Whether you are on your first job hunting spree or are looking to switch career paths, going on a job search can be daunting if you’re not up-to-date with the latest trends. Like practically everything else in this modern age, trends serve as a guide you can use to find the best job that fits your requirements.
Some job-seeking trends, like the use of active verbs in your curriculum vitae and choosing a professional attire to help you look sharp during interviews, still apply. However, knowing the latest trends can help you get ahead in the game.
Below is a list of the top six job search trends that are expected to drive progress into the labor market in 2019 and beyond:
Skill over Education
While holding a degree remains an advantage for most job seekers, more and more employers are expected to prioritize verifiable skills over formal education. To take advantage of this trend, job seekers are strongly advised to emphasize their experience and skills in their application documents rather than focusing on where they graduated from.
Remember that diplomas and certificates from online schools are becoming more common, so banking on the popularity and solid reputation of your university may no longer do you any good. On top of that, many companies prioritize the overall package rather than a single detail on your CV, so it’s better to focus on how you fit the job best by highlighting your skillset.
AI-Assisted Job Search
While job boards and recruitment agencies will remain the best avenues for finding a job, technology is expected to make the search quite different from previous years. In fact, artificial intelligence technology developed in 2018 is expected to make job hunting easier in 2019 through more accurate job matching.
This means that, rather than merely aggregating posts from job boards, online searches would be able to recommend job openings that are specifically tailored to a candidate’s skills and expected job benefits. The AI will also be advantageous for recruiters since they would be able to get more precise matches to their job postings, thus, making the search a lot easier.
Career-Specific/Niche Communities
Back in the day, job seekers turned to general job posting websites to look for an opening that matched their skills and expected salaries. Now, this “manual labor” has been made a lot easier – AI-assisted searches aside – all thanks to niche communities.
Niche or career-specific communities are websites and social media pages serve as a go-to for professionals with similar or related skills. For example, all kinds of writing professionals (copywriters, content writers, bloggers, and SEO writers) can gather into a single Facebook group to look for jobs, seek advice from their experienced peers, and even outsource writing gigs they can no longer accommodate. This social media group can also welcome firms that work under the same industry to provide job opportunities for its members.
Mobile Job Search
Everything has been made available on mobile these days. Google even rolled out “Mobilegeddon,” a search engine algorithm update that rewards websites for being “mobile-friendly.”
The same applies to job searches. Many job search tools and posting apps now make looking for the right job a whole lot easier. In fact, you might be missing out on great opportunities by not searching for openings on your mobile device as some companies exclusively post openings on these platforms.
Personality-Reflective Social Media Activity
Social media is the new resume. Not only does it serve as people’s way to communicate and express their feelings and thoughts but has also been proven to be a great source of data on an applicant’s personality.
Aside from looking at an applicant’s skills and experience, employers still make it a point to determine whether they have a personality that is aligned with the company’s goals and culture. To do this, recruiters and employers look at a candidate’s social media activity to determine how they behave and whether they can uphold the image the company intends to keep. In other words, if you want to find a good company to work with, you have to clean up your social media as well.
Work-Life Balance Job Benefit
Gone are the days when companies only attracted people who applied for jobs to get paid. Nowadays, employers are using work-life balance benefits to draw in more highly-skilled workers and motivate them to do their best in their trade.
With perks ranging from regular social events and free meals to extended vacation periods, you should check all the offers to see which ones are being offered to you before you sign the contract. This will allow you to better weigh your options and make an informed decision that you will not regret in the future.
Quick Roundup
Trends provide people with a guide on how to optimize the result of their specific endeavors. Job search trends are no different. In 2019, technology is expected to play a bigger role, not only in identifying job matches but also in determining whether those pairings will work towards achieving long-term goals for both the employee and the company.
AUTHOR BIO
David Mackenzie, a recruitment professional with over 20 years’ experience in the field and a record of entrepreneurial accomplishment, is Managing Director and Head of HR at Mackenzie Jones. As the Group MD, David is responsible for the overall direction of the Mackenzie Jones Group, including Mackenzie Jones, MumsAtWork, MENA Solutions, Simply Digital and ThinkTech.
