Job Search and Employment
For most business students one of
the most important communication tasks is preparing your resume. This document
will represent you in offices you have never seen. The resume is just one
aspect of a complete communication package that everyone must put together
before he or she enters the business world. This package should also include a
healthy amount of career planning and self-assessment before you even start
thinking about a resume. In addition, after you have written a resume you need
to think about writing cover letters, preparing yourself for interviews, and
planning strategies for follow up interview with letters and telephone calls.
This job-search communication package ends up looking very much like the
following figure.
The Job Search
Communication
Plan Your Career
Before you can sell a product, you need to know what product is all
about. Similarly, before selling your expertise you need to know the following.
Understanding Today’s Changing
Workplace
Today, work place is influenced
by numerous forces such as globalization, advancing technology, information
overload, grown diversity, and team based organizations. Certain other issue
such as corporate downsizing, cost-cutting initiatives growing dependency on
flexible employment techniques such as outsourcing and increasing entrepreneur
are fast influencing the workplace.
How Changing Workplace Affects
Job
Employment is more flexible. Today,
lifelong employees are less in number, only, temporary workers & consultants
are working project by project basis.
Hiring Practices
What today’s Employers Seek in
job Applicants
Today Employers are looking for
people who are:
- able and willing to adapt to diverse situation
- are unafraid to change
- ready to learn on the job
- are sensitive to cultural difference.
- In fact, your chances of being hired are better if you've studied abroad or learned another language.
Setting realistic objectives
How then do you begin assessing what you have to offer and then putting
together a convincing sales pitch?
You cannot expect to be managing
a major corporation or earning 100,000/- Rs. Similarly, you cannot expect to do
some petty job. This is a phase of self-assessment process. Before selling a
product know what that product is all about. So most of the experts will tell
you that the first thing you need to do is to set realistic objective for
yourself.
Know your Major Strengths and weaknesses
To begin setting objectives, you may want to ask yourself a series of
questions to clarify your thinking. These may be questions about your own
strengths and weaknesses, questions about you goals, or a realistic appraisal
of your abilities. Let's look at some issues you will always want to consider
during this phase of self assessment process.
•
What have you done at school?
•
Were you good with number?
•
Can you get along with people?
•
Are there any Gaps in your work history?
•
Are you inexperience?
•
Are you over-qualified?
•
Do you have long term employment with one
company or job termination in your career?
Establish some goals
•
What are your long & short term goals?
•
How do you picture yourself as a successful
person?
Envision the ideal day at work
•
Talk to people about your envisioned profession
•
Read out various occupations
•
Determine the specific compensation you expect.
What do you hope to earn in your first year? What kind of pay increase do you
expect each year? Are you willing to settle for less money in order to do
something you really love?
Envision size of company & location
Do you like the idea of working for a small organization? How
can you make yourself more valuable to employers?
•
Keep an employment portfolio
•
Collect anything that shows your ability to
perform
•
Take interim assignment
•
Do temporary or freelance work
•
Work on polishing and upgrading your skill
•
Join networks of professional colleagues &
friends who can keep you up to date with occupation and industry
Narrow Down the Field
Let’s look at the functional
areas of business and their activities as first step in narrowing the field.
Finances
Investment bank, commercial banks
savings and loans corporation and brokerage houses
Accounting
Public account firms work as controllers or financial planners.
Activities in these jobs range from reviewing financial records or balance
sheets to monitoring business plans.
Marketing & Sales
In marketing you want to go to a
company that sells consumer products, industrial products, high-technologies.
Human relations / personnel
communication
Management Information Systems
Organizing your Approach
Organize your approach to the
Employment Process and don’t worry if you don't have personal contact in an
organization. Find out where the job opportunities are. Which industries are
strong? Which part of the country are booming?
Stay abreast of Business and Financial News through
•
Major newspaper
•
Trade magazine (print or line edition)
•
Scan
business page/watch television
Research Specific Companies
Make a list of desirable
employers. Identify a promising industry.
Learn about Organization
Find out if a company maintains
website. You’ll find information about organization's mission, products, annual
report employee benefits etc.
Respond to Job Opening
Send resumes quickly and cheaply
through e-mail and send focused cover letters directly to executives doing the
hiring.
Find Career Counseling
College placement centers offer
individual counseling on campus. Seek help from them
Analyze your Purpose & Audience
•
Study your purpose and your audience to tailor
your message for maximum effect.
•
Gather relevant information about you and the
employer you are targeting.
•
Establish a good relationship by highlighting
those skills and qualifications that match each employer.
Writing Resumes &
Application Letters
Preparing Resumes
By sending out such employment
messages, you have an opportunity to showcase your communication skills –the
skills valued highly by the majority of employers. In fact, your success in
finding a job will depend on how carefully you plan, write, and complete your
resume.
Analyze your purpose and
audience
A resume is a structured, written summary of a person’s education,
employment background, and job qualifications. Resume is a form of advertising.
It is intended to stimulate an employer’s interest in you. A successful resume inspires a
prospective employer to invite you to interview with the company. Thus, your
purpose is to create interest. Don't
tell readers everything about you. In fact, it may be best to only hint at some
things. Consider the following.
Fallacy
|
Fact
|
Don’t think of a resume as a list all your skills and abilities
|
A resume will kindle employer interest and generate an interview
|
Get you the job you want
|
Get you in the door
|
Will be read carefully and thoroughly by an interested employer
|
In fact your resume probably has less than 45 seconds to make an
impression.
|
Investigate pertinent
information
Include pertinent personal history. The specific dates, duties, and
accomplishments of any previous jobs you’ve held. Collect every piece of
relevant educational experience that adds to your qualifications, such as
formal degrees, skills, certificates, academic awards, or scholarships.
Information about personal
endeavors: Give dates of your
membership in an association. Offices you may have held in a club or
professional organization? Presentations you might have given to a community
group etc.
Adapt your resume to your
Audience
Because your resume will have little time to make an impression, make
sure to adopt a “you” attitude and think about your resume from the employer's
perspective. Ask yourself: What key qualifications will this employer be
looking for? Which of these qualifications are your greatest strengths? What
quality would set you apart from other candidates in the eyes of a potential
employer? What are three or four of
your greatest accomplishments, and what resulted from these accomplishments?
A Good Resume
A good resume is a flexible and can be customized for various situations
and employers.
To write good resume, you need to show that you (1) think in term of
result(2) know how to get things done(3) are well rounded,(4) show signs of
progress(5) have personal standards of excellence(6) are flexible and willing
to try new things(7) possess strong communication skills.
Appropriate Organizational
Approach
To focus attention on your strongest points, adopt the appropriate
organizational approach – make your resume chronological, functional, or
a combination of the two. The “right”
choice depends on your background and your goals.
The Chronological Resume
In a chronological resume, the work-experience section dominates,
immediately after the name and address and the objective. You develop this section
by listing your jobs sequentially in reverse order, beginning with the most
recent position and working backward towards earlier jobs. Under each listing,
describe your responsibilities and accomplishments, giving the most space to
the most recent positions. If you’re just graduating from college, you can vary
this chronological approach by putting your educational qualifications before
your experience, thereby focusing attention on your academic credentials.
The chorological approach is the most common way to organize a resume,
and many employers prefer it. This approach has three key advantages:
(1) employers are familiar with it & can
easily find information
(2) it highlights growth and career progression
(3) it highlights employment continuity and
stability
The chronological approach is especially appropriate if you have a strong
employment history and are aiming for a job that builds on your current career
path.
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