This post is sponsored by RBS Insurance, a leading British general insurer.
Despite the doom and gloom in the media about how jobs are increasingly hard to come by, the fact remains that if you maintain a positive outlook and take the necessary steps to stand out from the crowd, you’ll find the right opportunity sooner rather than later.
There are a number of simple, logical moves you can make to increase your employability — things that will help you rise from the mass of identical applicants and straight to the top of the pile.
Tailor your covering letter
Having one well-written ‘catch all’ covering letter will put you ahead of a lot of the field — but to really stand out you’ll need to tailor a new covering letter for each application. The effort won’t go unnoticed and it’s an easy way to score a few vital points before your prospective employer has even got to your CV.
Preen your CV
It’s good to talk yourself up and demonstrate any relevant experience but it’s also important to be concise. Recruiters have a lot on their plate on any given day, so if they come across a four-page CV you can bet they won’t make it through all of it. Try and get yours down to a single page if possible or a couple of pages at most — that’s still enough to entice potential employers with the pertinent information.
Get smart
It might sound like a no-brainer, but if you manage to land an interview dress smartly for the occasion. You may well feel like ‘smart casual’ will be good enough but unless you’ve been told that specifically by the recruiter themselves, don’t take any chances. Don’t turn down a great chance to make a good impression from the off.
Read up
If you’re heading to an interview, don’t expect to be able to just turn up and dazzle them with your natural wit and charm. It’s vitally important that you’re able to demonstrate knowledge of the company that you claim to want to work for. An early question is likely to be: ‘Why do you want to work here?’ If you can’t answer that well, then you may as well not turn up at all.
Get ahead
A sure fire way to stay two steps ahead of the majority of your competition is to gain relevant experience in your chosen field. For instance, if you’re having trouble landing insurance jobs, scour the internet for news of work placement opportunities or internships within insurance companies. Not only will it look fantastic on your CV, but you’ll also make valuable contacts or even put yourself in the frame for permanent work at the company that takes you under its wing.
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I do not believe that the recent jobs report is really anything to get very excited about. If you take a deeper look into the data you will find that much of the increase in employment was temporary employment during the last couple of months of the year. I believe that much of the current employment problems stem from a lack of real wealth creating companies. Untill the country gets away from all the jobs in the financial service sector. I believe that the unemployment situation will not improve. Jim Rogers has stated this in many of the interviews that he has given to the news media that the financial services sector is much to large. Jim Rogers also believes that the savings rate must be much higher if we are to sustain any high degree of economic growth. Many retailers can make more money loaning money to their customers at 20% interest than they can make selling product to their customers. What does that tell you about jobs.