Our modern world recession began in the late 2008, where many all over the world have lost jobs, homes and businesses. Christmas sales began soaring in 2010, people felt confident to break their piggy banks and shop for the stuff they've always wanted. Does that mean that we can leave our couch and get our dream jobs back again. Well I guess not.....
University has always been the tradition of quantifying someone's ability and make a person more employable. In August 2009 an american college student sued her university cause she can find a job. All those years of education, education, education and then they graduate around £20,000 in debt into a world where there are precious few opportunities for them.
University may teach us how the gravitational forces pulls all the planet together, advance medicine for new virus, how to transmit data wirelessly....HOWEVER, they forgot to teach us how we can get jobs after we graduate. Every univeristy and colleges around the world have dedicated career center: application forms, brochure, flyers, career fairs. That does not get us the job. Students now just expect to sit behind the screen and wait for the phone call or that email on interview invites (only 5% of applicates). That does not secure us a job in the end!
I am going to show you readers 5 vital tips which can secure you that very job, which my University never told me!
1. Call up the company HR
At least 9 in 10 students or graduates have mobile phones, but only 4 in 10 may have sufficient credits. Well that does not mean you can't make a phone call which may potentially change your lives. Companies expect you to fill applications forms, questionnaire and CV and then sit and wait after.
Do you know?:-
a. Companies do not pay their HR staff to update website every hour. Therefore some information might be irrelevant. e.g jobs no longer available for past 3 weeks.
b. The advertised job may not be available any more. Or there may be unpublished opening for new positions.
c. HR are not engineers, doctors, accountants, lawyers. Sometimes they don't know what skills is required for job. You may be rejected wrongly! e.g Who shall we employ? an Electrical Engineer and Electronics Engineer? How about Electrical and Electronics Engineer?
What to do?
a. call the company switch board and ask for the HR responsible for graduates intake
b. email them if you cannot get them and express interest
What to say and ask?
a. Be polite and ask if there are any graduate openings?
b. If not, are there any other openings? When? What type of jobs available?
c. Nothing available, then move on to next company!
That will only take a good 3-5 minutes of your time rather than filling a perfect job applications for 3 days!!
2. Attend Job and Career Fairs
The next job fair is 100 miles away, you have a night out on the same day, dilemma? Well haven't you spend the last 3-4 years having nights out already? Don't you want to have nights out in beautiful cities like Venice, New York, Japan, South Africa instead? Well you need a job first!
What not to do at job fair.
a. Take the brochure and freebies and just walk off. Take your time and learned about the company.
b. Don't just walk to the big boys, e.g Google, Microsoft, Shell, and PWC.
c. Don't ask how much the company is paying. Its just a guideline
d. Don't be shy. You can say hi first!
e. Don't come in shorts and hawaiin shirts. Make some effort in dressing and not cocktail suits too (unless MI5 is recruting for 008)
f. Don't just drop your CV and leave.
What to ask? What to do? Who to ask?
1. What's the company goal and ambition for 2011-2012? Companies rivals? Company various sector/departments?
2. What does the job role X require? How many team members? What training is required?
3. Tell what skills you can offer to the company, your ambitions, your dreams in the next 10 years.
4. Always ask who is the main HR personal on stand who is doing the recruiting and speak to him/her.
5. Get their name card or contact and possible contacts. They may have lost your cv and couldnt contact you after.
6. No harm distributing own home made name cards. It will make yourself unique.
7. Make sure you leave the stand, and the HR personnel remembers your key skills, points, manner.
Remember the HR team in a company does not only employ people base on available positions that particular month, week or year. If they think you hold a significant skill, they will always try to readjust. It is not easy to find a superstar everyday. You may be a superstar yourself and you don't know about it. Remember always make an impression.
Don't just walk away because they said no openings. Always be polite, stay and chat awhile. You may learn something new or advice about another company. Networking is always good. It helps to build confident and maybe improve your language skills.
3. Attend Evening Lectures or Professional event.
This may be more applicable for certain profession like engineers, accountancy, law. Like I said previously, it is very important to socialise and make contact with others. One skill which university may have taught you the most and you may not realise it at all! Talking is the best form of communication. Going to a specific field evenings lectures or events make help you increase your chance of meeting someone in a same field.
