New year, new job? 10 tips to jump-start your search

CHICAGO – Do you remember, about 365 days ago, when you raised a champagne flute and pledged to find a new job in the coming year? Well, here you are, still hunched over the same desk, still itching for a change.

So 2016 it is. For real this time.

Here are 10 tips for jump-starting your job hunt before inertia relegates it to the trash heap of dead New Year's resolutions.

• Find your objective strengths. Review the results of your Myers-Briggs or another personality test and remind yourself of the keywords that describe you and what you're good at, said Karen Cates, a management consultant, executive coach and adjunct professor of executive education at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

• Embrace what comes easy. Take a hard look at your résumé and pick out the five things that were really easy for you to do and that you enjoyed doing, because playing to those natural talents will help you distinguish yourself, said Whitney Johnson, author of "Disrupt Yourself: Putting the Power of Disruptive Innovation to Work."

• Pinpoint your unhappiness. Drilling down to the source of your malaise helps determine what needs to change.

• What's the end game? Rather than ask what you want to do, ask yourself how you want to feel every morning when you wake up, Cates said. Do you want to feel calm or energized? Like you're part of a team or independent? What is the ideal end game?

• Investigate the market. Before you dust off your résumé and start shooting it at online job postings, have conversations with people familiar with your desired position to learn where the jobs are and what you should be doing as a candidate to boost your chances.

• Clarify your message. The fact that you are unhappy and will do anything to get out of your hated job is neither useful nor attractive, so you should formulate specific answers to basic questions early on: What are you looking to do? Why should someone hire you? Why are you leaving your current job?

Rehearse what you would say if you were asked those questions by a potential employer, making sure you're not too vague. The message will likely shift and sharpen as you gather information.

• Recast your résumé. In the section at the top of your résumé that explains what you wish to accomplish, use the keywords from your personality tests to give a lens through which employers can perceive the rest of your experience, Cates said.

• Hire a boss. Look for a boss who will be a sponsor and advocate for you when it's time for you to move up the ranks, Johnson said. Weigh that potential not by what they promise to do, but what they have done in the past.