The job market has become more competitive than ever. Here
in Canada most companies are not willing to pay for training. They look for
people who already have experience in the field, this way they spend minimum
time and money on training you. How are you supposed to get the experience if
you need experience to get the experience in the first place? Well, you have to
kind of forget of your abilities and get the experience at first.
Even if you went through many years of schooling most likely
you will need experience. You will have
to do jobs that you may feel over qualified for; you will have to accept
underpaid jobs, entry level jobs, internships, paid or not. After you have at
least a minimum of 2 years of experience under your belt new doors begin to
open. I will provide you with a few tips and tricks that will put you ahead of
other candidates.
1.
- Resume – Most hiring managers will make a decision about you in the first 3 seconds. Have your resume professionally done. This can range anywhere between $100-$300.
- Key Words – A lot of big companies get hundreds of resumes per month. To find the right candidate they use a search engine where they look for specific key words. The resumes will pop up in order according to the key words matched. When you are reading the job description adjust your resume to match as many key words as possible.
- Keep a track – Keep a track of all the jobs you have applied to, a short description of the company, and a short answer to as why you applied for that job. Have this handy with you at all times. If you apply to a bunch of different jobs you may not remember the job and you answer will not leave a good impression
- Network – Don’t wait for the opportunity. Create it. Ask friends who are employed if their companies are hiring. LinkedIn. Facebook. Job boards. (indeed.ca, talentegg.ca, monster.ca)
- Market – Market yourself. Put your CV and Resume on job boards. You can even get a Headhunter.
- Apply in person – Barely anyone does this anymore. If you apply in person you will leave a good first impression as you will be one of the few people left who is doing it old school. Old school is good in this scenario.
- Have an elevator speech – You will never know who’s who. Have an elevator speech. You never know. Even if this increases your chances of success only by 1%, how many hundreds of people will that put you ahead of!?
- Sign up for Jobs Alerts – You can automatically be amongst the first ones when a new position has been posted.
- BONUS TRICK: Okay, this is in referral to my Key Word tip. What one of my friends is doing and I thought it was genius, he copies and pastes the key qualifications at the end of the resume on a new page and changes the text to the color white. This way you will automatically be first on the list. There are three outcomes:
b. The employee notices, gets pissed and disregard your application
c. The employee notices, likes your ability to think outside the box
10. Research: Research the company before you go in for the interview. Be prepared.
Good Luck,
Xhulio Vasiu
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