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Job Searching Advice and Strategies

This section contains job searching advice, including how to find a job, writing covering letters, where to look for vacancies, including how to use job agencies and job sites.

FREE guides on this website include:

If you want to improve your CV then please see our CV Writing Service.

Job Searching Websites

There are 1000's of websites where you can search for a job. There are generalist sites that aim to cater for everyone and list jobs for every possible sector / profession. Then there are specialist job sites where you can find jobs for just a specific sector or profession. We've collected together a list of some of the top job sites that we like on our website, which you can view at:

Starting Your Job Search

First you need to decide what you want to do. Do you want to stay in the same field or change career direction? It is important to have thought through the types of job / career you are seeking. This will help you identify potential employers and target your applications by presenting clearly what you have to offer.

Next, you need to devise a job search strategy - how you are going to search for jobs? This may be a mixture of different methods or you may just focus on a single method.

The main methods of finding a job are: answering job adverts with either a job application letter or job application form (depending on how the employer wanted you to apply), contacting job agencies, using speculative cover letters to make job applications directly to employers, and networking online and offline to identify job vacancies.

Answering Job Adverts

Finding a job advert in either a newspaper or an online job site is one of the easiest ways of locating a job vacancy. The fact that it's so easy though means that you will face a large number of competitors who all want the same job that you want.

To beat the other job applicants you need to put together a great CV. If you'd like someone else to improve your CV then please see our CV writing service or to do it yourself please see our free CV writing tips.

You need to carefully study the job adverts, deciding on which which jobs you'd like to apply for. Then you will either send your CV together with a job application letter or complete a job application form, depending on how the employer wanted you to apply.

Job Agencies

Using the services of a job agency is always a great way to find a new job. They may often have jobs on their database that are never advertised, so if you don't register with agencies you will miss out on jobs that you might have wanted to apply for.

Job agencies can also be a good source of advice on your profession / industry sector, including salary / pay rates, etc. For further information please see job agencies.

Speculative Cover Letters to an Employer

Identifying employers that you would like to work for is another good way of finding a job. You can craft speculative cover letters that really sell you to an employer.

You may be able to identify a prospective employer that is about to open a new office / facility near to you, perhaps through a mention in a local newspaper. Or, there may be a company that you've always wanted to work for.

Networking

Networking involves making personal contacts with a view to identifying new job vacancies, often before they are even advertised. For most people, this is probably the most difficult method of finding a job, as few people are comfortable at networking.

But, it is worth persevering, as networking can be one of the most effective ways of finding a job. When you do uncover a job vacancy that hasn't been advertised, there will be very few other candidates, or you may be the only candidate.

These days, you can network online and offline, for more information please see networking.

Developing Your Own Job Search Plan

You need to carefully think through which of the four methods you are going to use to develop your own individual job search strategy, and how much time you are going to devote to each method. You should always use more than one method, unless the method you are using is already providing you with plenty of job interviews for the sort of job that you want to do.

Relying on just one job search method may mean that it takes you much longer to find a job that it should have done.

Other pages you may want to visit:

FREE REPORTS

Is your CV letting you down?: How to dramatically improve your CV

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Do you know how to find a job using the Internet?: The secrets revealed

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