10 Ways to Be on Top of Your Job Search in 2011 Part 2

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In the first part of 10 Ways to Be on Top of Your Job Search in 2011, we started looking at the necessary steps vital to succeeding in the ever-stressful job market, and it was clearly stated that applying these steps will reduce this stress and make the whole experience ultimately rewarding. Here are the remaining steps to coming out tops in your job search.

6.  Don’t be an ignoramus

Ignoramus – that sounds like the name of an animal. If it were, it would be the stupidest animal on earth! Actually, it refers to an ignorant person; a state of being empty of relevant information or knowledge.  Ignorance is not so much of being “not in the know” than it is about attitude.

Ignorance is an attitude – the attitude of one who doesn’t know and doesn’t make any effort to know. It’s said that an apt definition of madness is doing same thing over-and-over every time and expecting a different result!  No one stumbles into a job interview by luck; you will need to work out your luck with some measure of appropriate preparation!

You’ll need to learn what you don’t know. Attend job fairs and career seminars or read up from career websites and blogs. Learn job search skills; find out what employers are looking for, how to craft your CV and cover letter, job interview skill, and just anything that will be useful in your preparation for securing that job.

7.  Brand yourself

There is a sea of heads seeking to be hunted by headhunters in the job market. And given this situation, it’s imperative to ensure you’re in some way definitely unique from the rest of other job seekers. You need to package yourself as a brand and align your job search efforts to reinforce the integrity of that brand.

A brand is a promise; it’s a bold statement from a person, product or service about the value it offers or represents for the benefit of another, usually the buyer or employer as the case may be. However you consider it: you are a brand and everything about your personality, appearance, qualification, experience, curriculum vitae, cover letter and communication skills are all reinforcing your brand positively or negatively. So the earlier you start packaging yourself and your job search skills consciously as a brand, the better for you.

Every brand starts out as an impression in people’s mind, but its integrity (proving to be what you promised) must be proven by some form of process. The impressions of your grade, work history and appearance may get you into the job interview room, but here the integrity of your brand must be proved. Your ability to communicate the value of your brand to the employer gets you the job.

Network, network, network!

If you’re not getting enough, then you’re not asking enough! In your job search, you’ll need to do a lot of “asking”. You’ll need to make the right connections in the right circles. Now, this is not about knowing anybody of influence and power in any organization. This only means establishing contact or relationship with people who have professional affinity or relevant knowledge and information about the industry you seek employment. Such people are in a position to advise you career-wise and even notify you of relevant job openings.

Such networking can be either offline or online. Offline: through your alumni associations, professional bodies, family and friends and faith-based organizations. Online: through some professional and social platforms on the internet, such as Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook. Whatever medium you use, the rule of networking is to ask the right questions. Badgering people for jobs will get you the reverse result. No one has the responsibility of finding or providing you a job. A better style will be to approach such contacts from the position of a learner, exuding the virtues of patience and gratitude.

Nothing is wrong with making a request on any member of your network, as long as the situation, attitude and level of relationship are in a good balance. The important point is to couch that request in the form of you offering value and not just asking for empty blanket favour.

9. Have the persistence of the devil!

Hear me out first before releasing your “Holy Ghost fire!” This is the point: job search, especially in our time, requires the exhibition of some sales skills, one of which is persistence. It’s common in job search to encounter situations or responses that may put you off.  You may hear several “I’m sorry…”, “you’ll hear from us” and the likes. You may also have to do a lot of follow up on contacts, job applications and pending interview outcomes.  

It’s a daily reality in sales that for every successful sale, there may have been several rejection experiences before this time. Whatever the challenge in your job search, just know that you have to be persistent to win.

10. Involve the God-factor

I encourage you to involve God before and after every stage of your job search effort. In the run for jobs, you and I know that there is no qualification or experience or skill you have that another candidate may not have, or even better.

Life is spiritual and the spiritual controls the physical. So get spiritual and have a good relationship with your God. Just know that the fastest doesn’t always win the race; the skillful are not necessarily the wealthiest and the most qualified are not always successful. Chance, time and the mercies of God intervene in all.

