Finding a job can be the most frustrating experience.
I personally remember applying to about 400 jobs when I first graduated from university, and frustration doesn’t even begin to descibe my feelings during the process. Constantly putting my best foot forward and being ignored or turned down…
Then it happened – I was invited to an interview with a educational institution to apply for the Marketing Director position. What an indescribable feeling of joy it was when I heard that I got the job! It was worth all the frustration to know that my career was about to begin.
I have good and bad news for you, students of today. The bad news is that the job market is more competitive than ever. The good news is that you can do something about being seen before other candidates.
CV in a haystack (of CVs)
A growing trend in business is to use online channels to find the best staff. This goes beyond job portals where we can add our CV (400 times if you like!). The problem there is that everyone is submitting CV’s through online portals, making your CV one in amongst a million.
It’s no secret that companies are looking everywhere for the right employees. So let me ask you: can companies find you anywhere?
Standard Bank and a host of other top South African businesses are recruiting through Linkedin. LinkedIn is a corporate version of Facebook so you should find it pretty easy to work out how to use.
If you’re feeling lonely on LinkedIn you can always connect with me. LinkedIn lets you have this custom CV that is searchable on a local and international level and even makes it possible for people to contact you without the need of a recruitment agency.
Companies are also using Facebook to find out more about who you are, and even Twitter can help show your future bosses that you are an up and coming time-bomb of success. So to get you started, I thought I would share a few tips to get you off the ground floor…
Getting into LinkedIn
- Register at www.linkedin.com.
- Take some time to complete the entire profile and make sure you use standardised business english (in othr wrds no shrt sms spk).
- Make sure you have a quick, concise, and interesting summary of yourself that shows your future bosses how great you are and how you will add value to their company.
- Fill out your job history. Include any job you’ve had that can help employers see that you will be a good fit for their company.
- If you have a blog or website, link to it from your profile by adding it under the websites section.
- Same with Twitter. LinkedIn will ask for your Twitter details. This makes it easier for people to find your Twitter profile once they have found you on LinkedIn.
- Connect with friends and family in order to start building your business network.
- Now click on the companies section of LinkedIn:
- You can now start following any companies (like us!) that you would like to work for
- When these companies have new job opportunities you will be able to see then on their LinkedIn page
- Making it so easy to apply for the position.
How to use Twitter to brand yourself
- Register at www.twitter.com.
- Start following influential people in the business industry that you want to work in.
- Retweet interesting tweets from these influencers.
- Create a few tweets of your own that talk about your thoughts on the industry.
- Talk to other people on Twitter. Twitter is a social network, so let’s keep it social!
Clean up your Facebook profile
- Stop swearing – it makes you look disrespectful.
- Be positive! No-one wants to hire a complaining and negative individual.
- Link to your LinkedIn profile under your website/information settings. This will help recruiters find your LinkedIn profile and direct them there instead of checking out your Facebook profile.
