Being unemployed can take a major toll on your self-esteem, your financial situation, and your desire. If prolonged, it can also have a negative impact on your competency level (i.e., keeping up with skills, experience and attributes that are in demand in the job market). But don’t get down on yourself. As you look for a new job, you need to understand that there are thousands of others who are also unemployed and looking for a job.
To give yourself an edge and position yourself ahead of these other jobseekers, implement an effective job market strategy for overcoming unemployment. Here are the top 3 strategies you need to consider in overcoming your unemployment.
Strategy 1 – Create Your Own Job Opportunities: It is a statistical fact that 80% of job seekers concentrate on 20% of jobs available. You may find this puzzling, but it makes sense when you consider that these 20% of jobs are the jobs advertised through the mainstream job channels most job seekers use – newspapers and recruitment agencies. The other 80% of jobs are accessed via the hidden job market channels – and this is where you need to concentrate your efforts.
Strategy 2 – Take On Volunteer Work: It is rather shortsighted when jobseekers say they cannot do volunteer work because they don’t want to work for free. This is so far from the truth when you take the time to consider what you stand to get out of it. Volunteer work achieves 5 things: it keeps your skills and experience up to date; portrays you as a hardworking, proactive individual who uses his or her initiative; puts you into the know with regard to the internal job market industry, as you now have one foot through the door at your place of volunteer work; makes you more marketable as you can put the name of the company down as place of work; and, finally, naturally gives you an edge over other job applicants as a result of the first 4 reasons. Think of it this way. If you were the employer and you were considering 2 applicants, one who does volunteer work and the other who has just remained unemployed and has done nothing, who would have the edge in your eyes?
Strategy 3 – Continuous Improvement: Never stop developing yourself. Be highly committed to self-development, especially given the impact of the information age on today’s fast-paced and ever-changing world of work. Those who get jobs effortlessly are those who are on the cutting edge of their industry in terms of latest trends, technologies, training and specialized industry advancement. The good news is that there is a huge variety of affordable, sometimes free, ways to stay ahead of the curve. So commit to learning and improving yourself by participating in educational experiences such as classes or training, reading specialist publications, researching info on relevant websites, and so on.
Simply working on these top 3 areas will dramatically improve your chances of achieving your job goal in the quickest and most effective manner possible. But first a note of caution: the success of these strategies is very dependent on how well developed your job market skills are. Conduct a self-analysis of your current job market performance by taking this FREE Job Market Performance Assessment.
Tags: Attributes, career, career advice, Career Change, Competency Level, Desire, employment, Financial Situation, Hidden Job Market, Initiative, Internal Job, Job Opportunities, Job Seekers, Jobs, Mainstream, Market Channels, Market Strategy, Negative Impact, New Job, Recruitment Agencies, Regard, Self Esteem, Statistical Fact, Unemployment, Volunteer Work
Anyone starting a new job is really bound to feel a sense of apprehension. Going into the office on your first day, especially if you are in a relatively junior position can seem a daunting experience. After all, you don’t even know where the toilets are, or where to make yourself a drink, so the first day and even the first week can seem quite slow and lengthy.
But there are some things that you can do to help yourself and make the settling in process a little bit quicker. Don’t be afraid to ask. If you don’t know how to do something or where something is, then ask, but try not to ask the same person all the time, or they may grow a little tired of it.
Don’t be too forward on your first day. If you come in and try to change things too quickly, people may resent you. So just adapt to how things are done and don’t keep telling people how your last employer did things: they probably won’t be interested.
It is always important to be friendly but do not attach yourself to a particular individual until you know what is what in the office and understand the dynamics of the workplace. It is really easy to alienate people by inadvertently saying the wrong thing. Remember that these people are colleagues, not necessarily your new best friends.
If you are temping for a recruitment agency, then you probably will get used to settling into new work experiences very quickly, but you should still ensure that you don’t rock the boat too much, whether you are temping or there on a permanent basis. Changes in the workplace often need to be handled sensitively and many people may be wary of a new person joining the team, so simply be yourself, but be slightly reserved until you start to understand how things work and what the office is really like. That way, settling in should be no trouble at all and you will soon be a valued member of the workplace.
Tags: Afraid To Ask, anxiety, Apprehension, Bound, Changes In The Workplace, Colleagues, fear, first week, help, Junior Position, Little Bit, Many People, New Best Friends, New Friends, New Job, Recruitment Agency, Rock The Boat, Settling, Starting A New Job, Toilets, Work Experiences
When you are employed it is really easy to get complacent about job prospects. You settle into a nice routine, you get used to how things work and the only time you ever seriously think about your career prospects is when you are thinking about applying for a new job. Then suddenly you find out that everyone else has so much better prospects than you do and you are very much at the bottom of the pile. So the time to actually think about improving your job prospects is now!
There are lots of things that you can do to make you stand out from your colleagues and be that little bit more employable. Voluntary work is a great way of picking up new skills, showing that you have a sense of community responsibility and that you are not afraid of hard work.
Studying in your own time can also really improve your career, even if the subject matter isn’t wholly relevant (although the more relevant, the better) studying helps sharpen your analytical skills and helps you to become much more confident in general.
New skills can also be something that you can help your CV stand out. These could be organisational skills or learning how to manage, in different settings etc. So being in charge of a group of Scouts or Brownies certainly shows that you can be in charge, lead and (probably) that you have the patience of a saint. So don’t discount learning new skills, even if they don’t seem to be directly related to your work.
In the workplace, whether you are permanently employed or a temp working for a recruitment agency, make sure that you are flexible about work, as efficient as you can be and that you are always willing to take on new challenges. Adopting a ‘Can Do’ attitude will also boots your job prospects.
Tags: Analytical Skills, Attitude, Better Prospects, Boots, Brownies, career, Career Prospects, Challenges, Colleagues, Community Responsibility, Cv, improve, Job Prospects, Little Bit, new career, New Job, new skills, Organisational Learning, Organisational Skills, Own Time, Patience Of A Saint, Recruitment Agency, Subject Matter, Voluntary Work
