What Employers Want
Awareness of employer’s expectations is essential to finding a job. Older job-hunting techniques focused on “you”, the person. It laid emphasis on your work history, accomplishments, academic background and other credentials. It focused on your qualifications and objectives as well. But that has changed and today, employers expect you to know what their needs are and tell them how you can complement the organization.
Energy
Displaying the right energy and initiative is very important. Energetic people are credited with enthusiasm, vigor and drive and that is exactly what employers want. Most jobs require you to be proactive. Employers can easily evaluate this ability, almost as soon as the candidate enters the room. If you are not an energetic person, you should practice ways to look and act accordingly, in order to make a good first impression. It can make a huge difference; most of the time, job opportunities are won or lost on approach and preparation.
Specific Skills
Every job involves a set of specific skills and education or training, with the required background and experience. Most often, these skill sets are mentioned in the advertisement. If, however, they are not mentioned specifically, find out about the company and its hierarchical structure. This will help you to prepare to present specific abilities and initiative, creating a positive impact on the employer. Your primary concern, once you have the list of required skills, should be to present evidence that you have those skills.
This could involve your academic qualifications, projects and achievements. In addition, you need to project the capability to meet job responsibilities, work experience, voluntary activities and tasks in personnel management. The key is to try to match your skills and capability to the specific requirement of the employer. Highlight the relevant areas, since recruiters usually do not have a lot of time on hand and have to deal with a number of applications. They show interest only in particular skill sets that are required by the organizations that they represent. Make these skill sets noticeable. Precision and brevity are important too, but it is also important to highlight the skills you possess and how you can be an asset to the firm.
Transferable Skills
There are particular skills that most employers look for that have nothing to do with the competencies required for the particular job. These skills indicate the development potential and not the knowledge level. These so-called transferable skills include communication, teamwork, leadership, initiative, problem solving, adaptability, motivation and numerical skills. In addition to this, private sector companies prefer the candidate to have some idea of how the firm operates, current business news and trends and their impact on the organization. The courses completed, work experience and hobbies are of value as well. Be ready to answer clearly if asked at the interview as to how your education has prepared you for a specific job. You should be prepared with a good and precise answer. It is important to plan in advance.
By applying the steps above, you will be well on your way to giving employers what they want and conducting a highly successful job search.
By: Tony Jacowski
Posts Tagged ‘Academic Qualifications’
Job Hunting Tips — What Employers Look For
January 11th, 2010Job Searching Online – Best Way To Grab Your Dream Job
January 3rd, 2010Scouring the local papers for best job choices is something your older siblings may have done while visiting the consultancy went out with your parent’s outdated music sense, so welcome the new-age online job hunting facilities for your self – and grab the best of the Internet’s endless range and reach! Who knows – your dream job may be in virtual space itself – just a click away, so why not begin today?
We bring you tips and hints on landing the perfect job of your choice and how to do it safely, conveniently and in the comfort of your home: all you need is basic qualifications to hunt for a particular job, a PC and internet connectivity and of course, the time and patience to search these online. There is really no dearth of job portals and websites advertising thousands of jobs online from various local business chapters (in your town or city) to national and even international job postings, so you have endless variety at your disposal and no dearth of choices when it comes to deciding on a field of work – all thanks to the internet and how its brought the world closer!
No more scanning and circling the classified ads section in your local paper and building up paper trash in the home or having someone cut out a recipe or comic strip out of the section you’d marked out to apply: now with a click of the mouse and entering the top keyword phrases in the fast search engines on the net, you can get instant access to the best job portals in your country and even international job openings! Isn’t that a great advantage of technology and changing job hunting environments? No scouring newspapers, visiting consultancies, walking around job fairs at exhibition grounds simply to gain access to the hottest, best-paying and advanced job opportunities – all you need to do is register online (free and paid sites exist, so choose the kind that suits you) with some personal particulars, like academic qualifications, interest areas, personality traits or perhaps an online query form for some jobs –and voila! You’re there!
From working within your state to going out of the country for a special assignment (ideal for those that love traveling and visiting new places, cultures and picking up new skills on the job), you can choose jobs offering different scope of growth and roles when hunting online, so get there and start clicking!
You may initially feel hesitant about parting with personal information like your name, age, address and contact number or even social security number that job site forms ask you for, but verify the authenticity of the job portal and fill these in for their records, which are confidential and used to contact you and for company records (of those looking to hire) besides your educational background and any employment highlights that may impress potential employers – and you can rest assured of receiving good job offers every week or month from the job websites.
By: Abhishek Agarwal
