Why you can't find a job and what you should be doing instead.

My 12 best tips and resources for finding a job in 2025.

May 08, 2025

Finding a job in 2025 is difficult, but not impossible. It takes persistence, creativity, and knowing where to search. Here are my 12 best tips and resources for landing your next role.

Considering Finding New Job

Do your research.

Before you throw in the towel at your current job, you need to do some deep digging to ensure you can find another job in the time frame you’re expecting. In my last post, I discussed the current job climate and what to expect, but to sum up - times are tough. That doesn’t mean there are no jobs, but there may be few jobs in your expertise. This is what you have to figure out.

Research the industry you work in (or connect with a career consultant), make a game plan, start executing the game plan, get a job offer, and then consider leaving your current position.

Company loyalty is dead.

If you’re staying at your job because you feel obliged to be loyal, then you’re staying for the wrong reasons. A company is an idea/concept, not your spouse. Sure, there can be people you feel loyal to at your employer, but why would you put your wellbeing and goals aside for what is ultimately an inanimate company?

They pay you to perform a role, you perform the role and get paid. That’s the deal.

Some quick google searches will show you that for the past decade, job-hopping, on average, has lead to an increase in salary and career growth. Recent data reporting shows this has slowed down in 2025, with tenure being almost as effective as job-hopping for increasing salary and career growth.

Time will tell if that trend will continue. If companies are starting to fiscally value tenure - great! Then stay!

Gen Z has a bad rep for job hopping, and I’m not immune from this, but I’ve experienced both sides. As a lacrosse coach and employee of a school district, my salary goes up every year with my tenure, and I’ve been with the same school now for almost 6 years. I feel valued there, with how I’m paid and treated, and I wouldn’t consider switching schools. It’s the longest job I’ve ever held! They offer me respect and pay me to perform the role, so I perform the role and offer respect in return, and we have a great time.

I share that to say this: it is situational. It isn’t black and white. It’ll be up to you to decide whether you feel valued at your job or not and what to do about it.

If a company truly sees your value and wants your loyalty, then job-hopping won’t pay off. Staying could be the best choice. Remember though - you only owe them the time they pay you to give them.

End of the day, you ARE replaceable, whether you decide it or your employer does. The company/business/institution will always have their own best interest in mind, not yours.

Searching and Applying for Jobs

Not every job opening will be on a job board.

Not every company uses the popular job boards like Indeed or LinkedIn. There are mainly three situations where I see employers using other methods: large prestigious companies, super small employers, and niche industries.

Large companies: Think of the renowned companies in your area that pay well, offer job-security, continue to grow. These companies don’t need to post on job boards because you already know who they are, they have connections, and they’ll get enough applicants directly.

A company that comes to mind for me is the tech company Siemens. They have hundreds of jobs they’re constantly filling, but I don’t see their jobs on boards. They don’t need to post them there. They aren’t only tech-focused positions either.

As a large company, they need jobs in all categories: business development, HR, teachers (they provide daycare), admin, public relations, etc. Don’t dismiss a company because you’re not in the industry, check out their website.

Small companies: It costs money to post on job boards, and smaller businesses don’t always have the resources to pour into recruitment, especially when they’re only hiring for 1 position twice a year. If there are some businesses in your area that you’re curious about, go in and ask them! I’ve landed 2 jobs before with small companies from approaching them directly. It’s a bit old-school, but it still works. If they’re not hiring, they may know businesses who are.

Niche Industries: There are many specialized job boards out there for different industries. Consider researching industry or region-specific job boards. Some employers prefer to post jobs through these forums because the applications are more catered and they receive less spam. Government jobs also have their own websites where they post. I’ll include some links to government and niche industry boards in the resources section at the bottom of this post.

Get to know your local Chamber of Commerce.

Your city’s Chamber of Commerce is a resource often overlooked. The chamber helps connect all the businesses in the area, including the small ones, and their website will typically have a local job board or have a newsletter with job openings. If you can’t find these things, reach out directly to them with your resume and ask if they know which businesses are hiring, because they do.

Utilize your network (don’t hate me).

Forget what you think you know about networking. All it takes is being interested in other people and being transparent early on with people you connect with.

There are what I would call organic and inorganic network connections.

Organic connections are the people already in your life that your interact with. Reach out to them! I love chit-chatting with anyone, talking about what’s going on with me and hearing what they’re up to.

Be curious about them and ask good questions. You need to have genuine interest in the interaction, otherwise it will start to feel weird. Being interested will always get you further than being interesting.

Then there are inorganic connections. The friend of a friend. The cold-call emails asking for 5 minutes of someone's time to ask them about their career. That’s how I landed my highest paying job when I joined consulting. Helps when the company offers a referral to employees who recruit new people, then they’re really inclined to talk to you. But the worst they can do is say no.

In order to land a job in 2025, you’ll need to get used to talking to people.

Fix your resume, it probably sucks.

It is very rare that I see someone’s resume and think, “yes, I would hire them.” Most often what I see is an odd Word template with 3-5 nondescript sentences under each job title with typos throughout.

We can do so much better than this.

