How to Find Jobs Near Me

Finding a job near your home is on many people's wish list, so much so that ‘jobs near me’ is the most popular job search term across the whole of the United States.  However, the task of finding a job which is a short walk, drive or commute away is becoming increasingly challenging and can feel like a bit of a minefield, with no idea where to begin or what tools to use!  

We therefore felt it was time to write a guide, to pass on all we know about the best way to find ‘jobs near you’ as well as discussing the ways to improve your chances of getting hired into one!

List your priorities

When searching for a ‘job near me’ it is important for you to think about how high the proximity of the job location ranks above other factors, eg, the role, the salary, the benefits, the working hours and work conditions.  Although it might be possible to find a job at a restaurant which is just under a mile away, you might find that being expected to work unsociable hours is less appealing than traveling 2 miles for a job at a cafe that only requires you to be in from 9am - 3pm for example.

Listing your priorities will help you narrow your job search, increase your efficiency and increase your chances of finding a job that matches your aspirations.

Expand your local network

Take the time to discover what businesses / employers are located in close proximity to your home and make a list of those that you would be interested in working for.  If you are able to, visit those potential employers (most likely for hospitality and retail roles) and ask if they have any vacancies or expect to have any in the near future.  Make sure you take a copy of your resume as even if they are not hiring, they will possibly ask to keep a copy on file.  

Furthermore, if they aren’t hiring now, ask them if they know of any similar employers that are hiring at the moment.  Across all industries, employees are often aware of what is going on at other companies that are hiring in their space, so tap into their network and see if you can get a steer towards a suitable career opportunity.

Use DirectlyApply’s Zone Search

In theory, a good online job site should be able to match you with relevant vacancies for your particular job search.  However most, if not almost all of these sites, are unable to accurately match your job search to your current location.  There are many reasons for this however to help you visualize part of the issues, during your job search, you have likely been asked by a job site to provide a radius in miles as to how far you want the job search to cover.  Unfortunately, taking a radius from a fixed point, is an incredibly basic way of discovering what jobs are actually able to be classified as a ‘job near me’.  For example, radius search does not account or give consideration for your ability to commute around a city, nor geographic entities such as the ocean, rivers, mountains etc or jobs that are just 1 mile outside the fixed radius zone.

However, DirectlyApply’s zone search enables you to pick out ‘zones’ that you are able to work in.  For example, a radius search may include a part of town that is split by a railroad or lake (that takes time to drive around) but will exclude an area that is outside the radius but faster to drive to as there are excellent road networks or, for example, a bridge that connects up the town.  DirectlyApply zone feature enables you to take advantage of your local knowledge and select the exact areas that you would work in and therefore consider a ‘job near me’.

Attend Employment Agencies

Local employment agencies, both private and government backed, will often have lists of local jobs that are sometimes not listed anywhere else.  Furthermore, these agencies will often be incentivized in a variety of ways to help you find work, so it is possible that once  you tell them the type of work you are willing to do as well as the general location, they will actively look for opportunities with your resume in mind.

Agencies will often know what skills local employers are looking for and can even help you to ‘up skill’ if your current experience doesn't match what employers are looking for.  For example Government back agencies will often offer courses or assist you in obtaining certifications in various in demand skills to help you secure a new role.

Remote Work

Technically the closest ‘job near me’ would be remote work, from your own home and whilst this isn’t an option for every role, it is certainly worth considering where possible  We have previously written a guide on how to find a work from home job and it would be worth checking this out alongside putting into practice the advice from this article.

Whenever you are looking to narrow your job search, either by location, title or level of seniority, you are going to always need to be more strategic in your approach.  So when looking for ‘jobs near me’, make sure to expand your local network, make use of any resources available (on and offline) and be open to exploring new avenues.  Finally, what is most important is determination and persistence, keep going and your chances of landing a ‘job near me’ only gets higher!