This week, I’m pleased to introduce a guest blog by Ashleigh Harman at Portfolio Payroll, a recruitment agency who specialise in recruiting qualified professionals into the payroll industry.
Portfolio Payroll have put together some tips on how to build a successful job seeking campaign around your CV, in order to help you land your dream role.
Building a successful job seeking campaign
It is important to approach your job seeking efforts in the same way you would a marketing campaign for a brand. Here you should think of yourself as the product and your CV is the vital document explaining the qualities and benefits of the product or service. Like any marketing campaign, content which is influenced by the product should then be created and used to leverage existing contacts as well as attract new ones.
Follow the below tips to building a job seeking campaign that allows you to portray your personal brand using stand-out content.
How important is my digital persona?
A survey by ExecuNet recently revealed that over 77% of recruiters use search engines to research candidates. Whilst this can seem daunting it actually provides job seekers with a perfect opportunity to tell potential employers a little more about themselves.
Whilst you are putting efforts into building a positive and professional online profile, it is vital to ensure that existing online content baring your name is appropriate to be seen by prospective employers. Ensure that you have set the appropriate social profiles to private and any content including blog posts, pictures and videos that may not be appropriate have been removed.
Creating an online profile
Creating an online profile does not have to be difficult; you could start by creating a simple website that enhances the information on your CV. Let recruiters and potential employers find out more about you as an employee by providing references and examples of your work alongside details of your qualifications and past experience.
Although job advertisements highlight the required skills and experience a role requires, employers are also looking for a personality that is the right fit for their company.
Starting a blog is a brilliant way to give your online profile a personal voice. Getting your blog started on a dedicated blogging platform can be a simple half an hour task. Professional bloggers recommend writing and sharing at least one high quality post a week, choosing topics and news stories specific to your industry. Blogging allows you to take an active role in commenting on the industry thus proving your knowledge of working practises and your dedication to your career.
Approaching employers
When you have your heart set on working for a particular company, applying for a vacancy can be incredibly nerve wracking. However, by taking a few simple steps, you can ensure that particular employers already know your name.
Build a working knowledge of the way different companies operate – this will help you formulate an appropriate approach for contacting individual businesses when looking for an available position.
Send a hard copy of your CV to the company you wish to work for – include a cover letter explaining what it is you admire about their company and why you wish to work for them. Remember, companies enjoy flattery as much as people do.
Follow the company on social media- this will allow you to keep up to date with what they are doing.
Occasionally like, comment or share their posts – this will help your name to be remembered around the office, so when you make your application to a vacancy they can see that you already have an active interest in the company.
Utilising social media
LinkedIn should by now play a vital role in your job seeking campaign. This tool is used prolifically by recruiters and is a popular option for employers looking to find out more about candidates. To ensure you are fully utilising your LinkedIn profile follow the below steps.
Fill in all vital information in your profile, this is a perfect opportunity to expand on the information on your CV.
Upload examples of your work to complement your experience and prove your skills.
Ask past employers and people that you have worked with to leave recommendations and endorsements on your profile.
The importance of building a professional profile
Creating an engaging and informative CV will always be the most important part of any job seeking campaign, as it is not only a standard format across industries but it is but is also the best way for you to quickly communicate your skills and experience. However, with such high competition for job vacancies, building a professional public profile online has become an increasingly important component to the job hunt.
Building a profile and feeding it into your job seeking campaign will not only demonstrate to prospective employers that you are capable of completing a range of the tasks detailed on your CV, but it will also provide the employer with a better understanding of your personality and how you would fit into and benefit their business.
Ashleigh Harman is a Digital Content Writer for Portfolio Payroll, a recruitment agency who specialise in recruiting qualified professionals into the payroll industry.
Lis McGuire
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