Here are some tips on improving your resume and making it more effective (and let me know if I should dive deeper on this topic in future newsletters):

Add more description to your roles. Talk about the how. If you were a server, you did more than just serve food. You connected with customers, used [insert software] POS to enter orders, quickly problem-solved to deescalate unsatisfied customers, etc. Get descriptive!
Cater your resume to computers, not just humans. Any company with 100+ employees probably has a computer reading your resume and application. Your resume should include some of the same words as the job posting and be easy to pull information from. What they’re requiring should reflect what you’re offering.
AI is filtering the resumes before HR typically sees them. I know there are points to make on the morality of using AI, but if employers are using it… you won’t beat them by not using it. AI can be very helpful for looking over your resume, re-wording a sentence if writing isn’t your thing, better describing past roles, etc. I never encourage people to solely rely on it, but it’s an available tool to use.
Do not lie. Please, do not lie on your resume. Make yourself look really great, yes, but resumes are not for reinventing yourself. Some interviewers will go line by line down your resume and ask you questions, so you need to be able to back up whatever you put. You also don’t want to land a job you can’t do.
Employers don’t want to just know what roles you’ve had, they want to know what you accomplished in that role. They want to understand the capacity of your work, if you were good at the job, if you were promoted, etc. I recommend using an achievements-based resume to demonstrate your value add. If you don’t know where to start, you can share this newsletter with 5 people, and if they successfully subscribe then you can download a free template of the achievements-based resume I created. No extra frills, just a simple template that easily demonstrates all the necessary elements of a good resume.

Refer a friend

Apply to the job directly on the employer website.

If you find a job you’re interested in on a job board, look for the direct application on the employer’s website and apply there, if possible. It doesn’t always make a difference, but it’s more direct with the employer and eliminates the chances of it being a fraud job posting.

Do everything the job application requires.

Before applying to a job, read the entire description and instructions. Do everything the job application says. If they want you to email HR directly, do it. If they want a cover letter, write it. It’s their first test. If you half-as* your application, what kind of message is that sending them as their future employee?

… a bad one. In case you were wondering.

DO NOT FORGET TO FOLLOW UP PLEASE IM BEGGING YOU.

If you want to stand out from other (bad) candidates, you must follow up with the employer. Application deadline closed? Send an inquisitive email with your resume attached letting them know your continued interest in the position and ask when interviews will be scheduled. After the interview, immediately (or same day, bottom line) send an email thanking them for the interview. Include a tidbit you found interesting or what you learned about the company, and express your continued interest.

Employers want employees who want to work for them and who take initiative to demonstrate it. It’s tedious, but this is critical if you want to land the job. Don’t go through all that work to throw everything away because you forgot your manners.

Interviewing and Landing the Job:

Use the interview process to truly determine if that’s a job you want.

Interviews aren’t just for the employer, they’re equally for you.

Are you sure you want to work for them? If it’s your potential boss asking the questions, how do you feel about them? Are the responsibilities of the role what you expected? What are the company culture and work team like?

Asking these types of questions will demonstrate your seriousness about the role. Once you learn that interviews are for getting to know each other and seeing if it’s a good fit, the interview becomes a little less intimidating.

Hot Take: Jobs are like relationships - if it won’t work out for one party, then it wouldn’t work out for either.

You will get rejected from jobs. When you do, it will be a bummer, but it can also be a relief. If the interview process was genuine and they ended up going with someone else, then it might’ve not been a good fit for you anyway. You want to find an employer where it’s a good match for both of you and you can be yourself.

Know ahead of time how much you’re willing to compromise your standards.

This goes for salary, culture, level of role, product line, team placement, everything. You’re one of the lucky ones if you find a job that’s a perfect match to your aspirations. In reality, you’ll most likely have to compromise.

You’ll be bringing in expectations you’ve developed because of former roles, and it’s important to know ahead of time what you will or will not compromise on. If you’re looking for a positive office culture and that’s important to you, don’t accept a job where the vibes are bad and you’ll be miserable. I’ve taken pay cuts to leave toxic jobs and land roles in better environments more fitting with my long-term goals. It was tough but worth the compromise.

Resources:

There are plenty of resources out there to help you find a job. Many will be localized to your area, such as WorkSource Oregon for those in Oregon, but every state has their own job search and networking services. If you’re not sure where to start, go to your state government’s unemployment services page.

Below are a list of resources I put together to could aid you in your job search:

Jobseeker - US Bureau of Labor Statistics - Lots of resources for job seekers.
Career One Stop - One stop shop for career exploration, trainings, and jobs.
USAJOBS - The official Federal Government job board.
GovernmentJobs - The official job board for non-federal government jobs.
Poached Jobs - Job board for food and hospitality industry.
Dice - Job board for jobs in tech.
Diversity Jobs - Job board for diversity-driven jobseekers.
The Mom Project - Job board catered to employing mothers.
HigherEdJobs - Job board for jobs in higher education.
Idealist - Job board for jobs with social impact.

What resources have you used that I didn’t include? Drop them in the comments to help other jobseekers! We’re all in this together.