Even in the best of times, there’s a lot of competition for your dream job. There are other job seekers to compete with and a grueling interview process.
By following suggestions here, you’ll be positioning yourself as a premium candidate that will have your dream job seeking you out.
The first place to start if you want to reach the top of your career is showing off your skills. What better place to show off your skills than your own website?
Show Off Your Skills
The best place to show off your skills is in a place you own. Whether your work lends itself best to a portfolio or a blog, a website will give you the place to show off your skills.
You could create a brand page, but the ideal place is a website to build your personal brand. You’ll be able to showcase your accomplishment during the hiring process of your dream job. A recruiter may not look in-depth at your personal brand website but the hiring manager most likely will.
You're awesome, show off your skills in a place you own. Share on XWhen I was in the job market seeking employment, I found out first hand how important a personal brand website is to secure your dream job. The need for a website made such an impact on me that I created a course to help others build their website to get their dream job.
Showing off on your personal brand website is easy by simply providing your best examples of work or writing about the great things you’re doing at your current job. If you’re blogging regularly on your personal brand website, there’s a good chance with the right network you’ll become an influencer in your industry.
Recruiters and hiring managers love having someone with a high level of expertise representing their company. Creating original content is the next opportunity to make yourself the best candidate for your dream job.
Create Original Content
Whether you choose to start your own website to show off your career expertise or use a 3rd party service, original content will benefit you. Each industry has its own trends and innovation curves. Writing about the trends, innovations, and becoming an innovator yourself helps you climb to the top of companies priority list to hire.
Put yourself in a recruiters place. Would you hire someone who has been in their job for 10 years but has very little outside of their job to show for it? Or, would you rather hire someone 5 years in their job that has published original content and proved how valuable they are to the industry?
My bet is that a recruiter for any dream job would rather hire someone who is an expert and makes it public. The company who would hire based off years experience alone will prove in the end not to be your dream job.
Your dream job won't hire you based on years, they'll hire you based on experience. Share on XBe the innovator and influencer, there’s plenty of content that can make you known. Start by creating and doing things like:
- Blog posts
- Infographics
- Share ideas on social media
- Guest feature on podcasts
And don’t stop there! Sharing your skills with the world and making it known develops your skills and makes you an influencer! That brings us to the next step, don’t be shy about your skills.
Be Social
Talk to others in your industry outside your company. Professional development relies on building your skills beyond what’s possible in an organizational bubble. Your dream job won’t always fall on your lap but as you network with others in your industry, you’ll build connections necessary to bring your dream job to you.
Before you get too deep into being social, make sure you fill out all your social media profiles! The last thing you want to do is miss the opportunity to connect with a recruiter because your profile lacks contact information.
Write a brief 120-140 character bio (good for Twitter and LinkedIn) about what you share on social media. It will make your profile more searchable and let recruiters and others in your industry know what you do. Also, be sure your profiles always have a professional picture, preferably a professional head shot of you. A professional head shot is a good way to build your business brand AND personal brand.
Getting started on social media is important, but you aren’t going to be an influencer from the start, that’s OK. Start by finding and connecting with current influencers in your industry.
Find Influencers
There are already people in your industry who are leading the way innovating and changing the way you work.
Find them!
Connect with the influencers and network with them. Learn what they’re doing and talk with them any opportunity you get. Building relationships with influencers will lead to great things for your career. If it doesn’t link you to your dream job, it’ll give you the network of people in your industry to get into your dream job.
Find influencers, introduce yourself, follow them, and talk to them! Share on XA great place to start connecting with influencers is on social media. Join a Twitter chat in your industry and you’ll connect with influencers and the ones who make things happen.
Get Your Dream Job
If you start getting out there and being a vocal part of your industry, you’re going to get some attention. By showing off your skills on your website you’ll have the beginning stages of becoming a highly influential person in your industry.
The best two places to start is by creating your own website and getting on social media to connect with influencers. By doing those two things you’ll be on your way to creating a place in your industry that will get your dream job to seek you.