How To Find The Right Job For You
No matter what career stage you’re in, finding the right job for you can seem like a daunting task. Whether you’re fresh out of college looking for your first career step, reevaluating your profession in your mid-career, or just lost your job and are looking for a redirection, career uncertainty can feel overwhelming and it can be hard to stay motivated. In this case, it’s important to know how to find a job that feels right.
Text JOB SEARCH to 510-674-1414 if you’re having trouble navigating finding the job that’s right for you.
Above all else, everyone deserves to find a job that makes them feel valued, supported, and respected at work. So, how do you go about finding something that just feels right?
This blog will help you navigate the three most prominent stages of the job search—before the search, the search in action, and the follow-up.
Preparing For the Job Search
Before jumping in, it’s important to be prepared with your materials, the right mindset, and a strategic plan to prevent from feeling lost or unorganized in the process.
The basics: Job search materials
Resumes
Creating a resume might seem like a daunting task. Sometimes, it’s hard to know where to begin. No matter what education or professional level, starting with a base resume and tailoring it to each application using key words from the job description is an effective first step.
Here are a few more tips to help get the ball rolling:
GED/high school-level candidate tips: Keep your resume down to one page. Remember to include bullet points that explain what you did in your position and for how long. It’s helpful if you provide what is provable with metrics. For example, you could name how many trucks you loaded per week, how many projects you completed, how many people you supervised, how you maintained 100% compliance with safety standards, etc. It’s okay if this part feels tricky. Not everything in life is easy to measure in numbers. You can also translate life experience into job speak—running a household is "budgeting and time management."
Include your certifications towards the top. If there's a work gap, add one honest line instead of leaving it blank.
Important note: Copy the exact words and phrases from the job posting into your resume — if it says "forklift certified," don't write "experienced with lift equipment"; write "forklift certified."
For more resume writing and format help, visit resume.com.
College-level/professional candidate Tips: For every bullet point, you should write a result of your work, not the task. For example, “grew engagement 34% in 6 months" sounds better than "managed social media.” Writing out the tasks without the results feels broad, and doesn’t fully showcase your skills. Quantify everything — the budget, team size, revenue impact. Use this as an opportunity to share where you shined in your past roles. What did you accomplish and how did you better the organization you worked for? For older or less relevant work experience, shorten them or drop them entirely from your resume. You’ll also want to especially tailor the top third of your resume to coordinate with the job description that you’re applying for.
Cover Letters
The most important part of writing your cover letter is to customize the letter to each individual job you apply for. This may seem tedious, but an employer can usually tell if you copied and pasted their company’s name into a generic letter you may have used for another job. Instead, tailor it to the job description. Are they looking for a problem solver who can work well with others? Mention that you’re a team player and have worked in cross-functional roles.
Not every cover letter’s format needs to be wildly different, and you can use a base template that includes an intro, similar formatting, and your best achievements. What needs to be distinct is your genuine interest in the position and your reasoning behind that passion. Keep the letter short, succinct, and interesting. Show the organization why you would be a good fit for the specific role you’re applying for, not why the organization is a good fit for you.
There are also many resources online like Indeed that share cover letter examples and formatting steps.
Using AI in your job search materials while remaining authentic
Today, AI is a powerful tool in many ways, including in the job search. But there are areas where you want to proceed with caution. Using AI in the job search only helps if you’re using it to supplement your application process, not completely replace it.
Many employers also use AI to review resumes. A 2025 study showed that 82% of employers used AI to review resumes, and 64% apply AI to review candidate assessments. This process is usually only used to find applicants who have included key words and skills from the job description. Once the employer narrows down the applicants, a real human reviews these job search materials. This is why it’s so important to tailor your job search materials to each application while remaining human, and authentically yourself—something AI couldn’t achieve. But, there are some things AI can help with.
Here are some best practices to use AI to make you stand out instead of getting lost with everyone else’s AI generated applications:
Research: AI can match your education experience, skills, and interests to specific roles and help you brainstorm where you want to go in your career.
Create outlines, not the content: AI may be able to help you create the skeleton of your resume and cover letter. It can also help you brainstorm extra assets to add by asking you questions and pointing out where you can include metrics. Ultimately, you know your work experience better than AI does, but it can help generate a general outline.
Prepare for interviews: Interviews can be very nerve-racking. It’s recommended that you practice beforehand with a peer, a friend, or family member. AI can also help generate possible questions for you to answer ahead of your interview.
