How to Improve Your Chances of Getting Selected For A Job? | Even though you may possess the right amount of experience and skills for a company’s role, you’re not the only one who’ll be striving to fill that role. This is why you must try and stand out from the dozens and hundreds of other candidates fighting for the same position you desire.
Many professions and industries have a highly competitive job market, and experts believe it will intensify. As such, it pays to incorporate several things into your job search efforts so that you can stand out from your competition.
1) Research The Company
Think about the last time you went to an interview. If the interviewee asked you to tell them what you know about their company, would you be able to provide a detailed response? Now imagine if you were able to state when the company was established, the charitable organisations that it supports, and maybe a few names of some individuals higher up in the company?
Demonstrating your knowledge about the company you want to work for will show that you went the extra mile to learn about the company. This will make you more desirable than someone who’s just going through the motions from one application to the next, with little information on what the company stands for.
2) Explain How You Can Add Value To The Company
Interviewees love when candidates come prepared. It shows good worth ethic and respect for a company’s time and effort to find good candidates. One of the things you can do to make yourself memorable is to provide a detailed plan of how you intend to add value to the business within the first few months of starting the role.
3) Online Certifications And Courses
One of the most effective things you can do is take an online course or get an online certification such as a certificate iv in information technology networking. Besides the fact that you can develop a skill of which you can use for your personal and work life, it makes your resume look better and demonstrates zeal and willingness to educate and professionally develop yourself continually.
Academic accomplishments are one of the areas on which interviewees focus on. Companies love to know that besides adhering to a schedule, some employees are also focused on their studies. This is why many companies even reimburse employees for taking online courses.
4) Be Social
Having technical skill sets will make you stand out. The same thing can be said about having excellent communication skills. Many people mistake giving robotic answers and asking generic questions when they’re being interviewed. But, when companies are looking for candidates, they want to hear about difficult circumstances you’ve been in, difficult conversations you had, or accomplishments you’re proud of.
People with booming personalities, so to speak, never have difficulty finding a job. How could you not hire someone who is highly qualified and managed to get you to laugh a few times before going back to robotic answers and questions from other boring candidates?
5) Analyse and Correct Your Digital Footprint
As more and more people establish digital footprints on social media sites, more and more companies are checking them to get a more accurate feel of your background. Digital footprints can reveal much more than a standard background check.
Therefore, you need to pay attention to the content you’re posting and address and fix anything that shows you in a bad light. Ideally, you can customise your digital footprint to look more appealing.
6) Use Your Resume To Tell A Story Of Why You Deserve The Role
Don’t make the mistake of filling your resume with fancy words and terminology for positions that you previously held. Businesses go through resumes like this constantly. Something that will truly make you stand out would be if you used your resume as a tool to accurately describe your story and skillset that resonates with the role which the company is seeking to fill.
Meaning, let’s say you worked as a cashier and you want to get a sales position at the phone company. As opposed to just putting ‘cashier’ as your responsibility for your previous job, you could say something like, ‘provided customer support through various sections of the store, including the register as a sales associate’.
7) Convey Flexibility
There’s nothing wrong with having a professional goal you wish to accomplish or a 5-10 year plan. However, you may not want to necessarily convey what your long term goals are but rather imply that you’re highly flexible.
The last thing you want to do is to come across as being rigid. Because certain goals may limit you from other opportunities that may not seem apparent at first meaning, you may assume that your goals don’t contradict the requirements of the job when it does. Said in simpler terms, do not discuss long term goals but rather convey flexibility.
