When using a job-search website, the temptation is to enter a job title in the 鈥渜uick search鈥� function, click 鈥淪earch鈥� and hope that your perfect job pops up. 鈥淚 strongly recommend that people use the advanced search functionality where available because it opens up many, many more options,鈥� says Alan Simmons, a careers consultant at NHS Careers. 鈥淔or example, on the NHS job site, you can put in any search term or skill set that you want, such as engineering, pathology, medical physics and so on.鈥� This is the best way to find vacancies which won鈥檛 necessarily have job titles that you will have thought about 鈥� or even heard of.
As well as widening your search terms, don鈥檛 forget to sharpen your focus by using industry job sites. There are great discipline-specific websites, such as Gradcracker.com for engineers, says Jane Chanaa, who works at the University of Oxford鈥檚 careers service. And make the most of those two little job-site words: email alerts.