JOB SEARCH AND EMPLOYMENT

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.