How to Speed Up the Job Search
Finding a job can be a difficult, drawn out process. For some people, the job search can take over a year. No one wants to spend that time doing something that feels akin to treading water. Instead of moving forward, you feel like you are staying in the same place, just trying to keep your head above water. It’s not a pleasant feeling. So it’s no secret that looking for ways to speed up the job search process is a good idea. It keeps you motivated, and it keeps you optimistic, even though the job search can be difficult at times. We’ve put together some of our top tips for expediting the process of looking for a new job. Hopefully they can keep you focused and motivated to find that perfect job.
Apply to Many Jobs
This is not a great strategy for finding the perfect job, but it is a great way to find a job. Simple math says that the more jobs you apply to, the better your chances of getting one are. This isn’t ideal for getting just the right job, but it will help you to find one quickly. The goal here is that you get several interviews and many job offers. That way, you can pick and choose where you go, rather than taking a job just because it was the first one offered.
Apply to Jobs Quickly
This goes along with our first point. The sooner you apply to a position after it has been posted, the better your chances of getting it. Oftentimes hiring managers will see a highly qualified applicant in the first few days after the posting goes up, and if you apply to that job a week later, there’s a good chance that they will never even see your resume. That’s rough, especially if you are even more qualified than the applicant that they hire. The problem is that the internet has made the job search so much easier for many people, and if you aren’t the first one up to bat, you might never even get a chance. We recommend scouring the job boards daily and signing up for a few different alert services so that you can keep getting updated information and apply sooner rather than later.
Know Your References
First of all, never put a reference on an application or on a resume before you ask. With that little piece of advice, it stands to reason that you ask your potential references if you can include them before you begin your job search. Know who will help you get a job, both professionally and personally. You should have three of each. Most potential employers won’t ask for this many, but some will. The sooner you can line these up—asking their permission, of course—the sooner you can mass apply to jobs and land the right one quickly. Have their contact information ready to go, too. Make sure that you have both their phone number and their email address on file. If they are a professional reference, make sure that you include in what capacity you have worked with them, just to cover all of your bases. This information doesn’t necessarily need to be put on a resume, but having the info saved in an easy to access file on your computer will help speed up the application process so that you can just copy and paste everything as you fill out online applications. We recommend using a spreadsheet program so that the information stays more organized, but you might find that another method works better for you.