Rethink Your Approach to Job Searching with These Tips

Life

Sep 28

Where there’s an opportunity, there’s a loophole.

If you’re currently in the same position as so many people, either looking for your first job out of college or in the thick of a troubled career market, it often feels less and less likely that our efforts to prove ourselves will benefit us at all. While it’s much easier to think about what we don’t have at our disposal right now, the time we still have at home can be used to branch out even more within our fields and radically rethink what we can offer to a larger cause. Here are a few possible jumping-off points to assist with your journey, no matter what stage you’re at.

1 . Keep your options open

The longer a job search goes on without any solid results, it’s normal to think you’re looking for the wrong things, or that the skills you do have won’t be enough to please employers. But really, all this means is what you’re looking for isn’t everything you could be seeing. A simple revision of your desired job title and more consideration into fields you think are out of your reach might just be the key to a position you’re more than qualified to fulfill.

2 . Be ahead of the competition

Intuition will tell you whether to pursue an opportunity that comes your way, but it may also keep you from taking further action when time comes to pass. If you’re a victim of allowing fate to dictate the possibility of you getting hired somewhere, think instead of more ways you can strengthen your outreach, like getting a reference from a trustworthy person in your field. Also, if there’s no clear way to follow up on an online application, that’s no reason to get discouraged; if you’ve proven your interest enough, you could be next in line for consideration. Keep telling yourself you deserve it and you’ll be heard, even if it takes longer than you want.

3 . Don’t settle

The job you didn’t know you were looking for could be within completely different parameters from what you’re seeing right now. If an opportunity comes to you that has elements of what you want but isn't what you're looking for explicitly, pursue it further, especially if it isn’t something you think you could do right away. In a similar vein lies a harsh truth about what you do want; unless a job you’re at can evolve into something you’re looking for as a career, it may be best to pass on it and wait for something that’s a better fit. The best openings are often the ones you least expect to pique your interest, and even if it doesn’t lead to where you want to be, you can at least say you tried and take what you’ve learned to the next interview.

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