NAVIGATING A DIFFICULT JOB MARKET

Competition in the job market has never been this fierce. The economic crisis has resulted in an exceptional glut of (otherwise rarely available) talent on the market. Many people are in the uncomfortable and totally unfamiliar circumstance of simply not being able to find work. Employers are being pickier than ever, because they can be - seeking an increasingly precise candidate fit. Job seekers are finding they are pipped to the post, by a whisker of difference in expertise between them and the successful candidate.

What this means now is that a job search, now more than ever, has to be intelligent, focused and resourceful. Self-presentation and preparation at every juncture have to be faultless. Follow through and resilience, vital. But beyond the obvious job seekers advice there are a few further pointers that can elevate your chances of success.

1. Know what you bring Clearly articulate your offering. You should be able to do this both to yourself - so that you understand your skills, strengths and differentiators - as well as to other people. You are essentially selling yourself and it is absolutely vital that you can quickly verbalise what you have to offer and why in particular someone should hire you in particular. If you don’t do it, someone else will!

2. Repackage if you have to If you’ve come from an industry that’s taken a hammering and there’s just no jobs in your area of expertise, then you’ll need to extract your skills generically to maximize your chances of crossing sector. This can feel like a challenge when you have years of specialist experience, but it can be done and with great success. For example a customer service professional from the troubled financial industry can transfer into and bring rich learnings to customer service functions within other sectors.

3. Act, don’t react A common mistake that people make is to adopt a scattergun, reactionary approach. Whereas, particularly if you’re faced with redundancy, one of the strongest things you can do is to approach your job search as if you were choosing to move. This can be a challenge when the wolf is at the door, but it’s a mindset that makes you come across and feel like you are in charge and will mean you are more likely to make a more satisfying move. Besides, people can sniff out desperation a mile away.

4. Get to the job before everyone else does The rules of the game have changed. There is such a sheer amount of traffic for each position, that ideally you want to be able to detour down a country lane and arrive before the crowd. In other words you want to hear about a job before it goes public. And there’s two ways to make that happen: either through word of mouth or you get a position created for you by second guessing an organizations needs.

5.You’re never too good to not have to prepare There’s no question about it. Interviews have got tougher. Assessment centres are common place. Its no longer a ‘get the job on the spot’ world. Time and again excellent candidates are tripped up by a less than excellent interview - often taken by sheer surprise at how demanding they can be. As is often quoted, it’s not the person who’s most suited to the job that gets it, it’s the ones who can convey they are.

6. Switch off Job searches can be demoralizing and exhausting. You can spend hours on job boards and get absolutely nowhere. You feel you have to be looking ALL the time, feel guilty or aimless if you’re not. But like anything done to excess it quickly becomes counterproductive. The effective job seeker structures their search time, sets themselves targets, does them and then down tools. It works

Click here for more details of the Search Strategy programme