Looking for a New Job This Year? Three Things You Should Do Today

Happy New Year! We hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season and are rested, re-charged, and ready to start 2014 off right. If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to finally find your next great job, here are three things you have to do today to put yourself in a great position to make a switch.

• Update your resume and add your most recent achievements. If you haven’t looked at or touched your resume in 2013 and maybe not since 2003 (like many of our clients), what are you waiting for? A great looking and well-written resume is still highly integral to a successful job search and standing out from the crowd is a competitive sport. If you are not sure about what formats are in style and what keywords will increase your odds of landing an interview, ask a friend or a qualified professional resume writer to advise you. It’s critical that you include your most recent achievements in order to keep the skills and potential value you can offer a new employer as current as possible.
• Freshen up your LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn is simply the standard search platform for many employers across all industries to help screen and network with potential candidates. Automated programs scour through LinkedIn profiles searching specific keywords to find an initial pool of candidates. If your LinkedIn is incomplete, you may be missing out on a goldmine of opportunities. LinkedIn’s alert feature to jobs of interest can save you a lot of time, but this will not work unless you are on LinkedIn in the first place with a proper profile.
• Hit up your network. Maintain ongoing regular contact with your network. This is an important component of job search – even when you are not looking. Yes, it takes time. Yes, it is an effort that you will have to maintain. Trust me. It’s totally worth it. These relationships will continue to pay dividends into the future. Naturally you will also have the opportunity (maybe a lot of opportunities) to also help your network.

If you do update your resume, fix your LinkedIn profile, and maintain your friendships, you will find yourself in a much easier position to execute a job switch for when the time is right. And once again, Happy New Year!