Job Search Tips

There is a perfect job for all of us.  The secret is to match your skills, likes and dislikes with a job that offers the opportunity to do what you like for a living.  Mao Tse Tung was credited with saying, “ Find a job you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.”  If you’re between jobs, or are in a job where you don’t fully use your skills or training, start or continue to search for that job that brings you a sense of satisfaction.  Thankfully, that’s different job for each of us.  Here are a few job search tips that have been proven to help uncover job openings and increase your odds of landing a job.  

If you want the reward (job), be prepared to work for it.  Looking for work is a full time job.  Someone who devotes two hours a week to the effort will still be looking when the person who devoted 30 hours a week is working.  Commit to getting up every day, as if you were going to work, and get started (looking for work).  You may begin by checking the want ads – that could mean looking through the newspapers, or logging on to CalJobs.ca.gov, Monster.com, or one of a hundred other great job listing websites.   You may decide to start each day at the One-Stop’s Career Center.  Trained professionals will greet you, ready to help with applications, resumes, workshops, career counseling, and office machines.  However you start each day, make it a daily routine. 

Prepare a top-notch resume.  State the position you are applying for.  If you don't know the title, you’re probably not ready to apply.  If you use a goal or objective section, construct it to let the employer know how you will bring value to their business.  Employers want to know what you will do for them, not what they can do for you.  Don’t assume a job title will explain what you did on the job.  Be brief, yet complete in describing your skills.  Personalize the Resume to the job you’re applying for.  Emphasize your skills that are transferable to the new position.

Don’t include personal information, such as age, SS#, marital status, etc.  If information changes (such as address), redo your resume.  Don’t make hand written changes.  Finally, check your spelling!  Use spell-check and have someone else review your resume before you put it to use.

 Once you’ve thought about the skills you have to offer, determined the type of job you are looking for, and have prepared a master resume (that you’ll personalize to each job), do some homework.  Check the Yellow Pages, or visit the One-Stop Career Center to get a list of employers that hire people in your chosen field.  Start with that list and make your contacts, in person is preferable.  

As you begin searching for that perfect job, remember that you never get a second chance to make a first impression.  Approach your job search as though every person you meet has the authority to hire you.  The truth is that while everyone may not be able to hire you, most everyone can suggest that you not be hired if you are rude, sloppily dressed, loud or otherwise inconsiderate.  

According to “What Color Is Your Parachute”, an excellent book for job hunters and career changers by Richard Bolles, another effective job search strategy is to ask every friend you have about available jobs.  Most people know at least 50 others well enough to ask for help in their job search.  Let others know the type of job you are looking for, and ask if they know of any openings.  Imagine if those 50 people asked just five of their friends to help.  Now you’ve got 250 job developers working on your behalf.  The trick is to muster up the courage to ask for a little help from a lot of people.  

Once you’ve landed an interview, my favorite tip comes into play.  Find out all you can about the job and the employer.  Talk with people who already work at the business.  Find out about the product or service offered.  Many employers have a website, review it thoroughly.  Learn about the employer’s business, and share during the interview how you can use your skills to help them to be profitable.  Be sure to share how you prepared for the interview, whether that included the suggestions above, or visiting the worksite to speak with a potential supervisor in advance of the interview.  To an employer who does not know you, the homework you do helps to demonstrate you are a self-starter, and that you are likely to show initiative on the job.  This tip applies to every job, entry level to CEO.  

While there are a thousand other tips, the one that will help you the most is “never give up”.  The rejection associated with looking for work is difficult to handle.  Find job seekers who are just as motivated as you to meet with regularly.  Practice your interview questions together, share job leads that you don’t qualify for, and help encourage each other to stay on the job search until you are successful.

Hundreds of jobs go unfilled every day because employers can’t find the person with the right skills.  These tips should help to find that employer out there looking for you.

    If you need more assistance, contact us, or call us at (559) 585-3532.