Find a Great Job in 2018 (Veritas Recruiting on FOX)

Lots of good news in the labor market with the release of the most recent jobs report…

• The unemployment rate holding steady in December at a 17-year low at 4.1%
• The economy added 148,000 jobs in December, the 87th straight month of job gains
• Wages are continuing to rise, up 2.5% from a year ago with even greater wage growth in lower unemployment metros like Orlando.
• People are staying out of work for shorter periods of time, with the median duration of unemployment declined to 9.1 weeks, the lowest since mid-2008.

Job seekers have the upper hand in this high demand, low supply labor market. This is a good time to be looking for work, whether you are unemployed, under-employed or ready to make a move to advance your career.

Here are 4 things you can do now to help you find a great job in 2018:

• Update Your Linked.com Profile. Your Linkedin profile is your professional resume for all the world to see…make sure your profile is geared for the type of job that you want to attract. If you are unemployed, also post your actual resume on every job board out there like Monster, CareerBuilder, ZipRecruiter and OrlandoJobs.com. If you’re working and don’t want your current employer to know you’re looking, just update your Linkedin.
• Scrub Social Media. Your social media accounts will be researched…if you have politically charged posts on Facebook or Twitter, that could be off putting to would-be employers. Delete those posts and tweets and make your Facebook account private, so only your 738 friends can see the pictures of you “ringing in the new year”.
• Put Together a Target List of Companies. Identify 5-10 companies that you would love to work for and feel qualified to work for based on your background. Research the companies finding out everything there is to know about the organization. Who’s who on the management and executive teams, recent news, backgrounds of the people that do the job you would want to do. Look for areas that you can add value to the company.
• Networking. Use your research on the target companies to guide you on which associations to get involved with, which people you want to connect and reconnect with and which hiring managers (your future boss) you want to reach out to directly. It’s not who you know, but who knows you and perceives value in you.