As we enter the New Year and plan for new beginnings one of these new beginnings may be a new career path. It is one of the most popular New Year’s resolutions. Now, looking for work can be stressful but there are steps you can take to lower that stress and ultimately become successful at your resolution. Below are a few ideas to make your job search a success.
- Get an idea about what you want to do.
This will help focus your job search on the kind of work you prefer. This can be a broad category, like logistics/warehouse/production work, or it can be very specific to an industry or field.
- Do some research.
Now that you have pinpointed a job or field – check on whether a job is in demand, pay well and that companies hiring for these positions. A good source is the Tarrant County Workforce Solutions Demand Occupation list. The Targeted Occupations List represents the occupations showing the most potential growth within Tarrant County.
- Write out your plan and set reasonable goals for your search.
To get from Point A to Point B, in almost any endeavor, requires a plan. Ideally, you will devote several hours a day to your job search. An easy way to meet your plan is to break your search down to manageable steps.
Let’s say your goal is to have a job within a month. We’ll use four, five-day weeks for this. If you can make 80 applications in that time period, you are very likely to find that job! It sounds like a lot, but it can be done. All you have to do is plan on completing and submitting four applications per day (two in the morning and two in the afternoon), five days a week, and at the end of four weeks, you’ll have your 80 applications done. Mix that with the interviews you’ll be getting and you’ll find yourself fairly busy and focused on your job search.
- Practice interviewing.
An old phrase: Practice makes perfect. You don’t have to be perfect to ace your interview, though. Brush up on your manners. Make sure your clothes are clean and appropriate for the work you’re looking to do. Use a little mouth wash. Be about 10 minutes early; travel your route from home to the interview site the day before so you know how long it will take and any potential traffic problems.
Go online and search for “50 Common Interview Questions” and practice your answers. Almost never does an interviewer practice his/her questions, so you can get ahead of them by doing this extra work.
- Get some help from Goodwill North Central Texas’s Employment Services.
With our many employment programs, you can use our free services and our professional staff to help with every aspect of your job search. These include online application assistance, resume-building, and interview preparation. Each program has a Business Developer to help connect you with the right employment opportunity and act as an advocate for you directly with potential employers. Each program has varying resources to help make your job search a success, and we’ll stay with you for up to 90 days to make sure the job is the right fit!
Best of luck in your job search and Happy New Year from all of us at Goodwill North Central Texas!