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Searching for a new job can be a challenging process. We all want to find the perfect job that will be personally satisfying and give us financial stability. While there are no magic ways to guarantee job offers pour in, there are a few concrete ways to improve your chances.

Look for Job Postings Online
These days, most jobs are posted online. Search a variety of websites for job listings like Naukri, Indeed, Monster Jobs, etc. Many companies and public institutions post their job openings right on their websites. Many websites collect a wide variety of job openings. These sites may list many jobs, but not all will fit you well.

Still, keep on searching for jobs and send your resume to every email id that you find online. You don't know if a recruiter is working on multiple positions.

Connect with people on Linkedin
I have seen people just sending connection requests to others on LinkedIn. Still, they forget that the essential part of connecting is to build a trusted relationship with the person on this professional platform.

Therefore, try to send a message to the people that you connect with on Linkedin introducing yourself and also letting them know that you are looking for a job change. This will allow them to connect with you on an individual level and they will also inform you if they come across any job openings in their organization.

Tap into your personal relationships
These days, many people get their jobs through personal relationships and networking. You are more likely to get a job if you have someone on the inside pushing for you to get hired. Don't be afraid to let the people in your life know that you are looking for work. You never know who will have a good line on the perfect job for you.

There are a variety of websites that specialize in helping you organize your professional networks. These sites may help you to tap a variety of personal relationships when searching for a job.

Seek out help in your job search
If you are really in need of a job fast, public services, such as your state's employment department, may be the best place to turn. Contact them about what kind of services they may be able to offer you. Many have job counseling programs that may fit your needs.

Practice possible interview questions
An interview usually has two types of questions, technical questions and HR questions. Technical questions gauge whether you know how to do the job you are applying for, and HR questions are designed to see if you are a team player. You will need to be able to answer both types of questions with confidence. 

Some examples of HR questions are:

How do you handle criticism?

How well do you work on a team? etc

Have a professional appearance when going to your interview
While the appropriate attire will vary, depending on the job you are applying for and the company you are applying to, your appearance should always be neat and clean when interviewing for a job.

Make sure that in addition to being dressed nicely, with professional clothes that are neat and clean, that you have also done some personal grooming before your interview. Small issues, such as body odor or messy hair, while not necessarily a deal breaker, can be a huge distraction for the people interviewing you. The goal is for your personality and experience to shine, so don't sidetrack those interviewing you with other things.

Several of my friends had asked it before and continue to ask if they can switch their careers to "Data Analytics". It may be because initially they were interested in Sales or some other department and then they were fed up with the work or maybe because of the salaries.

For several years now, salaries of regular posts have started to see some decline, especially in Sales, this is because most of the sales are now done through online modes, because of which there has been more competition for all the sales employees that get a job in the initial stages.

If you are also someone who is fed up with your job in Sales or in HR, this answer will clear your doubts about switching your career to "Data Analytics".

I would not take much time and explain what Data Analytics as a subject is because that will take us to a different tangent altogether, but to make it simple for you - YES YOU CAN SWITCH YOUR CAREER TO DATA ANALYTICS.

This is because Data Analytics is just understanding the data and exploring insights using the data that is with you. You would have done it in your Sales or HR jobs as well while creating your Presentations or while giving the Sales or Attrition Reports to your management.

It's the same analysis but with the help of some sophisticated tools.

So, how can you switch your career to Data Analytics?
One of the best ways will be to get a certification in "Data Analytics" from some institute or some online courses because they will be able to handhold you whenever needed. This will also make you more confident in the tools that you may be using.

Having said that, you can still learn Data Analytics without any course at all, and that is possible by following below steps:

1. Start learning Advance Excel:
   If you really want to join an organization as a Data Analyst, you should be confident in using Excel. It should be your go-to software to exploit all the loopholes and formulas. There shouldn't be any corner of Excel that you don't have explored. This you can do by checking out videos or searching for articles that can help you understand various formulas.
   
   Then you should practice using those formulas in Excel spreadsheets using some dummy data. This is important to hone your skills in advance Excel. This should include, VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, INDEX, MATCH, IF, NESTED IFS, etc. Also, it will be great if you can learn VBA (Visual Basics for Excel), as this will help you in developing several dashboards and macros that you can showcase to your potential employer.
    
