How to Get a Job - Essay Example

How to Get a Job The world of today has become one that for many looking for a job is a problem let alone having one. Many use different ways and means of looking for a job and spend a great deal of time and resources in the same endeavour. Job seekers do it for they have completed a set of studies that they were supposed to. Others seek for employment so as to leave the one they are in already (Vick and Furlong 44-203). All these people do what they do in order to secure some sort of employment and they follow many procedures in doing so some well advised while others do it anyhow. The success rate for those who do it anyhow is quite minimal as compared to that of the ones who seek advice on how to about getting a job (Vick and Furlong 44-203). The consideration that one should make or have as a guiding factor is the fact that the world today has become such a competitive employment arena that both the jobseekers and the employers alike have to come up with special approaches to the job market. In this paper the focus lies in getting the right job for a fresh graduate in a competitive job market environment. This shall be analysed in a few steps that are easy to follow and which have led to successful applications in many companies the world over for many graduates. Chapter 1 Writing a Resume and Cover Letter Since the main aim of this exercise is to get the right job for the applicant, it is important that they have their resume ready. The graduate should first have the kind of job they want and then design headings that are in line with this job (PLA and VGM Career Books 36-127). An example lies with someone seeking an accountancy job. This graduate in accounting should develop headings for their work that is in line with the accounting profession for example to have words like Record Keeping, Computer Skills and many more. The main aim of upholding clarity and relevance with headings is to ensure that they are eye catching and give overview information of the applicant. In actual sense a resume is supposed to give overview information within five seconds as the consideration here is that many resumes are under scrutiny and at this point it is the appeal that is important to the one selecting. After this the resume should now be written in details. Of importance to note in this area is the inclusion of any relevant experience that one has (PLA and VGM Career Books 36-127). If there are areas where one was involved in teamwork or demanding tasks it is important too to include them clearly with the dates of each accomplishment or task. Therefore, the main idea here is to be coherent and that the events that have happened in ones life to be chronologically inserted for clarity and easy follow up of information. In the case of a cover letter it is important to consider a number of issues that can make the whole process a success or failure. The main aim of having a cover letter to accompany the resume is that it gives more information that was otherwise in brief in the resume. Therefore, it is an essential document that requires care in writing as what is unclear in the resume can be clarified by the cover letter. Both the formats of the cover letter and the resume should be appealing to the eye so as not to dissuade one from considering your documents. The basic information that one needs to have in mind is the fact that applicants for the same position and in the same organisation are many and the one involved in selecting wishes to take as little time as possible (Beshara 76-238). For a cover letter the information given should be of short details that are informative and gives more than what the resume highlighted. It should be one page in length whereby it has the header and introductory parts, the body and the end portion. The style that is normally used to write a cover letter needs to be of business outlook whereby the name and all the relevant particulars of the company are inserted. The introduction of a cover letter should be designed in such a way that it attracts the employer’s interest. For the body section, the information is rather in deeper details that appertain to ones level of education, skills and the areas worked in. The concluding part of a cover letter is where one sums up all the details given earlier but in short form. A cover letter should be brief and to the point to avoid ambiguity and unnecessary information. There is a chance for one to make grammatical mistakes as well others and this means that it is necessary to proofread the entire text to eliminate the mistakes detected. These two documents that have been mentioned must be clear enough not to dissuade the reader from considering it. The appeal that they give is to be highly considered as they shall be the ones to portray the kind of person one is even before a formal invitations made. A key point to note is that a cover letter should not be sent to the human resources department of an organisation. As is the case with the resume it is important to give all the necessary experience for the kind of job required. Chapter 2 Scope of the organisations to apply to It is a fact that nowadays the opportunities available in the market are fewer and many are requiring one to have specials skills thereby increasing and raising competition. This in some way advantageous and in other cases it is not especially to a fresh graduate looking for their first job (Marquardt 2008). For a person to have more chances of becoming employed, it is high time that the scope under consideration becomes wider so as to accommodate more openings. This means that it is not only the big companies and multinationals that are potentials good employers but small organisations that have not yet created a name for themselves still have these opportunities and may in some instances give better rewards. It is therefore and important tactic in today’s world for job seekers to widen their scope in search of that dream job they are looking for. This can also be based on the argument that it is the big companies that were there before biggest employers that have come to be the biggest culprits of retrenching workers in the name of cutting cost due to the prevailing recession atmosphere in the world of business today. The other big advantage with looking for opportunities in small firms is that the level of competition and the number of resumes being scrutinised are fewer thus one having a better chance of getting employment (Naseer 2010). Many job seekers take it that these small firms require one to have good networks; an aspect that many do not have. This only makes it easier for the ones who have already applied in these small firms as competition is low. Chapter 3 Persistence and follow up Looking for a job is an art to some degree and one is required to come up with a model of how to operate within the field of job seekers. After one identifies the companies to send their resume to; big or small, follow up of this application should be done consistently (Feldman 2007). This issue of follow up is more important for fresh graduates of whom a majority have no experience for the jobs they are undertaking and for those who have some experience, it is inadequate. This in overall means that the resume together with the cover letter gives less information and the necessity to have some contact with the manage is essential. The riming of the follow up should be at intervals that do not make one to appear desperate or nagging to the manager involved. The level of persistence and the reason behind what someone does are solely the work on the applicant (Feldman 2007). There are also options in the internet nowadays that are open for everyone and are free to use for instance the Google alert feature. There are many sites nowadays that offer job searching services for free and quite a