Sounds like a simple question. I got laid off at the start of Feb - potentially a blessing in disguise because the company was a terrible place to work. However, I'm totally out of practice when it comes to applying for jobs and am finding the whole thing, and the current job market in general, overwhelming.
I paid a guy to help me brush up my CV / LinkedIn and I'm more or less happy with the way I am presenting myself, but where do you actually look for jobs? LinkedIn itself just seems full of fake positions, AI-generated BS and scammers.
Any tips, tricks, resources, websites etc people can share? My sector is media / communications / publishing / political comms but I've also done stints in finance and the wine trade (very random I know).
Where are you.
My wife and I successfully used What colour is your parachute?
If you've got time on your hands get in to it, you get out what you put in.
Set up searches on all the main sites like jobserve, indeed, totaljobs and be prepared to set aside the time to go through the daily emails to see what might suit your skills.
Also, when you find something promising from one of those try googling a distinctive phrase from the ad as that might mean you can find the ad on the employers site and apply directly to the company which cuts out the (usually poor) screening done by an agent.
You have to start with your network. Catch up with, chat to, reconnect with former colleagues, peers, friends in the industry, whether in person or on Zoom. It's about checking in, saying hi, hearing what they're up to; and reminding them why you're great at what you do, why you'd be an excellent addition to any team. And, critically, so when they hear about a role going, they think "oh yeah, devash is on the lookout, I'll pass it along".
A friend of mine in recruitment used to say you need to have coffee with 100 different folks, and then stuff starts to happen. I'm not sure I'd go that far (it's a lot of work!), but it's what you need to be thinking of.
Separately, checking out companies you like in your industry - browsing around their websites, seeing why you like them, what they're doing, etc, and setting up job alerts on them too.
Last 3 have all been through searches on LinkedIn, that being said I target local companies that match my skills and experience. I appreciate the job market isn't good at the moment, 2 of the recent jobs I replied to ghosted me despite the job descriptions reading like my CV, the third interviewed and offered though. However, I work in software team stuff in start-ups in Cambridge, I've been doing it a long time and I know what people are looking for generally so my hit rate is usually high.
If you have any contacts, or know anyone who works as an internal recruiter locally as for local agency recommendations too as they tend to have good contacts and will use the better end of the agency market.
I don't envy you though, good luck!