When you have done all you can to stand, stand on your God. To your success!

           

    

    

10 Ways to Be on Top of Your Job Search in 2011 Part 1

No matter where you live and what the condition of your country’s economy is, job search will always be some sort of stress.  This is more so in a country whose economy is struggling or even in an obviously developed and prospering economy.  Make no mistakes: jobs, at least good ones, will always be competitive and consequently scarce. But your knowledge and skills on how to navigate this terrain will make the whole experience less stressful and rewarding. To find a job in a saturated market, the following will be helpful:

1. Watch your belief and attitude

What you believe is central to your success or otherwise in the job search venture. You will not make progress beyond the state of your belief. First and most important: do you believe in yourself? Do you believe you have what it takes to get the job? You will need to answer these questions, for nobody or organization will expend their recruitment budget on one who has punctures in this vital areas.

What have you believed before now? That it must take knowing someone in an organization before you can get a job there? Check what you believe and do a reprogramming where necessary.

Similarly, your attitude is also vital to whatever heights you want to attain in life. Is your attitude such that resigns to “what will be, will be”, “if God says it’s mine, it’s mine”.  Well, such attitude for sure will keep you unemployed for a long time. Life doesn’t give you what you desire, but what you’re able to negotiate! So negotiate with the right beliefs and attitudes and add some calculated action to these.

2. Ignore the din

In the same way noise pollution has been a major concern in our world, so also is the phenomenon of “news pollution”!  These are times that our print and electronic media churn out news items that cause peoples’ heart to fail with fear. Have you consciously or unconsciously been following news items – labour market reports, unemployment rates, job cuts, downsizing, and all such reports?

The best you can do is to ignore such noise and rise above it. This calls for strategic researching of jobs and opportunities and the alignment or realignment of your skills and qualifications for success in such a job market. Refuse to fear, fear paralyses. It demobilizes and numbs your thinking faculties.

Observe the trends, hear the news, analyze statistics, but you have a choice – to fear or to ignore the facts and forge ahead intelligently.

3. Adopt a mindset

Mindset is a fixed mental attitude or disposition that causes you to respond to situations in a particular way and determines how you appreciate or interpret such situations. The cumulation of your belief system and attitudes will invariably form your mindset.  Sure enough, in the course of job search you will encounter challenging situations and you will only win with the right mindset.

One way to have a positive mindset is to be “inverse paranoid”. This is the mindset that believes that there is in existence a great conspiracy propelling all things to work together for the good of him that holds such mindset.

You will surely struggle with ignoring and rising above certain situations in job search until you project this kind of mindset.

4. Analyze the opportunities

To be successful in your job search, one of the important requirements is to be alive to opportunities in your in your environment. This is about keeping abreast of information and situations in your target industry and your ability to analyze them accurately in order to secure the target job.

No matter the condition of the job market in your immediate locality, your ability to source information and analyze relevant situations will help you anticipate or pre-empt job opportunities and consequently, strategically position yourself to secure them. 

To be effective in this, you may have to do PEST and SWOT analyses.

PEST analysis entails a critical consideration of POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, SOCIAL and TECHNOLOGICAL factors in order to arrive at an intelligent conclusion regarding their implications for your success at job search under such prevailing climate.

SWOT analysis on the other hand, examines your STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, in view of OPPORTUNITIES AND THREATS they present or portend to your success in any venture.  PEST and SWOT analyses are critical exercises a job seeker needs to do to strategically assess and position her for success in the job market.

5. Make job search a full-time job!

To give job search your best effort, you’ll have to make it a full time job (but not a career!). Success at job search is a calculated venture. It’s precipitated by specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound goals. This success mix is a product of wise planning and applying corresponding actions in the proper direction.

Perhaps, you’ll need to make a number of contacts in a week; read newspapers, do online searches, attend job fairs and career seminars. Whatever is relevant to your success at job search – give it the best shot!

Let me know what you think. To your success!