Whether it’s because the company you’re presently working for, or you feel that you have no room for advancement in your current role, or because you want to change career paths, sometimes we start to imagine life as a jobseeker and find that it’s much more enticing than the position we’re in right now. And while it might be great to leave a job the minute we want to, in the real world, that’s not always possible.
However, instead of spending your free time catching up on Game of Thrones or going out with your friends or anything else not work-related, there’s actually a lot that you can do while you’re still employed to prepare for your upcoming job search.
Here’s how you can spend your time wisely while you’re stuck in this situation so that when the time comes for you to start applying for jobs, you can immediately get going and not be stuck without a plan of action.
Give your CV a makeover
If the last time you updated your CV was when you applied for your current role, then that’s the first thing you need to work on. This is especially true if you’ve been at your current job for a few years now.
This way, when you mention to someone that you’re looking for a new job and they ask you to send over your CV, you don’t have to scramble around and quickly put together something that’s sloppy and incomplete.
Although tailoring your CV to each individual application is important, it’s even more important to have a basic CV that you can send anywhere. Any specifically tailored CV’s that you create should just work off of this one basic CV. As a result, your general CV needs to be have your latest contact and work information.
Get back in touch with your contacts
You can’t just email someone out of the blue and say “Hey, can you get me a job at your company?”. It’s rude, unprofessional, and most people will probably say no. However, you can reach out to people you haven’t talked to in a while and start some casual conversations. Send over an article that you think they might find interesting or ask how they’re doing, and continue the conversation from there.
Of course, don’t go from 0 to 100 in a short span of time. If you haven’t talked to someone in years, don’t suddenly start messaging them every day. They’ll become suspicious and quickly realize that you’re only now trying to become “best friends” because you want something from them.
Instead, once you’ve got the conversation going, mention that you’re thinking about switching industries. Tell them that you’re interested in learning more about their job and/or industry, and ask them a few questions that will help you when you finally get around to taking the plunge and actively start applying for jobs.
Clean up your “personal brand”
Once you start applying for jobs, there’s no doubt that interested HR managers will Google you. To make sure that you present your best self on the internet, you should ensure that everything related to your “personal brand” is up-to-date. This means updating – or setting up – a personal website, polishing your LinkedIn profile, making sure all your social media profile pictures are work-friendly, and so on.