Edition 26 - My employability philosophy

Welcome back to another edition of Pondering Careers, where we talk about all sorts of things that pop into my head related to our careers and the various pathways we choose to take in our lives. There's now over 1,300 of us in the community which is just brilliant.

This week, we're going to be talking about how we conceptualise core employability skills. I am not an expert in Higher Ed employability, and there are far more capable people than me out there with ideas about what makes people employable, so let me get that out of the way early.

Since I've been working more in the higher ed space, and now working one-on-one with students at James Cook University each week I've really been trying to simplify how we think about the basic skills we need to get a job - skills like writing a resume or preparing for an interview.

Over the past month, I've been working on a philosophy, and that's what I'm going to lay out here.

Finding, Securing, and Maintaining Work

To understand employability, we really need to start by looking at what people are saying when they say:

"I need a job"

Often, a student will come in and literally start the conversation with these words, almost in hope that I have a bucket full of jobs hidden behind me, and, just like Santa, I'll hand one over and they can be on their merry way.

Unfortunately there is no bucket, but I also know that what they mean when they say that they want a job goes more like this:

"I want a job so I can get money so I can live the life I want to live and do the things I want to do"

The reality is that there are multiple ways to do this - to get the money - but we rule out most of them for one reason or another.

For instance, we could sponge off of our parents (if they have excess cash), or just steal the money, but neither of those paths are particularly fulfilling or socially acceptable.

We could also generate our own income, and more and more of us are doing just that, but it's often perceived as a riskier option - I certainly thought of entrepreneurship that way for a long time - and I find that most students are thinking first and foremost of a job.

Side note: This is why we need more fantastic programs like the one Dr. Samantha J. Horseman runs at the GRS Research, Innovation and Industry Ideas Lab - because they exist on campus, I'm able to refer students there for support if they are considering entrepreneurship as a pathway but don't know where to start. Without programs like hers on campus, it would be much more difficult for me to give those students the support they need.

Ok, back to finding a job.

So, most students want a job, because they perceive that that is the easiest, least risky, and most socially acceptable way to make the money they need to live the life they want.

Still with me?

In order to get a job, I believe you need to be able to do three things:

• Find a job
• Secure a job
• Maintain a job

Which gives us the mantra: "Find, Secure, Maintain"

These things require different skills and tools, and to help someone get a job we have to help them with all of these things. I've started breaking the process into the three sections as follows:

To find a job...

To find jobs, you need to know how to search for them in the variety of places they are on offer, including through your networks.?

We find jobs in a whole range of ways, and these vary depending on your industry and where you live (did you know people in rural areas are more likely to use word of mouth to find a job?) and it's important that people understand they aren't limited to searching on SEEK .

There are two ways to find jobs:

• You proactively search for them, or
• Other people bring jobs to you?(going to talk about this in a sec)

To be able to proactively search for a job, you need to know where to search (online, through social media groups, etc.) and how to use those platforms, plus you need to be able to read and interpret the ads, all of which are written by different people using different words and writing conventions.

I've helped enough people search online for jobs that I know exactly how overwhelming it can be - it's not always intuitive - and you invariably face the problem of either too few jobs or too many.

In other words, we need to teach people how to search for jobs.

The other side of the story is that many people actually don't search for jobs at all. They have networks they use to find work, and sometimes these networks even bring jobs to them.

But building a robust, active, and relevant network takes another set of skills.

You need to be able to manage you network, which means you know how to connect with people, communicate with them, and maintain the relationships, in most cases both in person and online.

You also need to be able to build a personal 'brand' so that others can clearly see who you are and identify your area of expertise, and this could require you to set up and maintain various social media accounts, have professional photos taken, and seek out ways to engage with your field.

Ok, so say you've done all of the above and you've managed to find a job you want, next you have to secure it.

To secure a job...

To understand how this works you need to put yourself in the position of your employer.

They want someone to work for them - that's why they've offered the job in the first place - but they also want to make sure they hire someone who fits into these three categories:

• You are capable of doing the job
• You want to do the job, and
• You will fit in well with the team

The first is a no brainer - if you're not capable of doing the job, then there's not much point in hiring you. Most employers are aware that there will always be an adjustment period and possibly some training required, but they want to know that once that's over, and with any reasonable adjustments required, you'll be able to do the job.

They also want to know that you want to be there. This may seem odd if you're the kind of person who's only ever worked in jobs you enjoy, but there are many people who turn up to work wishing they could be anywhere else, and most employers (surprise surprise) don't actually want to hire these people.

Finally, they want to know that you will fit in with the team. There's not a whole lot you can do about this one - if you're a fast paced, energetic person and they're looking for someone calm and steady then it's going to be difficult for you to fit in (and probably not very comfortable for you or them). But it's still worth considering, because it is something they are looking for.

Back to securing a job...

To prove these three things, you need to provide evidence. The employer doesn't know you, and they are probably (quite rightly) unwilling to just take your word for it, so they want to see evidence the proves you are capable and willing.

This evidence could include:

• Experience in a similar role before (hard to get if you're just leaving school or uni)
• Experience in a related job that suggests you could do the same tasks in a different environment
• Qualifications that prove your skills and knowledge
• Experience in different environments that demonstrate your skills and knowledge (eg. volunteering, entering competitions, winning awards, a portfolio etc.), and
• Evidence of your willingness to do the job, such as evidence you've researched the company, or evidence of your interest in the field

You need to provide this evidence in stages:

1. First, with a resume and application - in this stage they don't want to actually talk to you yet (sorry), they just want to see you cross the first threshold to decide if they want to meet with you,
2. Then in an interview, or another testing schedule - now they think you have the evidence, so they want to meet you to check out if you can back it up in person (plus to check you'd fit in the team),
3. Finally, if you pass that stage, they'll check your references so that they don't just have to take your word for it.

In other words, securing a job also requires a discrete set of skills, such as writing a concise resume and handling an interview, and I'd also throw in there that to do this you need to know what evidence you'll need and how to get it.

To maintain a job...

Sometimes it feels like this section gets overlooked, but it's just as important as the other two. This encompasses everything from the moment they offer you the job, including signing your contract and handing over your bank account details.

It also includes everything related to workplace health and safety, understanding workplace rights and responsibilities, even knowing where to go when things go wrong or your pay doesn't come in, all those things that are often left for people to figure out for themselves.

I feel like this section is particularly important for people seeking their first job; they need to know how to turn up on time, with the right equipment, and cooperate well in an adult environment, and this is a lot harder than we remember.

The process is also cyclic, and I feel like this feeds back into the first phase of finding a job, because how you perform while maintaining your job will influence how easy it is for you to find the next one.

What does all this mean?

Right now, I'm working on a couple of projects for 2024, one of which is a program that sits alongside the Ponder Program and covers this type of 'pointy end' content related to the actual process of finding, securing, and maintaining work.

It's something that I didn't want to put into the Ponder Program originally because that focuses on more in-depth career management competencies, like making decisions, maintaining work/life balance, or finding support networks, and it's also something that's often covered very well by the schools.

The new Ready to Work program will cover some of the gaps and give schools an easy way to slot in scaffolded work readiness that covers all three stages of finding, securing, and maintaining work.

If you've worked on a similar program, or currently run something like this for your students I'd love to hear about your approach, so please share in the comments.

That's it!

Thanks for joining me for another week, and thanks for being part of the community.