The Ultimate Cheat-sheet For Demystifying Job Boards
For the lucky few who enter their new role via referral good on you!
For the rest of candidates in the job market I hope this helps. Today we’re talking job boards, don’t be triggered. I’m going to give you some pointers on how to successfully navigate them. By the end of this article you’ll have some tools to set up a job search so the right hiring managers come to you.
Housekeeping! Before I dive in, I have one invitation — RPS has rebranded and we are inviting candidates to get the RPS Job Search Planner. It’s a great organizing resource for the dizzy act of searching for a job. Thanks for reading, now back to the topic!
Job boards can be a rabbit hole
You could search by job title, key skills or company and still feel completely overwhelmed.
The main reason finding a job is a job relates directly to the nature of job boards. If you really had the time to read every job description that came up you could be there for hours. This naturally leads to the onset of job seeker fatigue, which then leads to whimsically applying to positions that aren’t remotely a fit for your skillset.
How do you get around this deeply flawed, time consuming, mind numbing system?
Decluttering opportunities
This is the first step in the job board system.
To create a funnel of appropriate jobs takes some deliberate decluttering. That also means adopting the mindset of landing the right job not the first job. To get started I want you to be honest with your answers to the below:
- What are your best skills ?— write them down.
- Which job would be a great next step in your career plan ?— or a better question might be, which job is the next step in gathering the skills needed for your ultimate destination? — write down your answer(s)
- Where would you like to work in terms of location, company and industry — write them down
- Write down the key skills in your resume and compare them to the answers above — is there room for improvement?
- Spend sometime researching job descriptions for the job or jobs you identified. Could these jobs give you the skills you want in your next career step? — write down the key skills being used in the job descriptions
- Have you selected the best positions to get the experience you’re looking for? — compare the key skills you found in your job description research with the key skills from your resume.
- Do you need to update your resume? — if you left things out make the adjustment on your resume.
What’s the benefit of all this? — Purpose!
Establishing purpose is key to distilling opportunities.
Entering a job board without an established purpose can be like going to the grocery store with no grocery list.
If you’re anything like me you’ll be picking up things you don’t need in no time. For example, by the end of the above exercise, if you feel the role you selected doesn’t align as you thought it would, you can now decide how best to adjust. This can save you from submitting multiple applications to jobs with that title.
Do some more research. The information is giving you answers.
If you noticed that the position you had in mind is NOT a fit for your career goals, run a search specifying the key skills you most desire. Once you’ve identified roles that better suit you, measure the distance between your skillset and the position you desire. If you’re 70% of the way there go for it! Having a gap is great, that means you can expect to grow in that role and you can bring skills needed to the table.
If however your measurement shows you’re only 50% of the way there that tells you you’re not a strong candidate for the position. The next step could be researching the roles surrounding this position.
Your resources to figure out your next move are not limited to a job board.
You can reach out to the professionals in the position or call a career coach or call us at Rock Point Search. These are better moves than jumping aimlessly into the job board and applying and hoping for a call back.
Restructuring your search allows you to hone in on the opportunities that best align to you and your career goals.
By the end of this exercise you should have a clear idea of your capabilities, an updated and refined resume, a list of target areas (companies, industries, keywords etc.) and a clearly defined roadmap leading you to jobs that are right for your career. Now that you have decluttered the opportunities available to you in your mind you can go to the next step — Setting Up Strong Alerts.
Final Thoughts to Job Seekers
Landing a great job begins with distilling your skillset and identifying the type of role(s) you want and need to have a fulfilling career.
Seeing your career as the big picture is a great way of understanding the current job search. Standing in the future and backcasting provides a roadmap of actions to achieve to get there. This may not be set in stone but will ultimately protect you from just taking any job and treating your career like a surprise gift in a cereal box. Remember it’s not about being certain, it’s about you today and where this version of yourself would like to be. It’s always good to practice knowing what you want — even if that changes in the future.
Many people side step this preparation in the job search and years into their career journey they feel unfulfilled by their work. This doesn’t have to be your experience. The job search is its own form of putting yourself first. This method requires you to be the central point of focus so you can have a very deliberate outcome. Knowing what you want and what you have to achieve it is key to designing your career.
Thank you for taking the time to read, I hope you found this helpful. Rock Point Search provides free consultations for candidates, feel free to use it. You got this!
