12 Best Ways to Find a Job in 2019

Both the shotgun and tunnel-vision approach to job hunting tend to take longer than we want when looking for a new position. Luckily, there are steps you can take to dramatically improve your odds of getting a response from employers and landing more interviews. Here are the best ways to find a job in 2019.

If you’ve been happily employed for a long time, you might be a little hesitant to start your job search in 2019. The reality is that conducting a successful job search means that you have to stay attuned to all the new tricks and techniques to stand out as the most qualified candidate in the ever-changing job marketplace. If you’re a first-time job seeker, then you can avoid many of the pitfalls more experienced job seekers have fallen to, and ensure that your first job search is a successful one.

Many job seekers rely on only one strategy that they've successfully used in the past, but this approach can be both time-consuming and inefficient. Maybe you need a new job today, tomorrow, or by the end of the week, at the latest. If so, having a sense-of-urgency about your hunt may not be enough. If your timetable is a little bit longer, then there are also plenty of fantastic ways that you can improve your job search prospects in 2019, and make finding a job a little bit easier. Implement the following strategies and start seeing better results, faster.

Best Ways to Find a Job in 2019:

12. Save Jobs You’re Interested In

One important thing to do when you’re searching and applying for jobs in 2019 is to make sure that you save the jobs you’re interested in on the various platforms you’re using. Many of the resources you use will give you the option to save the job. When you save the job you’re interested in, it serves to do several different things. The first thing that it does to help you in your job search is it helps you see what kind of jobs you’re interested in.

When you begin to look at the jobs you’re interested in, you can get a better understanding of which jobs you should be looking for and then eventually applying to. When you begin your job search or you’ve been conducting a job search for quite some time, one problem that often arises is applying to too many jobs. In other words, your job search is too broad. When your job search is too broad, you waste your time and have to put in extra effort creating a customized resume for every type of job that you apply to.

Instead, when you narrow down the field of jobs that you’re interested in, you can spend the time creating one or two tailored resumes that you can use for a host of interested jobs and apply more efficiently.

Saving the jobs you’re interested in also serves another purpose on job boards and career portals. Technology is increasingly becoming more sophisticated. This increasingly sophisticated technology is also finding its way into the job search environment.

For instance, many companies are now using artificial intelligence to better serve job seekers. When you save a job, you’re noting to the artificial intelligence and system which job you’re interested in. In doing so, the system will over time develop an aggregate of jobs and topics that you’re interested in. From there, it will then begin to serve up the jobs that are similarly based upon your jobs in the saved list.

For instance, if you save a bunch of RN jobs, then the system will take note of the saved RN jobs and realize that you have a history of saving RN jobs, and that you will most likely save RN jobs in the future because you’re interested in them. The system will then start displaying those RN jobs more often compared to other positions because you have built up a history with those types of jobs.

The next thing that saving jobs will do for you is it will also alert the system to send you job alerts whenever those types of jobs are posted. Using our example above, if an employer has posted a new RN job that you haven’t viewed or saved yet, then it will send a follow-up email to you letting you know that the new job has become available and you should check it out.

Another benefit of saving a job is that you can always look back at it when you finally hear back regarding a potential interview. Saving the job is a great way for you to use specific keywords and key phrases in the interview to stand out amongst the competition. For instance, if in the job posting the individual highlights that the best candidates should have extensive experience in working with patients, and then you highlight that in the phone and in-person interview and say the exact same phrase, you’ll stand out amongst the crowd because you’re seen as the most reliable and qualified candidate for the job.

In other words, when they call you to schedule an interview or conduct a phone interview you can pull up the saved job posting and remember exactly what they were hoping to find in a candidate when you applied to the position. Take advantage of these new technological innovations in the modern job search era, and ensure that you stand out amongst the crowd using all the tools at your disposal.

All of this technology has completely revamped how job seekers find jobs in 2019 and using this tip and the tips below will ensure that you’re using the best ways to find a job.

11. Industry Specific Sites and Employer Communities

Another one of the best ways to find a job in 2019 is to use industry-specific sites and employer communities and career communities. You might be asking, what are industry-specific or employer/career communities? Well the answer is quite simple, these communities and sites are dedicated to relevant professionals.

