Your alarm blares out loudly first thing in the morning and nothing is motivating you to get out of bed. You have been stuck in a career rut for several months now and you’re longing for an escape. You have been settling for a job that you don’t really enjoy in order to make ends meet; you have realized that there is much more to life than making good money. Your happiness now needs to come first.
Making a good first impression when you’re job hunting is something you have always been terrified of. ‘Will they like me?’, ‘Why am I here?’, ‘What am I going to say?’ They are all questions that whirl around your mind in a blurry bubble as you step into an interview room. Your confidence has never been through the roof and it is holding you back from attaining your career goals. There are a handful of things you can do to boost your confidence and make your job hunting fears disappear for good. All you need to do is become more reassured in yourself and your abilities. Gain the qualifications you really need to achieve your dream job, brush up on your interviewing techniques and make sure you keep your motivation levels high. When you have something to strive towards you will instantly be more determined. So stop thinking negatively and grab all of the opportunities you can get in your industry.
Get Fully Qualified
Let’s say you wanted to be a full-time bookkeeper or start your own accountancy business. You are going to need certain qualifications to make sure you have the best chance possible. You need to research your chosen industry extremely carefully and find out exactly what kinds of accredited certificates you need. You might need to do an online masters degree in accounting in order to get to where you want to be in your career. Looking ahead and planning out your future earlier rather than later, will put you one step ahead of the rest. As long as you make sure you have all the correct qualifications, you won’t be left disappointed.
Experience Is Key
Obtaining the correct qualifications is one thing, being a fully trained and experienced professional is a whole new ball game. You can only gain experience as time goes on; this is not something you can rush. What you can do, is seek out volunteer work in your chosen industry. Even if you can only help out once or twice a week whilst you carry out your current job, it will give you a good understanding of what the industry is all about. Scope out the ideal company you would like to work for eventually and see if they have any job opportunities coming up. Send them an email detailing your interests and qualifications and ask them if you can come and shadow one of the members of staff for a day. This is more likely to be a hit with smaller, independent companies rather than large corporations.
Brush Up Your CV
Your CV or resume is the first thing a potential employer sees about you, so you have to make it stand out. You need to check for the basic mistakes such as spelling and grammar errors and layout inaccuracies. Once you immediately eliminate these obvious problems, your CV will already look a lot better than all of the other candidates who have applied for the same post. Try and tailor your CV to match the job description and criteria. You can word things in a way that will impress the reader, whilst still being open and honest. Make sure you include some sort of hobbies and personal likes, this will give the employer a good understanding of who you are as a person. As long as you are completely honest about what you can do and what you hope to achieve you will be likely to land an interview.
Clean Up Your Online Presence
Before the interview processes even start, your prospective employers will probably check out your online presence. Do you run a controversial Twitter account? Do you have a lot of social pictures on Facebook? You might want to check out your privacy settings and clean up your online presence. If you looking for people to take you seriously in a job such as law or accounting then you need to make sure you are portraying a professional online presence too. Consider creating separate accounts for business and pleasure, so that you can tailor your content towards the potential reader. So many people are decline straight away from job applications because they come across poorly on social media. Don’t let that stand in the way of you landing your ideal job. Use social media to your advantage and start up an informative blog about your industry. Employees want to know that you at are passionate about the industry, as well as having a clean and noble online presence.
Tweak Your Interview Skills
Landing that interview is one of the best feelings in the world, but suddenly the pressure begins to mount. If you have struggled with interviews in the past then you need to get practicing. Try not to be nervous at the thought of an interview setting; the panelists want to see a true representation of yourself rather than an anxious wreck. Nerves are completely normal, so don’t be disheartened. Try to imagine you are talking to a friend; be warm, light-hearted and polite as you discuss the relevant topics. If the job is truly meant for you then you should be able to answer the find questions with ease. Brush up on your knowledge of the company and make sure you have real-life examples to share with your interviewers.
Only Apply For the Right Jobs
The reason why you are getting a lot of knockbacks from jobs might be because you are applying for the wrong type of job for you. Be realistic with yourself and don’t set your expectations too high. Make sure your skills meet the demands of the job and you are in fact fully qualified for it. This will save you a lot of time on applications because you won’t be applying for the roles that simply aren’t right for you.
Keep Trying
Even if you have experienced twenty-five knockbacks, it is really important to keep trying. You will get where you want to be in the end if you are patient and persistent. Your dream job won’t land in front of you instantly; you at going to have to work for it.
You don’t need to settle for a job that doesn’t suit you anymore. You are a stronger person than you know, so make your confidence soar higher than ever before. You will never be able to achieve the job you have always wanted if you just coast through life settling for second best. Imagine the feeling of landing in the career you have always wanted to have. Will it be worth putting yourself under a little bit of pressure? Will it be worth making choices you are afraid of?
The answer is, absolutely. All of your hard work and determination will pay off in the end and you will be rewarded hugely. Just step out of your comfort zone for a change, chase the job you have always desired and you will soon feel much more confident in your abilities. Remember that this is a step by step process that could take several months to achieve. As long as you are patient, calm and driven at all times you will get there. Be the career minded person you have always been and take your chosen industry by storm!
Pingback: Here Are The Real Reasons Why You Still Haven't Gotten That Dream Job