Three things are guaranteed in life: Death, Taxes, and Job Search.

Searching for a job can be stressful. Whether this is your first job, you lost a job, or you are looking for something different, there are a lot of emotions involved. Nothing else is quite like it. You are taking everything great about yourself and sending it to thousands of people hoping one of them will see something good about you and give you a chance.

Below are some tips to help you decrease your stress, and let your confidence shine through.

1. Figure out what you want
2. Clean up your Brand
3. Apply to 5 jobs a day
4. Reach out to old colleagues
5. Use multiple methods
6. Maintain a job pipeline
7. Do something of value every day
8. Interview with confidence

What do you want?

Read the post on Career Strategy 1; What do you want to be when you grow up.

Everyone is different. Your ideal role won’t be the same as someone else’s. It helps to ask other people for their opinions, but it is your career in the end, so you have to do what you like.

Clean Up your Brand

You are a brand. You want everything about you to tell the story of your brand. You know what you want to be, so craft everything so that you are seen as the kind of person who would excel at what you are trying to be.

These should all tell the same story about you.

• LinkedIn Profile
• Resume
• Facebook (Yes, your future employee will search for you on Facebook. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a personality. They want to see who you really are, but it should reflect the current you that you are branding yourself)
• Blogs, websites

Apply to 5 jobs per day

At the beginning, this is really easy. In Step 1 you just learned what you want to do, so you will search for those types of jobs. There will be many available to choose from. Use your best resume and apply. At this point you are playing a numbers game, you just have to get yourself out there.

Later in the process, it will get more difficult to find jobs that match what you like exactly. Keep applying. This will help you to feel productive, and you will discover new things about yourself as you interview.

Reach out to Old Colleagues

With social media, you are connected to many people in and out of your industry. Let people know you are looking, (be careful if you haven’t left your current role yet. You don’t want to put people, including yourself, into uncomfortable situations.). LinkedIn has a feature that allows you to make yourself visible to recruiters so that they know you are interested.

Don’t just ask people for a job. Explain to others what you are looking for and what you are doing to accomplish it. Often people will try to help you. Be humble and listen to any advice, even if you know it isn’t good. Don’t slam the door on people that are doing their best to help you.

Use Multiple Search Methods

Just applying may work well, but you want to round out your approach. It is just like investing. If you have a balanced portfolio of job search methods, you increase your chances of being seen.

Here are some to try

1. Job search engines: Indeed.com, Monster.com, careerbuilder, LinkedIn.
2. Reaching out to old colleagues
3. Direct networking. (LinkedIn search for people)
4. Get references (ask your current network if they know anyone in this industry, company, etc)

Maintain a Job Pipeline

People will call you for interviews. Don’t stop searching for other jobs at this point. You want to have a pipeline of jobs at the different stages so that if one falls through, you haven’t lost weeks of time. In the end, it only takes one, but until that happens, you need to have jobs in many different stages so you don’t end up starting over with nothing.

Just do something

It can be frustrating when you don’t hear back from people. The process will move slowly at first, and will often tax your patience. It helps to do something of value every day. Read a book, write a blog post, exercise, help out a neighbor or friend, or make cookies. These don’t have to have anything to do with your job search, but will help you to have value in your life.

(Watching Netflix and playing video games don’t count. You can do this for fun, but try to do something that makes you feel productive.)

Interview with Confidence

When you do get interviews, be confident. There is a great Ted talk about power poses. Do a power pose right before the interview for 2 minutes to get your endorphin’s moving, and to project a sense of confidence. You have every right to be confident. They want you there. You just have to validate their opinion.

Good luck!

What strategies have you used in your job search?