Re-vitalise Your Job Search - Your Path From Zero To Well-Paid UK Jobs

As a Job Search Coach, it amazes me again and again when I see the difference in job search time for various individuals. While some people take almost a year to land a new job, others get their contract in less than a few weeks' time.

When people turn to me to support them in their job search, the very first step we do is to analyse their current situation. And when it comes to finding out the reasons of being stuck, people can get very creative in blaming external circumstances, the crisis, the discriminating employers, the dishonest recruiters and so forth. Only a very small percentage actually recognizes that although you cannot completely eliminate external factors, you do have control in this game.

So how do we get from zero to well-paid UK jobs, as the title promises?

There are 3 phases here that you need to take under the loop. Let's have a look at them.

Phase #1 - Where are you now?

This is all about your current situation. The successes and problems you encountered so far during your job search, at what stage you are at, what are the resources you dispose of (skills, strengths, experiences, helping tools etc.). Don't forget here your list of rejections - what a great opportunity to draw conclusions and learn for the future what you might want to do differently!

Phase #2 - Where do you want to be?

This is the bit that talks about your job search goals. And hopefully, here you have a somewhat more specific goal in mind than just saying "a well-paid UK job", as mentioned in the title. You want to be as specific as possible and visualise all details of your future job - where exactly, what size of company, what corporate culture, what age group, what technology, what philosophy, what values, what type of office, what kind of job content (and here do a thorough inventory of all your likes and dislikes and see what job can lead you to a situation where you can have more of your likes and less of your dislikes).

A word of warning: Make sure you gain enough clarity here before moving on to the next stage, otherwise you will perform your job search on a trial and error basis instead of setting up a focussed plan. So take the time to deal with this question.

Phase #3 - How to close the gap?

This is the stage where you put the information of the first two steps together and see how you can take your job search from where you are to where you want to be (that is landing the job you described in Phase #2).

So, how do we close the gap? This is again one of the fields where many people make mistakes. The most typical one is using only job boards or only job ads or only networking. While job boards, job ads or networking can be a useful channel in your search, don't forget to use the right job search mix for the type of job you are looking for.

What does this mean? If you think of your target job, what channel or channels are most likely to lead you there? Is it job boards? Or is it a combination of job boards and networking? Or is it pro-active introduction? You will most likely list here different options depending on whether you are looking for a job as a shop assistant, an engineer or a salesperson.

A tip: if you ran out of ideas on where to find your ideal job, think of your future line manager - where is he/she most likely to be reached? Is it via job boards? Or specialised fairs? Or maybe related networking groups? This makes sense, doesn't it? If your future job would require sales and networking skills, use networking to get introduced to the right line managers. If you are in engineering, specialised conferences, workshops or fairs can be ideal to locate your "man". If there are tons of ads on job boards in your field, use this method to get out your name on the market.

Bottom line is - prepare your "bridging" strategy and put it into practice straight away. Ready, steady, go!