With the new year well underway, you may find yourself thinking it’s time to change things up a bit and give yourself something to look forward to in 2021.
After all, with 2020 being the write-off that it was, the many months you’ve had to endure throughout the various lockdowns may have refined your thinking somewhat, helping you to discover new skills and things you want to do with your life.
One key area many people will now be thinking of changing-up is their career.
Whether it be due to furlough, redundancy, a dislike to remote working, or a desire to start afresh somewhere new, there are a number of reasons why changing your job can seem like an enticing option.
However, before you jump straight into applying to new positions, it’s important to consider some of the things you should and shouldn’t do when trying to land your dream role. Listed below are a few of the main ones you’ll need to think about:
Do: Get help
Getting a job, especially straight out of university can be difficult, let alone during a global pandemic.
If you have been searching for a job now for a while with little or no success, get some help.
Here at Graduate Coach, we offer a wide range of services that are specifically designed to help students, graduates and career changers to turn their degrees into graduate careers and thrive in their career.
We offer personalised one-to-one career coaching programmes, interview training sessions, online career courses, books, CV help and more.
To get started, we recommend that you take our FREE course on how to get a graduate job.
Then get in touch with us to find out how we can help you to become gainfully employed.
Here are some additional tips from guest blogger Dakota Murphey:
Don’t: Have A Bad CV
Designing a perfect CV is a process that’s much easier said than done. But, with employers often having to sift through hundreds of CVs for just one position, making sure yours stands out is imperative.
Therefore, you’re going to need to make sure your CV is as polished as possible – up-to-date with your contact details, well-structured, eye-catching, relevant to the role and formatted correctly.
Research shows that employers only spend an average of six seconds looking at each CV, after all, so if yours isn’t instantly engaging, you probably won’t land the role. As such, the more preparation you can do now to design, develop and print it professionally, the better it’ll come across.
Similarly, make sure any supporting materials you have – whether it be a magazine, portfolio, dissertation, etc. – are well designed and developed as well.
Do: Tailor Your CV
While it may be tempting to create a generic, traditional CV you can submit to hundreds of different companies, don’t. Employers will see straight through you and think you weren’t actually that bothered to apply to the role in the first place.
To be more successful, tailor your experience to each role you apply to. Utilise the job advert and create your CV around it, covering as many of the essential skills the company is looking for.
Even if you don’t have much industry-specific experience for the role, you should be able to demonstrate a range of broad skills to the prospective employer, including communication, customer service, organisation and time management.
Don’t: Apply For Jobs You Don’t Want
It may sound very obvious, but there’s no point applying to a job you know in your heart of hearts you don’t actually want. If anything, it’ll only waste your own time, as well as the employer’s time.
Instead, think carefully about what you want to do. Whether you’re looking for a step up the ladder in your industry or fancy an entirely new career change, be honest with yourself about the kind of role you want to get.
Then, once you know what that is, stay focused on achieving that. Yes, it may take a while to land the dream job but the last thing you want is to wind up working somewhere you don’t enjoy being.
Do: Use Your Network
One of the most effective and easiest ways to land a role in the new year is to utilise your connections – the network of friends, family, loved ones or existing colleagues you have built up over the years.
Be proactive in your job search by reaching out to people and other companies. That way, you will not only be able to pinpoint the companies you actually want to work for but you’ll also demonstrate a tenacity and desire to source a new position.
Plus, being referred by somebody else can help you stand out a lot, putting you ahead of the other more general applicants.
Don’t: Lose Hope
Landing your dream role can be hard graft but, with the right attitude and determined mindset, is perfectly possible to achieve.
The key thing to remember is that patience is key, so don’t lose hope if you don’t find the perfect roles to apply to straight away.
Everything happens for a reason, after all, so your ideal job will come in time – we promise.
Guest post written by Dakota Murphey
Featured photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels
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