How to Prepare to Apply for a New Job in 2023

Are you thinking about a new job position? If so, the start of the year is the ideal time to prepare to apply for a new job. By focusing on preparation now, you’ll be instantly ready to apply once you see job postings throughout Q1 and beyond. Taking some time at the start of the year to improve your skills can also strengthen your application and make you a more appealing candidate. 

A few of the ways to prepare for job applications include gaining some additional experience, optimizing your resume and cover letter, and making the most of your network. If you’re looking for a career change in 2023, keep reading for nine easy-to-implement tips that will prepare you for the recruitment process.

Is It Time for a Career Change?

You may have been thinking about a new job in 2023 but aren’t sure if you want to go through with it. Luckily, there are many subtle signs that it’s time for a career change. These signs include:

• Not being passionate about your current job anymore and lacking motivation.

• Not being challenged enough in your existing role and having minimal or stalled professional growth.

• Feeling like you're not compensated appropriately and know you can get more elsewhere.

• Having more negative than positive things to say about your current role and/or company.

• Wanting something not offered in your current job, like a flexible schedule or the ability to work remotely.

• Dreading going to work each day or at the start of the week.
  

While some of the above can be remedied with an internal promotion, other factors suggest it’s time for a more advanced role at a new company. You may also have decided that you want to move into a completely new field. Therefore, once you’ve decided you do want a new job, you must decide if you’re looking for:

• A new role in your current company.

• A new role at a new company.

• A whole new career in a different field.

Not being challenged enough in your current role is one of many reasons to look for a new job.

9 Ways to Prepare to Apply to a New Position

Once you’ve decided you definitely want a career change and have determined what kind of job and where, you can prepare to apply for a new job. The following tips can help you prepare to apply for positions as you come across them.

1. Determine Your Career Goals and the Role You Want

The first step in any career change is deciding what your career goals are and what you want to achieve in your new role. Determining goals will help give a clearer idea of the type of position you need to be preparing yourself to apply for.

For example, you may decide you want to work for a non-profit or move from a small business to a national or multinational corporation or vice versa. You may also decide that you'd like some managerial responsibility, so you can look into roles that offer that and prepare yourself to meet the experience needed for that type of position.

2. Familiarize Yourself with the Skills Needed for Your Desired Role

If you want to move into a more advanced position, the first step in doing so is to familiarize yourself with the skill profile of professionals hired into those roles. Create a list of skills and experience commonly asked for and then check off which you possess and which must be improved upon.

Of course, if you lack a lot of skills and experience and are intending to apply to jobs in the new year, you may need to either prepare to apply to a more junior role or take more time to prepare for the job you want. However, if you’re missing just a few requirements, you can easily make those up during the start of the new year as you begin to apply.

3. Increase Your Work Experience

One of the best ways to prepare to apply for a new job is to increase your work experience in advance of your job search. You can do this even if you don’t have much time before you begin applying.  Once you have a good understanding of the skills needed for the new job position you’d like, focus on filling in the gaps in your resume. You can increase your work experience by:

• Finding Freelance Work: there are many clients looking for professionals to help them with their workload, which allows you to learn new skills and expand your portfolio.  

• Asking for more responsibilities in your current role: if the skills you need to learn can be taught at your current job, ask higher-ups if you can work on tasks that allow you to gain these skills or shadow an employee that currently does those tasks in order to learn. 

• Volunteering: find a company that allows you to get experience in the areas you need to improve while giving back to your community and a good cause. 

• Completing your own projects and teaching yourself new skills: you can always teach yourself the skills needed, for example, via online articles, webinars, or videos. You can then set up your own projects to add to a portfolio and show potential employers that you possess their required skills. 

• Signing up for an online course: relating to the previous point, you could also sign up for an online course to learn the new skills you need. Many of these courses come with certifications once complete, and even if you must pay for them, it will likely be worth it! 

Determining career goals and getting some extra experience are ways to prepare to apply for a new job.

4. Optimize Your Resume and Cover Letter

Having improved your skills and experience to the best of your ability, you can then look at updating and optimizing your cover letter and resume, as well as your portfolio, if applicable. Even if you don’t need to improve your skill set, optimizing your application documents is a must and is relatively easy to do.

Resume Updates and Optimization

When working on your resume, you must think about organizing it in a way that’s easy to read and provides all the information a recruiter will need. Also, ensure only relevant work experience (whole jobs and tasks within past jobs) is included. If you had a responsibility that doesn’t relate to the role you’re applying for, it’s generally best to leave it out.    

You’ll also need to think about optimizing your resume for applicant tracking software (ATS). The majority of companies now use ATS, a software that scans resumes for keywords mentioned in the job description and sends applications that have the most keywords mentioned to the HR team, while those that don’t meet the criteria never get seen.

The first step in optimizing your resume for ATS is ensuring you’re qualified for the role and meet around 80 percent or more of the requirements. That alone will make it relatively easy to get past ATS. 

