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unpublished opening for new positions.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