Assess your skills
It’s easy to jump in and apply to a bunch of different jobs right away. But first, take a step back and think about the skills you’ve acquired, and those you want to obtain. This could look like having proficiency with certain tools, writing, clerical work, customer-facing skills, etc. If you’re struggling to think of skills and how to leverage them on your applications, reach out to Empower Work and a peer counselor can help you brainstorm.
Be specific in your search
Many people jump into a job search with no action plan, applying for hundreds of jobs a day, and for various different sectors and roles. It’s possible to apply to that many jobs a day, but it isn’t possible to thoughtfully apply to that many jobs a day. This is unfortunately a very common practice, and is very obvious to employers when you don’t put as much passion and genuine interest into an application.
Nowadays, with AI, job seekers can mass produce job search materials and submit at a quick pace which overwhelms the recruiting process, requiring employers to do more filtering than ever. It’s like fishing in a shallow pond with no hook, let alone bait.
This would look like repeating the same resumes and cover letters rather than tailoring your job search materials to each opportunity. The job market is not one-size-fits-all. This process may be quicker, but you will find less success with finding a job you enjoy or finding a job at all.
This is commonly known as the “spray-and-pray” method. It may feel productive to apply to a bunch of jobs at once, but the numbers tell a different story.
According to CareerBldr, the average job posting receives 250+ applications. When you submit a generic resume that is not tailored to the role or organization, your odds of making it past the initial applicant tracking screening (ATS) are roughly 2-5%.
“Now run the numbers for a targeted application where you have tailored your resume, networked with someone inside, and followed up with the recruiter. ATS pass rate jumps to 30-50%. Phone screen rate doubles or triples because of the referral. And your interview conversion improves because the hiring manager already has context on who you are,” the team at CareerBldr shared.
Instead, get specific. If you don’t know exactly what it is you want to do or where you want to work, write down a list of skills you already have, want to obtain, or general things you are interested in. Instead of applying to hundreds of jobs a day, maybe narrow it down to 5-10, and tailor your materials to each application.
The matter of fact is, the job search can be a long process. Right now, it’s taking people an average of six months to find a job. Applying to anywhere, as frequently as possible, and without a plan does not speed up the process or land you a job that's the right fit. Being more specific in your job search doesn’t narrow your chances, it strengthens them.
Ask yourself, “what is most important to me?”
In many cases, people don’t always get everything they want in a job. For example, some people end up at higher-paying positions, but they’re working overtime, or their workload feels too heavy, or they just don’t love what they do. In other cases, maybe someone loves their job, but it’s just not making the cut pay-wise.
Everyone deserves to have it all, but sometimes that’s a rare find. So, ask yourself, “what is most important to me?” Is it the pay? Is it having flexible hours? Is it having good benefits? Write down a list of non-negotiables and nice-to-haves. (I.e. “It might be nice to have flexible PTO, but I don’t need it.” Or, “I need flexible PTO because I’m a care dependent and need to be able to take days off from time to time, so it’s a non-negotiable”).
The Job Search in Action
Now that your mindset and materials are ready, it’s time to put your job search into action. Here are a few tips and tools to help get you started.
Use free job searching tools
There are so many accessible and free job searching tools and job search platforms out there that many people forget about. In a world where it may seem like nothing is free, it’s important to remember that there are institutions, humans, and organizations who do truly want to help people succeed, and at no cost.
To list a few:
Empower Work
Job searching is tough in any career stage you’re at. No matter how you go about it, it can cause stress and burnout. Searching for a job can feel like a job in itself. Sometimes, you don’t know where to start, or maybe you’re struggling to answer the question posed above of “What’s important to me?” Maybe you’re struggling to get specific in the search.
That’s where Empower Work comes in. Our peer counselors are trained to support you and help you navigate questions like these. It’s okay to not have it all figured out. Having a conversation with an unbiased person who is trained to listen and help you find your path forward at work is a huge first step.
If you’re job searching, text Empower Work for support at 510-674-1414. Our text line is free, immediate, and confidential.
Public libraries
Public libraries are one of the most accessible and free hubs for job searching and job support. On the American Library Association website, you can find job search resources where job seekers can get free and confidential reviews of their resumes, research employers, and find career advice.
In many public libraries, you can print materials, use their computers and WiFi, go to the career centers or job-help services for career counseling and job workshops—all for free. And of course, you can check out their books on job searching as well. Find your local library here.
Job Boards
When it comes to searching for jobs, the best place to start is job boards, and company websites. You can search niche job boards pertaining to your industry, interests, and skills. If you’ve researched certain organizations that you want to work for, you can usually set up email alerts for when a position becomes available on their website.
