Tips For School Leavers Joining The Job Hunting Crowd

 Volunteer – show that you are looking for experience and to contribute to society. It also shows maturity

Research – what is the job about? What skills/character traits might they be looking for? If you apply for an internship at a Vet’s, the vet will want to know more than just the fact that you love cuddly animals. How are you with humans? How are your animal handling skills?

Appearance – you will not impress potential employers with the same fashion style that you would use to impress someone your own age. Dress smartly!

Establish reference points – you have done many things in your past. Maybe you were member of a football team or the school choir. How can the experiences you made there be useful for a potential employer?

Be honest – don’t take credit for things you have not done. Share credit with others.

Show potential – you learned how to learn at school. Show that you are willing to learn and develop you skills continuously. It is not important to be the best at having an outdated skillset, but to be able to learn the new skillset the fastest.

Be likeable – we want to work together with people we can get along with. Don’t be a brown-noser, but be polite, friendly, and enthusiastic.

Ask questions – the more information you gain from the prospective employer about the job and the company, the better you can tailor your answers.

Focus on applicable experience – when writing your CV, focus on the things that the prospective employer might be interested in. If you list your hobbies, make sure that they have some real-world application and you can show that you learned useful skills or developed positive character traits from them.

Prepare – what kind of questions might you be asked? “What is your biggest accomplishment so far?” “What are you proud of?” “Tell us about an instance where you screwed up.” Think through questions like that and come up with answers that are honest and show you in a positive light. Sometimes just showing that you learned a lesson and gained maturity will make a very positive answer.

Catch their interest quickly – when writing an application letter, get your main point across in the first paragraph. A prospective employer will receive dozens, sometimes hundreds of application letters and you will need to stand out. If applying for a job in a library, don’t focus solely on your love of books, but on how well you can organise, prepare, administrate, catalogue, and deal with visitors. Think about how your skills and expertise can benefit the employer and put those first in the letter.

Ends:

Scott Watson is Founder of Summit Consulting and Training Ltd and co-developer of http://www.MyOnlineJobCoach.com/