Often my clients come to me for career coaching when they’ve been job hunting for a while and getting nowhere fast.
Other clients get in touch at the start of their job hunt.
Whichever position you’re in, I wanted to share my top job hunting tips for 2020.
And I’ll be sharing even more tips with you throughout January. Join me to listen to live interviews with women who were successful in their job hunts in 2019 in my Career Conversations series.
They’ll share their ups, their downs, the challenges and their learnings so that you benefit from their experiences to make your job hunt go smoothly.
Job hunting tips for 2020
Before we start with my best job hunting tips for 2020, let’s take it as a given that you need to polish your CV and your LinkedIn profile. I’ve got loads of tips on that elsewhere on my website.
Go here for CV tips and here for LinkedIn profile tips. This article here shares the absolute basics for getting started on LinkedIn.
But what else?
1 – Get clear on your skills and strengths
You need to get super clear on your skills and strengths. This isn’t the time to be shy or modest.
Knowing your strengths gives you confidence in the job interview.
Sometimes that’s hard to do by yourself and it’s worth asking friends and colleagues for feedback. That’s exactly what former client Kate Crane did at as part of my LinkedIn Kickstart at the end of 2019:
I found some of the exercises where I gained feedback from my former colleagues, thought about how I wanted to be seen, coming up with keywords, all really useful … it really helped me with my confidence going into the interview (although I felt sick with nerves as I really wanted the job) and knowing what positive things others think of you really helped me to show that I was the right person for the job.
2 – Identify what sort of employer you want
It makes sense to think about what sort of employer you want.
That might seem simple and straightforward. But it’s not just thinking about the sector or industry you want to work in.
It’s also about getting clear on what’s important to you in terms of organisational values and ethos.
Often it helps to get clear on your own values first so that you can figure out whether your potential employer’s values are in alignment.
3 – Think about WHO can help you
When you’re job hunting, it’s good to have support. Somebody who will be on your side.
So who do you know who can help you? Who can give you support and accountability. You could work with a career coach (like me) or join an online membership community like the Career Club.
You want to pick somebody (maybe two or three people) who can help you practise interview questions.
You want to have at least one person who knows you well in the workplace and can review your CV or your LinkedIn profile to check that you’re making the most of your skills and experience.
Also think about who do you know who works (or used to work) at a company you’d like to work at. Could they introduce you to key contacts?
4 – Reflect on WHY you want to change jobs
Let’s not pretend that the job hunt is going to be quick and easy. Often it takes longer than you expect.
And you’ll hit setbacks and get frustrated.
That’s why it’s important to reflect on WHY you want to change roles so that when you come up against blocks and setbacks, you’ll be clear in your own mind why you’re going through this.
Write down your WHY and look at it every day.
Is it about more money? More freedom? More flexible working?
And what does more money or more freedom or more flexible working give you? What does it allow you to do? Because it’s rarely ‘just’ about the money.
5 – Make time to prioritise your self-care
My final tip for job hunting in 2020 is to build in time to prioritise your self-care.
I know, it’s not what most career coaches or CV experts advise.
But looking for a new job can sometimes feel overwhelming and very time-consuming. So much so that you might be tempted to give it up. (But before you do, go back to tip no 4).
Personally I believe it’s super important to look after yourself so that you don’t find yourself flagging before you’ve landed that dream job.
For example take breaks, prioritise your wellness, have fun, get active and make sure you get enough sleep.
Job hunting in 2020
There’s so much more I could write about how to job hunt successfully in 2020. These five tips will help you get started so that you have confidence and purpose in your search for a new job.
p.s. If you are job hunting now or soon, you’ll love the Career Conversations when inspirational women share their best job hunting tips and tricks so that you benefit from their experience. Join me in the pop-up Facebook group <<HERE>>.
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