This is the last of this series on master skills essential for a successful job search. The objective is for us to focus on potential sources of errors, mistakes and inadequacies of our job hunting. We shall cover the last two of 10 reasons that may explain why we are unable to get the job of our dream or any job for that matter.
Develop/acquire excellent interview skills
As often said in this column, there are basically five questions you get at job interviews:
• Why are you here?
• What can you do for us?
• What kind of a person are you?
• What distinguishes you from the other people who have the same ability as you have? And finally
• Can we afford you?
So, if a job seeker does not have answers to these questions before any interview, then he/she hasn't started to look for work. (This has been thoroughly treated in one of the past presentations).
When an interviewer looks at your resume and says: "You've been out of work for quite some time, haven't you?" Or when your resume reveals a record of perhaps six jobs in eight years or when you are considered too young, too old, too short for heavy etc. What is your defence for these questions and other uncomfortable questions that may come up?
At the end of most interviews, you are given the opportunity to ask the interviewer(s) questions. Most candidates waste this beautiful opportunity by not asking strategic questions that will position them as the right candidate for the job. Most candidates also fail to directly and pointedly ask for the job. It is not enough to do well at the interview.
Perhaps the greatest sin committed by an uncomfortable large number of job interview candidates is the failure to follow-up the interview. The interviewer(s) gave you the opportunity to "sell" yourself, gave you their valuable time and perhaps encouragement before and/or during the exercise. The least you can do is to let them know that you appreciate all they gave you. It can be a clincher in very competitive job selection process.
Plot a winning job–hunt strategy
If you are not going anywhere in particular, any road will lead you there. For us, the fundamental of job hunt strategy is to determine your job target/objectives which job would you want to do. Where, i.e., which sector or industry or company or geographic locale. In short, you need to construct a thoughtful, practical and achievable job target/objective statement.
A job thats "interesting", "challenging" that offers the "opportunity" for "personal growth" or "personal expression" look good and adorable as job objectives. But they are inadequate unless tied to some fairly concrete goals. And it is such beautiful prose of no value, or sometimes bombastic phrases that recruitment personnel see most of the time.
If we assume that you have your job objectives/target, the question then, how to do you reach this objective? How do you get a shot at your dream job without which you stand no chance of getting it at all? Usually to reach a goal, there are a number of ways and means – some effective, some ineffective. It is very important to determine and use the most effective and efficient means for you.
For most job hunters, the opportunity rarely knocks, not even once. Job seekers who want to succeed will have to do the knocking, the digging, and the searching. It must be done actively or better still, pro-actively. You have to develop your own leads, and figure out the best way to follow them up.
Most job hunters rely on the conventional route. Unfortunately, the conventional route in job hunting is crowded. The odds are long, and the going is slow.
One of the worst mistakes you can make in a job search is to stop moving forward: to sit back and wait for jobs or job leads to locate them, for employers, for recruitment agencies to call, for job advertisements that appeal to you to appear in the newspapers. That way, job seekers spend 90 per cent of their time working hard to fail by doing just that- waiting!
Jobs can originate almost anywhere – from dozen of sources but they differ in terms of both the number of leads they generate and the quality of those leads. It is up to you to set up your strategy accordingly. One last thing about job – hunt strategy: you must ever be willing to change your strategy if the ones you are using appear not to be yielding result.
Babies are born everyday. But that is not to say that the process of conception to delivery is a sure, certain and riskless endeavour. Many things can, and often go wrong, ending the story in an entirely different, sometimes tragic direction.
Think for a moment what athletes go through to achieve glory – great odds, various obstacles, challenges and set backs. Many things could have gone wrong, and the story will be different.
Many things can be wrong with your job search, which may be responsible for your prolonged stay in the unemployment queue. The article is not meant to weigh you down; but to give you a framework to execute your current job search campaign. It is also going to be useful in evaluating your efforts and strategies employed so far in the quest for that your dream job. And then seek to change things that need be done differently.
People get jobs everyday. Yours is at hand.
Good luck.
by - Olu Oyeniran
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