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Job-hunting is said to be the most stressful thing you will have to go through in life along with moving home and divorce if you ever have to go through that. Job-hunting can be made easier though and some people go about it in a rather disjointed way.
Ideally you will be able to look for a new job while still in one, perhaps you fancy a change or your contract is coming to an end? You may be fed up completely and desperate to leave of course. If you have a job though you can afford to be a little more picky, looking at contracts that don’t start for a while maybe or signing up with recruitment agencies who will send you information on the most suitable jobs for you and put you forward for them. Also keep an eye out for jobs and keep your ear close to the ground talk to people in other companies in your industry and apply for jobs before they are advertised even.

If you are unlucky enough to be out of work of course you can’t afford to take your time this is where a lot of the stress comes in. You want to make sure you move into the right role for your career but also want to apply for anything you might get at the same time.

Many people make the mistake of applying for jobs in volume wrongly believing this will increase their chances of getting interviews. The problem is that if you are applying for jobs that you’re not quite right for then someone else will probably be better. Even if you apply for jobs that you are over qualified for employers may realise that you are just desperate and will leave as soon as you get the chance, whether this is true or not. You need then to only apply for jobs that you know you can do; now by applying for fewer you can also do a better job of the application. You could apply for twenty jobs per day spending half an hour on the application for each using a fairly generic cover letter and the same CV. Now what if you applied for 5 per day, spend time researching the company and make it clear that you have in the cover letter, understand what they are looking for and mention it in the cover letter and make sure that your CV highlights it as well. If upon researching a company it isn’t quite right for you then leave it; even if you got an interview it could be that you wouldn’t be able to show your suitability or maybe not enough enthusiasm to get the job and that could be more wasted time: meaning it will be longer until you get yourself into the right job.

As well as doing all of this on your own get other people working for you by registering with at least one and maybe a few recruitment agencies. Recruitment agencies often get paid for putting candidates forward if they get an interview and then more if they are hired: so it is in their interest to match you to the ideal job for you that matches your skills and they know is a job you will really try your hardest to get at interview.