Top 8 Job Search Tips To Use Today
When it comes to job search in 2018, you need to be smart in order to ensure you don’t spend the whole year looking for a job. The job market is ever changing which means that as a job seeker you need to be ready and willing to adapt to these changes.
Here Are Some Job Search Tips You Can Use In 2018
1. Work to gain new skills and experience
Skills cannot only be gained when you are employed; even if you don’t currently have a job you can still build skills that will help you get a job. This can be done through volunteer work, part time jobs and even when you are self employed.
You therefore, cannot just sit there saying you don’t have the experience required to get jobs yet you are not doing anything to change that. For example, if you are in sales, you can do promotional gigs which usually require no experience and when you looking for a sales job this experience will come in handy.
2. Update your CV
According to Margaret Komora a CV writing professional at a leading recruitment firm in Kenya, you need to update your CV every time you start your job search. This is because you might have new experience, skills, or qualifications that will help boost your chances of landing another job.
3. Use Your Phone
Long gone are the days when you had to go the cyber in order to make job applications. In this new era of smart phones you can do so even without leaving your house. This makes it easy to meet application deadlines and it is also cheaper.
4. Maters Degree is not everything
As much as today’s job market is full of graduates with Degrees and Diplomas, you don’t have to get a Master’s just to beat the competition.
Most employers prefer experience to education qualifications, this is because of the large number of graduates who have the papers but cannot perform when it comes to the workplace.
Therefore, before pursuing your masters ensure you get a bit of experience this way your papers are supplementing your experience and thus improving your chances of getting a job and not hindering it.
5. Have your reference ready
Every employer will want to perform reference checks before giving you a job. This means that when you start applying for jobs, you need to talk to your referees and have them aware that you have used them in your CV.
This will ensure that they are ready for any call they receive and won’t be caught off guard. It will also ensure that you know what they will say when asked about you in order to know who to remove and who to keep.
6. Consider SMEs
When it comes to looking for a job, most people only focus on applying for jobs in big companies forgetting that there are more opportunities in SMEs.
SME stands for small medium enterprises which are commonly small companies with few employees. Working for an SME could mean you get more responsibilities as well as more room to grow in your career.
7. Keep up to date
This is important especially when it comes to fast changing industries. You need to ensure that you are up to date on all the skills requirements and qualifications in your chosen field.
This can be in terms of the professional bodies you need to join, certificates you need to posses etc.
8. Keep a portfolio
This is very important especially since your education alone is not enough, if you are a writer you need to keep a record of everything you have written whether published or not. This might come in handy when it comes to find a job.
I know of a lady who had no experience whatsoever but had been writing throughout college, she interviewed for a position that needed at least one year experience working as a writer but because she had done more writing compared to the other candidates, she ended up getting the job.
Without her portfolio she would not have gotten the job or even the chance at an interview.
In Conclusion
When all is said and done job search is not an instant process and it might take you a while to get a job. However, you should not just give up and claim you have done everything possible perseverance is important.
Take for example, Njoki Chege a writer at Nation Media, she worked as an unpaid intern for two years before she was finally offered a job.
HAVE A GOOD LUCK
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