Page 44 - TODAY magazine Issue 1 2021

YOUR TIME // INSURANCE KNOW-HOW
HOW TO KEEP YOUR FOCUS WHEN JOB HUNTING
Try these 10 tips to give your job search a boost and keep you motivated – they all go beyond sending out your CV and keeping your fingers crossed.
1. Establish a routine. Start the day as always – get up at a set time, dress for work and look for opportunities and work on finding a job for a set number of hours, for example from 9am until noon.
10. Take a short break.
Looking for a job can be soul- destroying, so take time out every now and then.
9. Identify what
trips you up. Are you struggling to find jobs in your field? Perhaps you’re looking in the wrong places. Do you get invited to interviews, but are never offered the job? You may need to practise your interview skills.
8. Apply for jobs you are (not vastly) underqualified for. If a job interests you and you don’t tick every single requirement, apply anyway. You have nothing to lose. If you do, make sure, though, that your CV highlights all the requirements that you do meet.
2. Make a list of possible employers. This will focus your job search and serve as a reminder of who to follow
on social media and whose newsletters
to subscribe to. Increasingly, this is where companies announce openings.
3. Set goals. This could be the number of jobs to apply for in a week, how many friends and former colleagues to contact or the number of companies to research.
4. Don’t be a pest.
Don’t go overboard and email your entire network every day, but do follow up after a decent interval, especially when it’s a big employer. New openings come up all the time and new hires sometimes don’t work out.
5. Network. Believe it or not, the lockdown has made networking a lot easier. Instead of attending events and introducing yourself to random strangers, you can now sign up for workshops and online events, which often are free, to meet other people in your line of work.
6. Keep track. Draw up a spreadsheet of the companies you’ve contacted and the positions you’ve applied for with the job description for each. Otherwise it is easy to lose track and you don’t want to hum and haw when a potential employer contacts you out of the blue.
7. Learn something new. Use the time to do online courses. Yes, some are pricey, but you can learn a lot on YouTube or from industry webinars.
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