The job search process can be a daunting and overwhelming experience. You probably wonder how your peers land those ideal jobs that you hope for, and ask yourself, “how is it so easy for them?”

It can be easy for you too, if you follow the right steps:
• Build your professional brand and identity.
• Create and execute a clear career plan to establish the path for your next position.
• Structure a CV and LinkedIn profile that stands out, highlighting your expertise and accomplishments. Make sure to keep it aligned to your career objectives and the requirements of your next position.
• Set up an effective job search strategy.
• Practice your interview skills.
• Know how to negotiate your offer.

Your CV and online presence can change your career in multiple ways, therefore it would be beneficial for you to:
• Present yourself in a commanding manner
• Allow the reader to establish interest by showcasing expertise and accomplishments that attract potential employers and recruiters
• Create a keyword and content enriched document to achieve a higher scorecard on the applicant tracking system (the system utilised by companies that receives, analyses and track candidates)

Designing your CV in way that set you apart from competing candidates is important. On average vacancies opened up and advertised by companies can receive up to 200 – 250 applications per role, meaning the readers of the document have had to develop techniques that allow them to scan documents, within 6-10 seconds, focusing on the key areas that include:
• Career or Professional Summary
• Key Expertise
• Business, job title and accomplishments

These areas in your CV need to tell your potential employers and recruiters that you have the experience needed to fill a position and achieve business objectives. If you have created a clear personal career identity, you will have assessed various roles in addition to job descriptions that excite you and see yourself working in particular roles that will develop your career. By understanding the job description and the employers key requirements, you are able to consolidate the relevant information with that of your own expertise matching the job and creating credibility. If you match the skills required for a job, your chances of getting a call for an interview are more probable.

Hiring managers and human resources professionals are looking for individuals who have the skills and experience that will add value to their organisation. They are NOT looking to read a document where they need to conduct a research exercise, to determine how you are going to a benefit the organisation. Your CV is to be structured in a way that easily offers this information to them. You can do this by providing a concise career summary that effectively communicates your overall experience and strategic contributions to your projects. Remember to keep this short and to the point.

A list of expertise i.e. project management, marketing strategy, and negotiation, would be helpful to display the skills that are ideal for the business you are aiming to be employed by. A tip would be to take a look at what the minimum requirements are on the job description and attempt to include a few of those on your profile.

Under your roles it is key to structure your title, responsibilities and accomplishments by extracting the information and transferrable skills from your experience onto your CV, that are relevant to the posts your are applying for, ensuring that you match the neccessary job requirements of the company validating how you could be a value added employee to the organisation. If your CV is already doing this then you are on the right track. Here is a few quick example for you.

Example: A company within the sporting and entertainment industry is looking for a senior management executive, who has extensive sponsorship and marketing management experience as well as the ability to lead a team. What do you include in your CV to entice a hiring manager to contact you? You need to take look at your career history and establish the areas in your past and current experience, where you have successfully operated in, contributed to or supported these functions and demonstrate how your performance or qualifications influences the success of specific projects. If you are aiming to move across industries or business sectors it would be a great idea to establish which of your skills or expertise are cross transferable and be sure to mention them.

Simple changes like including the correct titles, keywords, buzzwords and language in your CV, will get you one-step further in the job search and another step closer to landing your ideal job.

You have now established your brand identity and you have engineered your CV in a way that optimises your chances of getting the call backs. It can be said that as a professional looking for the next career move, the barrier to entry can be quite difficult and you may be faced with many challenges when looking for those model opportunities. There are various types of ways that career growth can come your way. You can choose to put very little effort in or be more proactive in job search approach. The latter would more positively affect your job search. Here are a few ways you could maximise the job search process.

Have you ever wondered why there is a vacancy within an organisation? There could be several reasons for this:
• an employee could have been internally promoted,
• the business could be growing or restructuring,
• an employee may have resigned

Whatever the reason may be it would be a great asset to understand why there is a vacancy, so that you are able to structure and communicate your message more effectively in your CV, an interview, networking opportunities and on online platforms.

