STOP wasting time on LinkedIn!

If you want to change careers, and get hired in a new industry, don’t make the deadly mistake of spending hours upon hours searching (and applying) for jobs on LinkedIn or other job search sites.

What should you do instead?

In this video, I’m sharing 3 job search tips to get hired in a new industry when making a career change.

Prefer to read? Scroll down for the transcript.

Hey, it’s Iris, helping you to find your passion and make it your work. 

In today’s video, I’m going to be sharing three job search tips for career changers.

So, if you know you want to make a career change, move into a new industry, but aren’t sure how to make that happen, then stay tuned because you’re going to like these tips. 

But before I do that, as always, if you like this video, then please leave a like, and subscribe to my channel. See it as a small act of kindness from you to me. 

Because it’s so simple and easy for you to do, but it means the world to me because it helps me to grow my channel and reach more people so I can help more people into careers they love. 

All right, let’s get to it.

So the first question I want to ask you is this:

Do you already know what you want to do next? 

Do you have a clear idea about the type of role that you want? 

Well, if you’re like most people that I work with, you probably don’t, and that’s okay… but despite not knowing, you are already in job search mode. 

So, you’re probably going onto LinkedIn and other job sites to find jobs that spark your interest, and that make you go, “Yes, that’s the one I want to apply for.”

Now, if that sounds like you, then pay attention to this first tip: 

Career change job search tip #1:

Hold off with your job search until you have a better idea of what it is that you want to do. 

Now, I understand that this sounds counter-intuitive. I really do. But please, listen to me when I say: don’t search for jobs in the hopes that something interesting will come along when you don’t know what you want to do yet. 

As a rule of thumb, going on job sites and looking for interesting jobs that jump out at you is not a great career change strategy. 

Because while we’re hoping that it might give us some clarity or some clues about what’s next for us, what it often does is the opposite. 

It often only makes us feel more hopeless in our pursuit of finding something new, in our pursuit of making a career change.

Now, maybe you’ve already experienced this because you’ve spent hours upon hours on those job sites and you can’t find anything that really feels good. 

Or maybe you’ve found something that does jump out at you, that made you think, “Yes, this is something that I’d love to do.” But when you look at the required skills, experience, or knowledge, you scratch the back of your head and you kind of go like, “Yes, I don’t have what’s required, what’s necessary for those kind of roles.” 

So then you start to think, “Am I even going to be able to make this happen?”

So, what I want you to do instead is reach out to people who work in industries that you’re interested in, or who work at companies that you are interested in. 

Now, they don’t need to do jobs that you would love to do yourself, but simply reach out to them and ask for a 15 to 20 minute call to learn more about that industry, learn more about the company that they work for. 

This is called an informational interview.

I’ve done a step-by-step tutorial on how to set one up in this video. So, make sure you go and watch that. 

But in short:

An informational interview is meeting with the sole aim of learning more about a desired industry, a desired company, desired field of work. 

So that’s my first tip. Hold off with your job search and start reaching out to people instead.

Career Change job search tip #2:

So tip number two: 

Don’t spend the majority of your time searching and applying for jobs, even when you already know what kind of role you want to do next. 

Studies have shown that applying for jobs through job sites is one of the least effective ways to get a new job. 

And landing a job in a new industry in which you have limited experience is hard enough by itself. So don’t make things even harder for yourself by focusing solely or mainly on those job boards.

So instead, focus a good amount of your time on building your network. 

Get to know people who work at companies that you’d love to work for, or who work in the industry that you are interested in. 

Reaching out to new people can open new doors and it can lead to paths that you’ve never considered before. 

Now, it’s best to make connection through people that you already know, but don’t be afraid to make connections when you don’t have someone who can introduce you, because people are surprisingly willing to help if you’re asking for advice, information, or a recommendation.

Career Change job search tip #3:

All right, moving on to the final tip. And that is: 

Reach out to the hiring manager or recruiter before applying. 

Don’t assume that you know everything about the role just by reading a job advert. 

A job advert is only one part of the equation. 

So make sure you reach out to the recruiter, hiring manager, or someone who can tell you more about the role, and ask for a 10 to 15 minute quick call to learn more about the role that is being advertised. 

This will give you the opportunity to better assess if you are the right person for the role and which skills and experience to highlight in your CV and cover letter.

All right, those were my three tips for career changers. 

Tip #1: hold off with your job search until you have a better idea about what it is that you want. 

Tip #2: don’t spend the majority of your time searching and applying for jobs. 

And tip #3: reach out to the hiring manager or recruiter before applying.

Now, let me know in the comments which one of those three tips you found most useful. 

And if you watched it up until here, then you must have liked it. So please leave a like and subscribe to my channel. That’s all I have for you today. 

Thank you so much for watching, and I’ll see you again next week. Bye.

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