Sure-fire tips for serious job hunters

More than 40,000 Filipino employees lost their jobs during the last several months. This figure does not include roughly 7,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who met the same fate and 30,000 more who are sharing jobs in a shortened work week. A few thousands more accepted early retirement but look forward to reemployment. Some 500,000 more graduated from college and the same number of youngsters joined the workplace as they turned 15 this year.

Tough Times

Millions are now competing for fewer jobs in an economy where foreign direct investments in 2009 are expected to be only 25% of 2007 levels. The last time we looked, the formula hasn’t changed: investment equals employment. The country’s formal economy is shrinking, as the informal sector (euphemism for underground economy) is growing. This means lesser jobs in the corporate world.

What’s in store for the job seekers? These are tough times and job hunting has become even more competitive. There are still good jobs available for qualified people who know better how to get those jobs than others.

On the other hand, there are over a hundred thousand jobs that are hard to fill because they require more skills and experience than most job seekers could offer. That there is a mismatch between the industry requirements and the products of the academe is a foregone conclusion. The issue has been discussed to death, but we still need earthshaking changes that can resolve the issue.

Job Hunting Tips

If you are a serious job hunter – i.e., religiously looking for a job – you can use the following tips to change the way you look for a job. (By the way, by NSO standards, you don’t belong to the ranks of the jobless if you don’t have a job now by are not looking for one). These tips will help mainly new entrants into the workplace, but other types of job seekers will benefit from these too.

If you choose employment as your means to earn a living, these tips are for you. If you want to to something else with your life – be a businessmen, movie actor, politician, pro basketball player or boxer – you need to hone a different set of skills.

Full Time Job

If you don’t have a job now, make job hunting your full-time job. This means that looking for a job is what you should do the whole day, five days a week, until you get hired. If you are a new graduate, there’s no reason why you should prolong your vacation. Job hunting is harder than you think it is. People still look for jobs, not the other way around.

Look inside you first

Most job seekers look first into the Internet, the Job Market section, the classified ads and job posting elsewhere. They they try their luck and send resumes “to whom it may concern.” This “spray and pray” style of job hunting is bad strategy. When looking for a job, first look inside you and see what you you can offeer before you start selling yourself. The most successful employees are those who do what they love and love what they do. Knowing yourself thoroughly (skills, interests, strengths, etc) helps create a better match between the job and yourself. This saves you the trouble of applying for jobs you don’t qualify at all.

Look at the job market

When you know what value you can contribute, you will know better the kind of jobs or careers that are best suited for you. This enhances your confidence to face your prospective employer and therefore your chances of getting hired. Choose the jobs you want to take and the companies you want to join. Yes, you have a choice! It’s pathetic to say that you have a choice! It’s pathetic to say that you just took the job because you have no choice. I just don’t buy that.

Get a foot in the door

The resume is the single most important document you should prepare when you are looking for a job. Forget the bio-data form available in book stores. Make a short (i.e., one or two pages) resume that will get you invited for an interview. Don’t clutter your resume with an overload of information. Tailor fit the resume with the job specification as best as you can. Your resume must accomplish only one thing – get your prospective employer interested enough to invite you for interview.

Send the resume to the prospective boss directly, to the HR department where you will compete with thousands of other applicants.

Impress the interviewer

The interview will land you the job. The big secret here is simple. Make your interviewer visualize you being hired and doing the job. There are a number of ways to do that. Forget the dramatics, rhetoric and the polemics. Make an honest, straightforward and convincing discussion about how the prospective employer can benefit from hiring you. Enunciate well with your goals and aspirations that match with the corporate vision, mission and values of your prospective employer. This means a lot of pre-work before you show up for interview – you must know your possible employer thoroughly.

The job interview is dreaded by most job seekers. Ironically, they know the usual questions, the most common of which is, “Tell us about yourself.” My usual advice us for you to prepare a “60-second sound bite,” you stand for, your dreams and aspirations and what value you can contribute.

Conclusion

Life is truly full of uncertainties. In uncertain times such as now, it is difficult but not impossible to get good jobs. The people who can get hired (or promoted or elected) are not necessary those who are best qualified for the job. Usually, they are those who know best how to get hired (or promoted or elected).

(Ernie is current chair of IR Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM). He also chairs the ECOP’s Long Range Policy Planning Committee. He was also President of the Personnel Management Association of the Philippines in 1999. He is the President and CEO of EC Business Soltions and Career Center, a human resource consulting firm. He can be reached at ernie_cecilia@yahoo.com)