As a jobseeker who feels the adversity of being unemployed and hoping to secure employment anytime soon, there are multiple aspects through the job seeking process that you need to get right.
Being unemployed means that your life is currently on a paused gap as you currently have nothing going for you and we have all been through this embarrassing moment – believe me. There are multiple barriers that you have probably have came across during the whole time you are unemployed and this guide will guide you of how to tackle these scenarios.
Those barriers are holding you back from securing a job that you need and have desired, so it is important that they are solved. By dealing with these barriers, your life can progress and you could potentially compete better than other candidates (especially the immature candidates) by presenting a more of a professional, enthusiastic and resilient and version of yourself.
Procrastination
• Do you find yourself feeling discouraged with writing a cover letter for a job application that request this document?
• Do you not apply for enough jobs daily? Especially if there located a lengthy distance away from where you live.
• Do you sacrifice spare time which could of been used for applying for roles that could potentially lead to a successful application to watch that episode on Netflix?
This barrier is a common tradition with homework and essays at school and colleges, however it can be an unforgivable sin when you are hoping to secure employment. The job market is far too demanding and competitive for you not to be motivated enough to make time to fill in job application forms or leaving a cover letter left outstanding.
Job applications have deadlines that need to be meet, so is it worth missing out on that job which has a decent salary and located locally worth a miss out just because you can not spare at least one or two hours out of 24?
What Can Eliminate Procrastination?
• Writing a schedule list indicating the times you start all of your activities for the day including the dedicated time spent on job search and applications.
• Have a goal number of jobs you need to apply for everyday just in case at least one of all of the applications you have applied for respond back with an interview.
Lack of Commercial Awareness
• Have you been asked on a job application or interview to explain your reasons of why you are interested in working for the company?
• Did you struggle to elaborate on that question?
When you express commercial awareness, your chances of having a successful job application or interview are potentially boosted! Your intrigued to know why?
Having a commercial awareness enables you to expresses an explicit understanding of how a company operates successfully, through each of there departments to achieve their targets and how the business becomes profitable. This type of knowledge will show an abundance of enthusiasm which tells the employer that you are capable of undertaking the role you are being interviewed for.
How to Gain Commercial Awareness?
• Research the company’s values, goals and achievements on the website and write notes on this so you can use these notes to help you with either the application or interview.
• Use LinkedIn and start networking with some of the employees who work at the company within the same role that you have applied for.
• Just message them that you have applied or expecting an interview at the same company and ask for everything they know about the company – they may give you additional information that’s not written on the website.
Lack of Experience Related to the Role you have Applied for
It is very frustrating when you read an intriguing job vacancy which has a decent salary that aligns with your qualifications/personality, but requires at least one year’s worth of experience.
Have you been through this multiple times and felt like giving up or find yourself forced to applying for other roles that does not align with your goals an interest?
Not taking up work experience during your time at college or over the holidays that is specific towards your career goal is a mistake. Your CV employment history section on your CV is not going to look appealing. Your CV may lack a USP (unique selling proposition) towards potential employers – unless you had juggled a part-time job alongside college.
Steps You Can Take to Gain Experience
- If you are around two of your final years of further education, you should consider seeing a careers advisor and talking about ideas and options of your career goal.
- One you have an idea of your career goal, access LinkedIn to start networking with employers of the industry that interests you and ask for work experience placement – do this daily.
- If you are just unemployed experiencing this predicament, you can search for traineeships/apprenticeships.
- If you have completely no work experience history, you are better of seeking for a traineeships as some apprenticeship applicants have a work history. Meaning they will have a far chance compared to you of securing an apprenticeship.
Self Doubt
- Do you feel discouraged of applying for a specific job as you were told by your friend or a family member about the negatives outweighing the positives about a specific job that interests you?
- Have you elaborated your points well on answers for application and interview questions just to get a single sentenced email reply of a polite rejection? Even worse of all no response at all? Leaving you to personally question yourself that you are ‘stupid’, disliked or second best.
Self-doubt is impacted by low self-esteem which is very common when you are long-term unemployed. This can lead towards depression which may have you comparing yourself to others in terms of successes which is also leads towards jealousy. This is how mental health makes unemployment more of an adverse experience.
How to Gain Confidence whilst Unemployed
- Have a positive mindset, do not allow other people to discourage you from applying for a particular job that interests you based on their negative opinions or experiences. It is your life – not theirs.
- Just because employers have been rejecting you a number of times does not mean there is no hope of securing a job – rejection is a journey onto success. Just work on your weaknesses that is holding you back e.g. interview techniques and the motivation to apply for multiple jobs per day. Do not let any of these scenarios discourage you.
Final Thought
Everybody is different, it can take some job seekers multiple weeks, months or even years at some cases to get employed. I can assure you that you will eventually find success, if you address any of these scenarios listed above and consider working to improve them effectively.
Remember Rome was not built in a day so why would it take at least one day to find a job despite not experiencing any of the barriers above.