Updated April 14, 2023
Introduction to Job Hunting Strategy
Having a job-hunting strategy is an important factor in your career development. It helps you take the right decisions over the course of your career, thereby maximizing your potential and increasing your overall fulfillment. Career development can be divided into three main stages:
- Self-Assessment
- Exploring Your Career Options
- Job Hunting
The Three Stages
1. Self-Assessment
At this stage, you must know yourself well enough to analyze yourself. Know your personality, background, abilities, and potential. What are the points of opportunity that you can maximize on? Ask yourself multiple questions to get a better idea of yourself. The answers will guide you through your job-hunting process.
2. Exploring your Career Options
Here, you will be investigating the right industry and job position for yourself. The choice will be informed by the answers you obtained from the previous assessment. Make sure that you choose the right career and avoid any mistakes that would lead to lifelong repercussions and guilt.
3. Job Hunting
The final stage is the most important one. A good job gives value to the effort you have put into your years of education. However, is there any ideal way to find the right job for yourself?
10 Effective Tips for Job Hunting Strategy
Here are a few steps to develop your job-hunting strategy:
1. Choose the companies you want to focus on
Within your focused industry, you may have companies that have varying pay scales for freshers. Choose according to your preferences. It can be high pay, a company’s goodwill, or the experience you gain as a fresher from a company to achieve a better career.
Your priorities are crucial. Jot down at least 10 top companies you would want to work for. In doing so, rank the company according to your preferences and explain why. Pen down the advantages and disadvantages of working for the respective companies.
2. Study your target companies
Belonging to the current generation, you have unprecedented access to information owing to technological developments, especially the internet. Utilize them to acquire as much information as possible about the companies, particularly from their official websites.
3. Job portals and recruitment agencies
Create an appropriate resume or CV. It should be relevant to your targeted industry. One can go online and look at a few best resume patterns before modifying or creating the CV.
As the companies will cross-check your information from relevant sources, make sure you include the correct information. Create your profile on job hunting portals and upload your CV there as well. Job hunting portals will provide you with information on jobs that are available at the companies. You can apply for the positions through the portal or directly through company websites.
Register with recruitment firms, as they are in touch with hiring companies. Keep in contact with the recruitment firms to stay updated.
4. Keep track of your social media
Along with Facebook and Instagram, create active accounts on LinkedIn and Twitter, as they have more professional social networking elements. Build your contacts and relationships on social media, and you will come across a number of people who will be of good help in guiding you in getting a relevant job of your choice. Furthermore, companies often share updates on new openings on social networking platforms. The company’s HR department also keeps tabs on you to see how active you are on such social sites.
5. Attend job fairs and keep an eye on newspapers
Companies used to post job openings in newspapers because there was no internet access; rather, the internet was not as popular or useful back then. We now have widespread access to the Internet, which is a boon both to employers and employees. However, there are still a few big, traditionally strong companies that post their vacancies in newspapers to make it easier for people who cannot afford the Internet.
Companies today, in collaboration with other companies, also hold job fairs. They have been largely helpful to people in landing a good job.
6. Keep your options open
Review multiple companies and collect data regarding them and their work cultures. When doing so, make certain that you do not overlook other areas of work in your field, as well as the opportunity to learn about smaller businesses. You never know where your ideal opportunity lies.
Never say a direct no to these offers, as there can be unnoticed benefits to them. It does not mean you accept something irrelevant to you; it means you simply take the offer and evaluate it for a while. Maintain a sense of diplomacy in navigating the corporate world.
7. Prepare yourself for rejections
It is important to have a sportsmanlike spirit in life. Winning and losing are parts of life. You might experience failure in different stages of life; however, after every hardship comes ease. You must build the courage to accept failure in the corporate world. You may not be chosen on your first and second attempts, but you may need multiple attempts to get through to a decent company—perhaps one from your list. Rejections and failures should never dwindle your confidence. Do not abandon your job search because of a few setbacks. Remember that failure should only strengthen your effort and confidence because each interview gives you more experience.
8. Keep yourself updated with the world
Not just bookish knowledge, experiential knowledge of the companies and corporate industry is crucial. Maintain your knowledge of the developments in the world. General knowledge is highly important in life, as people tend to judge our intelligence on its basis.
9. Keep a set of questions ready
No one would want to leave the interview room with only a jumbled mind full of questions. Prior to the interview, make sure you have a list of questions prepared to ask HR. The questions should not have been answered publicly on the internet, as it would not make for a fruitful conversation. Ask the right questions to demonstrate to HR that you are knowledgeable about the company and the industry and eager to learn more. This would highly influence HR’s decision.
10. Follow up
Recruiters in corporate are highly busy people who have little time to remember the people who were interviewed—unless you strike up a remarkable conversation or appearance. If you are unable to do either of these things, make sure you follow up with HR to find out the status of your job interview.
Often, your profile may be kept on hold for a variety of reasons, such as the designation being put on hold, prioritizing internal recruitment, and so on. Even in this scenario, make sure you continuously follow up with HR to indicate your enthusiasm. Likewise, follow up with the recruitment firms as well.
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