Monday, January 4, 2016

So You Want To Get A Job ~ Do You?

In my line of work, I'm privileged to meet and interact with many future graduates from various institute of higher learnings(IHLs). Some are very proactive, some are so so lah, some tak minat langsung. While we read and listen to many complains from employers how quality of our graduates have declined, I must say I still meet many good ones, possessing all the right qualities employers look for.

Rather than joining the bandwagon and continue to criticise, I thought to contribute beyond my scope of work by giving some guidance and tips to future job seekers to prepare them for their next journey in life. Yes adik2, after getting a degree, you will enter the next phase of life where you are expected to work to earn an income. My plan is to share this topic every Monday, subject to availability of time of course.

Well, before we even go to the technical bit like what makes a good CV or how do you prepare yourself for interview, first thing first. You need to ask yourself, do you really want to get a job.

Why do I say this?

I've met many graduates who are still lost and clueless in exploring opportunities. While many IHLs are doing their best to prepare their graduates for employment, many are just not ready or worse, not even interested. I can say most of IHLs I'm working with have career related initiatives implemented. Initiatives like career fairs, interviews workshop, CV writing classes to name a few are organised in many IHLs. Some even took the extra mile by inviting speakers from industries to ensure the content delivered are exactly what the industries wanted. Of course such initiatives are mostly targeted for final year students.

Coming back to why I asked "Do You Really Want To Get A Job". Cause many times when such initiatives are conducted, the turnout is very disappointing. There was this one time, I delivered such content to only about 15 students when the overall university's population is 21K! Can't even get 1to be interested to learn about interview technique. At first I thought maybe I'm not glamour enough, not well known so it is expected for the turnout to be low, however, this has happened before to more prominent speakers, even to the level of HR Directors.

I will spare the normal lecture how graduates nowadays are fortunate to have speakers coming to their campus sharing useful employability skills and how during my time, we had to self-help and self-learn. I'm sure you have heard all that before. But seriously people, what is a better way to learn than hearing tips from those who have recruited hundreds or thousands of people. And it doesn't cost you anything. Just for you to spare your time to learn. You also get to ask questions and get direct answers. If you are really smart, you will grab this opportunity without thinking twice, without being forced by your lecturers or deans, without your faculties have to impose this on you and making attendance compulsory.

Yes, the first step in getting a job is to ask ourselves, are we really up to it. Do we really want a job. Cause the answer to this can be sensed by interviewers. Yes, they can tell. They do this for a living remember?

If your answer is yes, look out for the next entry, probably next Monday. Till then, getting a job is not as hard as you think it is if only you put your heart and mind into it.


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