5 Things To Pay Attention To As a Job Seeker In this New Era

The journey after university is not an easy one. This is the beginning of what is going to be a long, interesting career filled with changes at some points. Unlike the world that our grandparents or parents used to live in, your time and era are different.

50 years ago, all that people cared about was going to school, getting a good degree, and waiting as companies came in rushing for their services.

Many believed that once you got employed by a company, all you had to do was to work hard and stay committed to work because your company will be loyal to you. This is no longer true!

Gone are the days when a person could work in the same company or job for over 30 or 40 years of his working life.

If there is one thing that you must know right from the very beginning, then it is the fact that change is what seems to be the only constant now. The rate at which new technologies are popping up, unexpected events, and the increasing skills needed in our working world demands that at every point in your career, you possess the relevant skills that can make your career a success. 

Your inability to change with the trends might cause you to get stuck in your career and even possibly get you out of a job.

This means that the privileges that our parents and grandparents enjoyed aren’t there for you anymore. You just can’t sit down and expect that companies will come looking for you. You have to be the person on the lookout for the job.

Your ability to have a career filled with several successful experiences depends on how well you are able to manage the different phases that you will find yourself in.

The first phase comes when you leave the academic world. One thing that you should be aware of is the fact that schooling and the world of work are entirely two different things. How things operate in the educational sector is way different from how things operate in real life. There will be no lectures, no quizzes, no interim assessments, or final year examinations. 

Your ability to get the job you’re looking for after school will depend on how well you are able to market yourself and articulate the skills and experiences you have garnered during your lifetime. There are some things you must possess in order to succeed in the job market.

In the job market, you will not be evaluated based on the class you came up with. You will be judged based on the school you came from. You will be evaluated based on the value you provide and how integral you are to your company’s activities.

Even after you have landed the job you want, there will be times when unforeseen challenges come up. You might face the possibility of being laid off due to an external situation like COVID 19. Your company’s finance might not be all that good which means they might have to lay off workers. 

Regardless of the changes that might come your way, you have to learn how to use the experiences you have had in a previous work setting to gain the next job you’re looking for.

Research shows that the average person is likely to change about 10 to 12 jobs during the course of their career. If this is so, how prepared are you when the time comes to change from a job to another or even from one career to an entirely new career?

How well you manage your career will determine how fast your progress within the ranks of your company, how fast you get a job when you are laid off, or even the salary that you will take up in an organisation.

Career management doesn’t start when you are in need of a job. Your career starts the very moment you step into the university. This is because that is the breeding ground for everything that might happen in the years to come. You need to learn how to manage your career after school, and during the rest of your life.

Managing your career is not something that you do once a year. This is an ongoing activity that takes place. In a world where companies can fire people at will, having a resilient job search strategy and some solid career management skills will ensure that no matter the situation you might be experiencing, you have the requisite tools needed to weather that storm.

There is no one who can manage your career for you. Never depend on your bosses, employers, family, teachers, or even career professionals to manage your career for you. In order to live a life that gives you fulfillment, financial security, and freedom, you must learn to manage your own career. 

The attitude you have towards your career has to change. You need to see yourself as a corporation on its own with you being the CEO. Thus, you are the boss of U Inc. The same way businesses have Finance, Marketing and Sales, R&D departments, so must your life also have these departments. You must work on managing your finances, increasing your productivity, marketing, and selling your unique skills to your potential employers.

When you see your career as a business that you lead and manage, how you treat yourself will be different. You will invest time to research your career, develop skills that you need in order to stay ahead of the competition. This is because how successful you are depends on these areas.

The amount of time you invest in growing U Inc. will depend on how valuable the entity will be. Your ability to manage every part of this organisation will also determine how fast you experience success in your corporate and personal life.

As part of your career management, there are some tools that you should always have as a job seeker.

1. Your resume

Your resume is going to be a very important tool needed in your career management. In almost every kind of job that you’ll have to apply for, you need to send a copy of your resume. Your resume is the first point of contact between you and your potential employer. The ability to impress and convince your employers with your resume is what will determine whether you get called in for an interview or not. 

Your resume can thus speed up or sabotage your efforts to succeed in your career. You might have all the experience, certifications, and skillsets needed for a particular job but if your resume cannot articulate these competencies on your resume, then your potential employers might find it difficult giving you that job. 

