Get the job you’ll love

By Ericka Simpson
If you’re like many American adults, losing weight isn’t the only resolution that you’ve set for the new year. You’re also committed to getting a new job, a job that brings you closer to your ultimate career goals.

You could post your resume on every major job board and hope that luck strikes, search company websites aimlessly and apply for dozens of jobs a day. But, don’t be surprised if that approach wears you out, leaving you frustrated, angry and jaded.

Improve your chances of getting the best job

Do yourself a favor and cut down on the time it takes you to get hired into (and appropriately paid for) a job that you’ll love and appreciate for years. Start by considering your passions. If you take a job that never allows you to use your passions, you’ll long for a new gig soon. Note skills and abilities that you have gained over your work career. Information knowledge counts.

Do you possess knowledge about financial, technological, educational or local political systems? Your knowledge has value. Consider this knowledge when conducting a job search.

This is important. Should you (and you probably do) have the skills and knowledge to work two or more jobs, create a separate resume and cover letter for each position that matches your skills. For example, if you’re a courtroom stenographer who teaches graphic  design software programs at a community college on weekends and you also have in-depth knowledge about local real estate markets, you could significantly increase your choices of landing a job that you’ll love if you create a teaching, a graphic design and a courtroom stenographer resume and three corresponding cover letters.

Include keywords that are listed in descriptions for positions you are searching for in your resumes and cover letters. Two to three keywords repeated twice should do it. Monitor the results that you get from keywords that you use. Be open to using different keywords if you’re receiving less than a 10% response rate from recruiters and hiring managers.

Steps to getting hired right

Speaking of monitoring your job search results, a spreadsheet is an effective tracking tool. Fields that you could include in your spreadsheet are the dates that you apply for jobs, the names of companies you applied with, email addresses or other contact information for recruiters or hiring managers that you sent your resume and application.

Highlight rows (jobs) that you receive a response on, whether that response is an interview request, inquiry for more information or a personal “thanks, but no thanks”. Use a different color background to highlight jobs that you land (even if you decide not to accept the jobs due to low pay, etc.).

This spreadsheet tells an important story. It reveals what is working and what is not working with your job search strategy and action steps. Pay attention to it.

For example, if you apply for three different types of jobs (i.e. teaching, courtroom stenographer, graphic designer), one look at your job tracking spreadsheet may reveal that you’re getting the best results with your graphic design keywords, resume and cover letter. If you tweak (i.e. updating keywords, adding licenses, including credentials) your courtroom stenographer and teaching resumes and cover letters, you might improve the results that you’re getting for these roles.

More job search tips are:

• Post your resumes on professional industry job boards.
• Attend professional industry networking events. While engaging in sincere conversations, let other attendees know that you’re looking for work (also let people know the specific type of work you want).
• Follow up on jobs you apply for three to four days after you submit your initial application. Follow up on each job that you apply for at least twice.
• Let family, friends, former colleagues, neighbors, etc. know that you’re in the job search process, asking them to let you know if they learn of open positions that are similar to what you’re looking for. Ask them to email me the link to open positions, again, saving you time.
• List the top 15 organizations that you’d like to work with. Search these companies’ job boards twice a month for jobs in your fields.
• Create job alerts at major job boards.
• Create Google alerts for jobs that you want to work.

Save yourself time and search two to three major job boards three to four times a week. Only search for jobs that have been posted in the last 24 hours. The same applies to sites like LinkedIn. The longer jobs have been posted, the less likely it is that recruiters are still searching resumes and applications for those jobs. Be patient. If you don’t quit, a door is bound to open.