The Great Job Hunt
LaLacia Kane
The time has come, after
being home with my kids during the pandemic for the last eight months, the time has come. What time and what has come? Well the time has come for me to start looking for a job; my second career. In my gut (despite assisting my husband with planning our move to Miami) I knew it was time to start job hunting for open training coordination jobs in Miami.
Maybe out of a messed up coping mechanism during our planning to move to Miami I started putting in applications, I have had one zoom interview and have put in over 20 job applications. The Jobscan.co site is saved in my browser. Indeed and Glassdoor are my favorite websites right now. I have about 15 different types of resumes saved on my google chromebook. My desire is to reach above 80 percent of keyword matches in tailoring my resumes. Finding a job is like having a full-time job, organizing my time around the kiddos school, finding the resume that matches the job description just right, and applying.
When I first started tailoring my resumes to match the job descriptions the process was painful and tedious. However now with a whole lot of practice tailoring my resumes has gotten easier. To all the future employers who might be reading this blog, I am a hard-worker, diligent to get tasks completed, and always wanting to be a better version of myself each day. I am always trying to change and grow.
Here are a few takeaways for my readers on how to execute a job search:
Be organized, know the keywords and a general idea of what job title and duties you want to be a part of. Create a time of day and a plan. My plan was to wake up at 6am get my youngest to the bus stop, set up my oldest for virtual learning, then tailor my resume to two to three jobs I had saved the night before. This whole process will take me two to four hours depending on how much input I have to do to make my resume shine.
Use your resources, I have reached out many times to my aunt and my mom to look over my resume for grammar and spelling errors. I have looked up salaries and reviews on Glassdoor to make sure I would be a good fit for the companies I am applying for and our core values line up.
Research the companies you are applying for, read the reviews the great thing about job hunting in this day and age is you will not be blindsided if you do the research about a company's core values, mission statement, workflow and other aspects of the job.
Use LinkedIn, they say getting a job is not solely based on qualifications anymore, it’s about who you know. Network, Network and Network some more. For a few jobs I have researched who work for the companies I applied to and reached out directly to them, now is not the time to be shy.
Lastly do not beat yourself up if you are not getting callbacks for interviews, especially if you are a military veteran who hasn’t had to job hunt for 10-20 plus years. Keep preserving and keep pushing.
They say if something feels forced (like love or job) then it is most likely not meant to be, I know this is true with my job hunt. I know the right job in the career field I want to go into will come and be the right fit, I just have to practice patience and keep on progressing towards my goals.
Readers what are some tips you have found for job hunting, please post below in the comments.