The Passive Job Search: How to Attract New Opportunities Before You Need Them

These days, building a strong trajectory for your career means you need to be prepared for growth and opportunity whenever it might arise. 

Even if you are gainfully employed and have no specific intention of changing jobs, it’s important to maintain a consistent appeal as an attractive candidate. This can be beneficial for two principal reasons:

1. It helps demonstrate your value as a team member in your current role
2. It creates an opportunity for external employers or headhunters to see you as an ideal candidate

Finding different ways to express your qualifications, experience, and confidence in your career to others is a great way to establish a path forward for your career, whether it’s with your current organization or a new company.

This article will share a few strategies on how to be an attractive candidate even when you are not job hunting.

Strategies To Maintain Your Desirability as a Candidate

1. Keep Your Professional Experience and Accomplishments Up to Date

As a baseline to maintain your attractiveness as a candidate, it’s critical to keep your curriculum vitae current at all times, regardless of how you share this information.

This is an important factor for proving your desirability as a candidate because it provides a clear picture of where you came from and what you have achieved over your career, which lets potential employers understand your capabilities more fully.

Sharing and updating your experience and accomplishments can be done through a variety of channels, but here are a few of the most common channels for this:

• Resume
• LinkedIn Profile
• Personal Website
• Online Portfolio

Actively updating these channels will keep your professional presentation strong if anyone is investigating and ensure that you are prepared to share information if someone requests it. 

This also provides you with an opportunity to develop the narrative of your personal career and encourage self-reflection on your progress, which can be incredibly useful in an interview setting.

2. Never Stop Networking

Networking is key to career fulfillment, but it doesn’t come to an abrupt halt if you are not actively seeking a new job. 

During every stage of your career, you should always keep networking and building personal relationships with other professionals in your field at top of mind. The more connected you are to other leaders in your industry, the more desirable you will be as a candidate when it’s time to fill a position. 

Never underestimate the value of a warm introduction and take every opportunity to connect with peers and mentors who can help you develop your own skills and understanding of your role within the industry.

A few ideas to maintain a strong level of networking activity include:

• Stay active on LinkedIn
• Join professional communities and forums
• Attend virtual seminars and events
• Read and comment on industry-relevant content
• Reach out to mentors or peers when you have challenges or opportunities to share

While COVID-19 has provided some challenges to networking, it’s important to make an effort to remain connected to your network and seek opportunities for growth whenever possible. This will help increase your exposure and credibility, which will ultimately make you a more desirable candidate whether you are seeking a job or not.

3. Share Professional Content Consistently

Whenever possible, it’s important to share content that demonstrates your professional skills and achievements. This type of activity contributes to a strong professional presentation, which reinforces your desirability as a potential candidate in any context.

There are many ways to achieve this and develop your foundation as a professional through content, but here are a few actionable ideas that are smart to implement.

4. Post on LinkedIn Regularly

Posting on LinkedIn is a fantastic way to share your professional status with your network. This type of activity can take many forms, but it’s a simple way to further demonstrate your professional characteristics.

Here are a few ideas for LinkedIn Posts:

• Share accomplishments or accolades from your current role
• Share thoughtful or critical articles on important topics in your industry
• Share success or challenges from your team’s work
• Share relevant industry news or articles

5. Build Thought Leadership Through Blogging or PR

Building your thought leadership within your industry is an extremely effective way to boost your attractiveness as a candidate, particularly if you are a higher-level professional.

There are many ways to achieve this, but if you are an active creator of industry-relevant content, then it’s a strong exercise that can lead to setting you apart from your peers. This can be done through activities such as:

• Publishing high-quality original content on a blog or social platform
• Participating in Byline or Guest Post opportunities with industry publications
• Establish yourself as an expert source through PR

Be Ready For Your Next Opportunity

You can never be entirely sure when your next opportunity will present itself. Even if you are comfortably employed, it’s important to be prepared for the next stage in your career as it might happen sooner than anticipated. 

Professionals who stay up to date with their personal presentation and actively work to share their industry knowledge or achievements will be seen as significantly more desirable candidates over those who stay buried under the requirements of their current role.

Share the qualities that set you apart, and your next promotion might be right around the corner!

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Ready to fast track your professional career? Speak to one of Ivy Exec’s mentors today!

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