With recent technological advancements and the ongoing Covid Pandemic, recruiters worldwide had to change how they used to attract, engage and retain talent in the organization. In the last few years, we have experienced a rise in remote work opportunities, Application Tracking Systems (ATS), and virtual interviews.
With a potential recession on the horizon, experts are convinced that 2023 will bring even more crucial workplace changes. With this scenario, now is the time to plan and build your differentiating advantage among other candidates. This blog will discuss some topics to remember when planning your job search and some useful tools available in SEAS Career Center.
Work on your career readiness.
According to Harvard Business Review, one way an organization will ensure a diverse pipeline is by pursuing nontraditional candidates. Organizations will also start looking for candidates with different career paths and asses their skills more strongly than their experience. Moreover, a study stated that 51% of generation Z employees feel unprepared to enter the workforce and need to develop the skill to land a job and thrive in a role and career. Therefore, it became crucial to know what your skills are and leverage any gap that you might have in your resume.
You have a great worksheet that can help assess your career readiness. You can make an appointment with one of our ambassadors to learn more about this.
Building your Personal Brand
According to Robert Walters, 57% of candidates state that a brand is essential when looking for a job. Brand positioning is crucial for your job search. Investing time in researching your target company is critical to achieving a match when applying for a job. Afterward, it is vital to make your skills visible in the market. We suggest working on your branding on social media. Therefore, as a candidate, an excellent way to build a market presence and increase your opportunities is to start working on your strong personal brand.
You can read more about building your personal brand at this link.
Soft skills become a competitive advantage.
As we mentioned before, developing the correct set of skills can help differentiate you from other candidates. Moreover, with the Pandemic and organizational change, soft skills are increasingly necessary to organizations.
Some top soft skills to look for in the foreseeable future:
- Critical Thinking
- Collaboration and Team Work
- Problem-solving
- Communication
Data driving recruiting.
According to Career Builder, 72% of employees believe that parts of the recruitment process will be automatized in the next decade. Thus, automatization will continue to drive the recruiting process. With that, candidates must continue investing time in the application process to increase their chances of interviews and getting a job. Your ability to identify keywords and the time invested in the application process will become crucial to achieving interviews and landing jobs.
Proactive candidate engagement
Recruiters often use this approach when searching for a C-suite role; however, more and more organizations have started using passive searching to hire entry-level positions. Moreover, a LinkedIn survey states that 84% of recruiters engage passive candidates to bring talent to the pipeline. You can make an appointment with our ambassador or counselors in the Career Center to get feedback on career readiness, personal branding, and more.
