28-Day Action Plan to Find a Startup Job: Week 1

We previously mentioned that London is the perfect city to build a startup! You can be one of the amazing talents to be able to work in one of the most successful startups as well. We, therefore, prepared a comprehensive guide on the search for your dream job. This is the first of the four articles that will provide you with a detailed and step-by-step job hunting process. In exactly twenty-eight days, you can start a new career for yourself.

Things to do on Week 1

Day 1: Study the Job Market

Understand the job market to find out which opportunities are best for you.

1) Open our “London Startups’ Top 11 Titles and Their Salaries” article and read through all titles and job descriptions. 

2) Note down all skills & competencies you have.

3) Where do you see a more than 50% match?

Day 2: Target the right jobs & titles

Decide on which roles to target based on your skills, motivation and availability of positions.

1) Make a list of titles that might be right for you

2) Go to LinkedIn Jobs and explore start-up jobs, compare with your list

3) Depending on availability as well, decide on your top 2 roles to target.

Day 3: Getting Ready to Apply 1/4

Have an outstanding main CV.

1) Improve your existing CV or create a new one with the CV-Maker Apps. To do this, you can take a look at our article Top CV-Maker.

2) Make sure your CV is up to the standards of the CV Quality Checklist

3) Make sure you include all the relevant keywords for the applicant filtering systems.

4) Make sure your CV paints a coherent and strong professional picture.

Day 4: Getting Ready to Apply 2/4

Have an outstanding LinkedIn Profile.

1) Some great opportunities come to candidates who aren’t even applying for new jobs. Make your profile outstanding by having a professional photo, filling in all past job details, writing a capturing introduction and most importantly including all the necessary keywords in your by-line and the rest of your profile.

2) Make sure you have “open for opportunities” turned on.

3) Share your profile with a few contacts to get feedback and improve.

4) Search online for LinkedIn profile tips and implement the ideas you like.

Day 5: Getting Ready to Apply 3/4

Create profiles on your top 3 platforms, save searches, and set alerts.

There are many Job Sites. The less known ones get fewer applications so you have better odds. Whereas the popular ones have more volume in terms of opportunities. We recommend focusing on a few more platforms other than LinkedIn.

Day 6: Getting Ready to Apply 4/4

Know your tools & have a system.

This action plan is jam-packed with tools, templates, and resources. Spend a day going through them all and plan when & where you will use them. Especially make sure to have the Your Applications tab open throughout the day and update all necessary information in there.

Day 7: First Applications & CV Variations

Apply to a limited number of roles, by taking the time to pause and craft a new CV variation that fits the job you are applying for well. Today is more about creating variations to your CV than applications. 

You should have created at least 3 variations of your CV, depending on the range of roles you are applying to. i.e., a Junior Product Specialist CV, a Data Analyst CV, and a Marketing Specialist CV. In your future applications, you should use the best fitting CV for the role you are applying for. You can always customise the CV further to fit the role.