7 Simple Steps to Kick-Start Your Job Search

When you find yourself out of a job it’s often hard to know what to do next. You may have been at a company forever or feel that your skills are limited and are now left wondering … what do I do? For those of you who may find yourself in this situation, here are some suggestions to Kick-Start Your Job Search.

1. Identify Job Likes and Dislikes — Start by making a short list of what you like/love about your current or past job as these are things you would like to maintain in your next job. Next jot down things you would change if you could – ie. more flexible hours, ability to work from home, less stress, etc. These are also things that you will want to look for.

2. Discover Your Personal Passions — What are you passionate about? What do you like to do in your free-time? Write it down. How great would it be to do what you love everyday. Maybe a job, career, or business idea will come from this. “If you love what you do it’s not work.”

3. Go through a Self-Discovery Process — Take a free career assessment test that can be easily found online. Most provide initial insights for free and want you to pay for the full report (don’t do that). You can gain some initial insights as to your skills, interests and aptitudes and suggested careers that would better suit you.

4. Identify the Possibilities — Based on the self assessment, thought and analysis, narrow down the list of possibilities of what you would like to do and write them down. If it is a career change, do you need more schooling? Do you know someone already doing a similar job that you could talk to? Ask if you can shadow them for a day to see what a day in their work life is like. Ask them how they got started. If you don’t know someone, ask anyway. You’d be amazed at how willing people are to help someone who has a genuine interest in what they do.

5. Get Connected — Now it’s time to kick your social and professional networking resources into high gear. So often it’s who you know that will get you the job or at least an interview. Networking is about building relationships. Talk to friends, family, current and past co-workers and let them know what your looking for or what you would like to do. This gets the word out as they may know someone who is hiring or someone you could talk with. It also makes you accountable as you’ve begun to put yourself out there. Call, email, talk at the gym, in your neighborhood. Let people know that you are looking for a job as they may become your biggest advocates aiding in the process. Also join the professional networking sites such as LinkedIn. You’ll be amazed how quickly your network of contacts grows.

6. Take Care of the House-keeping Matters– Of course you need to have a great resume that is to the point and relevant to the new opportunities you are exploring. Even if it’s a totally different field, there are skills and attributes that you have that would translate into other fields. Play up these skills you possess and your past experience and accomplishments that you know would be needed in the new opportunity. For example, teachers take information and present it in interesting ways that inspire students to want to learn. Good teachers are good at imparting information and instructing others. This could translate into a corporate trainer, or working on the admissions end of a college or vocational school, meeting with students and talking to them about the available opportunities.

7. Do Something Daily — Everyday! Successful people take action. Do something everyday that is a step toward reaching your goal or finding your dream job. Just one thing. Make a new contact, search a job site, research companies, send out a resume, call a recruiter, research a company your interested in. You get my point. By being persistent, patient and accomplishing something everyday you’ll build momentum and stay motivated. I have a question that I ask myself daily … in fact there is a yellow post-it note on my desk … “What have you done today to make you feel proud?” Pride is defined in many ways. Make yourself proud.

Fear seems to be what holds back many of us from trying something new and different — fear of failing … fear of success. But, the longer you wait the harder it becomes. Kick-start your job search and get the ball rolling now. Surround yourself with positive people and positive energy and know that you can do it!

Be curious and don’t be afraid to experiment and try something new. Good luck to all of you on this journey!

Please share your tips too.