If you get more education, you will be more valuable. It is easy to avoid looking for work by simply going back to school, but you may face the same problems when you get another degree. The importance of more education varies from field to field. In some cases it can quickly lead some employers to think you are overqualified for your desired position. It is not uncommon for a job hunter with an advanced degree to take a position that the individual could have easily held with less education. Don't use education simply as a means of postponing the inevitable need to decide on a career direction and hunt for a job. Degrees cannot always be equated to jobs. However, if more education is required for you to pursue your chosen career, research and choose your academic program carefully to insure that what you will be learning will in fact help you to reach your specific goals.
Myth: If you do not have experience in the field, 'you are not quailed. Many students become frustrated by what seems to be an impossible maxim to break-namely, "You need experience to get a job and a job to get experience." It may not always be easy for those who are graduating from school or changing careers to persuade an employer to hire them without relevant experience, but it frequently happens. Those who are effective can parlay the variety of experiences they have had in their lives so far into marketable skills. They also sell themselves on the basis of personality traits such as initiative, honesty, creativity, and the willingness to work hard.
From these myths it is easy to see how people can come to believe that all the cards are stacked against them. There are, however, some factors that will give you the advantage you need. Here are four factors under your control which are imperative to any successful job search.
Imperative #1:
Focus. You must define to yourself a job objective enables you to focus on job search. Too many job hunters go looking for "a job" without paying careful attention to defining what they are looking for. As a result, they tend only to scratch the surface of opportunities available and, because of their lack of focus, waste considerable time and effort chasing after openings more because the jobs are available than because of any personal commitment to the work or the organization. In short, your success in finding what you are looking for is directly related to your ability to define it clearly, based on what you know about yourself and the world of work. It should be your definition of what you, not someone else, believes is best for you.
Imperative #2:
Information is power for the job hunter. Specific information about current openings is, of course, important. More general information about the career field, the organization, the work group, and specific individuals is essential to your career planning and job hunt Resources are available from which you can obtain invaluable information which will sharpen your career focus, enable you to conduct an informed, professional job seeking campaign, and allow you to make more informed selection decisions about employers with whom you might like to work.
Imperative #3:
Job-hunting skills. Knowing job-hunting skills is fundamental to any job search regardless of profession, level or age. These skills include the ability to define your job objective based on self-assessment and a knowledge of the world of work, the ability to research, identify, and target potential employers, and the ability to successfully market yourself to those employers you have identified.
Imperative #4:
Attitude. Another crucial factor in job hunting is your attitude. A positive attitude is a must. It shows that you are confident of yourself and what you can do for an employer. This positive, confident attitude comes from knowing who you are and what you want to do, having the information you need, and knowing how to conduct an effective job search.
Reading this article will help you to gain more control of your career direction and job hunt, but much of what you read must be seasoned with practice in order to be of lasting value to you.
Sometimes the Action Steps will be for individuals, for those of you who are looking for work on your own. Other times the Action Steps will be for those of you who may either be part of a job hunters' group or who might be interested in forming a small group of people who, like you, are also trying to define their career goals more clearly and search for the job they would most like to have.