On the job boards, you can add the city you’re looking in, whether you’re looking for full-time, contract or part-time work, and what kind of role you’re looking for. Once you start finding roles that align with what you want, it might be helpful to add each one to a tracking sheet, so that it’s easy to monitor the jobs as you apply.
Network
Networking is one of the most important skills someone could have in the workforce. It’s not about asking for favors. It’s about building professional relationships and connections throughout your career. Start with the people you already know. This could be family, friends, former colleagues, club members, alumni from your last form of education, etc. The benefits of networking is that people like working with and hiring people they know, have associations with, or are highly recommended by someone they know. Reach out to your network, especially those in the field you want to enter, and ask for a quick coffee chat or informational interview. You might be surprised as to how much building relationships can help you throughout your career.
Job Tracking
Tracking the jobs that you’ve applied for and want to apply for is a great way to stay organized and less overwhelmed during your search. The easiest way to do this is by opening a spreadsheet, adding columns for the organization, the role, the link to the application, and your application status. You can also add important notes like the salary, the location, and the benefits.
During your search, you’ll want to identify organizations that you want to work at. Even if they don’t have open positions, you should add them to your spreadsheet and check their website consistently to see if anything opens up that interests you. It would even be helpful to ask for a coffee chat or an informational interview with an employee from desired organizations, so that they remember you if a role comes up that strongly aligns.
The Follow-Up
After send in your applications, you don’t want to leave the hiring team or your network cold. You really want to do the proper research, research and reach out to decision makers, and make yourself stand out from the crowd—especially for positions that you really want. Here are a few tips on how to navigate the follow-up.
Follow up with the hiring team
At any point of the job application process, it’s important to reach out to the hiring manager or team if they’re listed on the posting, to let them know you’re interested and why. This will help you stand out from the other applicants and show the hiring team that you’re serious about the job.
The follow-up after submitting the application
After you submit the application, wait one to two weeks before following up with an email. Try reaching out during business hours, Tuesday through Thursday for the best results. Reach out to the hiring manager or recruiter rather than someone in the HR department. You can find this contact information usually on the job posting or the organization’s website. In this follow up email, restate your value proposition, reference the specific role, include key words from the application, and stay professional. Also be sure to ask for clear next steps so that you can gauge the timeline and expectations of the process.
The follow-up after the interview
First, getting an interview is an amazing achievement in itself. Every interview is an opportunity to learn, grow, and practice for future work experiences and interviews. An important part of the interview process that people usually forget is the follow-up email. This is a crucial step for the same reason as above—to stand out and make the hiring team remember you. There are many online templates of what this email could look like. This is an opportunity to highlight the best parts of your interview, go over your skills and achievements (and include metrics), and express your genuine interest in the role and how you can help the organization reach its goals. Many organizations have you going through rounds of interviews with different team members. Remember to email each hiring team member to express your gratitude for their time.
Keep your network warm
Whether you got the job, are in the interview phase, or are still in the job search process, you’ll want to stay connected with your network. Keeping this line of communication will show your genuine interest in their career journeys and can lead to future opportunities and collaborations. This will also help build a community of support around you, and can make you feel a lot less alone when it comes to work issues and in the job search.
Staying in touch with your network could look like sharing important work milestones, attending industry-specific events, sharing your gratitude for their support and guidance, or scheduling coffee chats or virtual meetups.
Adjust your approach if needed, and keep searching
Long job searches and rejections can feel very discouraging, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. It’s important to know that you’re not alone, and that many people across the U.S. are experiencing job loss and long job searches that are lasting an average of six or more months. A lot of the time, the length of your job search or the outcome of your applications is not within your control. What is within your control is how you move forward.
If you aren’t hearing back from an employer or you’ve received a rejection, it’s okay—and encouraged—to ask for feedback. Some companies may even provide feedback before you ask. Review their notes, and apply it to your job search process moving forward if it feels applicable to you. At some point during a long job search, you will benefit from trying new techniques or adjusting your materials. This could look like itemizing your unique skills and adding them to your resume, reviewing your interviews and adjusting your pitch, or even doing some volunteer work or obtaining a free, online certificate in your desired industry to add to your resume.
Support is here
We know searching for a job that is the right fit can be tough, especially when it seems like you’re doing everything right, but coming up short. We’re here to support you. If you’re starting the job search process, text Empower Work to relieve some of that stress.
Our trained peer counselors will listen and help you navigate what’s going on. Whether it’s untangling a web of unanswered questions about what you want your career to look like, pointing you towards the right resources, or helping to narrow down your job search, we’re here. Text 510-674-1414 for free, confidential support.