Go, Job Hunting Go!

It had been a good time going job hunting!

Here I wanna share some interesting findings and perhaps some useful tips that I had discovered throughout my time being a job hunter (roar!). Is all of my personal experience and my own accounts being a fresh graduate looking for a job. Some of you might agree with me and some of you might not. But let hope it do become a good read for anyone that were recently graduated, soon to be graduating, or had graduated since god-know-when but still haven't get a job (like me).

A brief introduction about me. I am a food science graduate of one of Malaysia public university. Been taking a 'long leave' since I graduated last November only recently beef myself up to go job hunting.

Here goes...

1. Take The Time.
Most of the graduates 'oven' freshly out of their study life, will be eager to hastily get into the job market. Most of their reason being wanting an income, being the family breadwinner, hastily stocking up experience, and most predominantly, doing what they 'suppose-to-do' like what most graduates did. I will say, take your time. In Malaysian public university scene, I can daringly say that most of us do not get the courses that we wanted. So there is no wrong in taking the time to figure out what you ultimately want to do.

In the long run, taking that time, will be better than spending 1-2 year in some job that ultimately you will quit because you did not enjoy it. Go travel, go do volunteer, go do some peacekeeping project, or go do whatever you been longing to do. Take that time to do some self discovery, in the meantime, reward yourself of the long study life you had been committing for years. Take that rest that you thoroughly deserve, that you would not regret, before braving into having a job, your life.

2. Open Doors.
My first interviewer said to me. 'Shian, life is about opening doors, not closing them.' These few words was the pivotal point during my job hunting days. That I decided to go look for more, rather than sticking to one opportunity. Do not put barriers in yourself, but go explore every opportunities. Don't limit yourself with your own understanding, but go broaden that understanding.

Thus, go try everything! Go for different interviews, understanding different functions, in different company, meeting different people, and get into different culture and experience. Ultimately to find out more about yourself and too more about the organization that you might get involve in in the future. Remember, is OK to not know what you want. Is NOT OK to not go finding out about it.

On a personal note, I do not believe in blasting your resume to 10-15 companies at once will do good to you unless you do already decided on what you want and that was just for comparing purposes. Opening doors here mean to go see what the world of opportunities can offer you.

3. Do What You Enjoy Doing.
A good interviewer will most probably tell you this. Being able to self motivate and being happy at what you are doing, is what most employer look at their potential employees. In my personal experiences, most employers preferred to hire an employee who enjoy what he/she do.

If you enjoy dealing with machine, go for the technical side of things. If you enjoy dealing with money and figures, go for finance than. If you enjoy meeting with people, being creative, go for the marketing side then. Ultimately, if you do not enjoy the big chunk of time you will be investing into you job, you will not only let yourself down, but also your employer. For the best interest of you and your employer, Go look for that job that really thrills you, make you happy, and one that get you a life, not a job.

4. Be Yourself.
If you need to be someone else to do a particular job, most probably that is not the right job for you. Why go for a job that you need you to be not like you? Always go for a job that could allow you to be yourself. In my experiences, a good interview would put up personality test or even aptitude test to determine what kind of person you are, and how compatible you are to the job. If they do not have that, just be you and you will turn out well. Remember not much on impressing, more on expressing.

5. Your Degree Is Not Your Boss. You are.
Do not ever let your degree be the decider to what job you want to do. A big percentage of people end up excelling in things that not of their degree. Do not feel handicapped getting into a field or an industry which you are not familiar with, with your ability to study 20 chapters before a final already show how good you are in absorbing new knowledge and skills. Go opening doors, enjoy what you will be doing, be yourself and you will end up doing very well. Remember, you the boss!


6. There Is No Good Job, But There Is The Right Job. 
Be it a job with high monthly salary, a job with amazing perks and benefits, or one that comes with a company car, still not a job as good as the right job for you. You are not going for a job because of high pay or good benefits. You are going for a job because of that job. So go for the right job that you ultimately will enjoy doing.


7. Your Resume is Your First Impression.
I had one HR person once told me that she need to go through hundreds even thousands of applicant in a short period of time, only to shortlist a handful of candidates for interviews. I even saw a big bundle of resume stacking up on one of their desk. I can tell you that it is not an easy job when it comes to hiring the right person for that job.

