To Find A Job Quickly, The First Step Is To FOCUS

Don’t use the carpet-bombing approach, of trying to apply for all possible jobs, thinking that something will come through. This approach takes more time and doesn’t provide good results.

  • Quality is definitely better than quantity and therefore you need to be very clear on the type of jobs you want to target.
  • For our purposes: Job Target = Function + Industry. Function includes a few different jobs which are closely related in terms of the knowledge, skills and abilities needed to perform the job.
  • Decide on a manageable set of job targets (2-4) and stick to those as far as possible during your job search.
  • For best results, focus most of your effort on job targets where you have previous experience and education relevant to and valued by employers. I usually recommend spending 70-80% of your time on jobs where you have direct experience/education and the remaining on other jobs you might be interested in.

Once you finalise your job targets, make a list of target companies.

Do a bit of research on the internet and make a list of the companies you are interested in, for each job target. Having specific goals in mind is very useful and it will help you:

  • Focus all your activities/efforts on achieving well-defined objectives.
  • Save tremendous amounts of time.
  • Increase the success rate of your effort to find jobs.
  • Avoid unnecessary frustration and ambiguity.

6 Replies to “To Find A Job Quickly, The First Step Is To FOCUS”

  1. Hi Mr. Amit,
    Thank you for this tips. Most of the applications I passed are I believe I fit more than 80% of the requirements but I rarely get response. Is it possible that the hr were not able to read my resume?

    1. Hi Mischell,

      When applying through jobs sites in Singapore, it’s easy to get lost in the crowd. There are just so many jobs and applications, that recruiters/HR often miss out on good candidates. Which is why you need to submit enough applications and also try and follow-up/etc. to get people’s attention

      1. thank you for the advice. I rarely call to follow-up because I worry that hiring managers are very busy and if I follow up it might be the best time to check.

      2. Good point Mischell. I do think it’s fine to follow-up for jobs which you really like and are a good fit for. It’s in the hiring managers interest to talk with good/relevant candidates

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *