Spending a few minutes setting up a simple free tool will send you the exact skills employers want straight to your inbox, letting you know what you need to develop before you graduate.
Normally, finding jobs has been absurdly easy for me.
Once, when I moved to a new city, I was able to get two interviews my very first day in town. (One of those interviews turned into a job.)
Another time, I was laid off of my job. That day, after announcing my layoff, I was contacted by someone for whom I had been doing freelance work. I had another job in just a few days.
Pretty much every job I’d had simply fell into my lap due to connections I had cultivated earlier.
But this one time, I had to search for a job like a “normal” person.
Here’s what happened.
Though I’d been self-employed for about a year, I was eager for the change of routine and structure 9-5 jobs offer.
(Frankly, I’m a workaholic, and having regular hours helps temper that tendency.)
Even if you’ve got a great track record, the right job doesn’t just fall into your lap.
However, I had a secret tool that let me know my skills were high in demand… meaning I could afford to be choosy.
This gave me the confidence I needed to not settle for just any offer that came my way.
(For example, were other times when I killed the interview process or turned down a job after learning more about a company and realizing I could do better.)
Do you want the same confidence in your job search? Then you need to develop the skills employers want.
But what are the skills your future boss seeks in her or his future employees?
LinkedIn Job Alerts
I’d like to introduce LinkedIn Job Alerts. These are simple emails informing you of new jobs in your field.
These are highly valuable for the following reasons:
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They provide you with a good feel for the job market
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They’re a little diversified, showing you different job titles you may qualify for but wouldn’t have instinctively searched
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They’re free and only take a few minutes to set up
But most importantly, these job alerts are like receiving a free skills blueprint in your inbox.
Want to know what skills employers want? LinkedIn Job Alerts will show you.
For example, here are some skills from jobs listings I received in my inbox this week:
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Deep knowledge of social and mobile experiences preferred
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Key content marketing skills, including: editorial, strategic planning, project management, analytical.
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Fluency in web analytics tools, marketing automation and social media monitoring platforms a plus.
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Familiarity with principles of marketing (and the ability to adapt or ignore them as dictated by data).
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SaaS experience a bonus; Finance experience a must.
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Skill at both long-form content creation and real-time (immediate) content creation and distribution strategies and tactics.
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Empathy, not ego.
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Excellent communication skills. You have a proven ability to build great relationships, and convey and debate organizational and project rationale. People – from the business, from design – cannot wait to collaborate with you.
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JIRA, Agile/Scrum methodologies, reporting and charting tools of your choice, spreadsheets, and email responsiveness.
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“Write headlines for our high-traffic website, structure presentations to Heads-of-State, and develop campaigns with global reach and visibility.”
Here’s another excerpt from a job listing that basically gives you a roadmap for the kinds of experiences employers want:
On your resume, please include a link to samples of your work that show a breadth of experience developing content strategies and executing elements of those strategies. You may wish to show us workflows, content templates, style guides or standards you’ve defined. Please also include examples of hands-on work you’ve done writing or editing content for user interfaces, microcopy, user education, emails, or other product communications.
How to Set Up Job Alerts
This email is already too long, so I won’t go into too much detail explaining that process here. Instead, I’ll refer you to LinkedIn’s official page on the subject:
Getting Email Alerts for New Job Postings
Here’s another useful link:
Jobs You May Be Interested In – Overview
Eventually, I interviewed with a great organization. The department head was forward thinking and provided his employees a lot of autonomy – exactly what I wanted. The pay was great, too.
Basically, it’s my dream job.
You can land your dream job, too, if you start using tools like LinkedIn Job Alerts to learn what employers want – then become the kind of person with skills employers want.