7 Tips to Help You Find Your Dream Job in 2024

If you want to find your dream job in 2023, there are a few factors you should consider. Whether you're looking for full-time work or a part-time something on the side, follow these seven tips to narrow your search in the right places and give your applications that extra sparkle.

Finding the Ideal Job - 

The employment market is constantly evolving. If you’re looking for a job in 2023, staying in touch with the current practices is important to maximise your chances of finding your dream job. This year, expanded use of AI in recruitment, pivots toward skill-based hiring, and an emphasis on adaptability across industries are among the trends that will influence job searching practices.

To find your dream job, how you look for jobs and make your CV should reflect these developments. Here are seven ways to renew your job-searching strategy and find your dream job in 2023.

1. Recognize that it’s an employer’s market

The job market is red hot in 2023, and employers have the bargaining power.

According to the UK Office for National Statistics, unemployment increased marginally to 3.7% throughout 2022. Furthermore, official predictions suggest a third of the global economy will be in recession in the coming year, making it difficult to find your dream jobs.

The UK might dodge that outcome, but employers will look for ways to acquire more skills while hiring fewer people. In recruitment, that will mean slimmer hiring drives and a greater focus on finding adaptable and multi-skilled workers who can fulfil multiple roles, making for a more competitive job market and more challenging to find your dream job.

To find your dream job in 2023, you need to identify what specific employers want and build an accurate, professional CV around those needs:

• Pay close attention to the skills and requirements mentioned in job descriptions and highlight relevant experiences on your CV
• Check company press releases, media, and similar job descriptions to get a feel for company culture, traits, and values that you can use to assess whether you’ll be a good fit for the team

2. Showcase the right soft skills

With employers expecting workers to adapt and upskill quickly within their roles, soft skills, particularly those that support adaptability, will be vital to hiring strategies in the coming year. 

Soft skills are personality-related traits you develop through life experiences rather than by taking a course or on-the-job training,  and they are the key to finding your dream job.

Last year, McKinsey identified 56 soft skills that workers would need for the future of work. These skills are particularly relevant in 2023 because they:

• prepare you for work in digital environments
• enable you to quickly adapt to new ways of working
• add value to the work that AI does

Synthesising messages, coping with uncertainty, and adaptability are three of the most valuable skills for finding a job in 2023.

If you’re wondering how to emphasise these qualities on your CV (after all, there’s no official certification for “coping with uncertainty”), look to your career objective, work history, and critical skills sections.

Highlight these traits by outlining relevant tasks and responsibilities. For example, to demonstrate your ability to synthesise messages and highlight relevant communication skills, such as writing reports, presenting and public speaking, and copyediting.

Skills such as these tell employers you can develop messages from data and make complicated information understandable for specific audiences — core abilities in synthesising messages.

3. Hone your tech skills

It might have been a brutal 2022 for the tech industry, but tech skills will remain highly desirable in 2023 and help you find your dream job in 2023. 

Workers with specialised IT skills on their CVs attract better pay than similarly qualified candidates who don’t have these skills. Non-certified tech skills such as big data analytics and Ethereum boosted pay by up to 20%, according to a Foote Partners report. 

In particular, the following skills will enjoy high demand in the coming year:

• Programming languages (e.g. C, Python, Java, C++, and C#)
• Data visualisation, such as Tableau and D3.js can be used to create graphical representations of data
• UI/UX design (e.g. Sketch and Adobe XD)
• Cloud computing platforms (e.g., Amazon Web Services)
• Big Data processing technologies (Apache Hadoop, Rapid Miner)

4. Target fast-growing industries 

The recession might be at the top of the news cycle, but strong growth is expected for several key industries in 2023.

According to the UK Office for National Statistics, property (5.1%), accommodation and food services (4.9%), mining, quarrying and utilities (4.8%), and construction (4.2%) saw the fastest growth in business in 2022. Meanwhile, professional, scientific and technical businesses accounted for the largest share of businesses in the UK.  

In this climate, industry-specific job boards (such as Fitness Jobs, Hospitality Jobs and Caterer for accommodation and food services) are some of the best places to accelerate your job search in 2023. 

For similar reasons, updating your CV with relevant industry-specific keywords is also a good idea to make employers see that you're at the forefront of your field. Stay informed by engaging with industry forums and networks.

5. Leverage remote job boards

Remote and hybrid were the buzzwords of the recruitment world in 2022. According to Semrush, searches for remote work tripled between July 2021 and July 2022. Meanwhile, the number of UK remote or hybrid workers who planned to return to the office permanently fell from 11% to 8% between April 2021 and February 2022.

But as these opportunities continue to grow, it's important to recognise different employers offer very different remote packages. For example, required location and working hours can differ significantly from employer to employer.

Remote job boards, like FlexJobs, We Work Remotely, and Remote.co, are great resources for remote work searches, as they provide curated lists of flexible job opportunities.

Trimming the fat from your options can help you compare the packages offered by different employers and ensure you only send out your CV to employers you want to work for.  

6. Double down on keyword research

With 2023 delivering slimmer budgets and greater pressure to hire wisely for most businesses, employers must streamline recruitment processes to ensure they get the best candidates. As a result, applicant tracking systems (ATS) and other automated recruitment software will play an important role.

ATSs filter based on position-specific keywords, so human recruiters only have to review qualified applicants. So if you want your CV to reach employers, use the right industry keywords. To optimise your CV for an ATS, carefully read the job posting for the position you’re applying for, taking note of the role’s specific skills or qualifications.

You can also search online for job postings in your industry to identify other commonly used keywords. Make a list of these keywords and pepper them throughout your CV in a natural way that reads well.

Use a clean, professional CV template, so the keywords stand out when your ATS-friendly application passes the system and reaches a human employer.

7. Make job opportunities come to you

With employers searching for talent in increasingly creative ways, it’s a good idea to stay ahead of the methods that they’re using.

One example of current recruiting methods is passive sourcing, in which employers approach potential candidates who aren’t actively searching for a new job. By attracting passive recruiters to your professional profiles, you can effectively double the scope of your job search by having opportunities come to you while you’re looking for jobs.

Clean up your professional social media to build your network and attract passive recruiters. Here are four ideas to get you started:

1. Develop a clear personal brand: Make sure your profiles are professional, consistent, and relevant to the industries and professions you want to target. Remove any inappropriate or unprofessional content.
2. Participate in industry groups and discussions: Join relevant industry groups and participate in discussions to build your professional network and make you more visible to recruiters.
3. Share relevant content: Share articles, blog posts, and other relevant content for your industry, so recruiters can see you’re knowledgeable and interested in your field.

Key takeaways

The changing recruitment landscape in 2023 will mean you will have to modify your job-hunting strategy to find the best opportunities in the coming year:

• Double down on your research before sending out an application: identify individual employers are looking for specifically and highlight it on your CV
• Demonstrate core soft skills like adaptability to emphasise your ability to navigate the shifting professional landscape
• Push high-value IT skills to attract higher salaries   
• Use remote job boards to find flexible working opportunities that suit you 
• Use social media to attract passive recruiters and broaden your search