Posted by You know that we are getting closer to the new year when #newyearresolution starts to circle the social media sphere. If you haven’t already compiled your list, why not start with a career resolution? Losing weight or leaving the ‘friend zone’ may be hard but getting a dream job is absolutely within reach! Let’s take a sneak peek at the recruitment trends with us through these job hunting innovations to discover what awaits you in 2017!
Personal brand matters
In this day and age, recruiters don’t just rely on resumes to evaluate a candidate’s employability anymore. A searchable social profile is now the game changing in the job market.
In order to stand out, you need to start polishing your online presence. LinkedIn is a good place to start updating your professional information. As more and more employers embracing the digital space, you wouldn’t want to get left behind of the job hunting competition just because you don’t have an online profile.
Not only does a professional social media account matters, your Facebook and even Instagram activities can reveal a lot about your personality. Hence, make sure that all the online information about you, such as employment history, educational background and so on, match with what you stated in your resume.
On top of that, you need to consider branding yourself as well. For example, you can create a simple blog that shares your experiences as well as industry knowledge to impress potential employers instantly. Or even simpler, using Facebook or Twitter as a platform to share interesting articles also help to boost your online profile.
Think of branding as a way to share with the world your career passion. Furthermore, having an influential social presence will enable you to excel in any company too!
2017’s top in-demand skills
LinkedIn has recently published its annual Top Skills report that identifies the most competitive skills in the job market.
As expected, the demand for IT-related skills takes the lead with Cloud and Distributed Computing being the top of hiring priority. Except for the niche fields that require years of training, there are some skills that you can actually self-study to get hired in 2017.
Despite the drop in ranking as compared to the previous years, SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) professionals are still indispensable for many businesses. Traditional marketers can easily pick up fundamental SEO and SEM techniques. However, consider learning beyond the basic knowledge because advanced SEO/SEM skills will definitely bring you far in your career.
If you are interested in gaining these skills, do invest your time to dive deeper into the practical and technical side of search engine optimisation. Start with Google’s free training resources and slowly gain more exposure from on-the-job experience.
User Interface Design (UI) and Data Presentation are the skills that closely tied to the core of SEO.
UI designers are responsible for the visual elements of a company’s website. They ensure the engagement of the site visitors from the first interaction to the conversion point. Businesses need to make sure that their customers perform a certain level of online interaction in order to collect valuable data to fuel their marketing strategies.
In brief, a well-rounded marketer is a person who can translate data into valuable insights, then determine the optimum website appearance as well as features to enhance a user’s experience.
On a side note, be sure to set short and long terms career goals for yourself to focus on. Sometimes, it will backfire when you try to become the Jack of all trades.
Video resumes
With the video trend on social media, primarily Facebook video and Instagram story, comes the next phase of job hunting: video resume.
Give yourself a leverage to land an interview (or even a job) by recording a short presentation for a job application. It doesn’t have to be extravagant, a video resume should be only 1 – 2 minutes long – just enough to show the employers your values.
There are many ways for you to attach the resume video with a traditional job application. The easiest way is to upload it to Youtube and share the link to your LinkedIn profile or in the application email. You can even generate a QR code for the video and include it in your paper resume, remember to add a brief section to describe the video as well.
Your presentation shouldn’t repeat what is already stated in your application. Here’s an example of a good video resume:
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