Want to find a new job? Follow these 4 rules!
Looking for a new place of employment is a big challenge. Not all vacancies become known to the public. Employers often use other methods to reach candidates. If you want your search to bear fruit, take this into account in your plan of action. Diversifying your channels and undertaking proactive action increases your chances of achieving the goal you have set. Here are four things you can do:
1.Look through job offers regularly, and respond to them quickly
Every day, websites publish hundreds of job offers from around the country. Such portals make it possible to easily and quickly select offers using criteria including location, sector, seniority level, knowledge of foreign languages and computer programs, and form of employment. It’s worth checking specialist recruitment sites, such as praca.pl, pracuj.pl and infopraca.pl, as well as the websites of employment agencies, county (powiat) labor offices, local and nationwide job-search sites such as praca.gratka.pl, as well as search aggregators, which compile job offers from various other websites. Vacancy announcements are also a source of knowledge about employers’ current needs and requirements. This can help you better prepare your application documents and work on developing skills that will increase your chances of finding work. Remember that an unlimited number of candidates has access to these job offers, so you have to work fast and effectively. So apply when you meet at least 80% of the requirements in the ad. The faster you adjust your application documents to the ad and send them to the employer, the higher your chances of participating in the recruitment process.
2.Build a professional image on social media
Social media such as GoldenLine and LinkedIn play a key role in job searches today, bringing together specialists from various sectors, and recruiters. Just setting up a profile on these sites increases your chances of finding permanent work or taking part in an interesting project. A profile on one of these sites is a type of CV, so it’s worth devoting time to preparing your professional calling card. Your profile should include true information on the course of your employment, the range of your duties thus far, projects you have completed, professional successes, education, courses and trainings completed, level of knowledge of foreign languages and your strong points. Social media portals also give you access to interesting job offers, as well as the chance that a recruiter will invite you to participate in a selection process. Social media portals can also be used to build your reputation as an expert. By joining professional groups and taking an active role in discussions, or commenting on sector forums, you confirm your skills, competences and professional interests. If you have an industry blog, are active on business forums or comment on subjects related to your sector, for example on Twitter, you can round out your profile with links to those pages. It’s also worth asking your previous employers, colleagues and business partners to provide you with references. This is a way to strengthen your credibility and build a professional image.
3.Make sure your friends know you’re looking for work
The theory of six degrees of separation says that each person is separated from any other person on earth by just six contacts, meaning that most likely there are at most six people between you and your new employer. This is precisely why networking is an important job-search tool. Creating a business network of contacts is not so much about making new acquaintances as about building trust and cultivating relationships, including by maintaining contact without any particular agenda, passing along information or giving support. The idea of networking is particularly promoted at industry conferences, job fairs and social-media platforms, which support the exchange of information and maintenance of relationships. It’s important that your friends know what you do, the direction in which you’d like to develop and what you need at the moment to achieve your goals. Having this knowledge, they’ll remember to let you know about opportunities that arise in their circles. Thanks to networking, you can learn about a possible vacancy before it’s published, and get information about the work environment in a given organization or an employer’s requirements. Many employers simply don’t publish information about openings. Instead, they look for candidates inside their companies, or they use networking in the hope that a trusted contact will put them in touch with a proven person. This kind of recommendation is tremendously valuable.
4.Make a list of your dream employers, and act
As our careers develop, our professional goals, interests, preferred directions of development and our expectations from successive workplaces all crystalize. If you know your needs and expectations, you can consciously manage your professional development, looking for work more effectively and making choices that are coherent with the goals you’ve set. One proven method is to draw up a list of companies or industries where you’d like to work. Such a list strongly guides the process of looking for work. The choice of potential employers should be justified, e.g. by the opportunities for growth in a given area, your preferred organizational culture or the prospects for development of particular competences. The majority of companies have information about openings on their websites; it’s worth visiting them regularly, because not all job offers make it to the recruitment portals. Another effective method is to apply spontaneously via the website when there’s no information about ongoing recruitment processes. You need to remember to prepare your application documents properly. They should show clearly the area in which you’d like to develop, and your basis for saying that you’ll do well in a given role. It’s also worth stressing in your CV those elements that may be valued in a particular organization, e.g. because of its mission, vision and the values it promotes.
