Infinite Ideas - Find That Job: Simple Ideas for Managing Your Career

Find that job

Simple ideas for managing your career

Infinite Ideas

Welcome

About Find that job

Can you really learn enough through one short book to help you to find the right job? The answer is a resounding Yes. This book provides you with a blueprint which will point you in all of the right directions, and gives you lots of tips and techniques that will make the job hunting process less of a lottery.

This book is written for people with neither the time nor the patience to trawl through acres of jargon, management-speak and page-filling theory. Find that job has been written in the belief that you can learn all you really need to know quickly and without hassle. The aim is to distil the essential, practical advice you can use straight away.

How to use this book

The message here is Its OK to skim. Feel free to flick through to find the help you most need. This book is a collection of hands-on tips which will help you to spot any shortcomings you might have and show you how to turn them into strengths.

Divided into five chapters, Find that job deals with all the key issues that face everyone when looking for a job. It should help you make yourself irresistible to potential employers. The book has been written to provide help for both older, more experienced job seekers and people just trying to start off in the work place.

You will find that there are some graphic features used throughout the book:

You?

These mean: Something to think about they set the scene and identify the problems by prompting you to think about situations which will instantly feel familiar.

Act!

With the problem diagnosed, these features give you ideas for on action plan they will help you to change your behavior patterns in a positive way.

Tips

These features appear at the end of each chapter. They are checklists which summarize all of the advice given throughout the chapter. Similar features also appear within chapters which are overflowing with tips!

As you read through the book, you will come across lots of tips and practical advice on how to make a big impact when seeking work. You could start by just going straight to any of the boxed features, which will ask you either to think about a problem or to do something about it and give you some ideas. If youre really pushed for time, you can always go direct to the tips features at the end of each chapter.

Good luck!

1. You and your ambitions

Whats in this chapter for you

• Targeting the right job
• Planning the job hunt
• The All about me and what Ive done file
• Face it nobodys perfect!
• Plugging the gaps
• Suiting yourself
• Networking

It seems to me that I take one step forward and two back. I know I should be higher up the career ladder than I am, and I keep applying for things and putting my CV up on the recruitment sites, but I never get anywhere. Where I work presently, I cant seem to make any headway either. Others around me with a lot less ability than me seem to get the promotions. I am now just going through the motions and beginning to believe that I am never going to get lucky

James Millar, accounts clerk

You?

Does James experience sound at all familiar? Do you know you could be doing better and fulfilling your potential but feel that you are continually being thwarted in your efforts to find the perfect job?

Many ambitious people work hard at improving their lot in life. They send endless letters and applications, post their CVs with recruitment websites continuously in the hope that they are ultimately going to get lucky.

In most cases, luck has very little to do with finding the right job. Arnold Palmer, one of golfs greats, summed it up perfectly. He reckoned that the more he practiced, the luckier he got! Job hunting is a mixture of:

a) Hard work,

b) Planning,

c) Creativity and

d) A little luck.

However, without a), b) and c), in 99 per cent of cases d) will not apply.

Planning the job hunt

Your starting point when job hunting has got to be with yourself. You need to prepare for the task ahead in a very single-minded way and accept that, like anything that needs to be done properly, it will take you time.

Act!

At the outset you must do a personal audit of your skills and abilities. By doing so, you can start to target the sorts of jobs that you are interested in and the sorts of employers who will be interested in you.

Somehow I got it into my head when I left university with my degree that I could stroll into a job in marketing with a charity that was what I wanted to do. I kept applying for jobs and kept getting rejected. In the end, I went to a careers counselor and they advised me to get my foot in the door through doing voluntary work or to forget it altogether. I did an internship and guess what? I have a team of 15 fundraisers now working for me!

Claire Essen, marketing director, childrens charity

It sounds obvious but Claires experience is really worth learning from. When looking for the perfect job, you need to make sure that you have the basic skills and qualifications in the first place, especially in this ultra-competitive economy. If you dont, then you will have to be amazingly resilient to take all of the rejection!

You?

Answer the following questions:

• What would your dream job be?
• Do you need special qualifications? If so, can you realistically get these qualifications? Are you prepared to work really hard to get the right job?
• What do you consider your strengths to be over your competitors? How can you emphasize these to your potential employer?
• Are you being clinical enough about your search? Are you keeping the right records, following up on deadlines and generally being highly organized?

Lets start by looking at what records you need to keep.

The All about me, and what Ive done file

Yes, it is all about you! This particular weapon in your armory is absolutely vital and you should spend time in ensuring it is as effective as possible. Refer to it whenever you are in the act of job hunting, even if you are simply making an informal enquiry.

Act!

When compiling the essential about me dossier, be absolutely truthful about yourself. Think honestly about your strengths and weaknesses for absolute veracity check what youve written with a friend or a loved one, someone whose opinion you trust and who will be frank with you.

This file should include all of the following:

• Comprehensive personal details, including full name, date of birth, address and telephone number. Other details such as place of birth, marital status, children etc. should be recorded here too, but you need to decide for yourself whether this kind of information is relevant when sending in application forms in the future. In most countries, questions about race, age or marital status are quite rightly illegal.
• Your educational background. Record here the schools you attended from the age of 11 upwards and all of your academic qualifications. Again much of this is not going to be of use but keep it to hand just in case.
• Your further training . This could prove especially important and should not include solely the achievements which give recognized qualifications. For example, by noting any computer related training even if you only attended a three-hour course when a spreadsheet was explained could help in persuading a future employer of your computer literacy.
• Other skills and hobbies . This section might include details of hobbies or specific talents such as fluency in a language or in amateur dramatics which may help tip the balance in your favor. You should also list here membership of any relevant organizations (such as the Chamber of Commerce or a professional institute) which may help to show your commitment to a given industry.