Land a Job in a Tight Economy

With unemployment rates spiking higher than ever before, the competition in the job market is increasingly challenging. It’s more important now than ever before that people are able to set themselves apart from everyone else, and sell themselves to a company. There are a number of different things you should do to set yourself apart, and you won’t land a job unless you go above and beyond, and take every step necessary to shine through the competition.

Steps

  1. Get an education. When applying for a job, it’s important that you have a way to set yourself apart from everyone else. One of the major ways to set you apart from John Doe is to have an education from an Find the Right Accredited College Degree Online or university. A two year technical school is a great start, although if you are really looking to shine and stand out, you will want to have a Bachelor’s Degree. And if you are really ambitious, a Master’s Degree will really show employers that you are dedicated to what you do.
  2. Network. Your talents, abilities, and experience will never take you anywhere if nobody knows you exist. In today's highly technologically advanced society, there are a number of easy ways to network right from the comfort of your home. One great tool to utilize is LinkedIn – a professional, business-oriented social networking site. It’s been suggested by some that you should steer clear from using Facebook to network, as it lacks the business themed structure that you will find on sites like LinkedIn. Twitter can also be a great resource, but only if you represent yourself in a way that you would like your employer to see.
  3. Participate in an internship. Once you have determined a career field that may interest you, look into internship possibilities. Another way to set yourself apart from other people applying for the same job as you is to have experience in the field you are looking to work in. Participating in an internship is a great way to get experience doing what you want to do, and it will also open your eyes to what it is you would be doing if you were to land a job with the company. Who knows, maybe after doing an internship with the company, you may even discover that the career field you were originally interested in may not be for you.
  4. Research the company you want to work for. If you have determined a company you want to work for, research the company. If you do receive an interview with the company, it will look great to the interviewer if you have a reasonable knowledge and background of the company. Again, this is a way that will set you apart from other people applying for the job. You will want to do this research before you even apply for a job. Things to look for include what company stands for, what their values are, and what their mission is. If the company does not stand for what you believe to be right, you are not going to want to work for the company.
  5. Receive and complete an application. The way that you complete your application is critical. Remember that when you are filling out the application, you want to make your application stand out from everyone else. Your potential employer may have another 30 applications they are going to review. What can you add that will make you stand out? What sort of leadership roles have you involved yourself in? Be sure you attach a résumé with your application. When you are completing your résumé, you are again going to want to make it stand out. When you are including your past jobs on a résumé, only include jobs that relate to the field you are applying to work in. For example, if you are applying to work as a car salesman, it’s not critical that you include past jobs such as a dog-walker, because it has no relation to working as a salesman. Be certain that you review your application and résumé well for any possible grammatical errors. Have a number of other people read both your application and résumé, and see if they have any suggestions on how you could improve it.
  6. Turn in your application. Rather than just mailing your application in, or turning it in to a frontline employee, do some research and determine who the Human Resource Manager is for the company. Turn your application in directly to the Human Resources Manager. When you are turning your application in, make sure that you dress in appropriate clothing, use eye contact, and speak with confidence. First impressions can only be made one time, and you want to make sure that you are leaving them with a great first impression of who you are, and what you bring to the table.
  7. Follow up with the application. Three days after you turned the application in, follow up with the person who you turned the interview in with, and ask if they have had a chance to review your application. Speaking with the company again shows that you are eager, and you want the job.
  8. Line up an interview. After you have managed to line up an interview, make sure that you take all the appropriate steps to prepare yourself. Practice interview questions with friends or family. While this may seem embarrassing, it will help to prepare you for the actual interview. Many employers will be looking at the way you present yourself, and the way you act, even more than they will care about the answers to your interview questions. Your potential employer understands that you will be nervous, and they want you to be yourself. Ask your employer questions. They are not just interviewing you, but you are also interviewing them. Make sure that you maintain eye contact throughout the interview, and make sure that after the interview is done, you feel satisfied saying “I think they now know me quite well.” If you don’t feel comfortable saying that, there is probably more that you should say.
  9. Follow up with your interview. In a similar manner to how you followed up with your application, it’s important that you follow up with your interview. Right away after your interview, compose a thank you letter for the person that interviewed you. Although email is an acceptable form to compose a thank you letter, it will mean more to the person if you compose an actually hand written thank you letter. In your thank you letter, thank the person for their time, and mention that you enjoyed having the opportunity to meet with them. Contacting the company again shows the company that you still want the job, you are eager, and you are not afraid to follow up with the status of how things are going. At this point it’s just a matter of time. You will have to wait to receive an offer letter, then review the offer, and accept or reject it. While you can negotiate on salary and wages, it’s very important that you are savvy with your words. It can be a turnoff for employers if you are immediately asking for pay raises.

Tips

  • When you are in your interview and a question is asked that you do not understand, don’t hesitate to tell the person you did not understand their question. Your interviewer will appreciate the fact that you are willing to tell them you didn't understand, rather than trying to weasel around the question.
  • When answering interview questions, be clear and concise with your answers. If you take 10 minutes to answer a question, the interviewer is going to interpret this as you not having an answer, and you are trying to work around the question. Keep your answers short, sweet, and to the point.
  • You will want to include an email address on your résumé, because some people do prefer to communicate through the use of email. It’s important that you have an appropriate email address. If your email address is something like “drunk.party.animal@xyz.com”, this is going to immediately turn the employer off.
  • Remember that your potential employer will review your Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter accounts prior to interviewing you. Don’t have anything listed on any social networking site that you would not want them to see. Of course, you can easily fix this on Facebook by setting your profile settings to private. Similarly, you can set your Twitter account to being private.

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References

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