Job Description: Job-Seeker
Aug 27, 2017 · 2 min read
I won’t be the first to say that finding a job is itself a full-time job, and it’s a position I’ve held a number of times. In the course of my conversations as an informal career advisor, I’ve heard from many young professionals who are still figuring out the daily grind of this process.
This approach has worked well for me, and by publishing it, I hope others will find it useful as well.
Initiated Search
- Determined key terms for all possible job titles (i.e., researcher, strategist, consultant, etc.)
- Set up alerts for new jobs through LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and Indeed, filtering for my target industry and location
- Signed up for LinkedIn Premium to improve my ranking in search results, and to more easily contact cold prospects
- Used Google Drive to store all versions of my resume, cover letter, and typical language used for reaching out to new and existing connections in my network
Expanded My Network
- Created a list of 50+ companies of interest, often using LinkedIn’s “People Also Viewed” feature to expand my search
- Sent cold invitations through LinkedIn to people who worked at companies of interest
- Used an online portal to identify relevant alumni to contact
- Sent an email to my network detailing my goals and requesting connections or advice
- Spoke over the phone with contacts to better understand the job market and how I could succeed, with a goal of finding open roles to interview for
- Sent an email after any meeting or call, and strategically followed up with updates to stay top-of-mind
Collected Intel for Interviews
- Used Glassdoor and/or LinkedIn Premium to research the average salary for a role
- Used Glassdoor to research what employees at a company had to say about working there. This helped me identify what kind of questions to ask in an interview to clarify any patterns I noticed.
- Searched location tags on Instagram to find out what current employees deem share-worthy about their workplace
- Searched LinkedIn for any employee I interacted with, or who might be on my team
- Searched Twitter for any employee I interviewed with to get a better sense of their personality and interests
- Searched Google for any employee I interviewed with to find any articles, publications, conferences, etc., that they had participated in, to better understand their priorities and thought process
