Online job board strategies

The practical terms

• Find the path of least resistance ︎︎︎ Figure out the easiest, least stressful way to be on as many job boards as you are comfortable with. Get linkedin or Indeed on your phone and check job posts when you poop in the morning. Sign up for the email updates for those websites. 
  
• Prepare a generic cover letter that you edit for each job ︎︎︎Find a template and make sure to research the companies you apply for. Add a relevant personal story and make sure it answers any specific questions the post is looking for.
  
• Be prepared to have multiple portfolio websites/specialized links ︎︎︎ We talked about this before but be ready to adapt your work to a specific job, or if there is a job you really want to make a specialized page.
  
• Be on job boards specific to your industry  ︎︎︎ If you want to do creative coding, look at creativeapplications.net if you want to do motion graphics or animation make sure you are checking motionographer.
  
• Treat it as a job ︎︎︎If you are looking for jobs set a side a focused and fixed amount of time each day/week to write cover letters, find potential applications.
  
• Be and have friends ︎︎︎ all this being said, most of the jobs I’ve gotten have been through friends. Try to make friends with people, join discords, talk to people who you admire, who you’ve worked with before. Just be yourself, you don’t have to be “on” all the time.
  
  

Be creative in all aspects of your life (applying for jobs in this case)

• Talk to the people at the places you want to work for directly ︎︎︎ Identify the places you’d like to work, go on LinkedIn or search online for people who work their, try to find out if they are hiring. If it is a creative field like an animation studio you can probably naturally communicate with them (ie find their portfolio website and say “Hey I liked your portfolio, I saw you work at [place X], are they hiring, do you know who I might ask?”)
  
• Leverage social media  ︎︎︎ If you are on social media to hopefully you are following people that you admire who are creative (artists, animators, developers, etc). Usually if they do comissioned work, they will post it online and then thank the art director or creative director. I would be very methodical about this, save the posts, write them down and then email those folks about work later.
  

For next week (02/24/2021)

• Create or share the most current version of your resume or CV.