If I were only allowed to give one piece of advice* on how to start out on, or refresh, a job search, it would be to ensure your basic framework is in order across these 5 points:

1. Establish what makes you an excellent candidate – the areas you are strong in, your key achievements, the problems you solve, how you can help. The things you enjoy and aspire to. How you’ve grown in your career, and how you will continue to grow. Your values, attitudes and behaviours.

Why would an employer hire you? If you can't answer this, they may not be able to either.

2. Confirm your CV is the best representation of why an employer should hire you for the job you are looking for. Can your mate Gary tell you what you do from your CV? Ask him to spend 10 seconds reading before giving you an answer. Then 30 seconds. Then 2 minutes. This is a fair approximation of how recruiters review your CV. If Gary can’t answer well, there's a problem.

3. Confirm what 'good' should look like in your next job. What combination of job function, employer, industry, package, working arrangements, location, culture, team and job trajectory is right for you, your family and your career? Make no assumptions - drill deep at root to understand what a minimum viable 'good' is and build from there.

Consider how jobs can 'add' to your career rather than 'fit' into it.

4. Write this out twice – once to define what ‘adequate’ is and the other for ‘ideal’.

This will look different depending on your situation.

If you’re out of work facing a financial crunch, ‘adequate’ might be a crappy job that pays the bills and buys you time to find something better (just make sure the employer doesn’t get a whiff of this).

If you are gainfully employed, then ‘adequate’ means something else. Etc. Be honest with yourself, so you don’t waste time and energy going for the wrong things.

‘Ideal’ is more fixed; however, the reality is your next role will lie somewhere between the two – hopefully closer to the top end!


Do these before getting into the meat of your job search:

5. Make your plan.

Establish who and where your next employer will be (market segmentation), the right channels to market and how to access them in the right way, whether job boards, door knocking, networking or other, how to apply, how to interview, how to negotiate and so on. Click on #jobseekerbasics, #jobseekertoolsandprocesses and #jobseekerinterviews for pointers.

The good news is you are eminently employable for the right role – distil these points to set off on the right path.

Start with ‘you’ in your job search equation before moving on to the ‘them’ – your next employer.