New Year, New Job?

It's a common practice - a new year brings the desire to change jobs.  If you have decided to hunt for a new job in 2016, let's get our job search house in order:

1)  Update your resume and make sure there is appropriate detail.  A resume is not a duties and responsibilities document - but a marketing document.  Tell the potential employer the successes you have had in your current and past jobs, and be sure to include appropriate key words and key phrases to your career target.  Also, don't fall for the one-page myth.  A two or three-page resume is fine, and is what most jobseekers will have after they have been in the workforce for a few years.  Your experience, education, professional development, technical/computer profile, and professional and civic involvement warrants a depth of information.

2)  Consider more than one resume.  You are not a one-trick pony and most likely have two or three different career types your can pursue.  Don't try to make one resume fit two or three career choices. Instead, tailor a resume and cover letter to each career type to ensure your career marketing documents work for you and not against you.

3)  Use job board aggregators, not single job boards.  Indeed.com and LinkUp.com are my two favorites.  Why search ten different job boards when you can search thousands at a time.  Sign up with just an email and a list of job titles (you may have two or three searches per site depending on your career choices) and let these sites do the search for you and send you a digest of new jobs that posted daily.  Then you can go direct to the company or recruiter site and apply for your job at the source.

4)  Set a specific amount of time for your job search and plan it into your schedule every week.  If you do not make time for your job search, and just work on it when you feel like it, you will have a long job search indeed and typically get very little done.

5)  Set up or update your LinkedIn profile, including a professional picture, and completed profile. You can make your updates private so they don't show to your connections unless they go directly to your profile page (just go to the Privacy and Settings area).  Once your profile is up to date, target individuals from the organizations you have the most interest in and recruiters in your field(s) of expertise.

6)  Keep at it, a job search is not a short race, but a marathon.  That new job could be just around the corner, so don't give up.

To your job search and career success!