Want to Supercharge Your Job Search? Ask Better Questions
Discover how to get personalized job search advice by asking targeted questions that provide context about your unique situation and goals. Say goodbye to generic tips and hello to real results!
"Do you have any job search tips that can help me?"
If you’ve ever asked this question to a recruiter, career coach, or someone in your network, you're definitely not alone. It's the job seeker’s million-dollar question—and every recruiter's million-dollar headache issue!
Let's break this down. Asking, "Do you have any job search tips?" without providing any context about your situation is like walking up to a doctor and saying, "I don't feel well. Can you help?" Just as the doctor needs to know your symptoms and medical history to properly diagnose you, a recruiter or mentor needs to understand the specifics of your job search in order to provide relevant advice.
The truth is, every job search is unique. What worked for your friend or your cousin or that random person on LinkedIn may be terrible advice for you and your career goals. Generic, one-size-fits-all guidance rarely hits the mark because your background, skills, industry, and aspirations are uniquely yours.
To get job search tips that will actually help you land your next role, you need to go beyond the generic and get ultra-specific in your asks.
The Problem with Generic Questions
So why are vague, open-ended questions like "What should I do to improve my job search?" so ineffective? The core issue is that generic questions lead to generic advice.
When you ask for help without sharing any specifics about your situation, the person you're asking has to make a lot of assumptions. They don't know your background, your skills, your career aspirations, or the unique challenges you're facing in your search.
As a result, they have to fall back on canned, one-size-fits all tips like "update your resume" or "network more." While these tips aren't necessarily bad, they're about as useful as a doctor telling you to "get more rest and drink fluids" without knowing anything about your symptoms.
The other problem with generic questions is that they make you blend into the crowd. Recruiters and career coaches hear vague requests for advice all the time. Imagine how many "do you have any tips?" emails the average recruiter gets in a day! Asking generic questions doesn't make you stand out or make people excited to help you.
If you want job search advice that's actually tailored to your needs and goals, you need to give people context on your specific situation. Don't make people guess what you need - tell them! The more context you provide, the more useful and relevant the tips you'll get. No more generic advice that could apply to anyone - personalized guidance is where the real value is.
The Power of Context
So what's the secret to getting insanely valuable job search advice? It's all about providing relevant context when you ask for help. The more a mentor / recruiter knows about your specific situation, the more targeted and actionable their guidance will be.
Think about it this way: when you're struggling with your search, you're basically a detective trying to solve a mystery. The clues are all the details about your background, experience, goals and challenges. The detective's sidekick - the Watson to your Sherlock - is the recruiter, career coach or networking contact you turn to for help cracking the case.
But just like Watson needs all the clues to be helpful, your job search mentor needs plenty of context from you to play their part. They can spot critical patterns and connect dots that you're too close to see - but only if you share the whole story with them.
Here are some of the key details to provide when asking for job search advice:
Your professional background (and years of experience - depends on the market)
The specific job titles and industries you're targeting + location
Your core skills and unique value proposition
Your short and long-term career goals
The biggest challenges and roadblocks you're facing
What you've already tried in your search and the results
Your top questions and the specific areas where you need guidance
Example: I have 3 years of experience working as a virtual assistant, primarily supporting small business owners and entrepreneurs in the e-commerce industry. I’m currently targeting virtual assistant roles with startups or digital marketing agencies, ideally remote positions based in the U.S. My core skills include email management, calendar coordination, social media management, and customer service. My unique value is that I’ve helped several clients streamline their workflows using tools like Asana, Trello, and Zapier, which significantly improved their efficiency.
In the short term, I’m looking to secure a full-time virtual assistant position with growth potential, while my long-term goal is to move into an operations manager role.
My biggest challenge is standing out in a competitive market. I’ve applied to multiple remote positions and have been optimizing my resume to showcase my skills, but I’m not getting many responses. I’ve also started building a portfolio to showcase my work, but I’m not sure if I’m highlighting the right accomplishments.
Could you review my resume and portfolio to see if I’m positioning myself effectively? I’d also love any advice on how to make my applications more compelling and how to build stronger connections in the remote work community."
This example gives clear context about the person’s background, target roles, unique skills, challenges, and specific areas where they need advice, making it easier for the mentor to provide actionable feedback.
When you paint a robust picture of where you're at and where you want to go, advisors can identify exactly which areas you need to work on. They can see the gaps and suggest ways to fill them. They can point out things you might be doing wrong or opportunities you might not be taking advantage of.
For example, instead of a generic "your resume should be one page" tip, a mentor who understands your background could say "Given your 10+ years of marketing experience, it's fine for your resume to be 2 pages. Make sure you're going into more depth on your recent roles and cutting down older positions to just a few bullet points."
See the difference? Context enables personalized problem-solving. In the next section, you'll learn how to combine that context with targeted questions to unlock truly next-level job search insights!
The Recruiter Perspective
Let's take a moment to look at targeted job search questions from the recruiter's point of view. As someone who has been on the receiving end of countless "do you have any advice?" emails on InMails, I can tell you firsthand that the people asking specific, contextual questions always stand out.
Recruiters genuinely want to help job seekers - it's a core part of our job. But we're also incredibly busy. We get hundreds of resumes and dozens of requests for help every week. When someone takes the time to ask well-thought-out questions that demonstrate their motivation and seriousness about their search, it's refreshing.
Targeted questions show that you've done your research and have a good grasp on your goals. They make it clear you're not just looking for any job, but are striving for roles and companies that align with your skills and aspirations. This kind of focus is appealing to recruiters - it tells us you'd likely be an engaged and discerning candidate.
Specific questions are also simply easier and more rewarding for recruiters to answer than vague ones. We can actually draw on our knowledge of the job market and tailor our insights to your situation. Instead of giving you the same generic spiel we've repeated a thousand times, we can provide nuanced guidance that could really make a difference in your search. This is the kind of constructive advice-giving that recruiters find fulfilling.
When you respect a recruiter's time and expertise by asking specific questions, it builds positive rapport. You're signaling that you value their opinion and trust their industry knowledge. Recruiters appreciate this and are more likely to go the extra mile for you, whether that's providing in-depth resume feedback, identifying unadvertised job openings that fit your profile, or connecting you to valuable contacts.
Remember, building strong relationships with recruiters is a key part of an effective job search strategy. Approaching your interactions with thoughtful, targeted questions sets the stage for fruitful long-term connections that could open doors for you down the line.
Ask Better Questions
By trading generic requests for advice with targeted, context-driven inquiries, you can access personalized insights that will meaningfully move the needle on your search.
The recipe for stellar job search questions is simple:
Get specific about where you need help
Provide relevant context on your background, goals and challenges
Ask direct, precise questions that unlock actionable advice
When you get granular about your needs and situation, you give mentors the tools to provide high-impact guidance. You differentiate yourself as a serious, focused candidate. And you foster productive relationships with recruiters and networking contacts that can open doors.
The quality of the job search advice you receive is directly proportional to the quality of the questions you ask. The more thought and care you put into your inquiries, the more valuable and tailored the insights you'll get back.
How to Ask Targeted Questions
Now that you understand the importance of context, let's dive into the art of asking targeted job search questions. The key is to get specific about what you need help with and give concise yet crucial context.
Here's a simple formula for formulating stellar job search questions and best examples you can use: