8 Job Research Tactics to follow
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Introduction

You want to return to the workforce as soon as possible if you become unemployed. One of the most stressful things you may experience is losing your job or working in a poisonous atmosphere, and then you have to add a new one. Adding a job search on top of it is as important as visiting the dentist.

When You Need to Act Fast

If you’re unemployed or maybe you’re trying to get out of a bad situation, you just want to speed up the process and get it over with.

1. Optimize Your Resume

Why a Generic Resume Won’t Work

First thing you want to do, and this is a necessity for any job seeker, is you have to optimize your resume. A basic, one-size-fits-all resume won’t work in today’s job market. You need to do more to really stand out from other people applying.

Make Your CV ATS-Friendly

What does optimizing your resume even look like? Of course, we all know about ATS systems that have a particular way of screening out candidates, so we have to make sure that our resume is compliant with the ATS system. There are a lot of different components involved in that.

Why Customization is More Important Than Compliance

Even more important than having an ATS-compliant resume is that we want to have a custom resume. An ATS system is generally not going to be screening out your resume so much as a human is, but we want to make sure that the ATS system is seeing our resume correctly so that we can be discovered at a future point in time.

Standing Out in Large Applicant Pools

More importantly, there’s a large group of candidates — we want to make sure that our resume is pulled to the top of the pile. For example, I ran a recent ad for a very senior position and got 700 applications in 24 hours. There’s no possible way that I could go through all of those applications promptly, so I started to search my ATS system for some very specific criteria. If you’re optimizing your resume, it’s more likely that you’re going to pull up in my search when I try to narrow down my candidate pools.

The Habit That Speeds Up Every Search

Simply put, if you want to speed up your job search as fast as possible, you’ve got to get in the habit of customizing and optimizing your resume.

2. Create Multiple Targeted Resumes

Avoid the “Jack of All Trades” Approach

If you want to speed things up even faster, the next thing that I would do is have multiple resumes. In a normal job search, a lot of us have different specialties — we can do a little of this job, a little of that job. But we don’t want to send a resume that shows us being a jack of all trades because typically that will dilute your results.

Target the Role You Want

We would prefer to be a perfect fit for that specific position. If you happen to be a great fit for more than one role, create multiple resumes. This way, you send a more focused resume, and the hiring manager is more likely to be interested in you.

Stop Sending the Same Resume Everywhere

Remember — we don’t want to be sending out the same generic resume to all these different jobs we’re applying to, because you’re probably not going to have the best results that way.

3. Focus on Major Job Boards

Why Big Boards Are Better

The next tip from an efficiency standpoint is to narrow down to a couple of job boards that are most relevant to you. I would choose a reputable employment board, such as Google Employment Search, Indeed, or LinkedIn.

How Job Listings Spread Across the Internet

What typically happens is that when an employer posts an ad on their website on their corporate career page, it propagates out to a bunch of different sites. It’ll send it off to some pretty obscure sites that you’ve probably never heard of, and then it’ll also send it off to the major boards.

Avoiding Time-Wasting Rabbit Holes

If you find yourself doing a really deep job search and you’re going down all these rabbit holes with niche sites that are kind of unheard of, it’s wasting your time. It’s very unlikely that this job is only going to be posted on one niche site. The employer probably doesn’t even have a contract with that site — they have a contract with a bigger propagation site.

Why Recruiters Don’t Always Post Directly

When I would post jobs, they would sometimes show up on job boards that I’d never even heard of before because it was a service that we paid for. So, if you’re trying to speed up your job search, don’t get bogged down with so many different job boards. Just focus on the biggest ones — you’re going to find all the jobs there.

4. Apply Selectively, Not Desperately

The Problem with Panic Applying

While you’re at it, cut down on the number of jobs that you’re applying to. If you’re applying to every job that looks a little interesting or that you think you might fit, you’re hurting your chances.

Where Your Time Is Better Spent

All that time and energy you’ve been spending applying to these jobs would be much better spent trying to build out your networks on LinkedIn. The blunt reality of the market: you’re likely not going to get called for a job that you don’t closely match, probably 70% or better of the job description.

Why Applying to the Wrong Jobs Hurts You

Applying to jobs where you don’t have any relevant experience and thinking that an employer is going to read into your resume to pull out possible transferable skills is probably a shot in the dark. Honestly, it’s not a good time spent. It will slow you down, make your job search more difficult, and burn you out.

Protecting Your Mental Health During Rejections

If you’re worried about mental health, getting rejected can affect you. Focus your time on jobs you’re truly well-qualified for — those are the jobs you’re going to get called for anyway.

5. Build and Use Email Templates

Why Email Templates Save Time

The next thing I do to speed up my job search is create templates. I’m not talking about resume templates — in general, I don’t feel like most resume templates are very good, and they can hurt your job search efforts.

How to Set Up Useful Templates

I’m talking about templates that I might use when communicating back and forth with hiring managers and recruiters. For example, I might set up a custom signature in my Gmail where I can automatically populate confirmations and other communications.

Keeping It Personal

When you’re applying to a lot of jobs and doing networking, it can be arduous to fill out the same things over and over again. Keep some email templates or a Google Doc to copy from. Just change a few words so you don’t sound like a robot.

6. Use Efficient Instruments to Stay Organized

Tracking Your Applications

While you’re at it, find some efficiency tools. I use Gmail and Google Docs to speed up my job search, and I also track all the jobs I apply to and the stage I’m in with a simple Google Sheet.

Staying on Top of the Hiring Process

If I need another recruiter to check my progress, I can send them a quick message. If I owe them something for some stage of the interview process, it’s all tracked.

Tools That Make a Difference

Other tools I live by:

  • Grammarly — it analyzes writing, rearranges it, and makes your content more fluent.

  • Mailtrack lets you see when a hiring manager or recruiter opens your email.

  • Spell check — to avoid careless mistakes.

7. Set Up Job Alerts

Avoiding the Refresh Button Trap

The last thing I do personally is set up alerts. I don’t want to spend too much time going on job board after job board every single day, hitting the refresh button — it gets tedious and can hurt mental health.

How to Set Up Effective Alerts

Setting up an alert can save you a lot of time. Most boards and company ATS systems allow you to set up alerts for keywords or job types. Then they email you whenever a matching job posting comes up.

Why Early Applications Win

Being early to apply is always preferable. You don’t want to be late in the application process when the employer may have already identified a candidate.

8. Use Courses and Resources to Boost Your Search

When the Problem Is Your Resume

If you’re applying for job after job and not getting responses — especially if you’re reasonably qualified for the roles — it’s almost always a resume issue.

Learning How to Write a Winning Resume

A course like Resume Rocket Fuel is designed to teach you how to write a resume that gives you the best chance of having a recruiter notice you and call you for that first round interview.

Preparing for the Interview Process

Once you get that first round interview, it’s then up to you to sell yourself throughout the rest of the interviewing process. That’s where the Ultimate Job Seeker Bootcamp comes in — it takes you through each step of the interviewing process, gives you tips and techniques on how to ace each round, ultimately to get you to that job offer, and then negotiate the best possible deal.

Letting Recruiters Come to You

If you want recruiters to come find you, Unlocking LinkedIn teaches you how to get noticed on the platform and unlock the hidden job market, potentially skipping the recruiter altogether.

Conclusion

I hope these pointers help you return to work as soon as feasible. To acquire the proper job more quickly, improve your résumé, keep track of where you apply, use some helpful tools, and apply for the jobs that best suit you.