good number of people get their jobs through these sites (Dikel & Roehm 246-263). It is therefore important to apply through such sites as follow up of an application made can be tracked at any time and it is automatically generated. The other advantage of this method is the convenience it offers to both the employee and the employer as there is a great deal of cost cutting. Making a visit is not a bad idea and talking to important persons for networking purposes although this process has been seen to be a bit slow than others. There are connections that are important while others are not. In the real world it has been found that even the top executives to a tune of more than eighty five percent have gotten their positions as a result of networking and word of mouth. In the art of searching for employment the one searching should consider themselves as sellers of services while those organisations should consider themselves as the buyers. This way it will be possible to have the two sides relay respect to the other party. Chapter 4 Acquisition of experience The job market nowadays is tagged with one common aspect; experience. It is a common feature that job adverts are having of requiring one to have a stipulated amount of experience as a qualification criteria. It is a big problem to may graduates as the basic question they ask themselves is where to get that experience. This as ridiculous as it at times sound, is a factor that eliminates many fresh graduates from being short listed (Donlin 2006). Having no experience for starters is quite a tricky affair but it should not worry an applicant. An applicant should first try to apply for internships and volunteers assignments that are relevant to the kind of job they would wish to have and after consulting what various employers want from an applicant. There are many openings that are available and this is an area most likely ignored but for those who go through it, the benefits they reap are enormous. For one to apply for an internship or volunteer assignment as mentioned earlier it is important for them to consider the relevance of such an undertaking. These opportunities at times take ones time a great deal and may end up being useless in the overall. It is hereby important to consult those that one knows are in the field that one is intending to venture into so as to get the best advice as pertaining to the best way to follow. These opportunities act as plan B as at they occasionally pay a little amount at specified durations thereby assisting the applicant financially for as long as they work. As mentioned above the sole aim of joining these options is to have the required experience the industry requires or at least to have an edge over the many applicants to a position requiring little or no experience (Donlin 2006). The research shows that many volunteers and interns find themselves get absorbed in the organisations that they are interns or volunteers. There are also the staffing agencies for temporal employments whose services can be sought if the earlier two are unavailable. The key issue under these options is to know that they are time consuming and one may drop from them without having gotten the required skills from the tasks allocated. It is therefore important to uphold patience as these opportunities may overwork someone and their remuneration is not as attractive in most instances. Chapter 5 Acknowledging competition Competitive environments are known to push hard working and focused people higher in the competitive arena. The same case applies with searching for the right job as there are many people with similar or even higher and better qualifications and experience applying for the same position. Job seekers usually take this point for granted and end up condemning the job market as to have bias and as inconsiderate or merely that they are unlucky (Ford 198-266; Pierson 54-89). To be frank the job market has never been this competitive and it is high time that applicants swallow this fact as bad as it sounds. It after this that they shall put in a great deal of effort in doing the above four chapters well and to their level-best. A competitive environment is usually there to take the best in the competitors and leave the rest. It is therefore the aim of every job seeker to emerge the top so as to be sieved in by the competition. This is the whole point of having a competitive environment but many job seekers do not give it the acknowledgement in deserves thereby emerging losers every time an organisation hires other people and not others all of whom had applied to occupy the same positions. Organisations endeavour to have the best the market can offer in terms of education requirements, skills and relevant experience. Therefore, a job seeker should post themselves to be in line with this reality so as to maximise the chances of being short listed and ultimately have the job (Naseer 2010). One to be competitive needs to always be up to the task of searching for those jobs they can do best and those that they like otherwise when employed one may find that the type of job they have is not satisfying in various respects which will result in the same people going through the whole process all over again in search of that right job which is not quite an appealing task. In conclusion it is important to notice or highlight that one has their chance to get that right job but it is patience and hard work that pay. One needs to be patient as they work hard to be the employee of choice for the organisations of ones choosing. Failure to do this subjects one to even years of toiling in search of an employment opportunity they could have secured a long time ago if only they knew and acted as stipulated above as these steps are easy for anyone to follow irrespective of the type of job being searched for. The other point to note from the above is that one needs to be flexible so as to suit in various employment environments as perseverance is the other key concern to uphold. Being choosy does not help the situation but one should not on the other hand take up any offer that comes their way as they end up regretting it later or even lose on a better opportunity in the name of having secured a position already. Just as mentioned above job searching should be taken with the seriousness it deserves. It makes little sense to go through the education system for years only to become impatient at the last minute. One should value the time taken to reach the far they have and ensure that their efforts for the many years has not gone to waste by securing no job or one that is not satisfying. Works cited Beshara, Tony. The Job Search Solution: The Ultimate System For Finding A Great Job Now! AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn, 2006. 76-238. Dikel, Margaret R. & Roehm, Frances E. Guide to Internet Job Searching. McGraw-Hill Professional, 2006. 246-263. Donlin, Kevin. Job-Search Tips for New Graduates. 2006. Viewed 15 Jun 2010, . Feldman, Debra. Persistence Is Key to Job Hunting Success. July 12, 2007. Viewed 16 Jun 2010, . Ford, Wayne D. The Accelerated Job Search. The Management Advantage, Inc., 1999. 198 266. Marquardt, Katy. Finding a New Job: Tapping Your Personal Network and Promoting Your Brand are Two Ways to Do it. 2008. Naseer, Nayab. Five Basic Job Hunting Tips. 2010. Viewed 16 Jun 2010, . Pierson, Orville. The Unwritten Rules of The Highly Effective Job Search: Land a Job You Love Using The Methods Top Career Professionals Teach their Private Clients. McGraw-Hill Professional, 2006. 54-89. Public Library Association and VGM Career Books (Firm). The Guide to Basic Resume Writing. 2nd edn. McGraw-Hill Professional, 2003. 36-127. Vick, J. Miller and Furlong, Jennifer S. The Academic Job Search Handbook. 4th edn. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008. 44-203. Read More