How to land a job you’ll love
Make no mistake, a job is like a partner. Sometimes you adore them, sometimes you wonder what attracted you to them in the first place. The thing is that once attached to your partner or job, you will invest a lot of time in it and therefore, you might as well invest in a job which you like and even love. After all, who wants to be unhappy for 37.50 hours a week, longing for COP and holidays? That’s no way to live your life.
So we say do your friends a favour and find a job you love, so they don’t have to listen to you complaining about the one that’s making you unhappy.
So, it’s February, the month of love and Valentine’s Day when the pressure is on to be matched up. Let’s look at what you can do to improve your work life especially if you’re unattached now, which is increasingly common for many, thanks to the pandemic.
If you’ve been made redundant recently you can feel the pressure to take anything that comes along but our advice is to think carefully first. This is precisely the time to think hard about what works for you. There’s no point jumping into the next job out of desperation just for it to go wrong in weeks. If money is tight, consider temping to keep you ticking over while you assess your options and your future.
Self -awareness
- First take a good look at your skills, not just in your work but think also about your personality and all your skills and attributes.
- Then try any of those free personality tests you can find online or which pop like clockwork on your favourite platforms. You might be surprised by what comes up.
- Open your mind to what you’d really like to do given the opportunity and see if you can find a version of that close to home.
Prepare like a strategist
- Write a list of what you’re looking for in your next job.
- Write a list of who you’d love to work for and put them in order of priority.
- Choose a recruitment company carefully.
- Create a polished CV by researching what makes a great CV in your sector.
- Be prepared to adjust your CV for each application.
- Review and update your LinkedIn profile, as it is where future employers go looking.
- You are pitching yourself so present your best face.
Stand out and be noticed
You know what it’s like when you’re looking for love – hiding at home isn’t going to cut it. And it’s the same for job hunting. Be memorable in your CV and memorable in your interview. If it’s an interview on Zoom, get dressed as if you were meeting them in person, right down to your shoes. It’ll make you sit up straighter.
And finally… here’s what some people did to get noticed:
- Auction on eBay
- CV like a tube map
- CV as label on beer bottles (for a hipster job)
- Embroidered CV for a design job
What all these people did was think about themselves and their target audience as a marketing project. They worked out their proposition and USP and did the right thing to stand out. If you can do the same in a way that works for an employer you’d love to work for, then it’s worth a shot. But the truth is you don’t have to be wacky if it’s not you; just be organised, friendly, open to new ideas and persistent.