Although qualifications, experience, confidence, appearance and work history all play an important role. Preparation and research are two important actions which will contribute to you finding employment, assist you in finding out information about a company or organisation and succeeding in a job interview.
It has been said that the time it takes to apply for a job, from researching the job and getting through to having an interview is about 70-80 hours!
Preparation
Preparation starts at the job application stage. You can relate this to cooking a cake, it takes time but you will end up with a good product at the end. You must have all the right ingredients and measurements to ensure that the cake will end up being edible! If you don’t, you will end up with something that doesn’t look or taste good.
Your preparation needs to be evident in your application letter, resume and answering the selection criteria. You need to make sure everything is presented well and that you check things like spelling and punctuation within your written work.
Preparation and research recipe
· Develop an error free resume
· Choose an advertisement that matches your skills,
experience and interests
· Answer the selection criteria for the job
· Communicate with the organisation
· Research the organisation
· Application letter is error free
· Gaining a job interview
· Personal presentation
· Document presentation
When you buy a cake, or make one, you always make sure it looks good? When it comes to a job interview, your presentation helps determine whether you will get the job or not. The employer will judge you on presentation, so it can make the difference between gaining the job or not.
Research
Research is something that many jobseekers do not do enough of. Researching a job or organisation may be the difference between the person who gets the job and who does not.
Research means:
- finding out as much as you can about a job or organisation which in turn can help you to present and perform to the best of your ability.
The best thing that a jobseeker can do is research the organisation. This helps with your preparation. The more you know about an organisation the more familiar you become with what the employer’s expectations are of an employee and what the job requirements are.
Jump on the internet and research the company. Find out how many employees they have, what are their corporate colours, what do they produce, who are their major clientele, who are their competitors. Even if you think you will not need this information, in an interview situation you may be able to ask questions pertaining to the company that will show the interviewer that you have been interested enough in their company to look into what it is that they do.
Email a friend
Favourites
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Digg
StumbleUpon
MySpace
Reddit
Newsvine
LinkedIn
Kwoff