For instance, if you’re a Doctor or a Physician, there are plenty of career communities that you can find for resources and jobs just for Doctors and Physicians. One example of a career community for Doctors and Physicians is, Physicians Practice. On Physician’s Practice, Doctors and Physicians can search career advice specifically for doctors, and also find a community of other professionals who share current openings and more.

Nearly every career has a community that you can reach out to and utilize them towards your job search. In addition, you want to look for any other communities around certificates, degrees, industries, and more.

In the healthcare industry, HospitalCareers is a great community to use to find jobs, use career tools, and access career advice.

Another way to find potential resources to use in your job search is to look for employer and company communities. For instance, there might be an entire forum or host of sites that are dedicated to one employer. On there, you might be able to get a direct line of communication with someone who works in HR or with someone who might potentially refer you to somebody who does work in HR.

These employer communities also offer you an opportunity to learn more about a company that you’re interested in applying to and do additional research before you submit your resume and application.

Take advantage of the industry-specific communities and career-related communities that will help you get a leg up on the competition. You never know what kind of benefits you can reap from participating and engaging with those communities.

10. Social Media Channels

The next best way to find a job in 2019 is to take advantage of social media. The world has never been more connected than it is now, and that connection has arisen from the advent of social media in the last decade. In 2018, it was reported that roughly 77% of the United States had at least one social media profile. That’s slightly lower than the 80% of 2017, but the trends clearly indicate that nearly every single person has at least one social media account, and that number will continue to grow for the foreseeable future as more people sign up on multiple social media channels.

Employers, recruiters, and hiring managers have also seen similar stats to indicate that the large majority of the population is on social media, and are increasingly using social media to find and attract qualified candidates for their available job postings.

This means that you should be searching for jobs on social media channels more than ever before. If you’re not seizing the opportunity to search for jobs on social media channels, then you’re missing out on prime opportunities.

Social media networks often have their own career or jobs section, which allows individual employers and companies to post job postings. There you can search for jobs as you would anywhere else. In addition, many of these social media channels also provide a little bit more info on the company and provide you with a brief overview as to what the company is about, and some interesting stats they have.

In addition, social networks also offer the ability to form and find groups of like-minded individuals. For instance, on Facebook they’re known as Groups. Using our nursing example above, there might be an entire group dedicated to just Registered Nurses. In fact, there might be several groups dedicated to RNs or nursing professionals in general. In addition, there are often spin-off groups related to different topics. One might be just an RN group dedicated to career advice, whereas one other group might be focused around RN Jobs where members can share the job postings they’ve heard of.

In addition to career-related groups, there are also entire communities and groups built around specific industries, like the healthcare industry. Now multiply that times the popular social networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Reddit — and you’ll see there are loads of potential connections, networks, and communities that you can leverage to aid you in your job search.

Social media is a powerful tool for healthcare employers, recruiters, companies, and hiring managers who want to showcase their job postings and their employers to the large percentage of the population.

If you’re not taking advantage of the benefits associated with social media in your job search efforts, then you’re leaving out a bunch of potential job opportunities that you wouldn’t otherwise have access to.

9. Utilize LinkedIn

The next thing you want to do as its related to social networks is to also place an emphasis on LinkedIn. Increasingly, LinkedIn is becoming the go-to place for professionals in every industry. LinkedIn allows you to create a profile with a focus on your experience and education. Essentially, it is like an online resume that you create and can then use to apply to jobs.

The real benefit of LinkedIn is the ability to connect with other like-minded communities as we’ve highlighted earlier and interact with other professionals through direct messages. In other words, LinkedIn allows you to find and connect with those professionals working in the company or employer that you’d like to work in.

As we’ve mentioned throughout these best ways to find a job in 2019, you want to try and directly connect with those professionals who are going to review your resume and application. You can then send a message to them and let them know that you’re interested in a position that they have available, and request information on how you can go about applying for the position.

When you reach out on LinkedIn and directly connect with those professionals who oversee the application process, then you no longer have to worry about whether or not your information has been buried applying on some of the large job sites.

8. Apply Directly To Career Pages

Another fantastic thing that you can do to ensure that you find a job in 2019 is to apply directly to career pages. Employers and hiring managers often utilize a wide approach to post their jobs on every platform possible. For instance, recruiters and hiring managers might post a single job on ten different platforms. As a result of this, it can be quite difficult to keep track of and manage.

This means that you could be applying to a job posting that isn’t receiving any attention from the employer who posted the job posting. You could submit an application and never hear back from the employer or company because they don’t check every single one of the platforms, or at the bare minimum check them in a reasonable timeframe.

