How To Land The Perfect Job In 2021: 10 Tips

Here are some top job search tips to help you get noticed by potential employers and land your dream job.

Job hunting can be an exciting and interesting time as it involves planning, decision making, meeting new people and impressing potential employers with your education, knowledge, personality and skills. But, unfortunately, it can also be a time of repeated disappointments. You will always be competing with candidates who are more qualified or more experienced. If you don’t have a degree, you will be competing with those who do have a degree, and, if you are not experienced in your chosen field, you will be competing with those who are experienced. We know how difficult the job search process can be, so we are giving you our top 10 job search tips for 2021 to help you get noticed, get interviews and get that dream job.

1. Clean Up Your Social Media Accounts

Google yourself! See what appears. This is the first impression that potential employers will receive of you.

They will certainly Google you and check social media platforms to learn more about you. Cleaning up your social media means removing offensive photographs, long political or religious rants or inappropriate content.

Check your privacy settings so that public viewers cannot see too much information. They should be able to see your photograph and basic information. Make sure your photograph looks professional and positive.

Source: Unsplash

2. Improve Your LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn is not only an important networking and powerful job search tool, it is also a public representation of your professional self.

Make sure that your profile photograph looks perfect. If you don’t have a suitable photograph, paying a professional photographer to take a photograph of you for LinkedIn (or any other social media platform) is a financial investment in yourself and your career.

Make sure that your LinkedIn profile’s dates and job descriptions does not contradict your CV.

If you want to keep your job search confidential from your employer and colleagues, remember to turn off your Activity Broadcasts in privacy settings.

3. Network as Much as Possible

Leveraging your existing contacts, friends, family and ex-colleagues is one of the most effective job search tips and techniques, as when you are referred to a company by someone who knows you, it means that something positive about you is already known.

Go to networking events, spend time making phone calls, talk to people at social events and get the word out there that you are looking for a job. You will be surprised at how far this will get you.

Networking often enables you to hear about potential upcoming vacancies that have not yet been advertised.

4. Make Job Hunting Your Job

When you are job hunting, you need to treat it as your full-time job. Search all the job search sites, both international and regional such as LinkedIn , Monster, and Glassdoor.

Make sure to set specific times in the day for making applications, communicating with contacts and networking with family, friends and ex-colleagues.

5. Tailor Your Resume

Tailoring your resume means highlighting the skills that are most relevant to the job for which you are applying. For example, if you’re applying for a computer programming job, emphasize your computer skills and technical related work experience. If you have done any relevant volunteering, make sure to mention it.

6. Time Management and Goal Setting

Landing the job you want is an extremely demanding and time consuming activity which can involve a lot of disappointments. It is important to set a schedule in order to prevent you from getting overwhelmed and to make time for relaxation.

Set yourself some goals and write them down. For example: My goal is to send out 20 online applications by the end of the week, or to network with 4 friends who work in company X and company Y by Thursday.

7. Relaxation Time

Job searching can be tedious and disheartening at times, so in order to stay motivated, it is important to make sure that you look after your health, eat well and get enough rest.

Music aids relaxation, stimulates emotions, uplifts your mood and relieves anxiety by increasing the serotonin levels in your brain. Serotonin is a hormone that balances and enhances your mood.

Music is also known to improve creativity and abstract, spatial and reasoning skills.

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8. Research

You will certainly be asked what you already know about the company during your interview so it is important that you research thoroughly by looking at their website and read any media articles about the company. They want to gauge your level of interest in the company and to assess your research skills.

Learn about the company’s products, services, clients and competitors.

At the end of the interview, they are very likely to ask you if you have any questions, and your research will help you to impress them by formulating intelligent questions.

9. Be Kind to Gatekeepers

A gatekeeper is anyone you come into contact with prior to the interview. It may be a secretary, receptionist, HR assistant or office manager. Make sure you speak politely to them, greet them when you enter and exit the office and always give a smile. The company is seeking to gain as much insight into your character as possible and both the HR department and all the gatekeepers will be searching for clues.

10. Don’t Hesitate

Don’t get put off or intimidated by a shopping list of skill requirements in job postings. Some employers are simply not experienced at writing job descriptions, don’t always know exactly what they are looking for and some simply have unrealistic expectations.

It is quite likely that most or many of the candidates who apply also lack some of the requirements on their long shopping list. You may not have all of them, but you may be intelligent and a quick learner, in which case, you could easily be trained on the missing skills.

You may also be a good cultural fit for the company or department and have excellent critical thinking skills, problem solving skills, creativity and management skills, which would make you a very close fit for the job.

More Advice for How to Land the Perfect Job

If you feel that you would like to gain some new skills and qualifications in order to have better job opportunities, there are plenty of online learning options available. If you take some time out to educate and upskill yourself, it will be a great investment in your future and will open up new doors. For short online skill-based courses, try Udemy, LinkedIn Learning, Alison or Coursera, who provide affordable, flexible online learning.

Getting a degree will greatly improve your job opportunities and open up many new doors for you. If you would like to study for a degree and are looking for a flexible option that allows you to study at a time and place that suits you, try University of the People.

University of the People is an American accredited, tuition-free university. This means that there is no charge for teaching and instruction only minimal fees per course completed. Our goal is to make higher-education accessible and affordable to all, anytime, anywhere, based on the belief that education is a basic human right. To find out more about University of the People, see this TED Talk.

Getting the job you want is a time-consuming process that involves learning, networking, making applications, writing cover letters, improving your online presence and doing lots of research. There will be highs and lows, excitements and disappointments, but if you keep working at it and follow all our job search tips, you will eventually get to where you want and land a great job.