Looking for job is not fun. Not at all. It can be lonely,frustrating and discouraging. And it can be tough on your ego. But then, it is something nearly everybody past the age of consent will have to go through; at least once in a life – time, most likely five times. And like most things, there is a right way of going about finding a good job … well not exactly – if what you are expecting is a fool-proof mathematical formula!
Really, more accurate thing to say is that these is a way of looking for work that definitely increase your chances of finding a good job, and there is also a way that not only reduces these chances, but also makes your job search miserable and discouraging to the bargain.
True, it is possible to get a good job today even when you doing everything ‘the wrong way’. But the point is this: The more you know about what works and what does not in job search, the better the chances that you will be one of those to get the dream jobs, which was the purpose of this series. Let us proceed to examine the last three factors that they injure your chances of getting a good job in the shortest possible time.
• Poor conduct and presentation. “Qualifications are important,” said one respondent in a survey, “but it is the whole person that I am interested in. How much does that person come across? How enthusiastic is this person. How positive is this individual? That is so important.” But how do you communicate this in the course of job interview? It is not only about what you will say, but also about how you say it, including non-verbal expression. Findings upon findings indicated that within the first few minutes of any personal meeting with somebody who has the power to hire you or screen you out, the decision has pretty much been made.
And to your personality/traits. For example, are you stable? Don’t answer yes or no. Employer has their way of discovering people with extreme behaviour of any type: inability to stay focused on an issue, disorganisation beyond the normal range, personal drive for success and achievement, honesty and integrity, people and interpersonal skills, dependability, loyalty, sense of responsibility etc. Good candidates who cannot effectively communicate their ‘goodness’ have lost out in the race for good jobs notwithstanding their impressive credentials.
• Poor interview skills as competence as often said in this column. There are basically five questions you • Why are you here?
• What can you do for us?
• What kind of a person are you?
• What distinguish you from the other if 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.
When an interviewer looks at your resume and says: “You’ve been out of work for quite some time, haven’t you?” Or when you 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. Do you have defence for these questions and other uncomfortable questions that may come up?
• Ineffective job hunt strategy. If you are not going to anywhere in particular, any road will lead you there. For us, the fundamental of job hunt strategy is to determine your job target/objectives i.e, which job would you want to do. Where, in terms of 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 that’s “interesting”, “challenging” that offers “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: How much? Where (industry, location, level, etc. And it is such beautiful prose of no value, or sometimes bombastic phrases that recruitment personnel see most of the time. Most of them consider them empty and irritating
If we assume that you have your job objectives /target, the question then, how 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?.
For most job hunters, opportunity rarely knocks, not even once. Job seekers who want to succeed will have to do the knocking, the digging, the searching. It must be done actively or better still, pro-actively. You have to develop your own leads, and figure out the test way to follow them up. Most job hunters rely on the conventional route. Unfortunately, the conventional route is 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. Most job seekers spend 90 per cent of their time working hard to fail by doing just that – waiting!
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.
Many things can be wrong with your job search, which may be responsible for your prolonged stay in the unemployment queue. These last three articles were not meant to weigh you down; but to give you a framework to execute your job search campaign. It can also give you a rear-mirror view for the purposes of correcting your ‘unforced errors’. So, it is 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.
A personal NOTE to you: The job market in Nigeria is competitive. Passing aptitude tests is not enough. Give yourself a bigger and unfair advantage. Visit www.jobsearchhow.com.ng/jobhuntingmanual for more information.
