Competition is fiercer than ever in the job market. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the job openings rate in January 2020 in the United States was at 4.4 percent. That data was collated before the COVID-19 crisis, when economies were still fully functioning.
Bottomline is, you will have to be more resourceful to land a job. In this article, I’ll discuss five ways you can use technology to find your perfect job opportunity.
Ask Former Work Colleagues
In life, connections matter. Especially when you are looking for a job. Your former colleagues probably operate in your sector. They can recommend you into a position, or help provide insights about new job openings.
A work colleague is literally just a text or a call away, after all. If it so happens there’s a job opening at their place of work, they can put in a good word for you. Although that doesn’t guarantee you will get the job, at least you’re a step ahead of your fellow jobseekers. Former colleagues can also refer you to other people who might be looking to hire. If you are looking for work in Sweden, where they release a list of job shortages each year, try asking friends in the area if they know anyone looking to hire.
Write An Engaging CV
Let’s face it. An engaging CV is as essential a tool to any jobseeker. Just imagine this scenario. Five of you are applying for the same position in a company. Only three will be chosen for the written exam, and then only two of those for the final interview. The company president has the final decision on who to hire.
Since the decision makers in each step in the hiring process don’t usually know any of you personally, they will have to base their decision on the image that they formed of you. They form this image of all the applicants based on what is presented to them: in this case, the CV, your appearance, and the results of the written exam.
The point is, the CV is always on that list, and if you give a boring one that is replete with grammatical and spelling errors and other mistakes, just like that, you’re out of the game.
Writing a CV that stands out isn’t complicated. According to Top Universities, there are seven simple but effective ways to do this:
• Start Strong - A short summary of your accomplishments would be good, for instance.
• Emphasize Results Rather Than Responsibilities - Instead of “I was the social media manager at Company A,” write “I increased social media engagement by 38% for Company A”.
• Customize For The Job You Want - In short, respond directly to the job description.
• Show You’re Connected - Be careful not to sound arrogant, though. The idea here is to show you can network and have good communication skills.
• Highlight Changes And Growth - Your CV should show you’re not stagnant but continue to improve yourself.
• Show Industry Insight - If you can showcase a bit of what you know about the industry in your CV, then better.
• Use Power Words - For example, use the words “adaptable,” “innovative,” “implemented” and “achieved” in your CV, and back these up with outcomes.
If you don’t know how to make yours, here are resume examples you can look at.
Run A Webinar
Webinars are a great way to get yourself out there and market your professional skills. You also show potential employers you’re tech-savvy. Believe me, that’s a big plus in your favor, as more employers are seeking tech-savvy people even for non-tech jobs, according to Recruiter.
And then there’s the geographical element. When you run a webinar, you can basically reach all four corners of the Earth because webinars are necessarily done online, through the Internet. This means that your employer options don’t have to be limited to those in your geographical area. You can live in the US, for example, but be employed by someone in Singapore.
Don’t worry. Running a webinar is not that complicated.There’s a wealth of information on how to do this on the Internet. Basically, here are the steps:
Decide On Your Topic - Since your goal is to score projects, you can make your skills the showcase of your webinar. For instance, “How to Create a Basic PC Game” can be a good topic, if you’re a game developer.
Create Your Registration Page - Many webinar platforms help you create this.
Promote Your Webinar - You can promote via your existing channels such as your social media accounts.
Present - Make your audience perceive you as someone knowledgeable and approachable at the same time.
Webinars are a nice way to leverage your brand and expertise. It’s a good way to get noticed and recognized for a skillset.
Send Email Sequences
Another way to reach potential employers is to cold email potential employers. It’s the most direct method for putting yourself out there and showing your availability.
Before sending your email sequence, you need to have a clear vision of your employer persona. The persona is basically your image of your ideal employer. For instance, if you’re a writer, your ideal employer could be a marketing or advertising agency.
Once you have that clear, you can start making your list of potential employers. This is where LinkedIn and email finders come in handy. Search for the email addresses of relevant companies on your list on LinkedIn. Then search for the relevant people in those companies. Once you have that list, you can use an email verification tool to find their email addresses.
Now to sending the email sequence. Your email sequence should consist of at least three emails:
1. Cold email
2. If the potential employer replies, your response
3. If the potential employer does not reply, your follow-up
In all of these emails, make sure you write a clear subject line. Talk about what you can offer to the potential employer without being wordy. Also, customize your email, and make sure you don’t commit grammatical or spelling mistakes that might turn people off.
Manage your email well so you don’t miss out on any responses. Here are email management tips you can use for this.
Market Yourself On LinkedIn
LinkedIn has 675 million members in 200 countries and regions worldwide. According to Omnicore Agency, around 90 million LinkedIn users are senior-level influencers. Sixty-three million members are also in decision-making posts.
In short, there are a lot of potential employers on LinkedIn.
But how should you market yourself? First of all, you need to know that most of the people on LinkedIn don’t know you. This means you will be judged based on what they see on your profile. So the first step to marketing yourself? Sanitize your LinkedIn profile, and align it with the kinds of people you would like to work for. Make sure everything there drives home this point: You’re good at what you do and you’re a professional. You can then start growing your network based on the list of employer prospects you might already have. If you don’t have the list yet, then make one. Just type in the name of a relevant company on LinkedIn, and then search for the person who is likely in charge of hiring for your position in the company. You can now send these people a connection request.
With your network in place, you can start engaging potential employers. Post good content here and there to elicit some reaction. Your LinkedIn message should be direct and to the point. Here’s an example of a template someone involved in SEO might use:
Hi [NAME]
I’m an SEO consultant. I was previously employed by [COMPANY 1]. I’ve been featured on sites like SEM Rush and Ahrefs. I saw you were hiring for the position of Head of SEO.
I was reviewing your website this week. I saw a couple of easy wins for the site that would generate more traffic to your site. Would you be available for a quick call, so I can share my findings and provide a bit more information about my professional background.
Kind regards,
[NAME]
Create an email template and send it to around 100 people. Track your response rate. If it doesn’t work, create a variation to send to the next batch of 100 prospective employers, recruiters, and industry associates.
Final Thoughts On Creating Job Opportunities
It can be challenging to market yourself and find job opportunities. The good thing is, though, there’s now existing technology that can help you out. If you have access to the Internet and computers / smartphones, you can do basically anything. Email, LinkedIn, jobs websites, recruiters, and webinar platforms are a godsend for jobseekers in any job market.
Completing these with the traditional way of fixing your CV or resume and talking to friends for potential job opportunities, and you may just have your problem solved. The best of luck to you on your job seeking journey in a tricky and competitive job market.
Owen Jones is the Senior Content Marketer at Zoomshift, an online schedule maker app. He is an experienced SaaS marketer, specializing in content marketing, CRO, and FB advertising.
