I am sure you have wondered: why are you still unemployed in spite of your serious effort and strong desire to get the job of your choice? Many expect a simple, short and precise answer. Unfortunately there is nothing like that. The reason for this is that the employment process is complex, and usually in stages. And progress often depends on success at the previous stages.
The other reason is that the recruitment process is imprecise, varying from company to company, and from one individual responsible for recruitment to another. The least you can do is to position yourself for better chance by acquiring the relevant job search skills. For you, it may just be that you are not getting one particular stage or skill right; for others, it may be two or three or more!
• Know and understand yourself. I hope this does not surprise you-most of us do not know ourselves enough to make informed decision about our job/career direction. I was talking to an applicant sometimes ago. He majored in one of the Modern European languages, worked in one of the nation’s security services for four years, and has been ‘helping’ his uncle for the past three years. Now what does he want from me?
He wants me to advise him on what work he should be looking for. I asked him what skills he thinks he has for a possible clue on career direction. He could not say precisely. This is often the case when an applicant says he/she is ready to do ‘any job that is available’.
Really your job and career goal depends on the skills you have, personal preferences/aptitude, and life and career, goals. Skills are the foundation of job search. Employers want to know what it is you can do for them. What are skills you may want to ask?
A simple but appropriate definition is that a skill is anything you can do now. There are three categories of skills – job skills, self-management skills and transferable skills. Everyone has skills, hundreds of skills, many of which employers are looking for. Yet most people can only identify a few, and are not able to describe them to the employer. Experts agree that skill identification is essential to a successful job hunt.
Now do you have personal goals in life? Where do you want to be in five, 10, 20, 30, 40 years time with a vision, most young people today are just drifting in the sea of life.
An individual without a vision is like a sea-going vessel without a compass. For a job search to be purposeful and focused, an applicant needs to have a job objective please not the meaningless verbosity you see in most Résumé/CVs. What do you enjoy doing? What are your personal qualities and traits? Does your identified attitude, style and temperament fit you career direction?
• Understand the employers hiring process and attitude. In most situations, employment/hiring have been turned to a two-lane expressway – where there is little or no contact between on coming and on going vehicles. For example, declaring a vacancy via newspaper advert is the last option for most employers. Unfortunately a significant number of applicants depend on want-add alone for their job lead. However over 80 per cent of positions are not advertised before they are filled. When was the last time you saw job advertisement from Guaranty Trust Bank, NNPC, CBN, Shell, Dangote Group, etc. Employers expect that you actively look for them, and declare your interest and intention to work for them. But when you desire to work for any organisation what do you do? You approach the personnel department for information and possible assistance. Right? Wrong. The major role of personnel department in the recruitment process is to screen you out!
From the foregoing, it is obvious that job hunting is complex, and requires some specific skills, knowledge and attitude. We won’t be able to complete looking at the topic today.
by - Olu Oyeniran
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