One way to get around this is to apply directly to the career pages of employers, recruiters, and hiring managers. HR professionals are required to manage their own applicant tracking system and follow-up with the individuals who apply directly through their ATS.

Another way to get around this is to ensure that the job board site that you’re using is directly connected to the employer’s career page and applicant tracking system. On HospitalCareers, we allow employers and recruiters to tie directly into the career page of each site. This eliminates some of the management that individual HR professionals have to do on ten different platforms.

When you apply directly to career pages, you can ensure that your application, resume, and cover letter are definitely going to be reviewed and evaluated for the position and not buried on some other platform that never gets reviewed.

Applying directly to career pages will also give you an opportunity to conduct additional research on the employer and company. As we’ve mentioned throughout these best tips, one of the most critical things you can do while conducting a job search in 2019 is to ensure that you conduct research and then apply that research in the resume and application you submit. Showcasing that you’ve researched the company and highlighted how you are the most qualified candidate based on your background and experience, and how it correlates to the history of the company and the challenges they need to be solved.

7. Improve Your Online Presence

One of the best ways to find a job today is simply to make yourself more visible, and the best way to do that is through social media and/or blogging. If you don't already have fully updated Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn profiles, you are behind the times. More and more, recruiters are looking to these sites to scout out not only those that apply but potential candidates as well based on searches they do on relevant social media sites or google searches.

Getting your profile up-to-date is only one aspect though. Once the foundation is built, you should look to make as many industry connections as possible. Get involved in social media groups to discuss opportunities with like-minded individuals who want the same thing as you. Many more jobs are filled on a yearly basis due to networking, and getting to know people online can go a long way to finding the right connection.

Also, if you don't already have your own blog or other website, consider creating a simple one for yourself that shows off the work you've done and makes contacting you easy. Drive traffic to your site by posting links on your social media accounts and the aforementioned groups, as well as any sites designed to answer questions like Yahoo! Answers and Quora.

Take the time to review our social networking tips to learn more about social networking and understand how you can leverage it in your job search.

If you’re looking to get into some of the creative careers in the healthcare industry, then you should consider adding a portfolio section to your personal blog or website. Having a portfolio on your personal blog and website will help demonstrate some of the exceptional work you’ve done creatively. If you’re applying to some of the creative healthcare careers that require some bit of experience in marketing or artistic endeavors, being able to demonstrate your previous experience on a portfolio is a great way to set yourself apart.

6. Clean Up Your Digital Presence

If you’re entering the job search marketplace for the first time in 2019 or haven’t conducted a job search in the modern world, then the one critical thing that you want to do is clean up your digital presence. We’ve all had things on our social media or personal websites and blogs that we feel was a good idea at the time, but might not be the best idea when we’re looking to secure a job.

In today’s competitive job search environment, employers are doing all they can to investigate individual applicants and separate potential candidates from each other. The margin between candidates has never been more competitive it is now. Employers and recruiters are struggling to differentiate candidates from one another. One way they’ve been able to separate candidates is by taking a look at their digital presence.

A digital presence helps them evaluate whether or not the candidate is as passionate about the subject as they mentioned they are, and also evaluate potential downside risk. As a job seeker, you should take the time to conduct a Google search on your name and different combinations of your name. When you run a Google search on your name, you should evaluate what comes up on the first couple of pages.

You might have to do a bit of a deep dive on each thing that comes up, because you most likely forgot about some of those accounts on old sites you had in the past. For instance, you might have had a PhotoBucket account with your real name in the past and forgot that you would frequently post memes on there that aren’t as funny today, or might even be considered offensive.

You might think that you can talk yourself out of it if an employer or recruiter ever brought it up, but most employers and hiring managers will automatically disqualify you if they find something unsavory online when they conduct a simple Google search on your name.

Another thing you should do is to ensure that your digital social media presence is also cleaned up. This means making sure that your profile doesn’t have any negative things on it, or have things that could be potentially skewed as negative in a public light. Cleaning up your digital social media presence means leaving groups or unliking pages that are deemed controversial, removing unsavory photos and statuses/tweets, and also making your profile private.

You might think that making your profile private is enough to clean up your digital media presence, but the reality is that once something is online, it can be easily accessed at a later date no matter what. In addition, some employers and recruiters will ask that you accept a friend request from them on your social media profiles. You, of course, do have the option of declining their request, but it will generally be seen as if you have something to hide from them and the employer.

