You’ve heard all the hype and decided to join the ‘great resignation’ or ‘migration’ because it’s time to find a way to the career or employer you really deserve. What should you do next?

Before you do anything, there are several things you should have in place so that your upcoming resignation, job hunt and eventual migration to a new job are as painless as possible. At Skillfinder, our staff dedicate a lot of their energy to helping people find the right job to make them feel fulfilled and happy. They’ve got ten ideas for tasks that will make your great resignation work well.

Tidy up - declutter your CV

Over time, CVs can end up with unnecessary clutter that the writer is completely blind to because they’ve seen it so many times. Before you go into your job search, why not start your CV fresh - a whole new document. Rather than copying and pasting, you will end up with new content which has the benefit of all the wisdom and experience you’ve accrued since the last time you wrote a CV.
Jorge Herrero

Create different CVs for different roles

From your point of view, your CV is a labour of love that’s taken many hours of work and pain to fine tune into the two-page work of art in a Word file. However, to a recruiter or employer, it’s just one of hundreds they will see that day. They’re only likely to spend seven seconds scanning it before they decide what to do. So, it makes sense to tailor your CV for every application if you’re serious about getting the role.
Noushin Bhuiyan

Reconcile your CV with your LinkedIn profile

Naturally, you’re going to start with your CV, but did you realise how many people will actually look at your LinkedIn profile as well? GO through both carefully to make sure that both match, particularly when it comes to dates and duties. You don’t want to send a red flag to a potential employer because of a simple typo in your work history.
Jorge Herrero

Track your progress

Job hunts can get complicated quite quickly. The more you you get used to finding opportunities, the more seem to present themselves and you can quickly lose track of what you applied for when and with what. Start off by making a dedicated folder on your drive for everything to do with your job hunt and keep this organised. You’ll store all your various CVs, cover letters, application forms etc. in here.

Next, create a spreadsheet so you can track the roles you applied for, when you applied, whether you got a response and whether you should follow up. Log your applications in here and include feedback you’ve had on the phone or in meetings.
Jessica Tsen

Take advantage of LinkedIn profile features

Update your LinkedIn profile so it’s more than a replication of your CV. The platform offers you a lot of features that will make you look more employable, such as adding courses and slideshows that showcase your presentations. You should also strengthen your digital presence by adding more connections to your network.
Amy Donegan

Set some of your socials to private

Rather than trawling through many years’ worth of posts on multiple social feeds to make them more presentable, it may be a good idea to set the social media you use for personal content to private while you go into job-hunting mode. The public will survive without your insights about the latest incidents on reality TV for a few months.
Lorraine Bateman

Add some extracurricular activity to your CV and profiles

Wouldn’t your profile look more attractive if it showed that you were doing good things outside of your working life? Maybe it’s time to do something that will bolster your profile. It doesn’t have to be volunteering for a charity, you may find an organisation or activity that’s close to your profession. You could try doing some mentoring or coaching for people you know.
Alex White

Make sure your references are ready

We all know a new employer’s going to want a reference, but it’s funny how many referees are surprised by a request because nobody warned them it would be coming. If you’re going to nominate someone to give you a reference, let them know you’re doing it. It’s not just polite, you’re likely to get a better reference because you’ve given them time to think about what to say.
Noushin Bhuiyan

Get your documents in order

This may not sound like the most interesting task, but from a compliance perspective you need to have all the right documents ready if you’re going to start a new job.

Things you might need for on boarding include a proof of ID and address, your education certificates and a current visa. Rather than letting it become a headache for when you’ve been made an offer, reduce the risk of being tied up in government or other laborious administrative processes that getting updated documents involves.
Kerry Cappleman

Get warmed up with a call

Call a recruitment consultant advertising one of the jobs you are likely to apply for and speak to them about your job hunt. It’s their job to get excited about candidates’ job search activity and they are likely to give you some good advice and even help with your CV in the early stages.
Patrick McKenzie

Bonus point - Look after yourself

Looking for a job is hard work. While it may be tempting to dedicate all your time and energy to the process until you find the right job - that would actually be counterproductive. Make sure you've scheduled breaks in your job search activity so that you can recover your energy. Plan some interesting non-job-hunt things to do so you can look forward to them and avoid job-seeking-burnout. Good luck.