Most employers will have a picture in their minds of an ideal candidate. At interview, they'll be looking for the person who appears to match the picture most closely. When you are trying to get a job, your task is to gain enough background knowledge of the organization and the job, so that you can act the part. If you are polite and enthusiastic and if you look and sound like a person who does this kind of work, you'll create a good first impression.
Fit for work
You don't have to be a perfect physical specimen to get a job, but you have to be fit enough to carry out the tasks involved. Work forces a kind of discipline on you but when you are out of work and looking for a job it's easy to let things slide. You can stay up watching the late-night movie because you don't have to be up early in the morning. You can spend an hour lying on the settee reading the paper because it kills time, and you can pop into the pub for lunch because you don't want to be bothered with cooking for yourself. Being unemployed can also set you apart from friends who are still in work so your sporting and social interests decline.
Medical surveys have confirmed that unemployment can have harmful effects on health. Your level of fitness can deteriorate quickly but, more important perhaps, long before any serious long-term damage is done, you begin to look unfit. First impressions are important so if you want to succeed at interview, use your time constructively. Develop a daily routine, keep up your sporting and social interests, investigate training possibilities, undertake some voluntary work, and make sure that you remain fit for work.
Four minutes
Many interviews last about half an hour and many interviewers are fairly inexperienced. If you have had three interviews recently, you may have more experience of the process than a large number of employers who take on no more than one or two staff each year. Research suggests that, without realizing it, inexperienced or untrained interviewers spend about four minutes trying to get to know you. Within that time they form an opinion of you and your suitability for the job. Then, for the remaining 26 minutes, they inadvertently ask questions which seek to confirm or deny their initial feelings.
Freelancing
This is a form of self-employment where you sell your skills to others, undertaking short-term contracts for whichever organization happens to need you at a given time. Because you are self-employed, you represent no drain on their resources during quiet times. Many companies rely heavily on freelances. It is a way of reducing in-house staff while enabling them to call on the expertise of a wide range of specialists.
Like all forms of self-employment, the freelance life can be precarious. Sometimes you may have more demands for your services than you can cope with; at other times, you may have no work at all. Despite this, freelancing has certain attractions. As a self-employed person, you have some control over which jobs to tackle and which to leave alone. You can undertake as much or as little work as you wish and you can schedule your work to suit other priorities in your life. Many freelancers are able to work from home and, for them, this was a significant factor in their career decision. If your ultimate goal is permanent full-time work within a company, a period of freelance work will enable you to become known and show your worth to a number of companies wishing to expand their permanent workforce or replace a retiring member of staff sometime in the future. When it comes to getting a full-time job, the quality of your work as a freelance is probably the best reference you can obtain.
Last year, a redundant security alarm installer wrote a letter similar to the one above. He sent it to a number of companies listed in Yellow Pages.
On the strength of the letter and subsequent discussions with company managers, he has negotiated contracts which have kept him employed throughout the year. He has been offered full-time permanent employment on three occasions and has turned down every offer. Having tasted the freedom of self-employment, he is reluctant to give up his freelance status.
Further education
Traditionally, colleges of further education provided work-related courses while local adult education institutions concentrated on non- vocational learning and universities provided higher level degree courses. These days the traditional divides are breaking down. Engineering courses, for example, can range from simple welding courses for DIY enthusiasts, through to foundation and First Year degree courses delivered at your local college by arrangement with a partner university.
College courses such as these can be the key to developing the skills you need to gain employment. They are available for people of any age, and the rate of change is such that it is becoming increasingly accepted that training and retraining are a normal aspect of daily life. Such courses can bridge the gap between the skills you have now and the skills you need to get the job you seek. College staff should also be able to advise you about other opportunities to gain the recognition for the skills and experience you have already acquired.
Many courses are organized under the banner of the University for Industry (UFI). There are a confusing number of examining bodies and qualifications available at present but, as more industries develop NVQs, the picture should become simpler. Young people can get information and advice about educational opportunities beyond the age of 16 from careers officers, careers teachers in schools and by contacting colleges directly.
Whatever subject you are thinking of studying, it is worth checking out what's on offer in local colleges. Addresses, telephone numbers and further details of nearby colleges will be available at your local public library or contact Learning Direct.
