Last week I posted an article stating that I had never seen so many senior candidates in the market struggling to find opportunities. Since then I’ve been inundated with people getting in touch saying it’s a relief to them that aren’t the only ones feeling like that.

For anyone else feeling frustrated, here are some ideas that will hopefully help you get back on track and give you some food for thought.

• Stop applying for jobs online and start focusing on building your network. My experience as a recruiter is that very few senior roles are hired through candidates applying to jobs on seek- get yourself to meetups and start putting yourself in the way of opportunity.
• Start studying. Look online and see if there are consistent skills being sought after and sign up to a short course. Whichever way you prefer to learn the options are endless and often free.
• Start a freelance business. If you are a graphic designer/ web developer get yourself an ABN number and start looking for work, not only will it get you back on the tools but it will also give you experience dealing with individuals outside of the corporate world.
• Build your portfolio. If you are a traditional graphic designer that wants to get into UX start working on personal projects that you will be able to showcase your UX skills in your portfolio.
• Stop blaming the time of year. I hear it so often from everyone that its a bad time of year to start looking. Believe it or not, December and January are great times to connect with recruiters, and smart businesses will always want to meet good people.
• Leave your ego at the door. There is less demand for generalist marketers which has left a huge bottleneck of senior talent looking for opportunities. Start looking at companies that offer great training and development and consider going in at a lower level to give you the opportunity to get your foot back in the door.
• Reach back out to your recruiter if you haven’t heard from them for a while. Drop a message to keep us updated if any circumstances change.
• Last but not least; try and keep a routine and exercise every day, don’t forget to celebrate the small wins and try not to let the rejections affect you too much.

I hope that helps, if anyone wants to discuss further feel free to reach out.

Ryan@creativenatives.com.au