Donate time to share your insights at an industry or career workshop or a for a student club. While it can take time (and a little courage) to prepare a talk, move your butt to the event and speak to a crowd, it’s an awesome way to shed light on questions about your industry or professional development and help others take important next steps in their career.
Set clear goals
The very first step is goal determination: What exactly does “career” mean for you? Is this associated with a certain amount of money? Do you want to reach a particular position?
Only when you have a clear idea of what it means for you to “make a career” can you also work towards this purpose. Many people do not take the time to become aware of their own career goals consciously and systematically. Do it! Write down for yourself what you want to achieve and why you want to achieve it. Imagine what it will be like when you reach your destination. Work out a very concrete and detailed plan of action to get you where you want to go. Take your career goal actively in hand.
LinkedIn company profiles are a good way to glean at-a-glance information on a company in which you’re interested. Company profiles provide an excellent window to your connections at the company, past, current and future projects, new hires, promotions, jobs posted, related companies, and company statistics. What’s more, LinkedIn company profiles often provide solid insight into a company’s culture — events they celebrate, causes they espouse and the ways in which they support them, goals they set for themselves as a company and for their employees; and the paths they take to achieve them.
Consider following your dream companies on LinkedIn. This will allow you to keep up with their achievements (which will be useful to bring up in a cover letter or interview), and will help you spot any job openings.
We’ll talk about getting creative in order to stand out in a minute. But the most basic principle of good resume formatting and design? Keep it simple. Use a basic but modern font, like Helvetica, Arial, or Century Gothic. Make your resume easy on hiring managers’ eyes by using a font size between 10 and 12 and leaving a healthy amount of white space on the page. You can use a different font or typeface for your name, your resume headers, and the companies for which you’ve worked, but keep it simple and keep it consistent. Your main focus here should be on readability for the hiring manager. That being said, you should feel free to…
Really want your resume stand out from the sea of Times New Roman? Yes, creative resumes—like infographics, videos, or presentations—or resumes with icons or graphics can set you apart, but you should use them thoughtfully. If you’re applying through an ATS, keep to the standard formatting without any bells and whistles so the computer can read it effectively. If you’re applying to a more traditional company, don’t get too crazy, but feel free to add some tasteful design elements or a little color to make it pop. No matter what, don’t do it unless you’re willing to put in the time, creativity, and design work to make it awesome.
Be Authentic, Upbeat, Focused, Confident, Candid, and Concise.
Keep your eyes on the prize:
Every person you meet is a potential door to a new opportunity—personally or professionally. Build good bridges even in that just-for-now job, because you never know how they’ll weave into the larger picture of your life.
Open mind:
The best career or job is the one in which you’re using the skills you enjoy. But, not every job needs to address all of your passions. Use every job as an opportunity to learn something new and keep an open mind; you may find that you really enjoy something you never imagined would appeal to you.
Its not always easy:
If the career you have chosen has some unexpected inconvenience, console yourself by reflecting that no career is without them.
Learn a new skill.
Whether you love or hate your job, why not prepare yourself to take on a future career path that you are interested in? Develop a new skill and invest your energy in fostering it. If it’s also something that could help in your current role, ask your employer to send you to a seminar or pay for an online course. At the very least, you can start to prepare for your next job down the road while learning something that is of interest to you.
You can save time job searching by using advanced search options on job boards. All the major job boards (like Indeed.com, SimplyHired.com, CareerBuilder, Monster, and Dice) have an “Advanced Search” option where you can search by keyword, location, a radius of a location, job title, company, type of job, date posted and other options.
Here’s a list of the top 10 best job sites, and tips for using Advanced Job Search options.
You cannot realistically acquire all of the skills and experiences required while searching for a new job. However, select one specific skill you are lacking, and make an effort to develop that skill.
For example, if you lack knowledge in a particular computer program, but it is a requirement for your dream job, sign up for a free or inexpensive online course that will help you develop that skill.
If you cannot find an online course that fits your needs, look to your local public library, adult education program, or community college to see if any of these institutions offers free or inexpensive courses on such topics.
The new skill will allow you to sharpen your resume while also allowing you to shine in an interview.
Be Prepared. Have a voice mail system in place and sign-up for a professional sounding email address. Consider getting a separate email account to use for your job search, so you can stay organized. Put your cell phone number on your resume so you can follow up in a timely manner.
