It’s All In The Planning!

Don’t think you can solve problems that arise in the job search all by yourself. The price to pay for ignorance or passive attitude is too high to bear. You may end up not getting any job offer after attending many interviews and sending out many resumes. Without proper guidance, you will find not only frustration, but constant failure in your job search.

So how should you be preparing yourself? Fresh graduates should get career counselling or professional advice from their universities on techniques to apply for jobs, on the organisations to contact, arranging interviews, organising visits or making contacts with the personnel-in-charge.

If you are not so sure about what you want to become, try to discuss with your parents and friends who know your characters. Tell them which career you want to go in for, why you chose to pursue a certain degree or course, what makes you think you can do better than others in certain jobs, what is your future plan besides working for an organisation, and ask their opinions about your plan. All these are important bearings that help you focus in your career, so do not shy away from talking about them.

Besides your plan, your interests and hobbies outside your studies are important indicators of what you want to achieve in career and in life. And since you are fresh from campus and have no previous work experience, this is one of the many yardsticks which a prospective employer has of judging your initiative and your ability, apart from your academic achievement.

Particularly valuable are those activities in which you had some organising functions and where you had to get along with and work with others. Examples of such activities are various clubs, sports team, debating society, youth group, college magazine, voluntary service and charity work. Unless you are asked to comment on certain political issues, try to keep off the subject of political activities as this could set up a strong prejudice against you.

Last but not least, see yourself as a unique person with desirable characters – someone who is honest, hardworking, responsible, caring, helpful, disciplined and open-minded. Only when you see yourself as a valuable person, you can have pride in yourself and convince others of your value. See things positively so that you open up yourself to more options while learning painfully from your job searching experiences.