Roberto Angulo - Getting Your First Job For Dummies

Getting Your First Job For Dummies

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Copyright 2018 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2017959385

ISBN 978-1-119-43146-6 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-43133-6 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-43130-5 (ebk)

Whether youre a high school students looking for part-time work, a college student looking for your first internship, or a recent grad out in the world looking for your first full-time job, youre taking an important step forward in your life!

Getting a job is not rocket science, but its also not something to be taken lightly. Part of the process involves figuring out what you want to do and what job will make you happy. The next part is actually identifying the right jobs that are available and applying to them. You also need to prepare your rsum and think about what you want to show employers. After you apply, you want to make sure your application is accepted and that you pass your interviews. And when you get an offer, you need to determine if its a good package for you.

Finding a job may seem complicated, but my goal in this book is to outline all the steps involved, and help you get through them easily and successfully. Even if you read only part of this book and follow only some of the steps, youll be better off than most job seekers.

Millions of people have gotten jobs before you. Some have prepared for the task and others havent. Eventually, people tend to find their way and get on a career path that allows them to succeed. Most likely, youll change jobs a few times throughout your career and you may also figure out you need to go on a different career path altogether.

Your first job is the beginning of a journey. With this book, you get a good start and youll be armed with the knowledge, tools, and best practices that will help you as you progress along your career path.

Finding your first job may seem like a daunting task, but with this book, it wont be. Here I provide a comprehensive overview of the various steps involved in finding out what job youll like, going after that job, and getting the job. This book provides practical tips you can use and doesnt go into philosophical discussions or technical jargon. The knowledge in this book is a combination of common sense and advice that has helped job seekers over the years.

Each part of the book addresses a facet of the search, and each chapter and section addresses a specific step you can take to make your search a lot easier. You can jump from one section of the book to another, in any order, depending on where you are in your search.

Within this book, you may note that some web addresses break across two lines of text. If youre reading this book in print and want to visit one of these web pages, simply key in the web address exactly as its noted in the text, pretending as though the line break doesnt exist. If youre reading this as an e-book, youve got it easy just click the web address to be taken directly to the web page.

Everyones circumstances are unique; however, Ive seen some patterns over the years on how people look for work and where they need help. I made the following assumptions about you as I wrote this book:

• You have some college experience. A few chapters, not all, make reference to college activities, internships, and resources. This applies if you went to vocational school, community college, a four-year university, or graduate school. Even if you didnt go to college, the content in this book is pertinent and will help you get your first job.
• Youre tight on time. Looking for your first job is hard enough, and you shouldnt have to read a novel to figure out how to do it right. This book gives you advice in small digestible pieces that you can easily access.
• You have a computer and Internet access. Most of the steps outlined in this book rely on your leveraging online tools to achieve what you need to do. Whether its searching for jobs, researching employers, or doing an online assessment, you need fast Internet access. You can do a lot of the things outlined here on your phone, but its better if you sit down in front of your computer, calmly and with a big enough screen, to do things such as write a cover letter and submit your job applications. Go to your public library to use a computer if you dont have one at home.