Interview at KL
On 1st October 2013, I attended an interview at Kuala Lumpur for Field Operation Professional- for Brunei placement. One of the question is,
"
In Malaysia, the unemployment rate is increasing, yet we have a lot of fresh and old graduates who are still looking to find jobs. We have many opening available yet many of them are still there to be filled. What do you think the factors that contributes this unemployment issues?".
The above question remind me to several free career workshops I attended in my former University. These workshops are totally free but I am the only Bruneians in my University who love to attend and hear this self-marketing and self-improvement seminar.
Strategy to get yourself hired
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Having A+ scores in the University won't necessary make you always worth more than others but it is still bring advantage and potential to get hired. There are some strategies that you should learn how to market your-self. In the workshops, I learned few important things which later helped me to get part-time job during my long summer vacation in Sydney and nowthose tips are proven to be undeniable. They were proven to be valid not only during my jobseeking period but was also proven when I wanted to pursue my study to Master Degree.
Hidden Job Opportunity
One of the thing that surprised me is about 70% of job market are hidden- they are not published anywhere either in the websites, newspapers or company portals. This is the thing that really surprised me and I made use of this information to grab me a part-time job in Sydney.
When I was in Sydney- I tried to get a part-time job (during my 3 months summer holiday) through some famous job-seeking websites such as Gumtree. Unfortunately, I received no luck- I rarely received interview request or even a replied from them.
So after knowing this 'secret', what I did- I submitted my resume to many shops which didn't publish vacancy opening on their door or at any job-seeking website. I talked to the shop managers asked if they have any available vacancy in their shop. Yes, I was employed after sending my resume following this tips. I was offered two part-time job during that summer period.
It really surprised me where they are plenty of vacancies available in many shops, but they were not published.
Lesson no 1: If you are looking for job- don't limit your self to newspaper, pelita brunei, websites- advertised opening only. Visit the company, ask if there is vacancy available and leave your resume with them.
Networking
This is the easiest way to get your self employed by a company. Lets me clarify the confusion that people always have on mind about Networking. Some people were confused that getting a job via networking is unfair, biased, and unaccepted norms in society. It was labelled as family-friends benefits types of corruptions.
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To tell the truth, it is not!
Networking is the most successful, proven ways to get yourself employed. Through networking, you can ask your friend or university colleagues to recommend you to their hiring-manager to hire you. If you still think this is a bad attitude, I am sorry to say, you need to open your mind.
Again, as mentioned before, many job opportunities are hidden. some jobs need to fill in faster, but the process for them to get advertised takes time- due to company policies, the manager are busy (and forget) to inform HR, or because the HR had filtered many candidates based on their preferences not based on department preferences of candidates- so your chance to get hired is lower.
So if you are interested to work in the same company as your friend, you should ask help from your friends to 'advertise' you to their manager. You might ask, what if the recommended friend is not a potential candidates, you lie about their working credibility for sake of helping a friend?. Maybe it might happen but many will avoids those from happen.
When someone recommend a friend to their boss, they will only recommend their friends who has potential. You don't want to get blame by your boss to get not-worth candidates which will lower your image in the company. You must consider this before recommending a friend to work in the same company as you.
Since your friend know you well, your friend will/will not advertise yourself to their manager depending on your strengths and weakness.
Besides that, your networks friends might know some opening in their companies and can direct you to the right person to contact.
I also learned that, before I quit my job from the shops, my manager asked me to recommend anyone I know to work with them. It didn't happen once but twice. From there I learned that it is easy to get a job via networking.
Currently people are using a famous website for job hunting via networking. It is called
Linkedln. I learned from a friend that one of his colleagues receive a lot of job offers each month through Linkedln. Linkedln also the medium which helped his colleagues to get a job in Brunei.
So
Lesson no 2: Good networking with people- and get job via networking
Profile page
I learned this strategy from a friend who works in BLNG- this technique was recommended by her Manager.
When I showed my profile page to some of my friends, many believed a long profile page shouldn't be put in a resume. Many of us still want to follow old-traditional methods of resume styled. We need to crack an interview hidden secrets to secure a job. We need to understand the reason behind those profile page.
I would recommend, everyone should have a profile page attached with their resume.
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What is a profile page actually?, It is simple, it is just a summary of your working experiences, educations and etc but you make use of this information to tell your proven credibility in handling and managing something to your hiring manager. For example:
"My good time management and self-
independent is proven where I was able to spare some of my weekly busy schedules
to work as a part- timer while I was studying for my University Degree. In 2011, I hold two
positions in the XX society as an IT officer and Religious officer. My leadership and commitment
towards the positions are proven when I- one of the main organisers was successfully
organised the first-time religious event which was participated by at least 30
students and attended by officers from the XX. Besides that, I was also responsible as an organiser for several
events such as interview by local radio, Eid greeting videos and trips to
several places.
In terms of teamwork and team-leader, I experienced a number of
student group projects where I delivered a strong commitment to the group such
as organising group creation, initial group meeting, medium for files and
document sharing, job segregation, ideas and solution and etc. I also make sure
each member are committed to the group such as by introducing the idea of job-role
rotation within the group. In the recent
student group project, Enhanced Oil Recovery, as a group leader, I raised and
idea to accommodate and to ensure everyone have an opportunity to be the
chairman/woman or minutes writer for each meeting. This helps everyone to feel the importance of their present in the group hence better teamwork experience, communication and responsibilities. "
When I first created my resume, I only have 4 lines of simple profile information which I learned were not very useful to market myself.
If you still can't realised the difference between profile page and resume; in resume, you only put your experiences and etc in bullets points without elaboration. Whereas, in Profile Page - you link your experiences to your strange, and how these strange will benefits the company.
When you show that you are a good team player and team member besides having goods results in your profile page - Tell me, who can ignore you?
So Lesson no 3: put a long profile page in your resume.
There are many other tips that I would like recommend everyone to try and master by themselves. But for the time being, I only have time to write the above information. I hope the above information are useful. I will add more information on job-seeking startegy next time (if I am free to write more).
