The New Year is one of those times that people often evaluate their lives (and careers) and can be a key time they start the process of looking for a new position or recruit fresh talent for their business. Many people on the hunt for a new role often jump onto Seek as a first step. However, it’s not always the best place to start. If you search for a new job though a job board, you are competing with hundreds of other people doing the same thing. The key is take a more strategic approach to the process, often referred to as the hidden job market. Here’s our recommended approach:

• Find your unique selling point

According to Michael Page, understanding your competitive advantage is the first step toward understanding the value you can contribute to an organisation. It can also help you find the organisations that best align with your strengths. If you bring an analytical approach to a role, you’re a people person or you’re a whiz with finances, doing some research on the best companies to help build on your strengths is a useful first step.

• Do your research

Understanding why you’re looking for a new role and what you’re looking for are key steps in your search for your next position. Are you wanting more responsibility or job flexibility? Are you wanting to build on your strengths or cross-skill into a new area? What are the best organisations that can support you? With your shortlist of companies handy, start researching them on their websites. Quite often they will have a Careers page with open opportunities. You can also search by organisation name in Seek.

• Network it

With your shortlist of companies that are a good fit for the direction you are wanting to take, start finding ways to reach out and connect to your existing network. There will be some individuals who are incredibly well connected and will most likely know of a number of available roles. Set yourself targets of people that you can connect with, offer value to and catch up with over a period of time. Talking to people and starting to build your presence on Linked In are smart ways of approaching the job market.

If you would like support with the job hunting process, speak to the Recruitment team at Flexi Personnel.