The right career choices

You will be very lucky if you hit the right career choice immediately. For many of us it takes a few attempts before we find a route that gives us the first inkling that we have made the right choice.

What can you do to improve your chances?

Research is the simple answer.

Take the time to sit and think about the simple things that matter. What you enjoy doing, what your motivation for working is and how much you would realistically like to be paid.

The more you prepare for the job search ahead the better you will fare.

Once you have taken the time to prepare, perhaps even worked with an experienced career advisor, you have to take that leap into the unknown. Remember this, it is ok to fail, because without failure there is no success

Playing to your strengths

Now more than ever you need to prepare for the interview and in the process of interviewing upwards of twenty people a week it amazes me that not every one is understanding this.

Surely everyone knows that they will be questioned on personal strengths and yet so few people are prepared.

Admittedly it is often extremely difficult to answer, but even more reason to have thought it through before hand.

If you are finding it difficult to do, talk to the agent who is representing you (if you have one) failing that, talk to friends and ask them what they think your strengths and weaknesses are and practice answering the questions with them so that you come across fluently and articulately in a real interview situation.

A sense of urgency in your approach

This is an example of how not to get the job.

You have sent your CV to a company or an agency who are seriously recruiting for a position.

They call you and ask you for an interview, suggesting a time within the next couple of days. You are currently unemployed and live within half an hours train journey.

"I can't do it, perhaps one day next week?" is your reply.

This does not give the impression that you are really interested in the job and the interviewer will no longer be persuaded that you are a serious prospect.

Most interviewers realise you cannot just drop everything and be at their beck and call, but if you really cannot make the first couple of times they suggest, please have a credible excuse why not and express it sympathetically and succinctly.

Clean up your social networking

Social networking sites have become such a part of modern life that most of the generation Y users do not stop to think of the potential long term dangers of posting their everyday activities on the web.

Whilst it is possibly entertaining or interesting to know your friends' every move, whether they got drunk on their evening out and to what extent, or who did what at the latest party, users of social networking sites must learn to think ahead.

2005, a lifetime ago in Internet technology terms, Execunet conducted research on the usage of search engines by recruiters. Even then, over 70% of employers and recruiters were using search engines to check out possible employees and over 30% of these potential employees were being rejected as a result of the research.

Times have moved on, as have the social networking sites, and the potential for employers to check on prospective employees is far greater and expanding. I am constantly surprised by the naivety of candidates with regard to their online profiles.

For the sake of your future:

• When you create profiles, please make sure that the privacy settings are stringent, only trusted people can look you up
• Think before you post. Don't let ill thought-out comments come back to haunt you in the future
• Be particularly aware of remarks about your drinking, drug and tobacco usage
• Google yourself at regular intervals to try and ensure only the most wholesome of information is available about you 

You don't have to change who you are, but you do have to safeguard your private life. Think ahead, protect your future.

For goodness sake, follow up your interview

I am always surprised at the number of candidates who think that it is enough to make a favourable impression in the interview and then don't follow that up.

With the current employment situation being what it is, the successful candidate will be the one who has convinced the company that they are the unique individual who not only can do the job, but who is also enthusiastic about the position.

How to do this?

Naturally you have to nail the interview, but whether you think you have or not take a few moments directly after the interview to think it through and find one or two points where you think you achieved empathy with the interviewer or interviewers.

I personally think you cannot beat sending a personal handwritten letter but it is perfectly acceptable to send your interviewer/s a thank you email. Mention in this correspondence the points you think will reinforce a positive impression of you. Get someone to check the letter before you send it, just in case.

You may not get the job on this occasion but unless something went horribly wrong in your interview, you will leave a good impression which may lead to something in the future.