 Like what many resume writing guide had said, one employer only spend an average of 5-10 second of their time going through your resume. So what you need to do to capture their attention in that short time? Here is some tips:
- Highlight a few of your strong points, be it academical or non-academical. Only those that were worthy.
- Highlight previous working experiences that would help in getting the job.
- Highlight your skills that was related to the job application.
- Preferable to have an objective. Shows that you know what you are applying.
- Be concise, be on point, be grammatically correct, avoid long winding sentences.
- Always leave your contact.
- Preferable ONE page. For easy reading. I attached another CV if they wanted to know more about me.

There is tons of useful tips and template you can get consulting on brother Google, get a few and you can start writing it. Remember, the resume change with you. So do update your resume often. Do you best to capture their attention in the right way, you will get your first call in no time!

8. Be Truthful.
Many had tried to give misleading information or even lie when it comes to putting up resume or even in interviews. Just to gain the upper hand in landing the job. The rule is. DON'T DO IT! Be truthful and be yourself. Only promise things that you could fulfill. No promises is better than empty promises. Do not say you can do but in reality you could not. You may find that in the end, being truthful would guide you to the job that is right for you.

9. Be Humble, Be a Learner.
There is a fine line between being confident and being cocky, and one often determine how your interview will go. Try not to over boast yourself and be truthful. In my experiences, the best way is to be humble. Be respectful of what the interviewer has to say. Be it a good remark or a not-so-good remark. Be humble enough to accept it. Do not take critic as a point to bring you down, but a point to reflect on yourself and be better.

 Always strive to be a learner. Each interview is a learning process for you to improve on yourself. Besides that, always go to interviews with a mindset that you take each job as a brand new learning experiences. In my experiences, interviewer are more attracted to a person who have the humility to learn. There is employer who prefer someone who are willing to learn more rather than someone that pride him/herself for knowing all about that job.

10. Being Early Is Better Than Being On Time. Being Overdress Is Better Than Not. 
Go to interview early give the impression that you really care about the job. Besides that, getting there early enable you to calmly prepare yourself for that interview or read in some last minute information that would be the differences in you getting or not getting the job. I had one experience where I misjudge the traffic condition to their office where I will have my interview, I ended up being barely on time. I struggle to compose myself and ended up being rejected. Thus the lesson here was that, is better to overestimate, over prepared, than doing less.

There were a few accounts where I do not know how to wear for the interview. To tie or not to tie, was the question. But most probably I would. I even encountered interviews where everybody had their suit, and I did not have one, much signify that sometimes overdress is better. Moreover you could take off any items you do not want, but you could not put up items simply because you don't have them. To be sure you can always call the company ahead of time to find out how you need to be dress. One more tip, for guys, always have an extra shirt with you! Be it you put it in your bag or your car, have one! I had a bad experience having stains all over my shirt that I am force to get a new one.

Always go prepared!

11. Make Friends, Not Enemy.
Interviews come in many forms, some require you to go one-on-one over a casual coffee, some require you to work in group to present your studies while some required you to sit in front of a panel of interviewers. In any form, try to make friends, not enemy. Make friends with fellow interviewees and interviewers. Perhaps you might not land the job, but at least you gain a friend even a few. Go, share your experiences, listen to their stories and ultimately keep in touch. Plus broaden your network is always a plus point when you are in a real world.

In my opinion, in every interviews, the only competitor you need to overcome is yourself. You already did your competitions with other interviewees with your resume. So just do your best in every interview and present the best out of yourself. Do not spend your effort and time to even think of competing with other interviewees. Most probably you will lose the battle with yourself while you do that, and ended up impressing nobody.

12. Sell Yourself.
Probably what most interviews require you to do. To answer the ultimate question of. 'Why we want to hire you?' Then come a point where you need to sell yourself, to put a value in yourself and hope that value will be appreciated by your potential employer.

To be frank, selling yourself become even more difficult when it comes to job application which was not of your field or expertise. Extra effort will be needed to really allow your potential employer to see your value if that was the case. Thus, do make sure that you made adequate and appropriate preparation to this ultimate question, to sell yourself. I do not know how much time had I stress of being well prepared! Haha.

13. Try and Try Again
Do not get any call for interview? Got rejected? Not shortlisted? No other choice but to try and try again! Never in a million years even try to give up.

14. Have Fun and Enjoy.
Last but not least. Go, have fun and enjoy your interviews. Big possibility is that they are not as frightening as you think they will be (provided that you make adequate preparation and no underestimation!). Go, make new friends, see new environment and experience new experiences. It is the one step you need to take for your next phase of life, enjoy it. Go, job hunting go!



15. Get a Life, Not a Job.
I quote the book by Paula Caligiuri, Phd. Enough said!

Live Well People,
Shian