Annual raise not up to your standards? The most popular time of the year to apply for a new job is coming soon! New job postings spike after the employers return from the holidays and assess what gaps they need to address in the coming year, making January a time full of potential for anyone unhappy with their current employment situation.
While more jobs will be available starting in January, you still need to go into the job market prepared since, with many employees taking stock of their current employment situation and looking for change, there will also be more applicants than at other times of the year. To stand out to potential employers, prepare better than the competition. Better preparation means starting to prepare now, before the January jobs even post.
Update Your Resume Now
Verify that your resume is updated for your ideal job before the job posting even arrives. If it has been awhile since you updated your resume, update it now! This may seem redundant, particularly because I recommend tailoring your resume to the individual job description, but getting your resume 99% updated now will help you act quickly when you see the ideal job description. Base your resume updates on some stale job postings for now. When the new job postings come out in January, you will only need to make minor tweaks to make sure the language in your resume matches the keywords included in the postings. This saves you time and allows your resume to be one of the first received by employers.
If you plan to apply to multiple positions, you can create what I call a “base resume” to serve as a launching point for different potential jobs. A base resume has more information that an actual resume you will submit because it includes bullet points describing your experience that would be pertinent to various future roles. For example, you may have 12 bullet points describing a prior job on hand for potential job applications. Upon reading a job posting, you can pick the five most relevant bullet points to include in the resume that you submit to a certain employer. Having more information than you need provides you the flexibility to apply to a wider range of jobs if you are adamant about making a move this January.
In addition to updating your resume, you may also want to update your LinkedIn profile and/or any personal websites or portfolios that are pertinent to your job application. How much these additional resources matter depends on your industry, so spend your time on each according to its importance. Make sure the experience listed on any online platforms remains congruent with the experience depicted in your resume. All information should tell a consistent story about your career and goals.
Prepare Any Other Materials
I generally prefer to apply to places that require only a resume or a resume and cover letter. However, particularly if you are in academia, research, or a writing-intensive field, you may need to submit additional materials like writing samples. Having these ready to go before your application provides that same flexibility as updating your resume in advance.
Definitely prepare an outline of a fine-tuned cover letter that can be updated with a personalized paragraph inserted for the specific potential employer. If a company asks for a cover letter, a cover letter typo will be the end of your application. Also gather any potential writing samples of various lengths, if that may be pertinent to your application. If you are applying to jobs that require more creative and design skills, you also may want to have some finished products that display your talents clearly. Showing a future employer what you can do is more powerful than just saying what you can do, so prepare to show off your skills.
Have a Job Search Plan
Once your materials are ready so you can submit applications relatively quickly, establish some parameters about what job you would like to seek. You can participate in the January job market whether you are desperate for a change and plan to cast a wide net or you are just testing the waters to see if a better opportunity or dream job is out there. How motivated you are to find a new job should impact your parameters: If you feel comfortable staying in your current position, you can set more stringent requirements for the jobs to which you apply than you would if you want to make a move imminently.
Once you establish your job parameters, experiment with what keywords provide you jobs that seem to most closely match your requirements. This may require some experimenting with searches, particularly if you have a unique skill set. Once you figure out the best searches to turn out pertinent results, you can set up email alerts from most job sites so new jobs meeting your requirements come to your inbox each day. If this is overwhelming or your job search is more casual, you can also just set up a schedule to search for new jobs weekly or at another cadence that works for you.
Bonus: Pinpoint Preferred Employers
If you have been in your industry for some time, you may already know that a certain employer offers the salaries and/or benefits you value the most. I targeted my current employer 1.5 years before I secured a job with them because they had an ideal benefits package that is less common in my industry, and I knew I wanted to work there. Knowing the best employers, or the most ideal employers for your situation, within your industry can make your job search easier by saving you time.
Specific employers’ postings can also be a variable included in your job search plan, particularly if you are only casually looking for a job if the ideal job posting and employer combination appears. It is okay to be picky, not find your job this year, and keep looking in the future!
Be Interview-Ready
Just like resume writing, interview readiness mostly comes from preparation. If you are targeting specific employers, read up on their websites in advance so you are prepared for the interview before you even submit your resume. Even if your search is wider, you can read up on important industry information or familiarize yourself with the latest news and research within your field.
In a wider search, you will inevitably have to complete some of this homework later, once the job posting from the company you never knew before appears. That is okay. Since you already have your resume and other supporting materials ready to go, you can focus on researching your potential employer to make a few tweaks within documents. Then dive deeper to get interview-ready. Since you do not have to stress about everything else, you will have plenty of time to get to know the company.
Overall, applying to jobs with minimal stress is ideal. We do better work and avoid careless mistakes when we prepare in advance and create the flexibility to respond with our best selves. Take the next week to get ready for job applications in January, and you will already be ahead of the competition.
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