Let the search commence

You’ve done the groundwork, and you have your toolkit ready. Now the only thing left to do is get yourself out there and search for your next opportunity.

Work smart

When you're searching for jobs, make sure that you refine your search so that it saves you time trawling through adverts that are irrelevant to you.

Some things to consider:

• Location – how far are you willing to travel?
• Job sector – You can be specific or open to exploring other avenues, think about using keywords in your search terms.
• Salary – Work out what your salary expectations are, what is your baseline, make this clear to recruiters so you won't be disappointed.
• Company benefits – How important is holiday or healthcare to you within your job package?
• Hours – Is it full-time or part-time hours you are looking for? Or do you want to look for a job that offers more flexibility?

Secured an interview? It's time to prepare

You've found the perfect role. You've been offered an interview. Now, it's time to show why you're the best fit. But interviews can be daunting. Which is why we asked one of our Talent specialists, normally one of the interviewers, for things they look out for, and how best someone can prepare:

• Research the company in advance of the interview, show you have an understanding of what they do and the industry they are in – it goes a long way and shows you’re interested in them.

• Arrive for the interview ahead of time. If you’re travelling for a face to face, understand the route and what traffic might be like at that time of day. Where will you park? Have you got change for a ticket? You don’t want the added stress before the interview even starts!

• Appearance – First impressions count, make sure you are dressed and groomed appropriately.

• Have you seen a job description ahead of the interview? If not ask to see it so that you can understand the skills, knowledge and behaviours needed and what questions may be asked of you to demonstrate these. You can then think through what your best examples would be.

• Have a copy of your CV to hand – interview stress can make the minds of the best of us go blank!

• Be honest with yourself – have you prepared enough in advance. If you really want this job you’ll have to put in the preparation to showcase yourself the way you want, you only get one chance after all.

• Have a structure to your answers, what was the situation? What did you do? What was the outcome? What did you learn?

• Have 2-3 questions that you want to ask at the end of the interview – this will vary depending on what is important to you…please don’t ask what the sick pay policy is!

• Smile – Although, naturally, you’ll be nervous, remember to smile. Interviews are a human to human interaction, show that your personable – smiling will also relax you.

• Follow up after the interview – thank them for their time and reconfirm your interest in the role. If in hindsight you wish you got something across that you didn’t during the interview, this followup email is a good place to put it.