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Having a Job is one of lives most important ventures yet a good job can sometimes be hard to come by. The work force is a very competitive place and so it is important to put time and effort into making yourself the best candidate for the job. You may already have the required skills, experience, and education for a job but now you must relay your qualifications to a prospective employer and prove that YOU and no one else is best fit for the position. Taking care to follow these four simple steps may just be all you need to put yourself above the curve and into the job of your dreams.
The Four Steps of Job Seeking:
1) Know Yourself
Take a minute to reflect on yourself. Before you can convince an employer that you are the best person for the job you must know why you think that you are the best for the job. Make a list of all of you past accomplishments and be honest. Include all the obvious things such as education, work experience, personal accomplishments, and volunteer work, however don’t forget the not so obvious such as things you enjoy, things you do well, characteristics, and personal traits. Knowing yourself involves knowing all your strong points, and there is much to be said about a person who knows their abilities as a good communicator, great team player, or a creative and innovative person who enjoys the many facets of life.
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Use your current list of accomplishments to narrow down a group of industries that you are interested in and qualified for. Web sites such as “link three” may help you to find some careers that fit your education background that you may not have otherwise thought of. Begin to network and find contacts in the industries that interest you. Networks can come from your current job, your college, friends, or other organizations in your industry. A good contact is one who can provide insight to job openings, give you a reference, or industry advice. Many times a contact will place you in a job be for the classifieds will. The more people you meet the more opportunities you will have. While you are networking, keep you eye on the job listings. There are many different resources for job listings and most are know found on the internet. Check out you local job classifieds, your former college department may have job listings for their graduate students, and even sites such as craigslist often offer opportunities that may not be listed anywhere else. Also research some of the industry’s companies own webpages, they often contain an available employment section.
Resume links
The internet is full of resume writing guides. Find one that best fits your information and background. There are many sample resumes that you can follow as well as guides to writing cover letters. Choose one that will highlight all of your accomplishments while not drawing attention to the things that you may lack (e.g. certain work experience or education). When you finish you resume use it as a base, for future applications but make sure that you continue to make minor alterations for each application you submit. Every job is a little different and your resume should be altered to highlight your accomplishments that are most applicable to the position. Do not use the same resume for every job unless they are identical positions.
Interview Questions
Interviewing can be the most challenging part of the job searching process but learning to be a good interviewee can make you stand out above your competitors even when your resume is lacking in qualifications. There are whole courses that are dedicated to this topic but here are a few tips that will help you through your interviews right off the bat.
- Prepare for your interview the night before. Go over your list of accomplishments that you created and practice answering common interview questions. Be prepared to describe your duties of previous jobs, how you have overcome or dealt with issues in your previous employment, what makes you a good candidate for the job, and why you are applying for the job. Search “interview questions” for other popular questions that you should be prepared for. Also prepare a few short questions that you have for the interviewer about the job.
- Dress to impress. There is no such thing as being over dressed for an interview. Your attire alone can be the difference maker in getting the job. Don’t be among the ones who were thrown out simply because they didn’t come in a shirt and tie.
- Arrive 15 minutes early. Just like a picture is worth a thousand words, so is arriving early. It says with out speaking that you are a reliable, responsible, person who cares and is dedicated to his/her work.
- Keep your responses relevant. When answering questions about how you have dealt with issues at work, your interviewer does not want to hear about your dead cat. Be specific and relevant to the question.
- Smile. Be positive and upbeat. A person’s demeanor and body language can sometimes speak louder than the words they are saying. Show them that you can be personable.
David Gavel takes full responsibility for the information posted. The information on this page represents that of David Gavel and not that of California State University Sacramento .