- Identify top needs and values - Outline your skills - Create a professional profile - Discover suitable opportunities - Review CV and cover letter - Complete interview preparation
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CORE POINTS 1) Outline your current responsibilities which are relevant to the role. 2) Highlight what’s special about you, the job and the company. 3) Then add in your X-factor if you have one.
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What type of jobs are you looking for? And where are the best places to search for them? I can tell you that most people find searching for jobs online to be a confusing and time-consuming process. So here are a few tips to get you started on the right foot.
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Searching for interesting new roles is often difficult and that’s why it’s crucial to have a solid structure for job hunting. In this video, I describe some key tips to help you stay positive, create a routine and make the most of this transition period in your career.
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Job hunting can be frustrating. You might not get any good responses, you might not get any good feedback, and it might take longer than you’d hoped. So it's important to have a systematic approach to the job hunt. The template below will allow you to keep track of the applications you send and allow you to follow up in a professional manner.
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Thank you for taking the time to review my application for this role. I know these decisions are often tricky and the most likely reason I didn't get an interview is that there were other candidates who were more suitable, which I completely understand.
Also, I really appreciate you following up to let me know I haven't been successful, even though I'm sure you're busy - so thanks for that.
“Trust the process“ is another way of thinking about patience and persistence. For me, it’s not so much a new idea, but a great mantra to be repeated when we’re not feeling like anything is making a difference.
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“You need to sell yourself more“ is a phrase you’ve probably heard one hundred times or more. But the chances are that you don’t like the idea of selling yourself at all. Something about it seems awful, or disingenuous. But, never the less, we need to be able to do it - especially if we’re competing against others who are selling themselves really well. Below are some points you can use to sell yourself well and to talk about yourself in interviews. The idea is that you don’t sell yourself as more than you are, but not less than you are, just exactly as you are, and honestly. That way, you’ll have no trouble backing up what you’ve said and it will give you more confidence when describing your career.
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I had the opportunity to work with a great team which allowed me to...
My role involves taking responsibility for...
I've really worked hard over the past few years to develop my skills in...
I've been fortunate enough to work with clients/stakeholders and deliver..., which resulted in an increase/improvement
Luckily, after some trial and error, I figured out that..., which was key because it meant that...
The benefit of the (qualifications/experience/manager/mentor) that I've had, ensured that...
The (challenge) that I've had in my previous role has facilitated and empowered my personal/professional development in terms of...
Sending lots of applications to job postings, companies, professional contacts can be confusing. Below I’ve attached a spreadsheet that should help you organise the various applications, along with when you should follow up with them.
I would normally give a company two weeks to respond to an application (maybe longer if it’s the public sector), and then follow up with an email. If there’s no response to that, it's worth calling them a week later to check on the progress of the application.
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When should you leave your job?
Firstly, you have to consider your financial stability and employment options - you need to be financially stable to leave your job, and ideally you should have another job to go to.
You should leave your job if you are extremely unhappy in it and you’ve been unhappy in it for a while. I think it’s important to acknowledge that we all have parts of our jobs that we don’t like, but we should aim for about 80% or more satisfaction - I think that’s reasonable.
You should leave your job if the environment is toxic and you’ve tried to make it better.
You should leave you job if you get offered a better opportunity with good conditions in the contract.
Sometimes quitting is a job difficult. We worry about the consequences for our career, the rebuttal from our manager or even just an awkward conversation. Lots of different thoughts can go through your mind: “what if they ask me to stay?”, “what if they offer me a position in a different department that I don’t want?“, “what if they guilt me into staying for another few months or promise me there will be changes, when I know in reality that nothing will change?“. And so on…
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"That was my car and that's where I was sitting", he said as he pointed to a photo showing a massive hole in the front of a three-door hatchback where the driver's seat should be. 8 years later and still undergoing surgery, he has been through a lot. I was surprised by how frank this young man was and impressed with his light-hearted way of talking about the moment his life changed forever. Any problem I had seemed totally trivial in comparison.
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Firstly, let’s distinguish between failed and failure. If a project doesn’t achieve the desired result - we could say that it failed, whereas if we believe that it hasn’t gone well and nothing could be improved, then it’s a failure. ‘Failure’ doesn’t leave much room for hope; it sounds so terminal. So let’s consider the alternative - never failing.
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