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How To Find A Job When You Don’t Know Where To Start

Knowing how to find a job, particularly when unemployed, can make the whole job search process less stressful.

One key to a successful job search is not putting all your eggs in one basket.

You want to make sure that you increase your chances of finding a job by using several channels in different ways.

Before you start applying everywhere, which I do not recommend, you want to build a target list of types of jobs you are looking for and also what types of companies you are interested in working for.

This article will help you organize your job search.

How To Find A Job: 7 ways

LinkedIn

It goes without saying, LinkedIn, should be your number one priority when searching for a job.

Many job seekers don’t know how to effectively use LinkedIn to find a job.

Here is what you need to know.

Before anything, you want to make sure that you go to “Manage alerts” and enable the “Get job recommendations”.

This will deliver new jobs, based on your interests and profile, straight into your inbox.

Also, you need to edit your Career interests, to make sure you receive notifications about the most relevant jobs.

After this, you’re good to go. Here is how to find a job on LinkedIn.

First, you can have a general search based on your location.

Manage alerts on LinkedIn when looking for a job

Once you press “Search” you will have a full list of job openings in your selected location. 

You can filter your search to show you either the most relevant jobs or the most recent.

The most relevant jobs are based on your profile.

How to use the LinkedIn filter when searching for a job

Another great filter is to search by LinkedIn features:

How to use LinkedIn features to find a job
  • In your network (you have a 1st-degree connection that works there and can introduce you or forward your application directly to the hiring manager)
  • Under 10 applicants (if you are an early applicant, you increase your chances of having your application noticed)
  • Easy apply (you only need to select your preferred email address and upload your resume. It takes less than a minute to apply)

Filter your job search by company. If you’ve done your homework and have a list of target companies, you can look directly to see if these companies have any job openings listed on LinkedIn.

How to find a job by company name

You can also search for a job, directly by title. This is extremely useful, especially if you have a clear list of titles that you are targeting.

Another useful function on LinkedIn is the “Open to job opportunities” button, under your headline.

Open to new job opportunities on LinkedIn

You want to make sure you enable that, so recruiters will be able to find you.

This is private and visible only to recruiters, so in case you are currently employed and conducting a stealth job search, you don’t need to worry.

Job portals

Although LinkedIn is also a job portal, it deserves more attention as it has a higher rate of success for job seekers and that is why I listed it separately.

While there are many job portals out there, I would pick 1 or 2 tops, asides from LinkedIn.

This is because you want to make sure you make good use of them and don’t risk becoming overwhelmed.

Here are some job portals that I recommend for finding a job:

How to find a job with Google Search

Google Search, while basic, has proven so efficient in finding very relevant jobs.

Google basically pulls all the jobs that match the title and location of your search from many websites that you actually might not be familiar with.

How to find a job on Google?

Similar to LinkedIn, you can filter your search by location, date posted, type, etc.

Google jobs

You can also turn on email notifications for this search.

In order to be able to do this, you need to be logged in to your Google account when performing the job search.

Company website

As mentioned earlier, if you have a company target list, you can actually go directly to the company’s website and look if there are any job openings in the “Careers” section.

There are many companies that do not post their job openings on external websites or job portals and you might be surprised by what you can find.

A great thing about applying directly on a company website is that the competition is usually lower, as most job seekers are looking for jobs on LinkedIn mostly.

If you are lucky to find that your dream job is available, you want to make sure that you conduct proper research about the company and about the hiring manager, before submitting your job application.

This article will help you customize your job application in order to increase your chances of landing a job interview.

How to find a job on Facebook groups

While you might not think about using Facebook to find a job, it can depending on your location, be an actual gold mine.

How to find a job on Facebook?

You can simply go to the search bar and type jobs + your location.

How to find a job on Facebook

Once the search is completed, Facebook will show everything from posts to photos containing the words “jobs in …”.

You want to press “Groups” in the white bar to find the most relevant results.

Click join to join any group and if you don’t want your network to know that you are job hunting, you can select on the right to only see and join Private Groups. 

Referrals

Using referrals to get a job might be the best strategy that you can have when job searching.

Find out if you know people that are working at companies that you are targeting and make sure to contact them if you are considering applying there.

Having a referral can exponentially increase your chances of landing a job interview, as hiring managers are more inclined to trust a job application that has been received through a referral.

Recruiters

If you feel that you are not having great success finding a job on your own, you could seek the services of a recruiter.

Recruiters can do an amazing job at placing candidates at great companies with better packages, however, I wouldn’t rely solely on a recruiter to find a job.

Eventually, you want to maximize your chances of finding a job, so try to mix the above channels/ways and see which ones work better for you.

Below is a resume template that you can purchase in order to create a modern-looking resume that will surely land you a job interview. It includes 1, 2 and 3 pages templates, along with a cover letter template.

Besides it is fully customizable in terms of colors, fonts, and sizes and has detailed instructions on how to write your resume. It is ATS compliant and written by a professional resume writer.

With your purchase, you will also get a 50+ page “Guide to Landing the Job” bonus.

Click on the image below to check it out.

resume template

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13 thoughts on “How To Find A Job When You Don’t Know Where To Start”

  1. This is some next level job-search ninja magic. I’ve been looking for a job lately (I’ve got a temporary teaching job until the end of April), and now, thanks to you, I have all these new and different ways to go about my search. I had no idea LinkedIn was used so frequently. I have to polish and update mine ASAP. Great post, I’m glad I found it!

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  2. Great recommendations! Another useful sites for job search is The Muse which offers a lot of advice, tips & tricks as well as job listing. Also, Career Contessa is a job site for women with webinars, coaching, e-learning, etc.

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