2. Start learning Statistics or at least its Basics:
   Statistics is applied mathematics that you can use in any field that you are in. For example, if you are in sales then you can always use average or percentage change in sales of online vs offline shops. And if you are in HR you can use it to showcase trending changes in attrition across different companies in your sector.
   
   This is also important because statistics helps you in creating a story behind the data. It will help you in understanding what tools are doing and how you can explain it to the management. Further, statistics is an integral part of any Data Analytics project, so it is always good to have a good knowledge of the same.
    
3. One of the first tools should be Power BI:
   There are several colleges or courses that can help you in learning Power BI. It is a Business Intelligence tool by Microsoft, similar to Power Point, and has some functionalities similar to Excel's Pivot Table. Therefore, your first go-to tool should be Power BI in learning Data Analytics or the tools that can help you in making Data Analysis more faster and efficient.
   
   One of the important things to understand is that tools like Power BI help in visualization as well. This is because Businesses not only require insights into data but that should also be in a proper way.
   
   Power BI has simple one-click charts and maps that can help you create different dashboards and reports that you can showcase during your interviews as well. Also, there is a demand for Power Bi these days, therefore if you will put Power BI in your resume, you will start getting more calls.
    
4. Start building stuff:
   Although I can suggest more tools like R, Python, Tableau, and Alteryx, it is always better to first start with basics and easier tools to gain confidence. 
   
   So, the best way is by developing and analyzing data. 
   
   Try working on dummy data, clean it using excel macros and then fetch the data in Power BI to create good-looking dashboards. Although there are advance formulas in Power BI as well, but you should focus mainly on developing dashboards using the components that are readily available to you.

What should be your course of action?
When you have decided to switch your career to "Data Analytics", it is always better to keep on practicing using your own dashboards and checking out several sample dashboards that have been built online by several people or experts. 

You should try to dismember those dashboards and then create them one by one.

This can be done to improve your ability to back track the overall functionalities of the dashboards that have already been built. Then you can add Power BI and other tools in your resume as well. This will help in making your resume stand out as you would have listed some of the work on your resume.

Then ensure to keep on learning new software and techniques to achieve more expertise on Data Analysis Tools. This is important because landing an entry level job in Data Analytics will be easy, but to grow in the same, you should be able to first enhance your knowledge as there are several changes happening in the Data Analytics Domain these days.

Conclusion:
These days data analytics has become a wide term and there have several technologies come into picture which were not there initially. Several organizations want people that have industry specific knowledge in this field. Therefore, you should try and explore more and more information about Data Analytics while you learn the basics.

It is always better to explore domains like website development or Google Apps Script to add it to your resume, as the demand in the industries is growing for cheaper analytical softwares.

In the end, I would like to say that you can surely switch career to data analytics domain, just ensure to be dedicated. It is not easy in this field but you can surely make fortune if you are interested in Data Side of the Story.

Although it is never recommended to create blogs on a free blogging website, you can still manage to create your blogs for free, and that too on a trusted website, that will help you at least start your career in blogging.

First, understand why we don't encourage creating blogs on free hosting sites, and there are several issues with free blogging websites. For example;

1. You may not be able to use AdSense or some other way of monetizing your blog if you are using free web or blog hosting.
2. Free blogging websites may shut down their business and hence you may lose your content.
3. If something happens or if your free blogging site was hacked, your personal information will also be with the hackers.
4. You may be limited to how many users can you have or how much traffic you can have on your blog.
5. Free blogging websites are usually for personal use.

Having listed all the above problems, I still want you to start your blogging journey with less or no money so that you can make a living writing blogs and creating articles or simply following your passion.

There are two main ways to start blogging;

1. Using Blogging Websites like thewiki Network: Websites like thewiki Network allow users to create blogs and personal profiles. You can post your blogs and work to create your brand, and because this network is a trusted brand hence you don't have to fear it getting closed anytime soon.
   
