In today’s highly competitive business and career landscape, it’s no surprise that there’s a tough battle for pretty much every vacancy that opens.
With coveted positions being few and far between, it’s become more important than ever before for prospective hires to get noticed by prospective employers quickly. However, employability today has overcome boundaries once set simply by skills, instead stretching to include factors like attitude, aptitude and behaviour. Employability has become far more demanding than ever.
Along with core skills, employers these days demand a lot. And, employability skills required by a prospective employer are not limited to a particular extent; they may encompass core skills and extracurricular activities, for example. So, what can you do to boost your employability skills and stand out from the crowd to a prospective employer?
Demonstrate Your Commitment to the Field:
Today, employers aren’t looking for somebody who will come in and work for them from 9-5; while that might do, they are always going to favour an employee who is truly passionate about and committed to what they do.
There are many ways that you can demonstrate your commitment to your chosen career path. First of all, spend your time improving your knowledge and skills through taking additional training programs, such as IT courses or other courses that will help you improve your proficiency and competency in your line of work. Consider this type of course if you are currently between jobs and want to make your resume stand out.
Stay Up to Date:
Today’s employers aren’t just looking for employees who are qualified; they want to see educational qualifications, together with up-to-date, well-honed life skills. They want employees who are able to pave a pathway for the future, with innovation and creative ideas. You must be motivated, have a good attitude towards your work, and have the ability to strategically manage your time. And, you will need to be prepared to manage all communication in terms of telephone calls, online communication, face-to-face, email, web chats and more as you manage various clientele in geographically diverse locations.
Tailor Your Resume to the Job Description:
If you’ve been sending out hundreds of applications and haven’t gotten any joy so far, it could be simply because your resume is too generic. When a position becomes available and it has a range of specific requirements, your generic resume is not likely to do very well – unless you’re lucky and have already managed to address each specific requirement. Most employers today will publish the exact requirements of a vacancy, which gives you the opportunity to modify your resume and tailor it to the position you’re applying for. Doing this each time you apply for a position might be more time-consuming than simply firing resumes out, but it puts you in with a far bigger chance of landing a job you like the look of.
Boost Your Soft Skills:
If you’re lacking in certain soft skills like time management and teamwork, then it’s imperative that you spend some time working on improving them. Employers aren’t just looking for qualifications listed on your resume – they want to see which soft skills you can demonstrate putting into practice in the past, whether that’s through work, education, volunteering or even your leisure activities. If you are trying to get a job straight out of school, college or university for the first time then it’s worth considering what you’ve done in the past that can demonstrate your soft skills – such as playing team sports or taking part in voluntary work, for example. If you’ve ever done an internship or work experience, think about the skills that you were able to develop from this.
Build a Strong Professional Network:
Building relationships with different types of people – especially professionals – can often help you to determine your next move and take your career in the direction that you want it to head. You can use social networking sites such as LinkedIn to distribute your network amongst a diverse range of professionals working in different positions and across a variety of industries. A solid, robust network of professional connections and contacts means that you will be able to attract top employers and be in with a bigger chance of getting your desired job. Regularly post to LinkedIn, discuss posts with others, and engage in healthy debates while keeping your eyes open for any would-be job opportunities that you could apply for.
Make an Effort On Other Social Networking Sites:
It’s not just LinkedIn that’s worth using for finding a job – today, employers use a range of social media platforms to find the right candidates for advertised positions, so it’s worth using Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and Instagram as much as possible in order to help you find a job opening that seems right for you. You can optimise your social profiles for job hunting by listing your degree or other qualifications on your profile and using your status updates to demonstrate how you are able to use your soft skills to handle a wide range of different situations. And if you haven’t already, now is a good time to go through your social platform and clean it up – the last thing that you want is a potential employer being put off inviting you for an interview because of something that you shared five years ago.
See Things from an Employer’s Point of View:
In order to become more employable, it’s crucial to change your mindset to that of an employer, instead. Rather than wondering ‘why don’t I have a job yet?’, think about what it is that employers want when looking for candidates to fill different positions, and work out what you can do in order to be noticed by them. You will need to be aware of the difference between benefits and features; benefits are something that an employer will gain when hiring you, while your features are the strengths and skills that you possess which determine whether or not you are an ideal candidate. As the whole recruitment process mainly involves comparing your performance to that of others, it’s important that you are well aware of your unique selling point (USP) – the strengths, skills, experiences or abilities that are going to make you stand out from others during the process.
Be Smart When Preparing for Interviews:
Finally, bear in mind that strong, solid preparation for any interviews that you are offered has become more important than ever. Bear in mind that you will usually only have a single chance during your job interview to prove yourself to a prospective employer and demonstrate to them why you would be an ideal candidate for the position. In order to do this, it is crucial that you are able to develop a strong and clear understanding of your potential employer; get to know more about the industry that they operate in and the services or products that they offer. The more you can learn about a company before attending an interview, the better – check the company website to learn as much as you can about what they offer, their history, mission, values and more.
Landing your dream career these days has become more and more competitive, so working on becoming more employable is key.