Having now entered the HR profession I can look back on my job search with a different perspective, and hopefully provide some tips that I found helpful for me in my journey to find the perfect job.
In the course of my job search, which lasted over a year, I interviewed for 8 jobs. I was underqualified for a few, and some I discovered in the interview process I wasn’t interested in. There were also one or two jobs that I really wanted at the time but didn’t get. Fortunately for me the job I ended up accepting seems like a perfect culture and skill fit and will provide me with extensive learning opportunities as I develop my HR skills. I’m excited to start.
So what did I learn from all this?
1. Its not who you know, its who knows you. The majority of my job leads and interviews were generated through informal channels. In a labour market that is a little over saturated (but not for much longer…) it is often difficult to get your resume noticed when it is submitted electronically with 100 other applicants. Even if you are qualified and perfect for the job, it is easy for your resume to get lost in the pile. A recruiter may spend as little as 20 seconds in their initial prescreen. How do you get noticed? For me, my involvement with a HRMAE committee provided me with excellent exposure to established HR professionals. From personal experience, established professionals are more than willing to extend their help to an entry level individual trying to find a job. However, before they can help they need to know you, and know that you are looking for a job. Working with the HRMAE Social Media committee allowed me to connect with people, but it also provided me with a platform to display some of my knowledge and abilities. So, how do you get people to know you?
- HRMAE Networking Dinners: First of all, go. Second of all, talk to everybody. Talk to someone new every time. Sit at a table where you don’t know anybody and get to know people. I found everyone at these events to be exceptionally friendly and willing to provide tips and advice. You won’t get necessarily get job offers or leads every time, but it lets people know you are out there. Click Here Event Information
- Join a Committee: . There are numerous HRMAE volunteer committees with opportunities in different areas of interest. Not only will you learn alot from your involvement, it also looks great on your resume and and may help you get through that first 20 second pre-screen process with recruiters. Click Here for Committee Information
2. Be Patient and Work Hard: It took me a year. Job searching became almost a full time job on its own. I worked full-time during my job search so most of my activity happened in the evenings, but it was a constant process that took a lot of time. I redrafted my resume 3 times over this period. I was fortunate to have a few individuals who volunteered to look over my resume and makes suggestions and changes based on their experience. There are a significant amount of online resume/cover letter resources and templates available as guides, and your educational institution most likely offers resume review courses. I also made it my goal to add something new to my resume every month. I would look for areas or tasks at my current job where I could gain some relevant experience. I ended up putting together a simple recruiting/interview/orientation program that provided value to my employer while adding some substance to my resume.
3. Prepare for Interviews: I would try to find and read annual reports for each company I had an interview with prior to the interview. I spent a significant amount of time looking through corporate websites with the objective of a) learning more about the company, and b) determining whether or not I believed I would fit well into their organization. For me, the more I knew about the company and the job I was interviewing for the more confident I was going into the interview. Considering for some jobs you have under an hour to impress the interviewer, a little extra confidence can go a long way. Having knowledge of the company also shows the interviewer that you are interested in the job and have already invested time and energy in getting to know them as an organization.
4. Create Clear Expectations There is a correlation between an interviewer creating clear expectations about a job and a candidate’s short and long term retention in that job. I think this goes both ways; my approach to job interviews was to create clear expectations of myself as a candidate. If I was asked a question and I did not know the answer or I didn’t have the experience to answer the question, I would be honest about it. Honesty as a candidate means the organization has clear expectations about your knowledge and abilities, and it means that you won’t end up in a job that you are ill-equipped and unprepared for. I think that with most entry level jobs organizations realize that there is a lot of internal training required and they don’t expect candidates to know everything about their new job before they start.
These are a few of the things I learned a from my job search, feel free to comment or add your own tips and advice!
Tom Zabel
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/tomzabel