Job Hunting Strategies

 

Job hunting – applying for job opening one after another yet did not get any responses. What could have happen back-end? Job openings are being snagged by internal referred candidates? Are you not going for the right jobs with your skills?

It is never about hoping to get calls for interviews anymore. It doesn’t just work by waiting… Job hunters got to make sure that you use various methods to stand out from the crowd.

Fret not, make sure you stand tall above the job-seeking crowd, and below are some ways that can help you in achieving a quicker success rate during your job hunting process.

Aim for the Right Jobs

Your current position and experiences should better somewhere relevant in the job market. Do your own researches before you start applying for jobs - Match your skills, interests and job exposures to the right career choice and the companies’ requirements. There are many factors that you can look at, for example, your experiences have equipped you with the right skills to move up the next level in your career path. You have intended to look for a higher job title or salary, you should not send out your resume aimlessly, even when you see that the salary does not match you.

Create a searchable social media profile

In our era of technology, recruiters rely a lot on social media and technology platforms to source and look out for potential candidates. Of course, this does not deter recruiters from forgetting about human touch. LinkedIn is one of the platforms that recruiters are engaging with candidates these days. Unless you are not expecting any contacts to get in touch with you, please always keep your job portal profiles visible for all. You will never know what good deals or great opportunities might come your way.

Expand your network

Just by applying on job portals is not sufficient in the market nowadays. Expand your network and get your words around your trusted friends and colleagues that you are on a lookout. They can be the ones who might even recommend greater jobs to you.

Be proactive

It is no longer in the era that the longer you wait; the better ones will come your way. You have to fight for what you want. You have to send reminder emails or even a second email so that the employers will be able to take notice of your email. While you are assertive and proactive in getting in contact with the recruiters or employers, this increases your chance and also says something about you, and your eagerness in getting into the job.

Creating a learning culture

As the Chinese proverb states, "Learn till old, live till old", no matter how old one is, there is always more learning or studying left to do.

Corporate Executives are empathizing on the ability an employee is to adapt in the rapid development in the current workforce. Employees on the other hand, are continuously trying to learn and grow while being on a job. The opportunity for training and development has become one of the most popular benefits that candidates are looking at when looking for a job.

Research shows that as technology advances, approximately half of the jobs available in the market will be automated, thus emphasizing the importance of employee's learning to keep up with the advancement. 

Even though organizations understand the concept of encouraging constant learning, but it's often the execution part that is tedious. In order for companies to create an effective learning environment, one can consider taking these few steps below.

Skills VS Conduct

Skill is usually teachable to individuals be it online or offline and could be assessed later. This can be done by conducting lessons or workshops to teach employees with the skill required and conducting a test after to measure their level of understanding.

Whereas conduct which means how one should react when faced a situation, which is difficult to be taught as it everyone already have different approach when dealing with different situations. Instead of commanding your employees to behave in a certain manner, one can emphasis on the importance of why the behavior should be implemented.

It's about the Knowledge, Skills & Abilities (KSAs)

In order for learning to positively influence the culture, organizations should encourage employees to improve on their Knowledge, Skills and Abilities.

Different individuals take different duration to adapt to absorb the new skill that they are impart with, it will definitely take some time to put the skill to action. After employees managed to incorporate the skills they learnt, it will eventually become their habit to act in the way that was being taught.

Be encouraging

Managers should take lead and show others that they understand how the learning culture operates and why it is being implemented. Top executive should make sure that the objectives of learning are synced with the business goals and encourage employees not to be afraid when faced with failure as it would just be a part of learning and growing with the company.

Communicate

Each individual in the company should be reassured that the value of learning is not only beneficial to the organization but also to themselves as well.

By putting up posters or sending notices to employees might not be the best way to convey the message to them, HR department should actively engage employees to share about the philosophy about learning and encourage more opportunities to grow.

Customize your platforms

Currently there are many learning materials available that can be bought off-the-shelf to be used for in-house training. They might be good enough for a basic training but there is no such thing as one size fits all, in order to make sure that it is suitable for your organization, they can be customized to meet your company's needs.

Take time for feedback

Feedback might be deemed as tedious, but it not only determines the effect of training held, it also provides information of how you can keep the management up-to-date. In the long run, such feedback would allow you to be able to measure the amount of impact of different aspects of the business on top of just the knowledge and performance.

Experiment with what you have

If the turn up rate of a certain workshop is not what you expected, review to check if the topics are relevant or take a different approach.

If the approach of doing the workshop offsite is not showing results, try doing an in-house workshop. Let your employees choose a way that fits them best.

Organizations need to deduce on the most effective way to convey the new knowledge. There must always be a balance to learning as well, do not flood all the workshops at once, take your time and enjoy the journey while trying to change the culture.