5 Ways to Help Your Job Search this Year

5 Ways to Help Your Job Search this Year5 Ways to Help Your Job Search this Year9You spent the latter part of the year looking for a job that would satisfy your need for a flexible schedule, be in an area that youre passionate about, and oh yeah, pay well too. Now that the new year is here, its time to rethink your job search strategy. Here are five ways to help your job search so you can improve upon your skills- and land a lage that youll love.5 Ways to Help Your Job Search this YearKnow your professional worth. When youre scouring the job listings looking for the next great job in your career, its rare that youll find a listing that also offers salary info. But that shouldnt stop you from knowing your own professional worth. Use salary calculators at sites like salary.com to help determine what you should be earning. Once you know what youre worth, then you can go confidently into a job interview and accept a position knowing that youre being paid fairly.Get social.Sure, you vowed that you were going to spiff up your LinkedIn profile, but you still havent added all your previous contacts. When youre job hunting, its an absolute must to be on all the social media channels. From Facebook to Twitter, LinkedIn to Google+, you should have an approachable- and professional- profile to help your job search. That way, hiring managers and potential anfhreres can get a feel for who you are- and more importantly, how you carry yourself.Focus your job search.If youve been job searching for an extended length of time, its easy to start feeling desperate. Due to a lack of dollars, or simply feeling the need to be productive and purposeful, you might wind up accepting a position that you dont necessarily want- or have the skills for. Instead of sending out hundreds of resumes and cover letters to every available job you see, only to take a job you dont really want, focus your job search on quality jobs that you REALLY want. It seems counterintuitive, but applying to fewer jobs and spending more time on each application is a much better approach to your job search.Learn something new.You may feel that you have mastered all the skills necessary for your field. But chances are there is something new you can learn to give you that extra edge over other job applicants. You can take an online course or even attend a seminar (or a webinar, which offers regularly) that will allow you to learn something new in your field. You can subsequently use that info to dazzle a prospective boss during your next job interview.Customize your applications. Lets face it applying for jobs can be a full-time job in and of itself. So naturally, youre going to look to cut corners wherever possible. Unfortunately, cranking out cookie cutter applications is detrimental to your job search. Hiring managers can spot a cut and paste job very easily, and they will not give your application the time and energy it deserves because they will feel that you didnt give your time and energy to apply for the position. So be sure to customize your job applications to the position as best as possible- the extra effort might pay off with you getting called in for a job interview.Tweaking your job search for the new year can yield great results- including a new job.Readers, what plans do you have to help your job search? Let us know in the comments section below