Next, update your resume to add keywords from the job description. This step includes adding tools and software mentioned to your resume (as long as you actually have experience using it) and writing technical terms the way the job description has. For example, if they use the abbreviation “SEO” instead of “search engine optimization” throughout the description, change most of your mentions of “search engine optimization” to “SEO.” However, it is recommended to leave at least one mention of a term that can be abbreviated in its full form. 

When doing this, make sure you don’t keyword stuff! Only add mentioned keywords that apply to your work experience and use them organically throughout the resume instead of listing them all with no other context. 

Need some more tips? Check out these 20 ways to boost your resume!

Cover Letter Updates and Optimization

You should generally wait until applying to a job to write a cover letter to ensure it’s optimized for the role. However, you can use the time before applying to create a draft cover letter that you can customize for each position once you begin applying. 

Before you prepare to apply for a new job, check out these tips for writing a cover letter that stands out. Use the advice to help draft a cover letter highlighting your experience and career aspirations. 

When you find jobs you want to apply for, tailor your cover letter to show how your experience and goals relate to the job description. Also, explain your interest in working for that particular company. You may additionally want to outline any qualifications you’re missing from the job description and explain why you’re still a perfect fit for the role despite some experience or skill gaps.

General Resume and Cover Letter Tips

Don’t forget to proofread! Read over your application documents for readability, spelling, and grammar. Doing this to your documents before customizing them when you actually apply to jobs makes the chance of an error occurring on the documents you submit much less likely. You can also use tools like Grammarly, which will pick up on spelling and grammar errors and can help with conciseness. 

Once applying to actual positions, tailor your general resume and cover letter to the company and position. After customizing documents, reread the job posting to ensure that everything in your application relates to the role. 

In addition, make sure you have formatted your documents correctly and will apply in the requested way. For example, some companies will request a resume and cover letter in PDF or want applications emailed to a certain employee with a particular subject line as opposed to via the company website or recruitment websites, like Indeed. 

Preparing to apply for new jobs can be as simple as updating your resume and cover letter.

5. Update and Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile

Your LinkedIn profile can be as important as your resume and cover letter. Some recruiters request a link to your profile when you send an application, while others may view your profile once they receive your application. 

To optimize your LinkedIn, start by ensuring there are no spelling errors and that all up-to-date work experience is included. If possible, get some recommendations added as well, and upload proof of all industry certifications you have.

You can also add more information compared to your resume on LinkedIn because there’s more space to do so, allowing you to highlight skills and experience even more. In addition, don’t forget to use your bio to highlight your career goals and offer a little insight into your personality. 

As many companies recruit through LinkedIn, simply updating and optimizing your profile may even mean companies come directly to you with your dream job without you having to search!

6. Use Your Network

Preparing to apply for a new job in 2023 can be as simple as asking your network about job openings they know of. Whether that’s industry contacts, your college network, or friends and family, getting a reference for a job you want can drastically boost your chances of getting an offer.

7. Improve Your Negotiation Skills

Many candidates completely prepare for the application and interview stages of the recruitment process but don’t think about how to improve their negotiation skills for when they receive an offer. Optimizing these negotiation skills while preparing to apply for a new job can have a big payoff. 

By learning how to negotiate a job offer successfully, you can gain a better salary, benefits, workplace flexibility, and much more that you may otherwise have missed out on.

Be sure to connect with people in your network to see if they know of any job openings.

8. Refresh Your Interview Technique

While most of your prep for an interview will need to be done once you have an interview scheduled, you can begin practicing and improving your interview techniques before you get an interview. Before you apply, you can practice answers to common questions, including “Tell me about yourself” and “What are your short and long-term career goals?” You can also practice best explaining your work history in a condensed way and why you want to move from your current company.  

Once you have an interview scheduled, review these top interview tips for candidates. If you’ve been asked to present, there are also many ways to prepare for an interview presentation that will impress your interviewers.

9. Look Into Working with a Recruitment Agency

If searching and applying for new positions is a little daunting, a great use of time during the last part of the year is searching for a recruitment agency to work with. Recruitment agencies can help you through the whole process, from connecting you with top job openings and helping you to optimize your resume and cover letter to offering tips before interviews and feedback after.

You can also discover many boutique agencies that specialize in your industry or career area exclusively, meaning recruiters will understand your needs better and have many more industry contacts than a broader recruitment agency.

In Conclusion

If you’re looking to prepare to apply for a new job, these tips should have given you actionable ideas about how to prepare yourself for the recruitment process in 2023. 

As mentioned, working with a recruitment agency is also an excellent idea! If you work in the publishing or medical communications industries, Lynne Palmer Executive Recruitment could be the right fit for you.

With over 60 years of experience connecting talented candidates with their dream jobs, we’re positive we can find the ideal opportunity for you. Get in touch with the Lynne Palmer team today to discuss your needs and begin the process of growing your career.