Hunting for a job is difficult, no matter if you are fresh out of the university or an experienced resource. People, although they have skills that are required by the market, struggle once when they want to switch the organization. However, in this article, I am writing a few tips for fresh grads who have either finished their degrees and looking for a job or are about to finish.
Know your industry
Any degree that you were able to get from the university has value when it comes to job hunting. The universities educate students so that they can apply their knowledge in their jobs. So, the first and most important thing to do once you graduate is to learn about the industry in which you will be consumed as a workforce. Search for the top companies/organizations in the world that are relevant to your field. For example, an IT graduate may look for the top 10 IT companies in the world. Make sure you have gone through at least 10-20 websites about your relevant industry so that you know what is going on there. The knowledge which you will develop from their sites will also help you in your interview process.
List the skillset
All the top companies around the world are hiring and all the top companies post the required skillset that they are looking for. You may end up with surprise here as you have not seen those skill sets before, or neither learned them in any of your course work. Good universities ensure to give exposure to students to the lest trends and technologies, but don’t worry if your university didn’t. Again, don’t get confused with so many open positions in so many departments, I think you are smart enough to figure out which post suits you the best. Once you figure that out, start marking the list of required skill-set for that post. So, if you have visited 10 career websites, you will end up in 6-10 skill sets (some of them will be common in jobs) that you have no idea about.
Learning the Skillsets
So you know that you have the required degree but not the skill set which makes to eligible for the job. No worries. Just learn that specific skill set. Being in the IT industry myself, I will be talking more about how it’s done in IT. The rest of the readers can relate the same to their field. There are many websites available on the internet like Pluralsight, LinkedIn learning (AKA Lynda.com), or Udemy where you can register and take the exact course which is required for that job. Do not go for too many courses. You cannot master everything. Just focus on the 1-2 skills which are required and you know you can do that. Just make sure you complete the course and know the basics considering you have done some hands-on work.
Using Linkedin
Make an appropriate profile on LinkedIn. If you are not sure how to do that, hire an expert from LinkedIn and they get this done for you. Follow the same top 10 companies on LinkedIn. Make sure you have added the details about the course which you have completed online. Another important thing to consider is the keywords. Your profile summary must have the same keywords that have been advertised in the skillset of the job. This will enable you to get a better notification of the jobs and will help the recruiter to find you if he/she is sourcing from LinkedIn.
If you are lucky enough to get a connection with the recruiter of the same company, you can send him/her a message and tell them that you have found an open position in their company and if they can consider your profile for the job. Remember, whenever there is an open position in the company, that means the recruiter needs to fill that position as soon as possible and if you can get to them, it’s most likely that they will get you in touch with the hiring manager.
Company Portals
You can always apply through the career sites of the organization. However, whenever you apply, just don’t post the same CV to jobs and expect that someone will find the required skill from a 2-5 pager CV. Make a custom CV with keywords similar to what has been advertised in the job under “required skills”. This makes your CV more relevant for the position for which you want to apply for.
Conclusion
Organizations are looking for people with the right attitude as compared to the right skillset. The tips which I have given can just take you to the interview process, but whether you get a job or not, is entirely up to you. I will be adding another blog explaining how to get ready for an interview.