Not to mention, you don’t want to be worried about being forced to scramble in the event that you didn’t take the time to clean up your social media accounts, and then they ask to become a friend or follower on your social media account.

If you’re worried about getting everything, there are other companies that you can hire for a flat fee or on-going monthly subscription to perform social media and online presence audits to identify and remove any questionable content that you might be linked to with your name in a Google search or social media presence.

The good news is that cleaning up your online digital presence is simple and only takes a little bit of time.

5. Personally Contact Recruiters

With social media becoming more influential by the year as we’ve mentioned above, it's becoming much easier to find the hiring decision-makers in your industry. First, make a list of potential employers in your area that are hiring for the jobs you're searching for. Then, prioritize that list based on things like how practical it would be for you to be hired, salary, and/or work environment. This list is largely subjective since not all job-seekers and searching for the same thing.

Once you have your list made, find the recruiters, hiring managers, or other HR professionals that manage hiring for the company and note their contact information. One great way of doing this is to use LinkedIn to search for the company or employer you’re hoping to find employment with. When you take the time to look up the company or employer on LinkedIn, you can look under an option labeled, “{#} of employees work here”. When you click on that link, you can view a list of the individuals who have set that employer or company as their current place of employment. Then, you can narrow down the list of individuals you can contact based upon their job title.

This is a great way to find a list of names that you can contact and inquire about potential job opportunities in the roles that you’d like to pursue.

Reaching out to them personally will also offer you an exclusive opportunity to ensure that your info comes across their desk. Unfortunately, when you submit applications and resumes on other mediums, you can’t always guarantee that they’ve taken the time to review your resume and application. When you contact recruiters personally, you can ensure that you are getting your resume and application in front of them and that the likelihood of them reviewing it is much higher than if it were to be buried on other mediums.

When it comes to contacting these people, we recommend sending an email or message first explaining your interest in the positions at their company and why you'd be a great candidate. If you intend to contact them via phone call, give them a fair amount of notice, about a week, before actually making the call. These are very busy people and you want to be aggressive in pursuing the job but not so much that it looks like you are not respectful of their time.

4. Contact Alumni & Other Contacts From College

Whether you just recently graduated or have been on the job market for years, it's never too late to make use of the contacts you made in college. More than likely, most of the people you shared a classroom with are either working in the industry, or a closely related field, or are in a similar situation as yourself. Don't hesitate to share information and leads with these individuals as they may feel obligated to return the favor, providing you with the lead you need in the future.

Don't discount former professors or other mentors that may be useful in your search either. They can be more connected than those in the job market as some coordinate events with industry leaders in your area. Employers, hiring managers, and recruiters will often reach out to local professors or teachers to get a gauge on potential graduates that are going to be entering the workforce soon and evaluate who they would recommend for potential positions that might become available soon.

If you were never close to certain professors or teachers, it never hurts to send them an email and ask for a potential letter of recommendation or to inform them that you’re beginning your job search and would like to know if they’ve heard of any potential openings or opportunities. In addition, they might even give you the personal email or contact information of those employers or recruiters who have reached out to them to inquire about former students.

3. Attend Local Hiring Events

Hiring events happen all the time, but many people never take notice. A good place to start, again, is with the local university or college's career center as they're generally involved with most major companies in the area to drum up interest. Even if you never attended the school, calling them up or visiting their site to find a schedule of upcoming events can give you an edge in your job search that others aren't aware of. Career fairs happen often and they're usually open to the public. In very rare cases, these local hiring events or career fairs set up by the local community college or university will require entrance with a student ID, but those are very rare.

Local community colleges, regional colleges, and universities are happy to put on these career fairs and hiring events because it increases the chances of their students finding gainful employment once they graduate. The educational institution is proud to boast their employment placement rate when they are marketing to future students, so use this as an advantage when you’re beginning to conduct your job search and find out whether or not local career fairs or hiring events are coming soon.

Additionally, look for other networking opportunities and events around town like conventions, conferences, training seminars, or anything else where people who you'd like to work with will be in the same room. Go out of your way to meet the more influential people in your field and make connections that can ultimately cut the time it takes to find a job in half.
To learn more about how you should establish those connections and network efficiently, take a look at our Networking Guide.

