“Looking for a job where you can find yourself”

After years of hard work in college and you’re about to graduate and enter the workforce. Your life is changing, and going to be exciting. You’ll control your own destiny by choosing a career path, learning new skills, and becoming a productive member of society. It’s time to take all of that education you received and find a career (not “job”).

A job is simply something you go to every day so you can pay your rent and cable TV bill while a career is a rewarding occupation that offers the potential for advancement and higher earnings if you do a good job.

It is okay if you don’t know what you want to do with your life yet. The important thing is to begin identifying your type of personality and your interests and match them with a career.Values and ethics are extremely important when searching for a job. It is key that you match your moral code with appropriate employers.

Matching your personality, interests, and skills with a career

“ People with introverted and quiet personalities may have a hard time working in jobs such as sales which require a lot of public speaking and interaction with different types of people, while those with outgoing personalities would probably thrive in such careers. Finding a job that suits your personality will make it easier to succeed in your career.”

Match with your values

“ If you work for a company that does not meet your moral and ethical standards, you will be unhappy and less productive. Values are the things and principles that are most important to you. They involve our feelings, ideas, and beliefs and Ethics are a system of morals, a code of unwritten rules that guide how we act toward others. Strong ethics consist of fair, honest treatment of others.”

"I won’t be able to get a job because I don’t have any job experience"

Recent graduates may worry that they don’t have enough experience to list on their resumes. But it is very important for any recent graduate to know that "experience is not limited to paid employment.” It advises job seekers to include on their resume any activities or accomplishments that demonstrate their skills and abilities like 

1. Internships
2. Part time employment
3. Work study
4. Study in a foreign country
5. Undergraduate research
6. Student activities
7. Community service/volunteer work
8. Athletics or club sports
9. Student newspaper or radio
10. Student government
11. Resident assistants
12. Admissions ambassadors
13. Tutoring
14. Theater
15. Honor societies

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WHAT ARE INTERNSHIPS?

Internships provide short-term, practical experience for students, recent graduates, and people changing careers and last from 10 weeks to 12 months and are designed mainly for college students (although some are open to high school students and career changers). Internships provide you with an excellent way to try out a career, learn valuable job and soft skills, and build a network of contacts in your industry.

Best Places to Find Internships are On-campus recruiting events, job fairs, campus career centers, and via assistance from college faculty.

Not every internship, unfortunately, provides interns with a good learning opportunity. Some companies simply use interns to perform grunt work and never give them a chance to learn new skills. Overall, the entire process will go more smoothly if you participate in a formal, supervised internship.

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There are many tools and resources available to help you find a job, including college career services offices, on-campus recruiting, internships, volunteer opportunities, newspaper classifieds, Internet job-search sites, employment placement offices, company Web sites, job fairs, professional associations, networking, and the hidden job market. Be sure to use all in your job search.

there are two new tools used in job search are 1- NETWORKING & 2- HIDDEN JOB MARKET

What is meant by NETWORKING?

1. Networking is simply the process of building quality relationships that help you obtain job leads. 
2. There are many places to network, including formal settings (professional association meetings, career fairs, and in your office) and informal situations (talking with your friends, family, and neighbors; participating in social clubs, religious groups, volunteer activities, and internships; and joining online social networking groups and posting messages in chat rooms or discussion groups)

Some important advises for you when you are in network events:

1. Define your goals
2. Wear your best outfit "Dress To Impress"
3. Be enthusiastic
4. Observe people who network effectively, and learn from their examples
5. Follow through after the event with individuals whom you have met
6. DON'T ask for a job outright because it may turn off recruiters
7. DON'T spend the entire time linked to a friend you attended the event with
8. Speak clearly and loudly enough to be heard & demonstrate good body language

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E-Networking

- Social Networking Sites: Here are the Web addresses for some popular social networking sites used by job seekers:
LinkedIn – Facebook - Networking for Professionals - Ryze: Business Networking 
- Web Forums and Chat Rooms

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Whats is meant by HIDDEN JOB MARKET?

These include cold calling/emailing, information interviewing, volunteering, company Web site searches, job-hunting business cards, broadcast cover letters, and analyzing industry trends and employment projections.

1- Cold Calling/Emailing

Involve contacting companies that have not placed a job advertisement to see if they are hiring.

2- Volunteering

By volunteering, perhaps during summer break, you’ll get the opportunity to experience firsthand how a company works and find about the various career paths that are available.

3- Company Web Site Searches

Nearly every company has at least some type of presence on the Web today. These sites can provide you with valuable information, including the types of services or products companies offer, names of key managers and other employees, and, most importantly, job openings that may not be posted on major job-search sites such as Monster or Yahoo Careers.

4- Broadcast Cover Letters

To write a successful broadcast cover letter, you need to have good analytical skills and powers of persuasion. You need to learn as much as possible about the company (through its Web site, industry publications, etc.) and identify areas or sectors where a person of your skills and background may be needed.

