11 Brilliant Tips for Ways to Find a Job, Newbies
Jammu Navani
February 07, 2023. 3 minutes Read
How to effectively embark on a job hunt
You are just about one semester away from your graduation and, like everyone else, about to experience the pangs of a job hunt as a fresher. You may have prepared a list of your dream companies that you would want to visit your campus for recruitment as a fresher or that you can easily approach at a job fair. Still, out there, it’s an ocean of freshers and probably, along with some prospects with an experience of a year or two, targeting the same dream companies.
Whatever the stage of your academic pursuit, your job hunt begins the moment you question, “where do I start and how do I start my job hunt,” and to answer that, you embark on a quest of discovering ways to find a job.
- Table of Content
- How to effectively embark on a job hunt
- What is job hunting?
- Preparing for a job hunt
- #1. Defining Your Career Objectives:
- #2. Creating an Effective Resume
- #3. Building your Professional Brand
- #4. Building your Professional Network
- #5. Making a list of your dream companies
- #6. Customizing your cover letter:
- #7. Applying rationally
- #8. Using job search engines
- #9. Researching your prospective employer
- #10. Acing the interview
- #11. Take interview coaching
- #9. Researching your prospective employer
- #9. Researching your prospective employer
What is job hunting?
Job hunting is neither simple nor easy nor a difficult nor an impossible endeavor as long as one is prepared to understand the underlying dynamics of an effective job hunt. Therefore, it becomes necessary to start the journey of a job hunt with the right perspective of what job hunting is.
Job hunting is an activity undertaken with the sole objective of finding meaningful and gainful employment. For those with specific years of experience, job hunting is a strategic move for career enhancement.
With experience of around four decades, I see job hunting as a grand journey with its share of ups and downs, like a marketing plan, where you are the product that needs to sell itself to prospective employers. And like any marketing plan with its 5 P’s, Product, Price, Place, Promotion & People, a well-planned job hunt strategy also revolves around the 5 P’s, namely:
- Positioning
- Process
- Persistence
- Presentation
- Personality
1. Positioning:
In marketing, its unique selling proposition defines a product’s utility. Similarly, in job hunting, positioning is about identifying what will make you valuable to a prospective employer. Positioning is about what value you will bring to the job if selected and how you assess the strength of your academic achievements about being ideal for the job.
2. Process
By its very nature, job hunting is strategic in calling for a process that uses a highly focused approach rather than applying randomly to several job openings. The better the match between your core competencies and the company, your chances of getting hired for the role are even higher, and the greater your chances of success.
3. Persistence
One thing to remember when it comes to job hunting is that it is a long-term race and not a short dash; therefore, to endure through the length of a job hunt, it is essential to stay motivated, maintain your course, and refuse to give up.
4. Presentation
As a prospective candidate, one needs to pitch themselves and prove your worth to a prospective employer to apply your knowledge and skills to make meaningful contributions. Further, it even calls for a very refined presentation about your competencies, like a product’s features, attributes, and benefits, in a marketing pitch.
5. Personality
One of the golden rules of job hunting is to remember that companies hire you as a total personality, not just your academic qualifications or your credentials. It is, therefore, essential to highlight yourself as an attractive personality by exhibiting who you are as a person and not just your professional competencies.
Preparing for a job hunt
The undeniable truth of job-hunting is “well begun is half done.” There are many ways in which one can start the job-hunting journey. I recommend the following steps that will help create your job-hunting journey on a confident note:
1. Unwind
An academic pursuit, in particular towards culmination, has its fair share of sleepless nights, and it is very critical to give oneself some space by unwinding and not jump onto the job hunt right away, be in a fully rested and refreshed mental state to be able to face whatever may come your way.
2. List out your strengths
Identify and make a list of skills & abilities that you have nurtured over your academic journey that employers look for in fresh recruits; soft skills like assertive communication, being a team player, good written communication skills, punctuality, public speaking, etc.
3. Solicit help from close friends and family
Often, especially for a fresher, identifying one’s skills and abilities can be daunting and is only some people’s tea. Don’t hesitate to take help from your friends and family. Learn from them what strengths and weaknesses they see in you.
The above is just a preparatory phase; the real job hunt is to follow
this and broadly speaking comprises the following activities:
11 Brilliant Tips for Ways to Find a Job
#1. Defining Your Career Objectives
Before even sending your first application it is necessary to define your career objectives and think about it in a strategic manner, i.e., where do you see yourselves 5 years from now; do you have the aptitude and attitude to pursue such a career? Are you applying for a position that syncs with your career objectives? Defining your career objectives will help you to narrow down jobs that will give you the skills and experience to help fulfill your career objectives.
#2. Creating an Effective Resume
Your resume is your calling card and therefore has to be clear & concise. It has to present your qualifications, skills & abilities to get the attention of recruiters. In addition, your resume has to convey, in a very professional manner, what you can accomplish for your employer.
- Use a professional email address (e.g., [name] + [last name] @gmail.com). Don't use an email address with nicknames or lots of different characters.
- If you have prior work experience, list your achievements instead of responsibilities wherever possible. Your prospective employer knows the responsibilities of the position you have applied for.
- Regarding work experience, mention only the relevant work experience. Your prospective employer is more interested in your first internship or part-time job than you did long back. Ideally, say the most recent & relevant work experiences on your resume starting with the most recent one.
- For a fresher, instead of work experience, recruiters would want to see the candidate's prior experience in extracurricular activities, academic projects, etc.
