As all jobseekers know, finding a job can be very time consuming and frustrating. It’s an ever changing, competitive, and cutting-edge technology world. Employers look for the candidate who has the cross-functional skills, potential to learn newer skills, think out of the box, and add more value to the team and the organization. Skills, knowledge, and an educational degree is still not enough to find a right job and employer; many other aspects also require attention.

Experts in jobs searching suggest a systematic approach to find a job you love and a potential employer.

Important aspects with a varying % of total time spent and the right strategy to find the best job for you:

1. Preparing and updating resume – 5%
Post your resume online where employer can find you – on various job portals and professional networks. It’s very useful irrespective of whether you are highly skilled or in specialized occupation or your educational qualification is rare, or not! Though, be aware: Employer may never check all resume manually. They use ATS (applicant tracking systems) Robots or some automated means to scan through pile of resumes. These are computer systems used by organizations to manage the flood of resumes or job applications they receive. The ATS will read your resume, and then rank and score your qualifications vs. the job descriptions. Only those applicants who receive high scores are likely to get a call for an interview. Do not use heavy template, use simple formatting, use keywords and phrases carefully for ATS to score your resume.

2. Applying for the advertised job – 25%
Search job openings, do research, learn more about posted jobs, and apply online. Though, be aware: more than 70% jobs are not advertised. It doesn’t mean they are less (or more) attractive. There are many reasons behind it.
• Lot more competition in advertised job causing overheads
• Branding may bring more ROI than specific job advertisement
• Advertise for in demand commodity skills v/s specific jobs
Also, Employer may have pool of interesting and interested candidates, want to fill up jobs internally, fill via employee referral, and some want to fill position through some special sourcing channels or by using consultants etc. This demands not spending 100% of time on just preparing resumes and applying for the advertised jobs.

3. Researching desirable jobs and employers – 30%
Knowledge is the power! Knowledge will help you to understand technology, market trend, job competency and accountability hired by employer. Many online tools will help you to know industry, market trend, potential employer and job openings. Research is a most important key to finding your dream job and potential employer. It will also help you negotiate the best compensation package and benefits.

4. Connecting with the most relevant professional contacts on the social media – 40%
Networking is the most successful job search strategy. It’s about helping employers find you, know you, and confidently hire you! It helps find hidden (not advertised) jobs too. As a job seeker, who you know and what you know is very important! Networking will help you to find people who can refer you to the desired job and employer. It will increase your chance to connect with the employer, get noticed over the competition, and during the job interviewing process. You may find help to do research about employer through networking. It will help learning and sharing newer opportunities, and ideas. All professional networking portals are the best place to showcase your skills, knowledge, experience and potential. Research shows networking is helping people to stay employed, get significant growth in salary, and job satisfaction.

Conclusion

Job seeking strategy must account for employer’s perspective to finding the best candidate.

To get hired by an employer you should understand employer’s perspective. Human capital management, starting with Hiring, is the single biggest expense for employers. A good hire adds value and a bad hire drains on all resources! Employer choose candidates very carefully and wisely. No wonder they want the best fit candidate for the given job! Most employers would like to hire highly skilled, culturally fit, collaborative candidate who has growth potential.

Employer doesn’t have much information and time to do candidate research so they narrow down the list of candidates based on available limited information and interview performance. Showcase your best professional image to them is the key to get hired. All employer’s Recruitment funnel and selection criteria is different as per job needs and company policy. Research before the interview and sharpen your skills regularly to stay competent in the job market. Employers are interested in who you are, what are your motivations and challenges, how you fit in organization and how you would get along with others. In an interview, you should think like a sales man. Strategize, and sell your valuable skills to get hired – just like a sales man!