- Jul 19
- 6 min read

Job Hunting Tips

Updated: Aug 8

Here, I collect tips on successful job hunts. Please let me have yours and I will add them to the list.

An observatory (WIX Image) — You don't need a telescope to find tips, just this page

Job hunting tips for you to try out

Over the years, I've coached many people in their job search. Here are some of the most useful ones. Please let me know if you have other ones, and I'll add them here.

Support

First, this is the most important advice: talk your job hunt over with your significant other — your spouse, partner, friend, or cat. You need someone acting as your Yin if you're a Yang. Discuss everything together and get them to be the counterweight to your thinking. If you don't have a significant other, then employ a coach to be one.
Work with a coach to challenge you on the 'you' you're presenting. Doing everything on your own or with a partner can be risky, as you may know yourself too well and be blinded to your recruiter's views. So, ask for an objective mirror to be held up.
Talk to your employer. If you're leaving on good terms, see if you can influence the timing of your departure or whether you can at least use work time to talk to recruiters without guilt. Of course, make the time up, but don't sabotage your job search because you've burned your bridges.
Request certainty. A lingering end, where your end date extends, or maybe extends, but then doesn't, will leave you feeling negative and bitter, and this will be very obvious to everyone you talk to. In particular, it will come out in your cover letters, initial screening calls and interviews. Don't do it! It makes a hard job harder. You must take control of your future. Of course, if you need to stay on until a round of redundancies happens, then by all means, do so, but don't waste the time. Start preparing.
Make time for yourself. Job searching is not a fun process, and constant rejection can suck the fun out of you. So, make time for yourself, your family, your friends, and your hobbies. Like any other activity, spending too much time on 'red alert' has the opposite effect on your intent.

Job Applications

Check the deadline. I cannot emphasize enough that waiting until the last minute to apply can result in failure: they may already have selected someone, your laptop could break, a worldwide Internet outage could occur, or a health disaster could happen in your family. Something will always get in your way, so apply as early as you can.
Check what format your prospective employer wants their application in. Application forms inevitably take time to complete and will slow your search, so build time to review requirements.
Use AI to improve your applications, cover letters, and profiles. While they often sound like the Terminator wrote the text, they improve on most people's attempts.
Use an employer rating app like Glassdoor to research any organizations you're interviewing for. In particular, read typical interview questions and the feedback people give about the organization, as this will help you prepare for interviews.

Interviews

Practice, practice, practice your interview questions in your head. Your brain will need space to process what's happening in real-time, so don't waste your capacity on things you should know by heart.

Branding

People ask me if they should set up a personal website. The answer is simple. If you plan on being a contractor or permanent employee, don't do it unless your website differs from your job. Nothing irritates an employer more than thinking you are competing with them. Be aware of the message you are sending and to whom. It's easy to give the wrong impression. Writing is my passion, but it's not my career (though it helps me with it). More importantly, my writing does not overlap with selling energy, which is what my employer does.

Career Change

If you plan on a career change that involves living on less money, do that now. Live on what you will earn and save the rest. It will allow you to make the sacrifices you'll need now and help you assess the sustainability of your decisions.

Wellbeing

Exercise. I can't emphasize that enough. Getting and feeling fit in your 40s and beyond is critical personally, but more so in your career. If you look like you're about to collapse, your fate is sealed. I personally attend a variety of classes every week (4 or 5). In addition to being great fun, it makes you feel full of energy afterwards, and everybody notices. You may need to buy smaller clothes, though, so budget accordingly.
Don't fight prejudice. Some employers will want younger people, others will want financial services experience, or specific experience with Excellentsoft products (yes, I made that up). Don't fight it or become despondent, as it wastes precious brain time. Instead, focus on your job hunt process to help open minded employers find you.
Embrace new ways. One thing is certain: your new employer will work differently from your current one. Another thing is certain: your prospective employer will ask if you can adapt. So, prove it. Adopt new ways of working, embrace the changes where you are, and you will find you 'unfreeze' your staid approaches and show you're ready for your new challenges.
Recruiters, screeners, and interviewers all can spot desperation a mile off. So can you, in others. You must approach every contact with confidence and in a relaxed way. You won't get the first job you apply for, so you're not a failure. Treat every contact as an opportunity to tweak your style and approach, and treat every discussion as positively as possible. Put yourself in the shoes of an interviewer. Ultimately, I got too relaxed, but at least I caught it. That's why you need a good partner or coach.
Rejection is the norm, not the exception. So, be resilient and develop ways to deal with the rejections that are positive and kind. Ask whether the rejection was because of something you did or a reflection of the number of applications the recruiter received. If it's the latter, don't worry.

LinkedIn Tips

Ensure that your CV and LinkedIn profile align. Hiring managers do check, as misalignment gives the impression that you are either randomly searching or don't care. Neither are attractive qualities in a prospective employee.
Never use LinkedIn as a platform to criticize your former employer, have an argument, or otherwise present a version of yourself that a future employer may find offensive.
Keep your profile up-to-date and engaging.
Keep key information visible - remember the seven-second rule. A recruiter is likely to spend this long scanning your profile. Ensure that it counts.
When you're open to work, ensure that your profile makes that clear. You can make this information available only to recruiters, and LinkedIn tries hard to prevent your current employer from seeing this.
Endorsements on LinkedIn are valuable but often look contrived and insincere. If you choose to give or receive endorsements, spend as much time crafting them as you do crafting any other business communication.

Apple Notes Tips

Use the #ProjectJob hashtag in every note, and then use the smart folder option to create a ready-made list of notes related to your job search.
Likewise, create hashtags for different topics: interviews, stories, tasks, etc.
Link your notes together using the "add link" functionality. That way, you create your personal Wiki of everything related to a topic.
Try to avoid paper. You can guarantee that you'll need to access a note when you don't have your notebook.

Feedback Loops

Don't be afraid to experiment with your CV and create different versions. Upload different versions to various websites and measure the impact.
Don't be afraid to create new stories (providing they're true) if the ones you thought about don't work.
Don't be scared to rip it all up and start again if needed. It's a brave thing to do, but sometimes necessary.
This process allows you to experiment with different roles and versions of 'you'. You have lots to give, and you need to choose how to present it, so be prepared for some of those presentations to work better than others.
After every interview, conversation, or bad news email, sit down and learn the lessons. Ask whether there might have been a better outcome if you had done something differently, and build it into your process. For example, you may find that your sense of humour is not going down well, so learn to control it. Or, you may find that your spelling lets you down, so write everything in Grammarly first, then copy it to an email. It doesn't matter what it is; what matters is that every call, email, or application is a chance to improve on the last one.
Never miss an opportunity to get feedback and to act on it. We all have blind spots and can learn more about ourselves and how we present ourselves to others. Make sure you do and that you incorporate feedback into your project.