Sharpen your digital skills and up your job search game
As recently as 25 years ago, searching for a job was pretty simple. You would ask around to see if anyone was hiring. You would stop by a company’s office and drop off a resume. Of course, the gold standard was the Sunday newspaper, where you would pore over the “want ads,” as they were called. By 1998, this old way of looking for a job had been completely upended and was primarily replaced with online job search boards and nascent talent management systems. Stopping into an office to drop off a resume? That was falling out of favor by the mid-90s, and upgraded security measures in the wake of the 9/11 attacks put a permanent end to that. Of course, you know all of this. You know that digital tools are essential job search tools. So why aren’t you maximizing them to your benefit? If you’re still using analog methods in this digital economy, read on.
Do you like to simply send your resume out and wait for a response? If you do, you know this is not the best way to proceed. And your lack of results bears this out. The first thing you need to do is to conduct research. There is a lot of talk about the importance of researching potential employers, and it’s undeniable that this is super important. But it would be best if you also spent some time researching your target field and industry so that you understand what the challenges for both are, and how you can help an employer solve their problems. You also need to research compensation. Simply stating you want to increase your salary by X% is not very strategic. Why would you base your future salary on what someone is paying you currently? Find out what the market rate is for someone with your skills, education, and experience. Don’t rely on your current or most recent employer’s pay grades.
Next up…social media. There are billions of social media users out there. A portion of those is your target audience—employers. Your role as a job seeker is to engage with them. So build your brand on social media platforms, focusing on LinkedIn as your primary outlet. Along with your social media strategy, you need a plan for search engine optimization (SEO). It’s all about keywords, which provide context for who you are and what you do. Be sure that your LinkedIn profile, personal website, and digital presence are optimized with the appropriate keywords for your field.
Finally, create and share digital content. You can have an online presence without native content, but your brand will be weak and noncompetitive. Up your game. Digital content can range in type from video to infographics, to long-form written content, and everything in between. It does not need to be complicated. But it has to be consistent. You want people to engage with you, so you will need to give them something to which they can react.
Digital skills are critical to nearly every job these days. They are also crucial to your job search. Maximize your digital skills to build your brand and make your job search the most effective it can be. For more information on digital job search and networking sites, check out this website.