Let me share with you what you can earn from this:-
a. A name card/phone number of someone whom may help
b. Find out about someone else's job career, experience and even advise.
c. An old mate whom you have not seen in a long time and may help you get a job.
d. Other personnel from large companies: Managers, Senior Engineers, Retired employees
Most importantly you can help improve your social skills. Talking, presenting, confidence is not a skill we are born with. Its all about our exposure and experience. Remember Arnold wasn't keen at presentation and now he is the governor of California!!
You need to learn how to approach someone and say hello.
You need to make small chats. E.g hows the weather? Football scores? Paris Hilton's new bf?
You need to develop confident!
You need to make mistakes and learn not repeat them again. E.g Spill your drinks while chatting.
Its not simple, but once you've done it, you can tell the next person how simple it is!!
4. Recruiting Agents
Recruiting agency are widely available nowadays. Just because google and internet knows everything doesn't mean we don't need recruitment agency any more.
Large companies may have HR recruitment team doesn't mean they don't employ outside agency to get talents. Remember HR team is always one of the smallest team in a large company. Their job roles are managing their own hundreds and thousands of staffs; payrolls, promotion, department movements etc. You may be surprise only 1-3 people may be assign for external recruitment. How can a large company of 1-3 people manage hundreds and thousands of applications. Answer, external agency or recruitment.
Most, about 85%, agency in UK for example do not charge you a single pence for getting you a job. They earn a certain percentage of your salary when you get employed. This may not sound very satisfying, but please remember, they do all the handwork by helping you contacting the companies whilst you just wait at home for your next interview.
Approach several recruitment companies to broaden your option. You can even approach on line agency for international jobs in a different country. Please do consider, cause you may not know what other opportunities are available else where.
5. Student Placement
Student placements are not just for pre-final year students. If you have your degree its no harm trying a non-graduate role. Student placement can help you set your foot in the door. Even if you decide not to stay the several months you stay with them you can take credit for the experience. Do not spent months trying to find the perfect job. GO out there and get some experience.
Yes the pay may not be brilliant for the first 6 months or one year. However you still are gaining experience and expanding your network. Sometimes being on a student placement may potential lead up to a possibility of probation period with the company for a permanent start.
In some cases, you may even find the field of work is not what you were expecting and move on to a different field. E.g. Electrical in an Design Engineering firm is preferred over field support Electrical engineering.
These are the 5 tips which are provided in this blog today. Hopefully some of this information may be applicable to your specific career or location. These information are not based on books or references, but experiences of many. Its maybe a tough world out there, you need to walk out there and experience it yourself. This information is a guideline, however the effort is still yours! GOOD LUCK and BE YOURSELF!!
AK
Thursday 4 February 2010
IPAD Competition - Another start of a Technological revolution.
Dyson, Vitamix, Iphone are some examples of gadgets and technology which blew its competitors away and dominated the market with their excellent design and engineering product. It comes to a point where product is all about quality & reputation and not just about their sales figure anymore.
It is not easy for a company with such reputation to release a different product each time. Expectations are high from your fans and consumers, also you make more enemies and more hates sites with every penny you make. Dyson are always recognised as the people who make hovers. Even if they made a new wahsing machine with their technology, they will always be recognised as the hover guys.
Vitamix is the same. But i guess they are whole lot more comfortable with what they have, not being greedy and sticking to what they are good at and selling it to not only consumers but for industrial purpose etc. Macdonalds, Starbucks and the list goes.....
Apple on the otherhand have an entirely different goal. Yes they want to dominate the world. How different are they? Their finished product have always been very well polish. Price dont fluctuate much so consumers who buy their product now and 12 months later will still pay the same price. They believe in change, revolution, all in one package. With ever more hate sites about apple product there are always a multiple of 10 fans around. Are they trying to conqure the world now with their new revolutionary IPAD?
Can you clearly define what an IPAD is? E-Book or Kindle Killer? Netbook Killer? PSP/DS Killer? Or Simply Iphone for the Old Age People?
Well i guess with their excellent marketting experience and large pools of fans and believers they are doing very well for the start of the 2010 millenia.
