Five strategies to get you the job you want in 2024

New year, new you?

If you are dragging yourself through to the end of the year and looking forward to a break from the daily grind, it’s inevitable your thoughts will turn to whether things will be the same this time next year.

The end of one year and the start of a new one is a time for taking stock. It’s as traditional as turkey and tinsel. 

You may be thinking about your 2024 exercise goals, or whether it will be the year you finally learn to play the violin. You may have signed up for a Vietnamese cookery class, or be promising yourself you’ll read 52 contemporary novels by non-American authors over the course of the year. 

You may be worried about whether AI is coming to take your job. If you are, you’re in good company because according to this recent survey, one in four Americans is experiencing the same fear.  

Or you may simply be open to making a change, career-wise, and thinking about seeing what’s out there. Maybe you’d like to move to a different city, change direction, or work for a company with better hybrid opportunities. 

Maybe it’s simply time for more money and better benefits. 

Whatever the reason, there are things you can do now to improve your odds of landing a great job in 2024. The first may surprise you. 

1.   Start your job hunt now

Many recruitment budgets expire by the end of the year, so while most people think the new year is when they should start looking, some recruiters are eager to advertise roles this side of the holiday season. It’s smart to carve out time before the end of year to polish off the resume and fire off some applications. Why wait?

2. Get your resume right

If it’s been a while since you last updated yours, do some research online and with friends and family who have successfully applied for new positions recently. Ask them to share their resumes with you so you get a feel for what’s expected.

What you want is something simple, in black and white only, without either photos or fancy formatting. It’s important that your resume is keyword rich as all resumes, whether they go to an external recruiter or an in-house HR department, will be inputted into an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) which ranks the resumes with the strongest keywords highest. 

You need your resume to highlight what you can do and the job you are applying for. So you should have a base resume which you can hyper-personalize to bring to the fore relevant experience to fit each specific position for which you apply. One resume does not fit all. 

3. Update your professional social profiles

These are dynamic self-editing tools to be used in your search for a new position. Once you upload your resume it’s static, but recruiters will cross-reference it with your professional social profile, so you can keep updating this to showcase awards you’ve won, campaigns you’ve worked on, and transactions you’ve played a role in. If you are actively hunting for a new job, you should expect to put in a few hours a week keeping your professional social profiles current. 

4. Upskill

It goes without saying that you need to research the job market for the type of position you’re applying for. If you are light on desirable skills or qualifications, you may need to demonstrate you are in the process of acquiring them. Employers want to see employees willing to keep learning and moving forward. 

5. Hone your interview technique

Succeeding at an interview is all about preparation, and nothing beats saying the words out loud as you would in a real interview. If you have the resources, you can hire a professional to help you with your technique, but a friend or family member could be just as good. 

If that’s got you thinking, here are some great roles that are accepting applications right now, with many more waiting to be discovered on The Hill Jobs Board.

Issue One is leading the charge to safeguard elections and election workers and clean up the information ecosystem by holding social media platforms accountable. The organization has an opening for a Campaigns Manager for Technology Reform. This is a hybrid position with a monthly presence in Washington DC required. 

In New York, the Blackstone Group has an opening for a Structured Finance Associate. The position is within the Asset Based Finance team and the work will focus on all aspects of post-deal closing asset management, including monitoring investment performance, communicating with borrowers, updating management on investment performance, analyzing changes to investments, financial modeling, industry updates, and creating scalable processes. 

Meanwhile, Seattle-based Sound Transit is looking for a Project Manager with a background in real estate to work on property appraisal, acquisition, relocation, and surplus property sales.

For these and other opportunities, check out The Hill Jobs Board