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If you've been looking for work for a while, it's natural to start losing your motivation if you aren't getting the results that you were expecting when you started
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However, have no fear because there are a few tricks that you can apply to gain your motivation back and maintain it
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Firstly, I would suggest instead of setting result-focused goals to set process-focused ones
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And this means that you can't control the number of interviews that you get or how you perform and this sort of stuff
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At least you can't fully control the results. but you can control your efforts
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So you can set some goals in terms of reaching out a specific number of people
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or in terms of submitting a specific number of applications or doing some other type of work based on the activities that you've decided to pursue
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as part of your job search. Secondly, I suggest celebrating small wins
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So what this means is, okay, the end goal is landing your dream job
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but it will take some small wins. And, you know, it's something that happens step by step
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Even a recruitment process of any business. It consists of several steps, like landing an interview
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perhaps there is a second or third round. So make sure to celebrate these steps because it's really important
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And the last one is taking breaks. If you overwork yourself and you sort of burn out
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because you want to find a job as fast as possible, it's basically proven that you will lose your motivation
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you won't like what you do, and the whole experience will be very pleasant
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So instead, I suggest dating regular breaks and decompressing, doing fun stuff
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perhaps doing something creative on the side, and then this will allow you to be in higher spirits and to be more motivated
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The pandemic has been hard to all of us, but it also came with some learnings
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And many, many people and many, many candidates have re-evaluated their priorities
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and they've thought about what they really want to do. So my key suggestion would be taking the leap and going for what it is that you really want to do
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And the reason that I'm saying this, apart from the fact that you deserve it, is that this period has normalized career changes
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So it's easier to change industries, job functions, to relocate to another place if you want to do it than anything
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time in the past. So my key advice is use your learnings, identify what you want to do and specify it
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and then go for it. When it comes to looking for work, diversification is key. While it is
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important to apply for jobs, like any other job applicant, and you know, this happens online
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these days. It's important to also pursue different activities so that you can stand out and being
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creative in terms of what activities to select and how to actually reach out to potential employers
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can make a very, very, very big difference. So while the whole job search game has moved largely
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online years ago now, there is a very, very, very big difference. There is a very
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still things that you can do offline and actually these are things that very few candidates are
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doing which means that it may be a really good opportunity for you so my first suggestion here
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would be leveraging your existing network and this can be friends it can be colleagues or ex-colleges
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it can be people that you were together in uni or at school or extracurricular activities depending on where you are in your career But it a great idea to reach out to these people and start actually from this
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because it can get you far. Referrals are very, very, very powerful
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Secondly, I would suggest for seasoned professionals to check industry events where they can meet like-minded people in the same line of work
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perhaps leaders, perhaps recruiters, they attend these sort of events, and then network and get
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things going this way. There is nothing that can be compared to offline networking. It may require
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a little bit more effort to be in the same place physically with someone, but it's totally worth it
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And lastly, I would suggest for university students to use their alumni event, student team
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student events, I mean, one of the main reasons that it's worth it to pursue higher education
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from a job search perspective is this network. So please go and use it and you won't regret it
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Your LinkedIn profile is essentially as important as your resume. I think that you should have both
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and you should have an optimized version, high quality and relevant based on your goals
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So when it comes to your LinkedIn profile, what you want to do is define your goal
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consider your experience and include things that are relevant and that are important
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and this will make it relatable to your target audience, but it will also make you more discoverable
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So when people are looking for this sort of stuff that you want to do, you will show up higher in the searches
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And this is very important. So the key way to use your profile to draw attention is by including these keywords and making it relevant
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However, there are other ways that you can use LinkedIn proactively. Here's a couple of these ways
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So firstly you can create some content and when you create content it smart to keep it again related to your line of work or the line of work that interests you
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By doing this, again, you may get more very good exposure to hiring people, to business leaders
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potential colleagues, very, very good people to connect with. And secondly, you can use things like groups, you can find relevant groups
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and join relevant groups, or you can engage with someone else's content
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It may be an influencer, again, in your line of work. We always keep it relevant, and you can go and write a very thoughtful comment below
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a value-adding one. Again, this sort of thing can give you tremendous exposure to the people that you want to connect with
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So as long as you keep in mind your goals and then you take related actions when it comes
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creating your profiles or using the platform, LinkedIn can be awesome. Being strategic about the skills that you develop is one of the best things that you can do for your career
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And your job search. We can break down skills to technical or hard skills and soft skills. Technical or hard skills are job specific or job function or industry specific. For example, if you want to be a programmer
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or software developer, you need to know how to code. So the programming languages are the technical skills, the core technical skills
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that are required in this case. However, soft skills have to do with interpersonal abilities and can include things like
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communication skills. So many jobs require communication, verbal, or written. It can be sometimes, again, job-specific in a way, because there may be a different kind
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communication skills required based on the job. However, building soft skills is a
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safe bet because in most cases they are transferable
