New Year, new career: preparing for the job hunt

Be clear about your reasons for leaving

Have you established the reasons you want to leave your current job? Have you discussed any of them with your manager? Is there scope to make positive changes or progress internally? These are all things you need to establish before you make the decision to move on. Once you are sure that moving on is the right decision and you know why, you will be able to make smart decisions on the type of role, company, and work environment that suits you.

Think about where you want to work next

The workplace environment and team culture of businesses are becoming increasingly important to both candidates searching for new roles, and employers hiring talent. It is crucial to make sure that you know what kind of role, company, and working environment that you are looking for in your next position. Making sure that you are clear about these three areas before starting your job hunt will streamline your search, and ensure you are looking at companies for the right reasons, rather than just remuneration. If you find an environment and culture that matches well with your personal values, you are more likely to be happier at work.

Keep an open mind

Adopt a positive and flexible attitude to your search. Listen to what opportunities are out there and stay open-minded to different companies and locations. This will keep your search broad and you will be presented with more opportunities, some that may be worth changing location or industry for. Many people we work with find exciting new career paths in organisations, roles, and locations that they had not necessarily been considering at the outset of their job hunt.

Clean your social media profiles

Make sure your social media is job search ready. It isn’t uncommon for employers to check an applicant’s social media profile. If they find something that doesn’t match their cultural values, or you have displayed inappropriate behaviour online, this could be the deciding factor on whether you are invited to the interview stage. It is crucial that your online profiles show you in a good light – clean up Facebook, Instagram and Twitter if necessary, and ensure your personal email address is work appropriate.

Update your LinkedIn information

Your LinkedIn profile is very important and acts as an online CV. Most employers will look you up online and use your LinkedIn profile alongside the CV that you have provided to assess whether to take your application forward. Get your LinkedIn profile up to date and sign up to relevant job feeds and groups. Our five-step guide to creating a winning LinkedIn profile will help with this process.

Consider your longer-term career goals 

Use the festive period to reflect on your career to date. Analyse your career milestones and achievements for interview purposes and put some goals in place for the future. Where do you want to be in two and five years, and what needs to happen to get there? This job move will shape the next period of your career, so it is important that you make the right choices now.

A successful job search ultimately depends on the groundwork you put in in the lead up to an application. Take the time to make these simple changes to give yourself the best start in the New Year. Why not sign up to receive job alerts, or get all the latest job updates by signing up to our website.

Once you have taken these steps to prepare for your search, you will need to create a winning CV.  With your LinkedIn up to date, you should find this a much simpler process. Browse all of our job search advice for more insights or get in touch with one of our expert consultants to explore your opportunities.