You won’t be wrong if you thought that it’s easy to get a job looking at the sheer number of people who don’t get jobs in the UK.
Yet, businesses will suffer from the regular “hire to fire later” syndrome. One big problem that most companies face – apart from attrition – is the acute shortage of employable candidates. If you are pining for that train conductor job that pays you well and enables you to do what you love doing, here are some secrets you should know:
The presentation of self
The typical candidate has never been trained to “present for success” thanks to the system, peer influence, and the lack of initiative on the part of scores of schools and colleges.
Starting with how you write your resume while preparing to apply for jobs and all the way until you actually get the job — your presentation matters. Your confidence shines through. Yet, you believed that your education was all-too-important. You thought that a degree could fetch you a job.
How exactly did you think you would compete with your competition?
What skills you got?
Your degree is perhaps a benchmark to weed out those who couldn’t even muster up a college degree. It’s a tool that employers use to “shortlist”; but it’s not the tool using which employers “hire”. It’s the skills that matter.
What do you bring to the table? What skills can you proudly claim to have mastered?
Now, please be advised: knowledge is aplenty. It’s available at the click of a mouse and information just plays right into your hands. What’s not available, can never be duplicated, and can absolutely be unique to you – is how you utilise this knowledge to apply and solve real problems.
The soft skills
The lacklustre employability skills found among job applicants is appalling. The way you shaking hands and how you maintain eye contact will make impressions on others which in turn determines your success. Other things such as posture, voice clarity, tone, and even the way you sit and stand will affect your interviews, relationships with others, and in your business interactions.
Who teaches that in college? Even if they do, who is paying attention? In the end, who is paying for the consequences?
The employer-employee mismatch
The match results are usually, “Not found”.
Employers are looking for people to solve problems. For instance, all business needs sales (they look for people who can persuade, follow-up and sell); engineers (to innovate, solve technical issues, create software, etc.); train conductors (to manage passengers, plan routes, and more).
So when employers Interview you, they are looking for answers that resonate with what they are looking for.
Are you prepared enough?