NOTE:

- People often make a critical mistake during the job search process: they send resumes to large companies (such as Dell, Coca-Cola), thinking that because these companies are so big, they must have jobs available. What job applicants don’t realize is that many other people have the same idea, and these companies are inundated with resumes.

- This issue is compounded by the fact that many companies may be in the process of downsizing or may be experiencing poor sales due to changes in technology, overseas competition, or other factors. When hiring managers receive piles of resumes during a time of downsizing or a poor business cycle, they often come to the conclusion that the applicants haven’t done their research about the company or simply want a job whether they are qualified or not.

- Do you think the majority of these people will be hired? The answer is no because they have not conducted research about the company or are indifferent to market conditions that will influence hiring. To avoid making this mistake, you need to conduct research to learn which companies and industries are most likely to be hiring and which are not. You should also remember that many large companies (such as Microsoft) started out in somebody’s basement or garage. It’s a better idea to try to find unlisted jobs at small- to mid-sized companies that are successful and growing, rather than applying for positions at large companies that are shedding jobs.

FINALLY, If you have found the job that suits you and make an interview and get hired. There are new tasks to learn, office politics to navigate, and the challenge of building a good relationship with your boss.
On your first day, you will make impressions that will be hard to shed no matter what you do thereafter. And if you fail to fit into your company’s culture, you may even lose your job. That’s why it’s key to ace this first workplace test.

Some important advice for your FIRST DAY and beyond:

1- Get to Work On Time. 

You want to send a message to your boss that you are motivated and dependable.

2- Introduce Yourself to Your Coworkers. 

It’s important to begin building positive relationships with your coworkers as soon as possible. This will help you to avoid miscommunications, become a member of an effective team.
3- Learn your coworkers’ names and job functions as quickly as possible.
4- Be Positive. 

Smile, speak in an upbeat voice, and use good body language.
5- Work Hard. 

You will get a good reputation as someone with a can-do spirit
6- Be a Good Listener and Learner.
7- Ask Questions to boss or coworkers for clarification 

(There is no such thing as a dumb question).
8- Pay close attention to everything in your workplace 

(office politics, to the protocol for standard tasks, to the unwritten rules)
9- Dress to impress

10- Develop Your Soft Skills. 

The most in-demand soft skills are: Organization - Verbal communication - Teamwork and collaboration - Problem solving - Tact and diplomacy - Business writing - Analytical

11- Learn the Unwritten Rules

12- Get Along With Your Boss

• Know your boss’s likes and dislikes
• Solve your boss’s problems
• Avoid making unreasonable requests
• Develop a good reputation in the office
• Always keep your boss up to date on the status of projects
• Never embarrass your boss 

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The Importance of job description

Benefits from Writing a Good Job Description

1. It is the foundation for the job hiring.

2. It can help you justify the position and what you want to accomplish by hiring this person.

3. It can define what you want in a new hire.

4. It is your best recruiting tool.

5. It can attract the best candidates, if it is well written and looks interesting.

6. It can act as a filtering device to help you stay focused on what it will take for the new hire to be successful in this position.

7. It will help you develop more focused interview questions to screen out the “real”answers.

8. It can improve communications once the new hire begins the job.

9. It will make performance issues easier to discuss, because you will have benchmarks to guide you and the

new hire.

10. It will help you find the right fit with a new hire who will be satisfied with the job and stay longer-improving your retention rate.

"The job description can be used as a tool to try to avoid miscommunication and breakdowns in understanding what one person wants and needs. Mainly what needs to be clear is what you want from the employee and how the employee understands what is important to you."

In writing the job description, you have to Ask yourself fisrt:

“What would be my ideal situation to be solved by finding the right person?”

Begin to think of this description as your wish list.

Let’s start with some basic questions to ask yourself:

“Why is it necessary to fill this position—at this time?”

“Could the responsibilities of this job be assigned to another employee?”

“What do I hope to accomplish by hiring a new person?”

This line of thinking and these questions should be your first step to be sure that you can justify the hiring of this person.Once you have justified the need for the hire, you can progress to the next step: to determine the experiences, qualifications, and skills that are necessary for a person to succeed in this position.

When all candidates appear equal in terms of experience and knowledge, it is sometimes the added value that will be the tiebreaker and determine the best candidate for the job.

Added value are skills or abilities that are above and beyond what is essential or even nonessential for the job.They are skills, traits, and experiences that would be a plus in this position. 

Here are some examples of added-value statements on a job description:- Excellent English language skills required—both written and spoken. Any knowledge of other Asian languages will be a big plus.- Financial services industry experiences a plus.- Call center experience preferred.- Proficient in Microsoft Office and Internet technologies.- Passion for assisting disadvantaged persons would be a great asset.- Second language skills and international business experience are desired.

The next set of questions to ask yourself is about the value of importance:

“When weighing the value of what is important to the success of the business, what extra services could I offer if the person I hired had more than the required skills?”

“What could this person bring in addition to the basic requirements that would add value to the position?”

“How can these skills or abilities add value to the business or give additional service to our customers?”

“What new service could be added as a result of hiring a person with extra skills?”

