There are some simple things we can do to steer our career into the right direction and find the next dream job. As we now live in a world where we can collect and analyse data on everything, we can use that data to power our career. Here are three easy ways to do that:
1. Ensure you have what employers are looking for.
When it comes to your career, you want to make sure that you stay in touch with the latest developments, newest tools and general trends. You have to keep your skills fresh and your career current. Understanding the latest trends in your job and industry will allow you to identify the next best career moves to make as well as the top development and training opportunities for you to take. Three really good ways to keep up with trends are:
Google Trends: A free service that allows you to map out how the worldwide search volume for your chosen key terms is changing. You can also compare a number of terms to see the relative trends.
Elance: A site that helps to find freelancers for different jobs also analyses the global job market and provides trends on jobs by skills required with an analysis of whether demand has risen or fallen in the last quarter.
ILO: The International Labour Organization (ILO), a specialized agency of the United Nations, publishes a lot of really useful data on labour markets and global employment trends.
Topsy: A social media search engine that features a Twitter analytic tool. You can compare up to three subjects to understand which one is trending the most.
Google Alerts: Set it up so you get the latest news about your industry and job directly to your inbox. You can not only check out the latest news and trends but also get alerts for job offerings as soon as they come up.
2. Find the job opportunities.Many websites provide job offers and alerts. One I particularly like is Glassdoor. It helps you find relevant jobs but also provides a look inside the company. The site provides data and information about salaries and interviews at the company as well as reviews of what it is like to work there. Indeed allows you to set up a profile and automatically alerts you about relevant openings. Having this setup allows you to regularly read the relevant job offers and see what companies are looking for in their job specs. This way you let data and analytics do the hard work in the background, while you focus on picking the most relevant job for you.
3. Make yourself visible and interesting for a potential employer.Employers and recruiters expect established professionals to have an online and social media presence. It is difficult to argue that you have a proven track record in your industry if no reference to yourself is found anywhere. Make sure you maintain a strong profile and social media presence.
LinkedIn is my preferred tool to do that. LinkedIn is often a first port of call for employers in their search for new talent and for individuals it is a great place to grow your network, find and interact with like-minded people and market yourself to a potential employer. Sites such as LinkedIn allow you to collect data on how your network is growing, how many of your skills have been endorsed and how many people have looked at your profile, among other things. Used well, it can provide valuable insight about how attractive you are for potential employers.
Here are some key tips to increase your attractiveness on LinkedIn:
Ensure your profile is professional and up-to-date: First, clean up any thing that is not relevant, out of date or un-professional. Then make sure your profile includes an appropriate picture and your most relevant skills are listed and endorsed: Don’t put all your skills on the list. Pick the ones you believe employers are looking for. Then ask your network to endorse those skills. Employers and recruiters are constantly trawling profiles for the right skills mix.
Grow your network: Send personalized invitations to key people in your industry asking to connect. Even if you haven’t yet met them personally, I find that if you make it personal and explain why you would like to connect, you often get a positive response.
Seek recommendations: These are great ways to show potential employers that you are doing a good job.
Engage with the community (and potential employers) : Join relevant LinkedIn groups and participate in conversations. This will show that you are actively involved in your industry and will help to boost your score on Klout, which measures influence by analyzing your social media activities. Recruiters are increasingly looking at social media engagement and influence when recruiting new people.
Another great tool is blogging. You don’t have to be a trained writer or global guru to start making an impact in your industry. Many well-known bloggers are ordinary people that just started to share their thoughts and ideas. Even if you only do it two or three times a month, it gives you material to share with your network and increases your visibility significantly.
What do you think? Do these tips make sense? Have you got any others to add? Please share your views and stories.
