No one ever wakes up in the morning and says, “Oh boy, I can’t wait to go tweak my resume and then apply for jobs. My favorite part is when I have to manually fill everything in that I just sent in on my resume!”

Applying for jobs can be a grind. Not because of the feeling of anxiety as the days go by, but also because it’s just not a fun activity. There is a lot of busy work to be done before you can feel like you’re actually working. That’s why many say applying for a job is a job in itself. You have to set a schedule and keep to it to reap the benefits.

There are lots of tips to help you find a job, but below are the ones we think are the most valuable to your next job hunt.

Tailor Your Resume

In today’s job market, you’re just not going to be able to copy and paste the same resume for every single job. Recruiters are looking for which of your skills are going to be the most valuable to the position.

That’s why you need to make those skills obvious and apparent. No one is going to be looking at your resume with a magnifying glass. In fact, most recruiters won’t look over your resume for more than 30 seconds.

 So after making sure it’s professional, organized and readable, make those necessary adjustments to make your resume specific to whatever job you’re applying for. If you have a specialized degree or license then you have to have that listed on your resume when you are applying for a specialized position.

The Social Network

There is no doubt at one point you have heard the phrase “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” While you can’t take that phrase at face value, it still does have a lot of merit.

You’ll obviously need the necessary qualifications to work at your next job, but sometimes it also helps to just know the right people. You may not know the exact person that will take you to a job, but they may know someone who knows someone.

You never know who it is that could lead you to your next job. You don’t have to take such a big step as the man who stood on a street corner with his resume or the Englishman who purchased a billboard asking someone to hire him, but it helps to get your name out there.

Despite the rise of the internet, more people are hired through referrals or contacts that applying through job boards.

The Other Social Network

It’s hard to find anyone that doesn’t have some kind of social media presence, whether that be Facebook, Twitter Instagram or all of the above.

More and more employers are looking at social media when evaluating potential job candidates. That means you need to go over your respective profiles and either change them to private, remove anything that might be controversial or be extra mindful of anything you put on there.

Additionally, make sure you have a LinkedIn page. That will often be where recruiters look for your online profile and qualifications. For you, it’s a good way to see if any contacts, friends or acquaintances work at X company. They might be able to get you a meeting or keep you in the know when it comes to hiring. Make sure your LinkedIn page is as polished as your resume.

Don’t Waste Your Time

It may be tempting to take that one resume and hit rapid apply on all the jobs out there. You see some that “could be a good fit” so you go ahead and apply anyway.

At the end, you’re using most of your time applying for as many jobs as possible instead of putting in as much effort as possible to jobs that could actually align with your skillset.

Applying for jobs is a time consuming effort, so make sure you make the most of it when you’re on the job boards. Try to go deep instead of going wide. If you’re not getting the results you want, try and see what all those jobs have in common and if there’s anything else you could do to improve your profile, whether that be taking an additional course or learning a new skill.