Executive professionals looking for senior management opportunities, should seriously consider utilising networking as a tool in creating interactions that result in job offers. Professionals under estimate the power of networking and the benefit it can add in growing your professional career. Many professionals keep their cards close to their chest, instead of developing formidable relationships with their peers and other professionals in their community. It is very often heard of that candidates are placed based on a referral given by a friend, colleague or past manager. As a professional it is key to start building partnerships with your community by attending events, workshops and striking up those conversations you would not normally consider. Utilise the online tools available to you, approach and ask to join professional networks on platforms like LinkedIn, so that you can build networks inside and outside of your working environment.

It would be advantageous to develop relationships with headhunters, recruiters and recruitment agencies that specialise in your industry and area of expertise. Complete a job search and identify those agencies that advertise posts of interest, contact and register with them. Agencies aim to refer and market top candidates on a contract, temporary or permanent basis, these professionals collaborate with multiple businesses that want candidates with a particular skill set. It is just as important to exhibit your strengths, expertise and accomplishments with these individuals as they interview you based on skill, and are able to refer and market you for multiple opportunities.

Recruiters can also assist in guiding you in the interview process by providing the tools and feedback needed to establish why you have not been successful with the application process and provide guidelines on how to make an impact in your interview.

We all want to work for those large, well-known and reputable organisations, because having their names on your CV could only benefit you. What about those smaller to medium sized businesses that offer similar products and services to the public, that you could learn so much from. They could offer you the opportunity to support the business more strategically in a hands on manner, giving you the ability to develop the skills needed to grow your career. Approach these organisations by communicating your expertise, and how you could possibly benefit their business. Making sure to establish contact with the relevant HR members and decision makers.

Advertised positions are normally almost every professionals go to, right? As job seekers, we tend to focus a lot on these types of vacancies, because honestly in most cases it is all that we have been exposed to. We put in a title search and we apply away. If you are taking this route, consider refining your search by more effectively navigating your search in a way that produces the results you are looking for. This can be done by entering the key words that are aligned to your potential role such as title, industry and skills. An example: “Marketing Manager AND consumer goods”. By being more specific, your search is more refined and in line with your goals.

We have all these phenomenal search tools available to us and maximising on them all is fundamental to the success of landing the job we want. It is often, that in a conversation with clients I hear, “I have applied to so many roles, and I am just not getting the feedback expected”. Professionals feel frustrated and I am guessing this is why they are looking for support in the career-planning arena. As you would keep track of the stakeholders, you communicate with in your day-to-day job, the job search process in no different.

Designing a system to keep track of your customers, suppliers and other stakeholders is as essential as creating, a system for the job search process. Develop a worksheet that allows you to record your formal applications, individuals you have communicated with and the businesses you have contacted and set reminders for follow ups or to document relevant comments. Implementing this tool will give assist you in managing the process in a timely manner and offer you more control with the job search, resulting in achieving a better success rate in your job search.

You are in; you have been contacted and will be meeting with a potential employer for an interview. Interview preparation is essential to your winning the job of your dreams. If you are not prepared for your interview your chances of coming across as a dependable employee are minimised. You want to make a good first impression. Interviews are all about understanding what may be expected of you in your new role, and having the ability to communicate your message in a manner that provides evidence to a potential employer that you are the man or woman for the job, who is going to solve their problem. Research the business to develop an understanding of their culture, vision and mission. If you have been given the names of the people on the panel, you can search for them to learn more about their professional backgrounds, allowing you to connect with them more easily. Be sure to take a look at the company website to learn about the products or services they offer to their clients. Establish areas within the job description that resonate with your experience and prepare responses that are relevant to the requirements of the role.

Here are few questions that you can start practising with:
• Tell me about yourself?
• Have you had any challenges in your role and how have you overcome them?
• What are greatest weaknesses or strengths?
• How would you approach rectifying a project or team member that is not performing?
• What makes you a formidable leader?
• Have you made any errors or mistakes in your job and how did you handle them?

Navigating your salary can be tricky experience, so understanding what the market related rate (the average salary rate in your area) is important to negotiate your rate more effectively. If you are lucky enough to be in a situation where your particular skills is desired you can leverage off competitive offers to negotiate the offer that is right for you. Make sure to take into account your total cost to company including how your benefits affect your gross salary and what is feasible for you. Always be careful of going too far with your negotiation, learn to read the audience you are negotiating with.
In summary, being committed to optimising your job search by executing a strategically planned job search process can be incredibly beneficial to achieving your career objectives.