5 Strategies to Improve Your Job Search

I keep hearing from people that the job market is beginning to get quite competitive due to all of the tech layoffs largely on the west coast. Having worked for 32 years for several Fortune 500 brands (LG, Amazon, Philips, Maytag, Dolphin) and funded startups (iPhone Apps, Digital Publishing), I want to give you 5 strategies to improve your job search.

These five tips are on 1) deciding on a Fortune 500 company, Funded startup, or small business, 2) thinking about your niche, 3) utilizing multiple job listing platforms, 4) searching LinkedIn job related posts, and 5) choosing quality over quantity while including a cover letter.

Decide on Fortune 500 Company, Funded Startup or Small Business

You may have worked for a Fortune 500 company, startup, or small business already and want to consider your future options. Having worked at both, I can tell you that the stereotype is that startup jobs mostly don’t last long, however, almost all Fortune 500 companies can experience layoffs these days. The median tenure at a company is 4.2 years today, and its actually been around that long for several decades. However, I think we’d all love to work at a company for 20 years.

When considering a fortune 500 company there are a few things to consider, such as the bureaucratic structure that some very large businesses may have, the idea that large companies tend to have very robust department teams where you could get siloed into doing a narrow set of tasks repeatedly, you may not get to speak to or hear from the leadership team much, and it could take longer than usual to get promoted.

However, there tend to be bigger responsibilities in terms of budget and projects you’re working on, there may be a lot of senior people you can learn from, there could be a training program to learn from for younger professionals, and they tend to have better benefits overall.

For startups and small businesses, they tend to be a bit less stable financially overall, decisions might get made much faster good or bad, the responsibilities might be lesser in budget for projects, and a lot of them are not a noticeable resume builder.

On the positive side, you most likely will be able to wear a lot of hats as you learn (sometimes being the only hire in a department), you probably will engage the leadership team frequently in some decisions, your ability to make an impact is significantly higher (being 1 of 20 or 100 employees versus 1 of 10,000), and opportunities for promotion can come fast typically when you do well.

So, when thinking about what size of company to work for, really consider these aspects in your process. If you are younger without an education, you might want to work for a big brand and learn from them. If you just graduated college, you might want to work for a startup and have much more responsibility initially, and if you are a seasoned professional you may want to really review your priorities and how they align with these options.

Think About Your Niche

Thinking about your niche is important, even for a recent college graduate. For recent college grads, think about your internship, campus organization experience, what your favorite classes were, professors you can leverage for a recommendation, and what you really enjoyed about any previous jobs - even if it was making coffee at the local shop.

On your resume, really emphasize those experiences and the skills you utilized in those past years. Then focus your search on opportunities that align with this to stand out more in your search.

For experienced professionals, I can tell you that your biggest job title and income potential are typically going to be where there is synergy in your industry experience and your superpowers. If you’re looking to get hired faster, think about your depth of experience in a specific industry and the skills that will get you the job title you want and paid top dollar. Then focus on detailing those aspects in your resume and job search. Read my 7 ways to level up your resume here.

Utilize Multiple Job Listing Platforms

To be more effective in your job search, make sure you’re applying on multiple job listing sites. For Fortune 500 jobs, I recommend LinkedIn.com, indeed.com, and sites like glassdoor.com where you can review CEO reviews and how much they pay their employees. If you know what brand or types of companies you want to work for I highly recommend applying directly on their corporate website simply because not as many people do this anymore and you might stand out as a candidate.

For startups and small business, I also recommend LinkedIn.com, Wellfound.com, and ycombinator.com/jobs. Wellfound has probably the most startup jobs listed from entry level to CEO. You can reach out to them later on LinkedIn (after you apply) just to say hi and engage them one more time.

Y Combinator also has a ton of job listings, primarily entry level to manager/director roles. However, its 3rd on my list just because I haven’t had as much engagement when applying on this platform compared to the other two.

Search LinkedIn Job Related Posts

This is something I discovered a few years ago. A lot of companies have been publishing the roles they are interviewing for as posts directly on LinkedIn, sometimes just one job and sometimes a list of ten plus roles they immediately want to hire.

Rather than scrolling your LinkedIn feed, you can type in the search bar “marketing director job” and click “enter”, then select “posts” from the filter (instead of jobs). This will then display all of the people in your network have published a post with that type of job listing. You can then apply, and reach out to them to connect and engage.

I want to provide one more quick tip regarding this. If you aren’t seeing many published job posts when you do this, I recommend making more connections with human resources at companies you’re interested in, people working at companies you want to work for, and head hunters in your local market. Then try the search again a week later when a bunch of them have accepted your connection requests. Your LinkedIn search will then have more results. Note, you can make about 100 connection requests per week on LinkedIn.

Quality Over Quantity + Write a Cover Letter

Earlier in my career, I focused on volume and kind of shot resumes everywhere. If you’re just graduating college and not sure exactly where you want to take your career, you can try this. However, I would highly recommend quality over quantity, and focus on jobs where you have strong synergies in your knowledge level, industry and job function experience, and superpowers you can immediately utilize to make a good impression from the beginning.

Secondly, once you’ve narrowed the list to your top 5 or 10 jobs you want to apply for each week, make sure you write an amazing cover letter for each of them when you apply. In leadership roles, I’ve hired a lot of people, and submitting a cover letter will at least increase the likelihood that your resume gets reviewed rather than skipped over.

Lastly, after you apply, check if you have any connections at the company you can get to put a word in with the HR Manager or ensure your resume gets reviewed. If you don’t know anyone at the company, you can also send a connection request to the hiring manager via LinkedIn and message them elaborating on the top 3 reasons they need to interview you. This has worked for me many times.

I hope you’ve learned at least one nugget of wisdom from these five strategies to improve your job search. If you need 1:1 coaching to discover your superpowers, accelerate your professional career, update your resume, or prepare for your interview - you can schedule your first session here.