Writing Job Description for recent graduates & Mid career candidates:

Examples
- Able to use rigorous logic and methods to solve problems with effective solutions.
- Experience and success speaking in public, in front of customers, analysts, and company executives.
- Effective team management experience/skills in a matrix and geographically dispersed international organization in a rapidly changing environment.
- Ability to manage inventory plans from investment through allocation execution, including ongoing assessments and updates, for multiple departments.
- Ability to think objectively and interpret meaningful themes from quantitative and qualitative data (Analytic Skills).
- Perform price negotiations, prepare the contractual documents, and close the sale with clients.
- Passion for assisting a disadvantaged population.
- Available to travel and work in excess of standard hours when necessary.
- High degree of self-motivation and the ability to work independently.
- Ability to work under pressure in a demanding environment.

Writing a job description for managers and executives will require more details about the responsibilities of the job and the impact the decisions make on the bigger picture:                         

The achievements, or the lack of achievement, of an executive may play a significant role on the success or failure of a department or a company:

- Manage multimillion-dollar glazing projects for Florida Glass.Manage all project managers as well as oversee all of production.

- Work with the Analytics and Product Marketing teams to define the right target segments based on the capacity and performance of the Telesales group.

- Communicate with regional staff about comparative shopping analyses, fast and slow selling classifications and styles, planning and adjusting stock levels, and customer requests.

- As a member of the Technology Outside Sales team, the regional sales manager for the Northeastern region executes the company sales strategy throughout an identified geographical region.

- Works with minimal supervision and is responsible to make an established range of decisions, escalating to

manager when necessary and updates manager on a regular basis.

Examples

- Leads the development and elevation of direct leaders and staff through proactive coaching, mentoring,

professional development, and feedback.

- Oversees operations, facility, grant-funded programs, grant reporting, and staff of 17.

- Manages inventory plans from investment through allocation execution, including ongoing assessments and

updates, for multiple departments.

- Recruits and supervises interns and volunteers to conduct surveys and interview patients.

- Trains and motivates the sales team and promotes team culture and values.

- Analyzes and prepares forecasts to project long-term and immediate workforce demands.

- Directs and manages a team of bank tellers; training and scheduling work schedules.

- Creates and implements effective in-house procedures.

- Conducts audits of financial dealings within the corporation.

- Manages confidential correspondence, scheduling, and meetings for key executive.

- Plans and directs all office management for the CEO as well as other key executives.

- Handles a wide variety of writing tasks, from routine to creative features.

- Plays key role in all phases of planning, preparation, and execution of Achievement Awards.

- Solidifies and strengthens relations with the public through positive initiatives.

- Verifies compliance to release specifications on all products prior to shipment.

Another example:
Marketing Manager
Market managers are responsible for the gross profit in assigned markets, and will own inventory, cost, pricing, and merchandising decisions for that market.
Responsibilities
1. Develops and maintains supplier relationships at the property and chain level through daily contact.
Skills Required: Communication Skills-Interpersonal Sensitivity-Create Motivating Environment
2. Analyzes contracts and executes pricing.
Skills Required: Business Savvy, Analytical Skills,Decision-Making, Strategic, Big Picture Perspective, Negotiation
3. Implements extranet rate and inventory revisions, ensures suppliers understand extranet, and increases supplier usage of extranet.
Skills Required: Flexibility, Customer Focus, Motivate, Accountable
4. Conducts weekly competitive analysis for key markets, reports findings, and makes adjustments.
Skills Required: Analytical Thinking, Big Picture Thinking,Development Orientation, Adaptable
5. Monitors, evaluates, and reports on individual accounts and markets progress toward achieving weekly, monthly, annual targets.
Skills Required: Ability to Hold People Accountable, Analytical,Decision Maker, Goal-Oriented
6. Understand key market hard/soft periods, know destinations and trends, create and maintain event calendars for key market locations, and plan courses of action required to meet supply, demand, and necessary sales.
Skills Required: Business Savvy,Visionary,Trend Knowledge, Organized, Planner, Implement Action
7. Execute annual contract negotiations.
Skills Required: Leadership, Strategic, Communication, Deal Maker, Closer,Negotiation Skills

Top Ten Mistakes When Writing Job Descriptions

1. Adding fluff and padding to the job description. No fluff allowed! Keep it simple and straightforward.
2. Writing uninspiring job descriptions (boring) No one will read beyond the first sentence.
3. Not being specific with details (this is no place for vague or misleading language).
4. Being overzealous in what the position can accomplish (this is “wishful thinking” but not realistic).
5. Not reviewing what has been done in the past (interviewing someone who is leaving the position).
6. Not thinking about what you want in the new candidate (before the search process begins).
7. Not targeting the job to the right job seeker; failure to entice or excite the right candidate.
8. Writing “tasks-only” job descriptions.Devoting more than 75 % of the job description to this one area is too much.
9. Losing sight of the fact that this is a “recruiting tool” (make it look like an interesting opportunity).
10. Using a cut and paste job description from another company as your job description for your company culture.

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