Ways of Working
We live in a modern world. The fast-paced nature of our online lives can be overwhelming at times, but if we embrace the technology at our fingertips, we will find that the internet can improve our job searching experience in a few ways. Here is our rundown of the best ways you can make the most of online resources to help boost your job search.
Your network doesn’t have to be huge. All it takes is one connection with the right person to open the door to employment. LinkedIn is valuable for building connections with professionals, as it serves to bridge the gap between social media and the working world.
Networking is simply about building relationships with likeminded people. While it involves strategy in some ways (after all, you’re doing it to help progress your career), you still need to respect people as individuals and treat them as you would wish to be treated. All you need to do is be friendly, authentic, polite, and interested in other people. If you keep these values in mind, your network will build itself.
It can be a huge source of comfort to make connections with people in an indistinguishable situation to you, or those who have been in said situation in the past. They can reassure you that you’re not the only one having a tough time with your job search and give you useful advice as to which steps to take next.
Most importantly, let your network know that you’re searching for a job. That way, when opportunities do come up, your connections can inform you about them and mention your name in the relevant circles.
This may sound like the point above, but we’re talking about going beyond building a network of contacts. It’s fine making connections with others, but if you don’t have the right information about yourself available to them, why should they take any notice?
Making yourself known online involves highlighting what skills and experience you have, and why you are perfect for that job you’re striving for. LinkedIn is an excellent place to create an online profile displaying all your work experience (you can even include PDFs of your work). Make sure your profile is appealing and professional. Choose a modest profile picture and use the space wisely to detail all your relevant experience and education.
At Boardrm, we have a candidate dashboard where you can input all your work experience and education information, which we will use to help match you with the best-suited job opportunities. If you haven’t already signed up – help propel your job search forward by taking five minutes to do so.
Taking an online course in your field (or even in a different field) will boost your applications by showing your self-teaching capabilities and initiative.
On top of this, if you choose the right course for you, it can even make you more qualified for your desired career.
Google offers over 150 free courses ranging from Digital Marketing to Social Psychology, to Coding. If you can’t find what you’re looking for there, a quick search of the internet will find many paid courses (some offer discounts for students too).
Try to find a course that offers certification at the end, as then you will have something to show for all your challenging work.
If you search hard enough there are job opportunities to be found on Twitter, amongst the sarcasm and bad attitudes. For example, if you’re looking for a career in journalism, there are Twitter pages that cumulate job opportunities in one place for their followers to see and share.
You can also keep a tab on specific hashtags or phrases, such as #journalismjobs. This will help you find relevant accounts to follow and people to connect with.
The internet can tell you
a lot about a company and social media is a particularly terrific way to gain insight into a company before you apply for one of their jobs. Look at how each company engages with its audience. Do their values appear to line up with yours? Is there anything about their social media profiles that raises red flags? It’s always better to find red flags now than after you’ve signed a contract of employment!
Before applying for any job, we recommend doing some research into employee satisfaction. Websites like Glassdoor are a great resource for reading employee testimonials about a company. After all, it’s not just about the work you’ll be doing in your future job, it’s about the kind of environment you’re going to be inserting yourself into.
If lots of people aren’t happy working at a company, there will be reasons for this. Those reasons for their unhappiness might stop you from being happy working there too.
Searching for a job doesn’t have to be about sitting in front of a jobs board on your computer for twelve hours a day. Job searching is a continual process that happens in the background twenty-four hours a day until you finally accept a role. If a new job is listed that appears to be right up your street, you want to be amongst the first to see it so that you can apply before the position gets filled.
Therefore, signing up to email alerts from jobs boards is necessary. Yes, you will sometimes be sent emails about jobs that aren’t particularly relevant to you, but we say it’s better to receive too much information than not enough.
To stop these websites from spamming you too much, make sure the keywords and location you have saved in your jobs search are relevant to you and your goals. It’s no use getting sent a hundred emails about journalism jobs in London if you are interested in teaching jobs in Birmingham!