   New bloggers can set up their profiles and can also use them as a repository for their work, which they can share along with their resumes. This helps in showcasing your abilities to potential employers whenever they try to search for you.
   
   One of the best ways to monetize your profile on thewiki Network is by allowing Guest Posts.
   
   Consider you have good reach globally because you have been using thewiki Network for some time now. Your articles get indexed on Google and other Search Engines easily, because of which brands would like to connect with you to post their articles or at least mention their products and services. For doing so, you can be paid a hefty amount.
   
   You can also monetize your profile by advertising for big brands that may connect with you and would like to place their ads on your profile. This is a great way to monetize your profile and create a brand for yourself as well.
   
   One of the reasons that I recommend it for freshers is because freshers can post several blogs without paying anything, which helps them in getting good practice on their writing skills and they also get good exposure initially because thewiki Network is also Google News Approved, but ensure that you are adding content that is not plagiarized and is long at least 1000 words and above. This will get your blog or article an instant hit whenever you will post it.
   
   This is not possible on other blogging websites like Medium etc, where people are limited if they are not premium users and hence this also limits the number of articles one can post, and hence the practice remains at the backend always.
   
   You can even use thewiki Network to check how good your article is even before posting it on your own website. This is because any article that you post on thewiki Network gets indexed by Google and other Search Engines in a few minutes, therefore whenever you add a new article, you can see its potential and also check if it is good enough and how it may perform in the future.
    
2. Use Blogger Dot Com: Blogger Dot Come is another website that you can use to create your own blogs for free and that too without any coding knowledge.
   
   You can simply sign up with Blogger and set up your blog on their subdomains. For example, yourname.blogger.com
   
   This ensures that you have an idea of how you use your own websites. Having said that there is one good news for blogger users, and that they can even use Google Adsense for monetizing their blogs, which might not be possible on other websites.
   
   Also, because it is a product of Google itself, therefore you can even have full confidence that this website will not get shut down any time soon. One more thing, you will get good hands-on ideas about how to use websites and can even go deep into understanding how to install themes and add-ons to make your website more professional looking.
   
   I still remember using Blogger as my first blogging website, because at that time I was not having good finances, and blogging was one of the few things that I started to do. I started a travel blog and then added recipes on the same. But obviously that I used to do it as my hobby and not as a job-seeking opportunity. Hence it never grew after a certain point when I started working more formal jobs.

These two methods are the best ones that I can suggest today, because, at the end of the day, you also need to have all your content safe in one place, and storing it on your computer never does anything good. Any article you write should be on a blogging website because there it will start getting traffic and this is how people from across different territories and timespans connect with each other.

Consider this like your bank account. If you are earning money, you should have it in your bank account or else money will only lose its value on a daily basis, and when it is in your account in that case it will keep on earning interest.

Similarly, when you post your articles on blog websites or on the above-mentioned websites, you keep on generating traffic on your articles and hence increasing your ability to make a fortune someday.

Also, if you have a profile and all your articles in one place, you have something to show your potential clients or companies that hire. I have seen people not having their articles on their blogging websites because of which they have to share PDF files and Word files with their potential clients.

This creates clutter in the email and also makes it difficult for people to navigate through your articles, and if they are using their mobile phones, in that case, most of them would prefer your articles in an online format.

On the other hand, if you have all your blogs in an online format, then it becomes easier for clients to navigate through your repository and the work that you have done. It also looks more professional to see a published article rather than sharing PDF files. Having said that a published article is also more responsive to mobile screens, making it easier for people to view your articles.

Conclusion;
It is easy to set up your blogs online and that too for free, just ensure that you use the above two mentioned websites, and if you want to rank faster on Search Engines, then you can surely use thewiki Network.

Although Blogger is also good, you will see results much faster if you use thewiki Network and can also create your own profile and can add articles much faster by just registering on it. Moreover, if you want a more website-like interface so that you are able to experience subdomains, then you can go for Blogger.

Just take this step and register for the services and start hitting your keyboard to start writing, and you will soon see the results.

thewiki Network is also like a small writers community where you can ask questions and grow with the community by asking questions and referring to materials and other professional bloggers, which will ultimately help you grow big.