7 Productive Things To Do While Job Hunting

After spending years of your life in school, finally graduating from University and beginning your professional career is no doubt a day you have long awaited for.

With the former of the two, now complete, the only thing standing in between you and professional greatness is the dreaded post-university job hunt.

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While some graduates will be lucky enough to secure their first job after college within 1 - 3 months post-graduation, research indicates that on average it takes graduates 3 - 6months to secure full-time employment and in more serious cases (for e.g. individuals graduating in a pandemic), it can take 6 -12months.

Needless to say, if you are still job-hunting months after you've graduated, rest assured you are not alone.

As tempting as it may be to wallow around feeling sorry for yourself, the truth is, there are a ton of productive things you can do while job hunting that may inadvertently speed up the process of you securing your dream job.

If you're interested, keep reading to find out my tried and true suggestions of 7 productive things you can do while job hunting:

Productive Things You Can Do While Job Hunting

1. Create a LinkedIn Profile

In case you've never heard of it, LinkedIn is the Facebook for professionals.

Whether you're a job seeker, business owner, freelancer, student, career coach, human resource manager, you name it, LinkedIn is the place to be if you want to expand your professional network.

Outside of allowing you to connect with like-minded professionals within your niche, LinkedIn also offers a variety of tools that come in particularly handy for job seekers.

Some of these tools include the open-to-work button, where you can state at the top of your profile the type of role you are looking for, making it easy for recruiters to find and reach out to you.

There is also LinkedIn Learning which gives you an opportunity to take free or paid online courses and obtain skills for many in-demand jobs.

Additionally, there is LinkedIn Jobs which is a feature that allows you to search for jobs on LinkedIn based on the job title, job type, or location. You can also use LinkedIn Jobs to set up notifications for particular job titles, so when a new job in that area is posted you can get notified.

2. Update Your Resume

If you are currently job hunting then having an up-to-date resume should be a given, however if you haven't yet updated your resume now is the perfect time to do so.

According to research carried out by TheLadders, an online job-matching service, the average job recruiter only spends about 6-seconds on a resume before deciding whether a candidate is qualified for the job or not.

This in much simpler terms means that your resume can literally make or break your job search.

If you want to create a resume that STANDS OUT from your competition, be sure to check out these resume writing tips.

3. Take a few Online Courses

Whether you're looking to brush up on skills you already have, learn something completely new or you're looking for a way to get jobs outside of your degree field, pursuing an online course or two is an excellent place to start.

Depending on what type of online course you are looking for, you can find great paid and free courses on any of the following sites: Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, Fiverr Learn, Hubspot Academy, Google Garage, Udemy, and Skillshare.

4. Start Freelancing

If you're starting to feel like you're in a job search rut, maybe it's time you started creating some opportunities for yourself. Becoming a freelancer essentially means that you work for yourself rather than for a company.

As a freelancer, you'll be able to dictate the value of your products, services, or time in addition to setting how many hours a week you work and from which location.

Not to mention that freelancing is a win-win situation because it will allow you to get paid while you continue to perfect your craft.

In fact, who knows, once you begin freelancing you might realize you like it so much you may decide to do it full-time and quit that job search altogether.

If you're wondering how you can get started as a freelancer I suggest taking a look at the following freelancing websites: Upwork, Fiverr, and Freelancer.com. All of which serve the purpose of bridging the gap between freelancers and those interested in purchasing their services.

These sites are especially helpful to new freelancers who don't know how to go about finding clients on their own.

5. Start Building Your Portfolio

These days hiring companies are less interested in what your resume says on paper that you can do, especially when it comes to creativity-based jobs, like jobs in marketing, advertising, copywriting, graphic designing etc.

Instead, they want to be able to see actual samples of your previous work, sometimes even before making the decision to interview you.

In order to have these samples ready when asked, it is important that you begin building your portfolio.

To help you generate work samples to put into your portfolio you may consider using projects you have worked on in the past, projects you are currently working on, work you created through freelancing, or work you developed as a result of voluntary projects you worked on.

6. Start a Blog

While the rationale behind my blog was never professional (I really just wanted to help 20somethings survive and thrive adulthood), within the last year I've realized how beneficial having a blog has proven on a professional level.

For someone who may not have much work experience, hiring managers can find it particularly hard to believe that you have the knowledge needed to succeed at the job at hand.

Which to be fair is completely understandable (I wouldn't want to be hiring anyone I thought was underqualified either).

This is where starting a blog comes in handy. You may not have obtained tons of experience working at a million places, but this does not negate the fact that you know your stuff.

Starting a blog that is niche-specific is a great way to show off your knowledge, writing skills, and creative side.

7. Let Your Network Know What You're Looking For

Your network is your most important weapon when on the job hunt. It's the one thing that no other candidate will have over you, use it to your advantage.

Make sure the people in your circle know exactly what kind of job you are looking for, then keep your eyes and ears open for opportunities.

Closing Thoughts On Productive Things To Do While Job Hunting

While job hunting can be pretty mentally draining and the temptation to wallow around feeling sorry for yourself will be sky-high when you've gone days without callbacks or have seen your fair share of rejection letters, it's important to remember that job hunting is a race not for the swift but for those who can endure it.

Just like training for a marathon, there are a number of productive things you can do to help you stay motivated while job hunting.

As always thank you for reading. If you haven't already, go follow us on Instagram @survivingyour20somethings and on Facebook @survivingyour20somethings.

If you are currently job hunting, I'd love to hear all about the productive things you've been doing to stay motivated in the comments below.

And of course, if you loved this post, don't forget to like, share it with a friend and pin it for later. Have an amazing week!!!