Get organized before looking for a job

Yarlin Osorio
Jan 12, 2017
3 min read

The year has begun and with it new goals. With the purpose of helping those whose goals are to land a job that offer better benefits, better environment, raise incomes, be closer to home, professional growth, "in short" whatever the reason, these tips can help you to develop your strategy to get that job offer you are looking for.

Define your goal. What is your priority, more income, more flexibility, professional growth, the geographical area? Where do you want to get with this job? What is your long-term goal? How much money are you willing to accept to make a change of employment? What is your salary expectations? What do you like to do and what are you willing to do?
Look for work every day. Set a schedule for daily job search, vacancies are filled quick and you can lose a good chance by not looking every day. As a recruiter, I had the opportunity to fill vacancies in a single day and also in a week. One week that you do not look for a job, you may have missed several opportunities. If you are looking to change jobs because of the work environment, you should not wait until you are tired to quit, this will lead to unemployment and therefore without income.
Dress up in the event that you are going to deliver your resume personally. The way you dress is as important as the day of the interview. This may be the first impression that someone from the company make of you and could reject your resumé at that time. Also, may arise the opportunity to be interviewed at that time, everything will depend the place you are going to deliver the resume.
Make a list of the companies that attract your attention, this will help you define your objectives. In case you are looking for professional growth, you should identify what type of organization gives you that opportunity.
Consider the firms or recruitment agencies, these firms have contact with many companies that only receive resumes through them, temporary employment agencies are excellent professional trampoline, since you can start as a temporary and then regular or permanent position in the company.
Maintain good communication with the recruiter. If you are at a high professional level, intermittently this type of vacancy arises. So, participating in interviews in recruitment firms may be ideal because the first candidates that they will contact to confirm availability will be those that already are in their talent pool.
Upload your resume and/or create profiles on platforms such as Monster, LinkedIn or Indeed. These three platforms make visible candidate profiles for recruiters, which offer a passive and active way of looking for a job. Recruiters use these platforms when they are looking for candidates with certain competences and prefer to do the resume search before publishing it.
Spread the word, tell trusted people that you are looking for a job, so they will let you know of opportunities that may not be published, and you will also have people helping you in that search.
Prepare to resign, in case you want to make an employment move, avoid a bad reference due to the way you left the company, try to give at least two week’s notice to fill your vacancy and leave your work up to date.