Learn more about networking at conventions & job fairs.

2.Online Career Portals & Job Sites

The internet has taken over the modern era, and the traditional job search is no more. No more sending out letters or going into the business itself to apply for a position. You no longer have to look at classifieds for hours on end to find opportunities that are interesting to you, although you can if you want. New methods of communication have streamlined the application process and job boards are a central component of this new system.

Sites like HospitalCareers.com offer job seekers the types of jobs they're searching for, in one location, and allows for more efficient use of their time. To use sites like ours to their fullest, it's important to include all information about yourself, making yourself more easily discoverable. No matter which site you end up going with (it may be several), make sure your profile is 100% complete and you've uploaded several resumes for the positions you're seeking.

Learn more about using job boards

Online career portals and job boards make it easy for you to search for jobs based on keywords or categories, find employers that are currently hiring, learn about those employers, and also gain additional career advice.

Another way for you to separate yourself from other candidates using job boards or job sites is to use niche job sites and niche job boards. In other words, there are plenty of large job boards or job sites like Monster or Indeed. The problem with this, is that they will post thousands of jobs from every industry and every career. This means that you could potentially be applying for one thing, and it turns out to be something else.

Instead, use niche job sites and job boards like HospitalCareers to improve your job search prospects. On niche job sites, you can narrow down your search and make it as efficient as possible. For instance, when you use HospitalCareers, you get the guarantee that you’re only finding healthcare jobs and hospital jobs from healthcare employers and hospital employers. This means you don’t have to conduct a thorough analysis of every job or employer you apply to, because niche sites are catered towards specific industry audiences.

1. Networking

More positions are filled through this method than any other. Personal recommendations remain the best way to land the interview, so it's vitally important to tap into the people you know for help. Even those that are not involved in your particular field may be useful as they may know someone who is. Regardless, use social media to contact former coworkers and let your friends and family know that you're on the hunt for a new position.

Sometimes it can feel a bit embarrassing to ask for help because it leaves you in a vulnerable state. But the reality of the situation is that find employment is often a team effort, and there is no shame in asking for a bit of help. One great way to find individuals who will recommend you or speak on your behalf is to tell everyone in your network of friends and peers. This might be a simple post on your social media accounts letting them know that you’re currently seeking new opportunities and would appreciate any recommendations or info about new openings that you might be a good fit in.

If you’re trying to conduct a covert job search, then publicly blasting that you’re looking for a new job might not be the best idea, but if you’re unemployed and seeking new opportunities — then this is a great way for you to inform a lot of people and inform them that you are seeking some help.

If you know of someone who works at a place that you could find yourself working in, take the time to directly reach out to some of those individuals and ask for a direct introduction to the company. Employers will typically ask current employers for recommendations to fill a position they desperately need. There are often referral bonuses or employee recommendation bonuses that are given out to current employees when they recommend or refer a successful employee for employment after a certain amount of timeframe.

In other words, current employees are often more than willing to help you out if they think that you would be a good fit for a new opportunity with the employer.

It’s always a good idea to get introduced from a current employee because employers are always seeking new talent. From their perspective, searching for the right candidate can cost hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars. They want to avoid any unnecessary costs, so if someone recommends a qualified friend of theirs, they are more likely to make time to interview them than someone that nobody at the company knows.

The reason for this is because a trusted friend or former colleague will be able to provide a little bit insight as to the character of the individual they’re referring. Not many enemies are willing to recommend their peer who is a slacker or takes advantage of others while at work. Instead, employers recognize the risk that current employees are taking when they recommend a friend or peer and will often streamline that applicant in their consideration process.

To bottom line it, get to know more people in your industry and keep a dialog open with them. Make sure they're aware that you're on the market, and make sure you let them know if you've found something as well. Don't waste their time or they may not help you in the future.

In addition, be willing to go above and beyond when you’re conducting your job search by helping others network in areas where you have some potential connections. You never know what opportunities you might have when you extend a helping hand. In addition, when you help others, they feel more inclined to help you in your networking efforts in the future.

Networking is the best way to find a job in 2019, and you should take the time to do all that you can to set yourself apart from those individuals who fail to network properly. To learn more about how you can network in different scenarios and do it effectively, take the time to look at our comprehensive Networking Guide.

Do you find these tips helpful? Let us know what you think in the comments below!

( Article / Content Updated 2019 )