How I Landed My Dream Job
Sasha Knott
CEO Job Crystal SA & UK | 1 X Successful Exit | EY Winning Women | AI | Technology | Recruitment | Chair Kay Mason Foundation | [email protected]
Finding a dream job can be a daunting task, especially in today’s competitive job market. However, it is not impossible.
It takes a whole lot of time – yes finding a job in itself is a job! Determination and a never give up attitude!
I am going to show you how I landed my dream job in just weeks and hope it helps you land your dream job!
1st – Start where you want to end (dream job).
I was retrenched, desperate, and applying everywhere (later I would learn this is called ‘spray and pray’). The problem here is that I was applying for anything I could ‘sort-of’ do – never mind something I would want to do – and yes there is a difference when you are unemployed.
When I finally found some head space and found applying for hundreds of jobs, getting no responses, was more demotivating than trying to parallel park in a crowded street with a car full of clowns! Frustrating and demotivating to say the least!
I decided to focus and decide exactly what I was looking for, draw what the company looked like, the job, the day, my colleagues – I even drew what was desk would look like.
2nd – Learn a new job search skill (for dream job).
This is probably the whole point of this blog – SO?READ HERE! Learning to do Boolean searches was what changed my job search! A Boolean search is a way to search the internet – but more focused.
Example if I search for ‘find me a job in cape town’ I get 97 million results! (lots of jobs, lots of time and lots of parallel parking!)
Now if I enter exactly this in the search bar à JOB AND “CAPE TOWN” – I get 99 results. More focused.
Even better if I gave some options on area AND industry AND skill, I entered exactly this à JOB AND (“CAPE TOWN” OR “CENTURY CITY” OR DURBANVILLE) AND IT AND SALES. Even more focused and now 58 results.
Why not let searching for a job teach you something new?
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3rd?– Add some colour.
While I was applying for jobs, I was sending my standard black and white CV in word out to hundreds of email addresses. Not realizing that I was not standing out amongst the 567 other applicants.
Suddenly when I added some colour to my CV, I started to get responses (I know something so small).
(Side note we did some research on what colour to add recently see here à?https://jobcrystal.co.za/blog/cv-colour/ )
4th?– Practice, practice, and practice
You know when you have an oral at school and you practice in front of the mirror, repeatedly! While that is what I did in order to answer the interview questions (cause yes, I received an interview request post the top 3 steps)!
I downloaded a range of “Common interview questions” and practiced my answers. They were still me answering just more clear, concise, and calm!
Try this website for common interview questions to practice –?www.rateweb.co.za
5th?– Thank you.
Post my interview I sent a thank you note to the Agency and asked them to send another email to their client to say thank you!
Post receiving my offer I was informed that the thank you note added a cherry on the top, and was a deciding factor in showing my diligence, gratitude and that I was a culture fit!
A recap, it’s the small things that count:
Simple! Good luck!