By Steve Richards Introduction There is one thing you need to understand about getting ajob and that is, the simple fact that “Getting a job is afull time job in itself”. Read that again, I did not say itis a part time job, I said that it is a full time job. The fact that you are reading this page means you areserious about your future, you are serious about finding ajob and you are obviously willing to put in the time andeffort that is needed to get that job. To help you I am going to talk straight and tough when Ineed to, just to make sure that you think about what youhave been doing and what you need to do next. Pleaseunderstand that I am not attacking you, I am notcriticising what you have been doing, I am just trying toget you thinking about alternative methods and approachesthat might work for you. End of contract Firstly, your last term of employment was terminated,either by you or by your employer. During the first few weeks or unemployment, there is apsychological change that occurs, there is an emotionalchange that occurs. Now I am not going to launch into anypsycho babble about this, I just want you to recognize thatthis is normal. You have to acclimatize to being out ofwork, you have to put aside the feelings of helplessness,remorse, anger and disbelief that are associated withdealing with circumstances beyond your control. If you have been out of work for more than six months youmay have slipped into blaming others for the situation youare in. Understand, if you are out of work for more thanthree months then your approach to getting a job needsto change to cope with this small gap. Yes I said small gap. It may seem enormous to you andalso to some of the employers you will meet. But in thelong run, your working career (45 - 50 years), 3 - 6months is nothing. Why does your approach need to change? If you observed afriend doing the same thing day in day out, for months onend and every day he got a negative result, no positiveindicators at all, wouldn’t you tell your friend to trysomething different? You are where you are today because of the decisions youmade yesterday. Positive results come from good decisions. It may be time to change your approach, time to move on,time to make a fresh start. Lets generate some positive results.. You may need to reword your covering letters, change yourresume slightly to make a more positive impact, you mayhave to change the agencies you have been using etc. Finding Vacancies Just do a quick check on the list below, how many of thefollowing do you utilize to locate vacancies? Local Newspaper National Newspaper Specialist Trade Publications Local Government sponsored programs Personal Contacts Business Contacts Speculative approach (explained later) Phone Directory Business Directories Local library Internet Agencies The list above is not a conclusive list of places to findjob leads, but it is the main core of commonly usedreference. If you are not using all of these sources of jobleads then you need to change what you are doing. Let me highlight a few of the less obvious ones and explainthe approach: - Personal Contacts Let your friends know that you areactively seeking work, ask them to pass any job leads theyhear of to you with some urgency. In Britain, it is knownas the “old boy network” or just Networking and it works. Business Contacts People you used to work with inprevious jobs, these people know you and hopefully respectyour professional approach to work, they are in a positionto use their contacts to help you. Speculative approach This approach to finding workis highly under rated. Imaging you are an employer, if youhave a job vacancy it can cost you thousands of pounds toadvertise, short list, interview and eventually employ theright person. It is a process that may have to be repeatedseveral times before the employer finds a suitablecandidate for the post. Now imagine that as an employer you have a vacancy andsomeone has just sent you their resume, they might be exactlywhat you are looking for and it cost you nothing to findthem! If as an employer you do not have a vacancy to fill,you may keep the resume on file for two or three months, justin case. From your point of view sending a resume and coveringletter to an employer who may or may not be going throughthis process is a way of tracking down job vacancieswithout the competition. See one of our other reports on the Speculative Approach. Phone Book & Business Directories Listed in the phonebook are hundred of businesses that employ people just likeyou, they have jobs that you are trained to do, they maynot have a vacancy at the moment but you can use thespeculative approach to contact them and find out. Local Library If you can’t afford to buy newspapers, orif you don’t have a local phone book or business directorythen use the local library, because they have them allunder one roof. Agencies Many people use an agency to help them locatework, but in fact you need to use several agencies. You usethem like this; get your name on the books of at least 5agencies and then rotate chasing them. See our report on Using Agencies for more information. Attitude Keep Focused it’s a numbers game Getting quality job leadsis the first step in what can be a long process, follow thesteps one by one on a daily basis working at getting a joband you will succeed. If you are a sales person then you will understand what Iam about to tell you, if you have never worked in salesthen you may not, either way it does not change thefollowing fact: - The more rejection you meet, the closer you will be tosuccess! Or, if you prefer, the more no’s you get the closer you areto a yes. The more jobs leads you can find, the more jobs you canapply for. The more jobs you apply for, the more rejectionsyou will meet but the more interviews you will be offered.The more interviews you are offered the better at interviewsyou become and the more chance you have of getting a job. The Numbers Game True, the quality of your application makes a bigdifference, but we are about to look at applications andthen quality and quantity will work together. Now, I said earlier that getting a job is a job in itself,if you treat it as a job then you should put at least 5days a week into getting yourself a job. You should aim atmaking ten job applications a day, that’s 50 jobapplications a week! I know what you are thinking, how can I apply for 50 jobs aweek? Lets break this down. In my own personal experience I used to apply for 10 jobsevery day of the week. That’s 70 jobs a week! I amsuggesting that should you only looked for work Monday toFriday then you should look to make 10 applications a day. Still too much? OK, lets break this down further. Using the advertised vacancies first, apply for as many asyou can find in the papers, trade publications, agenciesetc. You would usually expect to find two or three suitablevacancies in this way. Then chase the agencies, you should be looking for at leastone vacancy. Then use the speculative approach in fill in the extra’s.Remember the speculative approach is a way of contactingcompanies that employ people with your skills. This is oneof the biggest hidden job markets. More than 50% of thethousands of people I have personally helped find new jobsgot them on the speculative approach. Don’t ignore thisvacancy gold mine. Working with ex-offenders (recent prison leaver’s) and thelong term unemployed (out of work for more than 6 months),Steve found himself working inside a prison before takingover two Job club’s. It was not long before that Job club was consistently at thetop of the inner-city league table. Soon after that, he was head hunted to manage five Job club’staking them up the league table with his approach to dealingwith the negativity of employers and job seekers alike. Returning to his trades of electronics and later computing,Steve launched a successful Website http://www.e-readit.co.ukand started publishing training material and writing eBooksto help others. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Richards http://EzineArticles.com/?Job-Search&id=215839 financial lenders bad credit low income mortgage military loan for people with bad credit car dealerships in atlanta georgia with no credit check accredited bad credit personal loans
