How to Find a New Job in 2023

Moving into a brand new year often focuses our minds about the future.

Watching the year change can make us more aware of how time slips away from us and how there’s no time like the present to put our ideas and dreams into action. After all, none of us are getting any younger.

That’s particularly true when it comes to thinking about our careers and how we develop our full potential as professionals. For many, developing your career means finding a new job and new opportunities.

If you’re one of those people, looking to grow your career this year, you’re in luck.

Here are 7 tips for how to find a new job in 2023!

1. List your preferred roles and companies

Something as simple as putting down your thoughts on paper (or electronically) can be a surprisingly effective way to kickstart finding your new job in 2023.

That’s because the act of writing down your goals can help you hone in on the type of role that you want, as well as helping you work out the type of company that you want to work for. All of this can improve your chance of success, helping you to work through your various ideas and settle on the one that’s most relevant for you.

Writing down your goals doesn’t just help you to organise your thoughts though: it can also improve your chance of achieving success, thanks to the quirky way that our brains process information. 

Now for some neuroscience.

2.  Develop your Unique Selling Points

Despite what the nagging demon on your shoulder might whisper to you, everyone has that one special ability that makes them different from other people and that gives them an advantage at work. Developing this unique selling point (or USP, to use business vocabulary) can really help you focus your job applications and help you hit the key criteria you need to grab an interview. 

 Your USP could be a different perspective you have about the world that allows you to respond to situations more effectively. It could be finding public speaking incredibly easy. It could even be being able to clear an inbox of emails within an hour. Whatever it is, be in no doubt that everyone has a unique selling point that you can put to your advantage when looking for a job. It’s just a case of identifying what that USP is, developing it and putting it into the context of a job application.

A lot has been written on the process of discovering your unique advantages and how you can use that to create a personal brand. This blog by Coburg Banks offers some practical tips you can put to use too.

3. Overhaul your CV

If you want to find a new job in the new year, you’re going to need to get your CV – the most important tool in your job hunting kit – into stellar shape and working at its best.

Building a CV that attracts attention for the right reasons and that’s truly memorable is a balancing act. You have to juggle following accepted conventions with adding just enough originality to stand out to recruiters. For many, this can feel like an impossible task.

If you’re in a hurry though, here are three of the main ways to make your CV more effective:

• Personalise your CV for each job you apply for, highlighting relevant experience
• Use active language to convey your ownership of a skill or responsibility
• Limit your CV to a length of two to three pages. This will keep your CV snappy and focus the reader’s attention

4. Use your contacts to find opportunities

Ever had a casual conversation with someone that’s ended up with them telling you about a new job opportunity that they thought would be perfect for you? If so, you’ve just networked!

Using the professional knowledge and connections of the people that you know can be one of the most effective ways to get exposed to opportunities that you might never have known about.

It can also help you to get in touch with decision-makers for roles, improving your chances of securing the position you’re dreaming of.

Whether you’re actively trying to build a network of contacts, or you’re trying to leverage the information of your existing contacts, job networking is just a simple matter of talking and listening. As a result, it can be some people’s idea of heaven and other’s idea of hell. It all boils down to how much you like talking to strangers and acquaintances.

This blog explores how to build a good professional network – and how to use it. The three key takeaways to bear in mind are:

• Be confident and charming: don’t let self-doubt hold you back. You can shine!
• Listen more than you speak
• Use the contacts of other people to build your own network

5. Trawl specialist jobs boards, forums and professional online communities

It might sound a bit 1997 to say it, but online job boards and forums still have their part to play when it comes to helping you get a new job – especially when it comes to professional careers.

As the labour market has got more competitive and searching for jobs online has become the norm, applying for roles on the usual job sites has become an awful lot more competitive than it once was. Whereas in the past, you might have been one of the only relevant candidates applying for a role, the chances are that now there are hundreds. 

Jobs boards and forums are a useful antidote to this. Usually focused on particular sectors, industries or roles, these places will feature niche roles that usually are:

• Highly matched to your professional interests and career objectives
• Less likely to attract the huge numbers of applications that mainstream job sites do

The trick is to find the relevant online communities for your own professional interests. This will take a bit of desktop research and will be informed, in a large part, by your own personal career interests and goals.

They’re particularly useful when it comes to finding specialist roles that serve a specific niche or area. Usually wherever people from a profession congregate online, you’ll find discussions about industry issues and networking opportunities, and find job opportunities being posted.

No matter how niche your field, you’re likely to find a jobs board or forum that’s relevant to your needs. If we know one thing about the internet though, it’s that if you can think of it, there’s probably an online community for it.

6. Develop your LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn is the secret weapon in your arsenal when it comes to 21st century job-seeking, letting you find decent job opportunities both actively and passively.

As a social network focused on professional connections and careers, LinkedIn provides a platform for recruiters and companies to share opportunities and to contact people they think may be relevant for a role. In other words, you can use LinkedIn actively: ie. you directly apply for roles, or you can use it passively: ie. you create an excellent profile and wait for recruiters to contact you (and believe us, they probably will).

The success of both of these approaches to using LinkedIn depends on the quality of your profile, so it makes sense to take some time getting it right.

This article by Caroline Ceniza-Levine offers some great advice about how to develop your professional profile on the platform, with some practical tips to start getting noticed.

7. Enhance your skills through study

This tip isn't specifically related to the mechanics of how to find a job. This one is focused more on how you can make yourself an appealing candidate for the jobs that you do find. And there's a simple answer - study!

Investing in your skills through studying a professional qualification can really improve your chances of securing your dream job. Qualifications will equip you with the relevant skills and expertise that you'll need to be able to do a job at a particular level. 

Most employers will have specific qualifications that they look for in candidates when it comes to hiring for roles. They are usually industry-specific and particular qualifications are seen as being a good gauge of a candidate's level of skills and knowledge. For example, 

Human Resources and Learning & Development: CIPD qualifications

Accountancy and Bookkeeping: AAT qualifications

Leadership & Management: CMI qualifications or ILM qualifications

Marketing: CIM qualifications

Procurement & Supply: CIPS qualifications

Corporate Governance: CGI qualifications

Banking and Finance: LIBF qualifications

Find your new job in 2023

As you can see, there are a lot of potential tactics and strategies that you can use when it comes to trying to find a new job this year. We hope you've found this guide useful. Best of luck with your job hunt!

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