- Don't mention any skills that you cannot support, e.g., if you say leadership skills, then you should be able to back it up by citing events or incidents where you demonstrated leadership qualities, like leading your sports team or leading a college debate, etc. Any skill you mention in the resume has to be supported by an example of practical experiences on how that skill came into play in a real-life situation.
#3. Building your Professional Brand
Create a profile on professional and social networking platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook. A strong profile is like a brand identity that helps showcase you in a professional light and renders a very positive impression of you as an ideal candidate to prospective recruiters & employers. Keep in mind that we are now living in the information age, and before shortlisting candidates for interviews, employers do thorough due diligence on the candidates’ social media presence. Etc.
#4. Building your Professional Network
Now that you have created your LinkedIn profile, it’s time to start using them for job-hunting purposes. As far and wide as possible, connect with everyone you know. As a fresher out of college, check out networking opportunities available with your alum associations. Join professional groups available on networking sites that fit your job search, as they are a good source of opportunities available.
#5. Making a list of your dream companies
Make a list of companies you would like to work with in the future. It’s a good idea to research your target employers and collect relevant information from online sources as such information may be helpful in the following:
- Customizing your resume to the job requirement.
- Giving a personal touch to the cover letter for the position/company.
- Prepare yourself for the interview.
- Negotiating a better salary.
#6. Customizing your cover letter
A cover letter is a one-page document that accompanies your resume as part of your job application; it is approximately 300 to 400 words long and acts as a pitch for your resume.
A resume is a written and objective narration of your academic qualifications, past experiences, and skill set. A cover letter is more about your aptitude and attitude and dwells on how you will use your knowledge, skills, and experience in your job performance. A well-customized cover letter will help your resume be noticeable quickly and convey to the recruiter why you are a likely candidate for the particular job.
An ideal cover letter should essentially include the following information;
- The position that you are applying for in the company.
- Your skills are relevant for the position.
- Biggest achievements, if any, both academic and personal, that may help you succeed with your position.
- Your passions and what motivates you.
- Why do you think you are fit for the job
#7. Apply for Jobs Rationally
When it comes to job hunting, one cannot take an approach of spray & pray, i.e., applying to several jobs and hoping to get an interview call from at least one. Such an approach will only result in a number of rejections, which may be very disheartening for a fresher. The right process would be to apply for positions that genuinely meet your career objectives.
#8. Using job search engines
Focus on the most popular job portals in your country and register yourself and if needed, get professional services from the job portal for building your resume. Apart from giving you flexibility and a broader scope for job search, you can boost your resume and profile for better search results among recruiters.
Some popular job search portals in India:
- Naukri.com
- Monster.com
- Indeed.com
- Timesjobs.com
#9. Researching your prospective employer
During an interview, asking candidates why they want to join a particular company is standard practice. In simple terms, the interviewer is looking for why you are interested in the company and how much you know about the company. It would be very embarrassing if you are not prepared to face
such a situation. You may be applying to several companies, so keeping abreast of the details of every application might take a lot of work. As a fresher, you create an excellent and lasting impression if, during the interview, you exhibit a keen interest in the company through your brief knowledge of the company’s affairs, for which it is essential to do a little research at the time of sending your application.
#10. Acing the interview
The interview is the most critical and hateful part of a job hunt. A crisp and up-to-point response that provides a comprehensive view of your purpose for applying for the job is the best way to ace an interview. Your resume gets an exposure of about 20 – 30 seconds before the recruiters move on to the next one, and therefore, how you face an interview is the deciding factor.
Preparing for an interview:
During the interview:
- Be courteous and professional during the interview.
- If you are experiencing anxiety, don't hurry to answer the questions; slow down, think through, and respond relaxedly.
- Be humble. Don't try to outsmart your interviewer.
- positively use your body language. Sit upright, speak clearly, and make subtle eye contact.
#11. Take interview coaching
Today’s job market is hyper-competitive, with hundreds of well-qualified candidates vying for a single position. It then falls upon the job seeker to invest in himself to stand out in such a crowded marketplace, where interview coaching is of great help.
The prime objective of an interview coach is to help the job seeker be confident of his skills and abilities and be comfortable with the whole job hunting process. He helps candidates be ready for the interview by improving their presentation skills, providing feedback on how they are shaping up, teaching them how to answer complex questions engagingly, and helping correct the little imperfections that miss a job seeker’s attention.
In simple terms, interview coaching is all about developing that competitive edge with the help of the unique guidance and practice received from the coach. A good interview coach can help candidates ace interviews by leveraging the five key benefits of the interview coaching process:
- Preparing for interviews in a professional and contemporary way relevant to the job.
- Preparing for comfortably dealing with tough questions.
- Smoothening the job-hunting process by helping focus on the important
- Improving confidence and communication abilities
- Being able to market oneself effectively
Final Thoughts
To sum it up, job hunting can be both, at times, smooth sailing and, at times, like a roller coaster ride full of ups and downs. Remember, there is nothing wrong with starting your career even at a less desirable employer; you always will have opportunities to learn & upskill yourself and work your way to your dream job.
Jammu Navani
Jammu is an ex – c-suite executive, a thought leader, passionate about
learning and sharing, with an insatiable appetite for helping individuals,
institutions and organizations pursue “EXCELLENCE” – be the best they
possibly can by the means of coaching, training & consulting.
As a professional trainer & coach he coaches leaders, entrepreneurs and
executives to help them build their physical resilience, accelerate their
professional & business growth and make an extra ordinary impact.
