The good news is there is more than one legitimate approach to job hunting in the UK. If you are struggling to find opportunities, or feel the competition always seems to beat you, then careers advice and guidance on alternative methods can help you to access more of the labour market as well as avoid the very competitive processes of certain companies!
I have insider recruitment knowledge from my time as a head hunter in recruitment and in my current role as Careers Consultant at Imperial College London where I hear from employers regularly on recruitment processes.
The job hunt
I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir when I say that job hunting in the UK feels like a full time job. The competitive labour market also contributes to this, but I am able to help you identify different methods of job hunting and how relevant they might be to your desired industry.
If you have ever had negative experienced with recruitment agencies or are nervous about engaging with them, this is something I am happy to give advice on based on my experience working in one. Ultimately I will be teaching you enough job hunting methods that you shouldn't NEED to rely on an agency, but would know how best to engage with them if you do choose to.
You may be feeling that there seems to be so many people applying for every role out there, and that is definitely true a lot of the time. One of the things we could work on, is how to identify less competitive opportunities, to tactically face less competition overall.
There are websites out there that I've heard other recruitment consultants refer to as 'the trash bin of the internet', because they are too big, too broad and therefore make it hard to stand out, or even for certain job listings to be seen. Sometimes more specific resources can be more helpful, or even a mixture of the two.
My approach
This area of advice comes from my experience as a head hunter in recruitment and from my current conversations with companies on their recruitment processes and from reading updated labour market reports and employer surveys from my professional bodies.
The piece of advice itself can be brief, but pairs well with other topics such as using LinkedIn and CV editing.