Nothing can be more depressing for new job seekers than working on your resume as necessary, sending countless applications, and still remain in the category of the unemployed. No feedback from employers, let alone a call for interview.
Business owners are not looking to reduce the rate of unemployment. They are looking to grow their business. To work with people who will share in their vision and help move the company forward. Put yourself in the position of a business owner, you’ll want the same.
It‘s then boils down to the same question, “How much value can you afford to offer?” This is where the problem of most fresh graduates begins. It hasn’t been easy for the professional with job experience to get a better job. How much more a fresh school leaver with little to no experience?
If you are in this position, you may not be able to change the way things seem to work, but you can make yourself a better job candidate fit for your desired employment. Here are few of the many ways to be more employable.
Develop Computer-based skills
IT skills are now more important than ever in the job market. Virtually every establishment of any sort needs at least basic technology to make work smoother. Microsoft office, graphic design, web development and management, publishing, search engine optimization, social media management. This may sound cliché but a large number of job seekers out there have little to no basic computer and Information Technology skills.
Combining your current qualification with some IT skills will make you a more valuable employee than most job seekers out there.
Take online courses
Online courses are hot these days. People have been able to alter the course of their career by making use of free and paid learning materials readily available online to improve their knowledge. That you studied mechanical engineering in school does not confine you to work in engineering firms. Even if you must, you may not have the luxury to practice your profession. There are torrents of quality resources online to self-educate and be a well rounded individual.
Your online self-education may not come with a traditional qualification. But at you get to know more than you were taught in school. Here is a list of websites to learn Courses Online free.
Don’t look for a Job
A great job is what every job seeker want to settle for. Unfortunately only few will get lucky. Many eyes are focused on that high paying job that it becomes almost impossible for a candidate without experience or contacts to get through. Rather than focus all attention in getting that dream job, a better option is to start with experience rewarding jobs. It may not look like “the job” actually, considering the absence of “deserved” reward. So let’s call it an internship. Rather than spend years waiting for that perfect job, and becoming even less qualified as years roll by, you’ll be developing skills and experiences that can make way for a better job.
Take entrepreneurship program(s)
Job seekers often get scared at the mention starting a business. But seriously, you should be thinking of developing entrepreneurial skills by now. For every available job position out there, there are so much more people ready to fill the space. More jobs need to be created. You don’t have to be the born-entrepreneur. Use the adaptive spirit you inherited from student-hood to adapt to your current situation, even if you don’t feel you have what it takes.
There are entrepreneurship training programmes that can help you understand the basics of starting and running a business in your area. If you are in Nigeria, Entrepreneurship development Center – EDC by African Leadership Forum – ALF is a business development training center for students and graduates to start off with. The program is subsidized by the Central bank of Nigeria, which makes it cheaply affordable.
There are lots of valuable business programs online if you can’t find a good locally. Entrepreneurial skills will make you a better job candidate eventually.
Start a personal blog
Writing a blog has gone beyond personal online diaries. Blogs have become a powerful business and self marketing tool. Start a blog to show how much you know or want to know in your field of interest. It doesn’t have to be based on your academic qualification. It could be about anything that interests you. Then you’ll have all the space you need to self-promote.
So there it is. Develop IT skills, learn new stuffs online, get a job for the experience, take entrepreneurship programs, start a blog. Hopefully these tips will give you a head start to becoming a potential value to employers and push you up the list of employable candidates in nearest future.
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