One thing you should also note is that when you send in a resume, you will never be there to explain yourself. You have no idea who might be reading your resume at any given time. When you see your resume as your number one sales document, you will do all you can to make sure that it accurately represents you. 

Your resume is your lawyer, advocate, marketer, and salesman. It is your statement of purpose and your chief supporter. If your resume is good, it increases your chances of getting that interview. A good and well-tailored resume is hard to come by these days. With the advent of the ATS system, your resume must now be even more tailored to the target job you want so you can even pass the first stage of the recruitment process.

2. LinkedIn Profile and Cover Letter

Having a digital presence is increasingly becoming one of the most important tools you could have. Your LinkedIn profile is there for all to see at any given time by anyone from any part of this world. It is not enough to have a well-crafted resume. That alone cannot guarantee you a job. 

You need to learn how to optimize your digital presence and become more visible to your potential employers, recruiters, and hiring managers alike. A cover letter is also one of the important tools to possess.

This letter is what introduces you to your potential employer. The first impression, they say lasts. Thus when your cover letter is able to make a lasting positive impression on your recruiter, it increases the tendencies that they will read your resume.

3. Networking Plan

Your network being your net worth is indeed a very true statement. How connected you are will play a very crucial role when it comes to how fast you get that job. Over 30% of jobs are ever advertised!

So it means that the rest of the 70% are in the hidden job market. How do you tap into this hidden job market when the strength of your connections or network is weak? 

There is indeed truth in the saying that you are just 5 connections away from your dream job. Even if the person you know cannot directly offer you a job, he/she might also know somebody who might be in a position to help. You must therefore be intentional and strategic when it comes to growing your network. You must never remain an island unto yourself. 

Whenever you get the opportunity to network with others, take it with both hands. You never know how that person might turn out to be your golden referrer when you need it the most.

4. Social media strategy

Social media has come to stay for good. This is not the time to be asking yourself whether it is good for you to be on social media or not. Your absence on social media is to your own detriment. The question you must be asking yourself is how you can effectively utilize social media to achieve your career goals and ambitions. 

In a world that is rapidly being digitized, you stand the chance of phasing out if you still stick to your own world. You must be where your potential employers are. Majority of companies have social media presence and engage their customers as well as the public there.

They post their job vacancies and also hire from these social media platforms. That CEO, hiring manager, recruiter, HR manager of the company you sent that application too is on LinkedIn, Twitter, or probably Instagram. That is a privilege that you can leverage to your advantage.

You now have the access and opportunity to reach to these key decision-makers. LinkedIn must definitely be one of the platforms you should be on as a professional. Because that’s where most professionals are. 

Choose from the avalanche of platforms we have and understand how unique each one is from the other. Then craft a plan that seeks to use that platform effectively during our career. There are countless people who got jobs on social media. Many people got access to the main decision-makers in companies all because they made it a priority to be where their potential employers were.

5. Interviewing skills

Part of the skills you must learn and develop relates to interviews. The most important function of a resume is to get you an interview invite. That’s all it can do for you. However, whether you get that job or not depends on how impressive and convincing you are when you sit in that interview room or have that virtual interview.

The interview is the last opportunity you have to convince your employers that you are the best applicant for that job. Even if your resume is excellent, and your interviewing abilities are poor, it might be very difficult getting that job. Your interview ability is therefore an art that you must work on during the course of your lifetime since you will be having several interviews during your lifetime. 

Your resume can open the door or you, but if care is not taken, your interviewing abilities might send you packing home. You don’t get better at interviews just by sitting down and wishing it into being. You have to devote time to learn, rehearse for interviews, and well as incorporating the feedback you get from these interviews.

The ball is now in your court. What other things do you think you need in order to succeed in your career?

Lord Klukpui is a Career Management and Development Consultant, Job Search Specialist with years of experience in providing integrated career solutions. His services have been with clients facing diverse challenges in their careers. He has a passion for helping clients pursue careers that give them fulfillment, financial security, and freedom by offering services like resume and cover writing, academic CVs and personal statement writing, LinkedIn profile optimisation, job search strategies, interview coaching, career branding, and development, group/one-on-one coaching.