Please remember, Apple have been sucessful in the past 10-20 years is because they study how other company make mistake and correct them. E.G
1. Classic microsoft for releasing products not up to expectation. Too many blue screen crashes. Apple brought in beautiful nearly non-crashes and nealry virus free.
2. Creative not doing well with portable music. Again apple step in with Ipod to show what needs to be done with wheel scroller. Since there are a few thousand songs altogether
3. Nokia enjoying their domination till apple step in to show the true hybrid between a smart phone and a conventional phone with the Iphone.
Apple have a really good track record so far and will they take it up another notch with the Ipad?
This is Apple's first attempt to release something before anyone else. Tablet in the 2000's doesnt count :P.
Everyone is watching apple, ASUS, MSI, GOOGLE, MICROSOFT. Everyone is waiting for apple to inform the fellow gadget hungry society what we need. Define it very well that we need a touch screen table and BAM!
After Stev Jobs' announcement everyone is deliberately leaking their own's stuff with minimal effort.
Lets see the list................................
1. JOO WHO?
A table couch, High Definition and everything else But who is JuJu?
Price = N/A
Hype = 3/10
Looks = 5/10
currently out already and not much has been said about this. everyone still thinks this is a hard drive with a better touchscreen.
Price = £500
Hype = 2/10 - no one cares
Looks = 6/10
Asus have been quite a strong contendor in the netbook market and have been driving the quality aspects so far. Shaping what should be done in temrs of battery life, design and price competition
Price = £550
Hype = 6/10
Looks = 6/10 if the screenshots are accurate
Mr dell himseld got spotted with one of these bad boys before anyone knew about it. Youtube reviews can be found. Need slick and its a Dell.
Price = $1000
Hype = 7/10
Looks = 8/10
Another Netbook experience contendor moving in. Using the android software this time for MSI
Cost = £499
Hype = 7/10
Looks = 7/10
Finally Google's own android. Not windows 7 but goolge's own from scratch OS. With heaps of free software like the picasa, youtube all bound to google. Will they dominate? i think this is my favourite one of all and many anti-apple people would agree with me strongly
Cost = $699
Hype = 9/10
Looks = 9/10
Wednesday 3 February 2010
The year of the PS3 [2010] - 1st Quarter Review
If you've dropped into my eBLOG, i am confident to say you may be the 45% X360 owner who have lost his Microsoft console due to bad engineering design. In my situation my X360 died when I purchase the new Fifa 2010 on the day of release after 1 hour of queuing at Asda.
Being an engineer myself i spent a whole week trying to fix it but no luck and taking out the hammer was the solution. However i didn't in the end cause my X360 is now a deco on my billy bookcase.
I wasn't ready to part with my hard earn cash for the exact same console again. In my 20 years of gaming i have never bought the same console twice at all. Even my Sega 16bit still work as of today!
Well i had to put my tail between my legs and apologies to good 'old Sony and hope she'll let me back in the door since i smell of the 'Gates'.
Yes, I've lost all my xbox live membership, save games and 20+ games on the shelves, also not played mass effect yet!
NO Regret ever since! Unchartered 2 was my first game and my my my. I have never seen a game so beautiful ever in my life. My heart dropped every time drake made a jump, got scared when the yeti came jumping out, story simply amazing.................i can go on forever. All i want to say is congrates to Naughty Dog for Game of the Year 2010. You guys did well and deserved it so much!
Alright 2009 move along now! 2010 is going to be a huge year for PS3. Everyone is sick of the wii. X360 is breaking everywhere. I rather use the X360 as my foot warmer rather than using my heater to save the heating bills now.......
The three most exciting games everyone (my own count down in fact) is waiting for now...................
AT NUMBER 3..................................................many flying ships, preety girls and bad american voice actors!!
AT NUMBER 2..................................................He likes to rip people apart, mean machine, his last chapter
AT NUMBER 1..................................................My potentially predicted 2010 Game of the YEAR!
Honourably Mention....
1. Yakuza 3
2. Red Dead Redemption
3. BioShock 2
4. Dante
5. Mass Effect 2..........um..........ar..........i am still dreaming for this day it comes out on PS3!!
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