When you’re looking for a new job opportunity, you’ll often find that literally everyone has some piece of job search advice for you. Welcome or not, most candidates will nod politely and then totally discard these job search tips – after all, you’ve been here before and managed to land a job perfectly well without their career insights on what you should (and shouldn’t) do to increase your chances of job search success.

But before you totally ignore these job search tips, take a moment to consider why friends and family are advising you. Of course, they want you to get that dream job just as much as you do and amongst all of their ‘you should do this’ advice, there could be a few pearls of wisdom hidden away in there.

Here’s our top 3 most ignored but useful job search tips:

Tailoring your CV & covering letter
Sending out a generic CV and covering letter that doesn’t explain how you meet the job and skills criteria the employer is looking for won’t get you very far. Employers expect you to illustrate how you’re a perfect fit for their vacancy so read the job spec carefully and tailor your CV and covering letter to show how your skills and experience match what they’re looking for.

Tidying up your social media accounts
You might think that employers won’t look at your social media accounts. Well guess what? Many of them do. Get rid of any images of that messy Friday night out on Facebook, make sure you’ve given your LinkedIn account some attention and generally remove anything you wouldn’t want an employer to see.

Brush up on interview skills
Employers are getting much savvier about their interview techniques, with many of them becoming experts in asking questions that not only relate to your skills and experience, but also personal characteristics and values.

Do a little research or get together with friends and practice your technique so that when an employer throws you a curveball interview question, your prepared with a great answer.

For more useful job search tips, talk to our friendly team of recruitment specialists today on 01782 338787 who’ll offer you expert advice and free support to help you land your dream job.