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