How to Land a Job: 10 Steps to the Work of Your Dream

A non-systematic job search can be a long and ineffective game, especially during an economic crisis. Sporadic sending of resumes for some random vacancies in unfamiliar companies (as it usually happens) does not increase the probability of finding a job, but only creates a pessimistic attitude that makes the goal even less achievable.

To help my job seeking readers, I broke the job placement process in 10 consecutive steps, which will crucially increase your job hunting efficiency.
So, to find the work of your dreams, you need to start from the very beginning. Let’s go our way step by step.

 

10 Steps to Find the Work of Your Dreams

1. Formulate the purpose of job search and your future career plans.

(Do everything in writing).

Think about what you want to do (now and in the coming years). What are your requirements for the employer?

Do you possess all the professional skills necessary for this position?

Probably, before you start your job hunting, you must first go through some trainings, get certificates required, prepare a project for your portfolio, etc. Or, having critically evaluated your capabilities, apply for positions one level lower.

The only thing that can not be justified is to pause at this stage, wondering “What do I want in life?”, “I think this and that are both interesting …” or “Let everything goes on its way and maybe some time I’ll understand what I need.

2. Conduct a study of the labor market.

First of all, it is important for you to correctly determine the salary level you can aspire, as well as to find companies that have vacancies you are interested in (or you assume they can have such vacancies).

For this, it will be necessary to conduct an appropriate study (see more details).

As a result of this stage, you will determine the salary that you will be requesting, and you will have the information necessary to go to Step 3 of your dream job search.

3. Make a long list of companies that have (or are supposed to have) the vacancies you decided to be chasing for.

Such a preliminary list of potential employers should be rather extensive (50 companies or more).

To ensure that the long list of companies is sufficiently complete, it is necessary to use as many sources as possible to find information about vacancies.

4. Look for information about employers in this long-list and find the details of contact persons.

Inquiries about employers can be made through Internet search, on sites with reviews about employers, in social networks, through acquaintances, former employees, etc.

Do not be lazy to spend time on making inquiries.

5. Create a shortlist of potential employers.

After completing the work on the previous paragraph, you will delete many companies from the list because of their bad reputation, lower salaries, office remoteness or other inconsistencies to your requirements.

Perhaps, you will eventually come to the conclusion that your long-list is too small and needs to be expanded. In this case, it will be necessary to return to Step 3 and conduct a more in-depth labor market research. You will possibly need to add companies from related industries or firms located in other regions in your employers list.

6. Prepare the jobseeker’s folder.

By the jobseeker’s folder I mean a set of documents that you will need for a productive meeting with the employer.

Everything that indicates your skills, experience and professional achievements and can influence the employer’s decision to hire you, should be included in the jobseeker’s folder.

These can be examples of fulfilled projects and tasks, portfolio, cases, certificates, recommendation letters, customer testimonials or any other evidence of the results of your successful work.

And most importantly, the jobseeker’s folder must include your ideas for improving the company’s performance in the area of activity you will be responsible for.

Undoubtedly all these documents should not be confidential. (In case it is difficult to find non-confidential documents, you can bring their fragments, operate with relative values instead of volumes, etc.)

7. Prepare a resume and a cover letter and send them to the addressee found earlier.

Both the CV and the cover letter should be properly adapted to the specific vacancy in the particular company.

Only an addressable personal cover letter and a specially revised resume will help you find a job. Do not repeat the mistake of most applicants sending the same CV and cover letter for all vacancies: this is not the case when it is excusable to save time and moreover to be lazy.

8. Agree on the job interview.

Call the employer using the information and contact data collected earlier. Make sure that they have received and reviewed your CV and cover letter, and then make an appointment.

9. Pass the job interview.

If you behave correctly during the interview, taking into account such thorough preparation, the question of you admission will be purely technical.

The most important thing is to explain to the employer why they should hire you and that you are the ideal candidate they can hardly find elsewhere.

10. Call the employer after the job interview to find out the results.

If necessary, you will need to pass the final interview. Then ask the employer for a job offer.

Each of the above 10 steps is very important and will help you land a job – exactly the one you have been dreaming about for so long. If you skip something, it will significantly complicate the process and reduce the effectiveness of your job search, especially if you are searching for work during an economic crisis.

Therefore, one should not be afraid to waste time examining potential employers, making inquiries, revising resumes and cover letters, and, especially, preparing the jobseeker’s folder.

I wish you successful employment – and great achievements in your professional career!

About the author

Vitaly Vitvitsky

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