do you think the position will ever get closed? You know the answer now.

Similarly, finding a job is as good as hiring! Just like recruiters or HMs invest time in preparing JDs that look crisp, creative and attractive enough for the right talent to apply for the job. You need to follow the same approach while preparing your resume. Invest ample of time in building an attractive resume. Let’s not mistake by the phrase “attractive resume” to more colourful or stylish fonts. Keep it simple, to the point and not more than 2 pages. This is one of the reasons why people hardly get a revert from companies even if they applied for an opportunity matching their skill set.

There are two approaches you can follow to during your job search just like we follow in recruitment i.e., Push and Pull Approach.

1. Push: This is where you approach (push your resume) people or apply to jobs after your research is done and you found relevant jobs to apply.

2. Pull: This is where you pull the attention of recruiters by regular visits to the portals and through attractive resume.

The next step is to update the resume on relevant job portals and visit them regularly. I suggest every day, if not possible at least alternative days. If you did not know, recruiters filter the profiles of those job seekers who are active on the portal. You can also create job alerts on LinkedIn and other platforms with the job titles that you would like to be notified. In case you do not get any profile views or calls, revisit your resume and understand what must be causing this and fix it. You can even take help from friends. This is just to validate the quality of resume. If you cannot present your work well enough in your resume, you most likely to fail in the job search as well. This is the most important step of all.

Lastly, before you write to anyone seeking for referral or to apply, do them a favour of visiting their career page and explore the jobs yourself and check if they have any suitable role matching your experience and skillset. And then you may write to them by sharing the link that you would like to apply for the shared link and if they can help. This will not only fetch you better results but also, it indicates that you have done your homework before you wrote to them and you are keen to join them.

On a closing note: In my opinion, finding a job is not at all hard if the efforts are made in the right direction and mindset. If we are not ready to help ourselves by doing our bit, it’s unreasonable to expect others to be there to help us in the busy world.