Stay On Top Of Your Job Hunting Game
Job hunting is a highly competitive battle where the only one best candidate can win. Stay prepared and stay focused in order to get your dream job.
Remember the basics
Whether employed or unemployed, you should strive to be more marketable by:
- Keeping your skills—soft and technical—current and fine-tuned
- Maintaining a list of employment contributions and accolades
- Staying apprised of trends and occurrences in your targeted industry
Establishing relationships with recruiters, is strongly recommended as recruiters may often be aware of unadvertised positions. More and more companies are using ’employer’s market’ to weed out some of their average or marginal performers and bring in more top-level performers. You surely want to touch on this hidden job market.
This is known as top grading. For example, if an employer wants to bring in a director of marketing that is better than the current director of marketing, the company will list the position with a recruiter. Companies may also use recruiters to protect trade secrets. For instance, if the company is rolling out a new product line, such as interactive video, but the company does not want the competitors to find out, the company may use recruiters to find the people needed. Work on your networking today!
Get “your house” in order
Maintaining an updated list of your references, supervisors or alternative company contacts is important. You might want to monitor your credit history so that you can delete incorrect information or create a plan to clean up negative credit ratings and citations. These steps are necessary because employers are closely scrutinising their prospective employees. Some conduct credit checks, while many companies make certain to verify employment backgrounds and credentials.
“Be honest,” a recruiting expert said. “There is more scrutiny going into validating information on resumes. Prospective employers want to know if there is anything in a person’s history to preclude them from hiring. They are looking for signs of risks and questionable behavior as this phenomenon has flared since 9-11.”
Putting all of this advice into practice will take a lot of time and effort, so it is important to do it right. “You need to treat looking for a job like a job,” a HR manager advised. “You need a plan, and you need to work the plan. If the plan is not working, you need to revise the plan.”