Whether leaving education or changing direction in your career, looking for a job can be a daunting and time-consuming prospect. Patience, perserverence and persistence are key.

Firstly, ensure your CV is up to date with your educational qualifications, recent jobs or volunteering, and any transferable skills or interests you have. Make sure you have a covering letter template ready that you can modify to tailor to each position that you apply for. When writing or typing your application form, be sure to read back through to check for spelling mistakes or typos.

Use newspapers, shop windows and the internet

There are many sources that you can use to search for jobs these days, including in newspapers, shop windows, and the internet.

When searching job websites, sometimes it’s good to be specific about the salary you’re aiming for, or the area of the country you’d like to work in. Other times, it can be an advantage to be more open to ideas. Using general keywords can help to yield broader search results – it may also lead you to consider other options or discover roles that you hadn’t thought of.

Social media can also be a good way to network and find vacant job positions. It can be a useful platform to promote yourself, but be careful of what is on your own social media pages, as employers may search for you and you don’t want them to see any of your embarrassing nights out!

There is also the so-called ‘hidden job market’. If you know roughly the type of work you’d like to get into, research local employers in that field and get yourself out there! Write to them to express your interest and ask them if they have any positions available, highlighting your enthusiasm and talents you have that they may be looking for.

If you find a job that sounds appealing and you feel you are suitable for it, go for it and apply!

Show your passion

When highlighting why you are a suitable candidate in the personal statement section, refer back to key attributes from the job description, including what the employer is looking for and what you can give them. Do a bit of research to find out about the company, and show you are passionate about wanting to work for them.

With such competition for jobs, you need to be prepared for rejections and to keep applying until you’re successful in securing an interview. Then, of course, you’ve got to get through the interview – that’s a whole other article! But if you want something bad enough, it will come to you eventually – never give up!