4 Easy Ways To Prepare For a Job Search | Job Seeker Tips for Avoiding Common Mistakes
These are real tips and advice straight from our experienced recruitment team to help you during your job search. Ready to get back to work after a career break? Thinking about an industry change and not sure where to start? You may want to check out these tips for avoiding some common mistakes job seekers make when applying for open positions after some time off or changing industries.
If you haven’t heard the latest news, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, along with many other state governors, informed the U.S. Department of Labor that Texas would opt out of further federal unemployment compensation related to the COVID-19 pandemic, effective June 26, 2021. The government will no longer pay out the additional $300 per week unemployment benefit from the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program. When the unemployment benefits boost expires, we expect many candidates to reenter the job market that may not have been open to employment opportunities while getting the extra funds from the relief package. What does this mean? It means the competition for available positions will go up in as little as 30 days from now.
We’ve seen an influx of employer requests to fill open roles for all types of jobs ranging in skillsets/experience requirements across many industries. In fact, we have over 300 open positions in our database, with new jobs posted to our job board each day! Also, on our website, you can register your resume with us. A recruiter will reach out when a new position matches your experience or sign up for job alerts at the bottom of a job posting when a new job similar to the one you are looking for opens up in your area.
A huge focus for our team right now is engaging the vast talent pool in our database and educating our clients about employment trends to ensure they are aware of what lies on the very near horizon in terms of the job market. We’re excited! Our candidates are focused and ready to get back to work, and our clients are eager to fill open roles fast.
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Here's how you can prepare and be in the top percent of applicants:
Tip 1: Update Your LinkedIn Profile & Join Social Media Groups
This is the first and most important thing to do if you want to take advantage of what a social platform offers when it comes to job hunting or networking with industry peers to ask for a referral. Think of your profile as your digital resume. If your profile is out of date and you are using social media as a networking tool, you tell people the latest information about you is out of date. If you are applying to jobs on LinkedIn, you share your profile with the hiring manager or job poster, which serves as your resume, and from there, they can invite you to interview by looking at your profile experience, etc. Your “paper resume” or “CV” is useless at this point until you get in front of the hiring manager. Update your photo with a professional-looking headshot. Also, take down or change the privacy settings of the images and posts you wouldn’t want an employer to see if they are looking at your profile as a potential employee. Update your previous job duties and add accomplishments or skills that you may have acquired, etc. You can also join industry-relevant social media groups to join in on the discussions or see when companies are hiring.
Tip 2: Freshen Up Your Industry Knowledge & Skills
If it has been a little while since you’ve browsed the latest news and trends in your industry or career function, you may want to spend some time reading up on a few articles, companies, etc. You can also search the web for some online certification courses or network with your former peers to find out what they have been doing or are seeing in the market that will put you ahead of the competition.
Tip 3: Make Sure You Update Your CV/Resume
Many job seekers don’t update their resume with their latest experience and skillsets before applying to jobs. Just because you may have a gap in employment or are changing industries doesn’t mean you don’t have the relevant experience employers are looking for. Take the time to read the job description for the job you are applying for and tweak your resume to appeal to the experience, skills, and requirements for that position. You may be surprised at what experience employers are looking for that you already have for even if you are looking to change industries. With the labor market thinned out over the last year due to the pandemic, many employers have reformatted their departments’ roles to fit a broader range of experience to accommodate their new needs and goals.
Tip 4: Assess Your Financial Situation and Determine A Realistic Salary Expectation
If you are used to making a particular salary but have a gap in your employment dates or want to change industries, don’t expect to automatically have to take a pay cut, but do make sure what you expect in salary compares to your previous employment or industry. Do a little research and determine the competitive salary rate for your experience level and what candidate experience levels you’ll be competing against for these positions. PayScale.com is a tool that will help you determine your professional worth to make sure you are compensated fairly for the work you will do.
Salary Survey from PayScale.com >> “Tell them a bit of your current job and work history and receive a free salary and benefits report. Get career path predictions for your job, see companies that hire people like you, and determine what skills can help you get ahead.”
Career Research Tool >> “Arm yourself with information. Learn more about specific jobs, companies, industries, and locations in PayScale’s Career Research Center.”
Here are a few examples of salary variances from Indeed.com Hiring Insights for a few different cities in Texas. Hiring Insights is a tool available to Indeed’s “Featured Employers” with new reports available each month for different job titles in different cities compared to the nationwide averages. If you are looking for positions on Indeed, you’ll see a special icon next to the companies who are considered an Indeed “Featured Employer.” You can also do your own salary research on indeed with their free “salary search” tool.
Paralegal
Austin, Texas- **Indeed Competitive Score: 27 out of 100 | Average of 40 jobs with similar titles and an average of 51 job seekers per job
Paralegal
Dallas, Texas- **Indeed Competitive Score: 66 out of 100 | Average of 93 jobs with similar titles and an average of 44 job seekers per job
Paralegal
Houston, Texas- **Indeed Competitive Score: 80 out of 100 | Average of 86 jobs with similar titles and an average of 51 job seekers per job
Paralegal
San Antonio, Texas- **Indeed Competitive Score: 90 out of 100 | Average of 13 jobs with similar titles and an average of 97 job seekers per job
*Average salary for the job title and location during April 2021 on Indeed.com. These figures are calculated by Indeed using a variety of information and data such as employer postings, candidate data, etc., and used for a generalized comparison only.
**This score is based on Indeed.com advertiser data for a 3 month period ending on April 2021 for this title and location compared to the rest of the country. The number of jobs and job seekers per job is calculated by indeed.com for the selected title and location during April 2021.