Job Hunting Tips

When friends tell me that they’re having a tough time getting an interview, I usually ask how they go about doing their job hunt.

“Look through newspaper and send out resume lor, send the more the better…but I send 500 resumes out already but still no reply leh…”

So I ask them what sort of resume they send out.

“Standard one from MS Word lor, printed on nice paper, put in nice envelope with nice photograph.”

Job hunting in the 21st century is a harrowing experience. It no longer entails preparing a standard resume of what jobs you did in your life, printing it on fancy corrugated paper and mass mailing out to every company in the classifieds. Think about how you handle junk mail. Your resume is the Human Resource’s office version of Tan Ah Cheok’s windows repair specialist.

The process of looking for a job is, well, by itself already a full time job!

Let's see..first, you have to set a few boundary objectives and requirements for the work/company you want to get involved in. You have to identify what sort of company you want to work for, what sort of scalability the job could give you, what sort of time frame you’re going to be with the company and of course, what you want to achieve.

I personally believe that “working” for any company in any position is nothing more than leverage for you to develop your desired skills. They in turn benefit from your skills and will have reason to want to retain you. It’s a beautiful exchange.

Oh yes… job hunting… So after you’ve got the identification down pat, you now have to prepare a resume outline that is both configurable and flexible to suit different employers. Not as easy as it sounds. And it’s only an outline. It must be altered to suit different positions.

It doesn't stop there. There is also the cover letter and an e-mail introduction.
Now these I believe are the most crucial of them all. If your email intro doesn't even pass Human Resources, you might as well have not sent the application at all! Let's just say that you have about 2 seconds in about 5 sentences to sell all your talents to a bored HR executive who may be casually sifting through a million applications after a heavy lunch.

And all that is even BEFORE you look for a job! What about the actual hunting? Will you use electronic job seek facilities, national newspapers or perhaps employ a job seek agency to do the work for you? How will you negotiate all of the above methods?

Yet these are not just the ways to find an opening. Companies usually post an advertisement only if they can’t fill the position through their own means. You also need to keep an eye out through your own network. Does a friend of a friend know of a position available?
Do you chat with people in cafes and pubs? Do you moan about your job seeking experiences in blogs and internet forums?

And just about until now, you still have not even had your first interview yet!

Exciting isn’t it? And that’s exactly what I’m going through now. Only problem is I’m trying to look for a job while I’m 70,000 miles away from home. I’ve got limited contact to my network of friends, no access to newspapers and no way of registering myself with an agency. I’m limited to those solely on the internet. I’ve been alternating between JobsDB.com, Jobstreet.com and a few direct applications to corporations I fancy.

But you know what’s pissing me off? Companies who can't differentiate between SALES and MARKETING.

I’m actually hunting for a job that would allow me to specialise in Marketing, you see. However, many local SMEs can’t tell the difference between MARKETING, SALES, PUBLIC RELATIONS and ADVERTISING. Or if they do, they assume that Marketing is all about designing a few fancy posters, liaising with printers, drawing up a few advertisements and that’s it!

A true marketing position is far more complex than that. For a start, sales, public relations, advertising, direct marketing and the like are all tools of marketing. And the delivery of messages to the public involves a lot more than a few brochures and posters. I could talk a lot more about marketing, but I’ll leave it for a separate entry.

You know what else about job seek ads bother me? Some of the requirements involved. I’ve never actually thought about how employers describe the potential candidate until I’ve actually compared them with those abroad.

Here are some of them:

Late Working Hours

It is understood that you’ll have to work late isn’t it? I mean, is there a need to really emphasise on it? Will you work to 4am in the morning and start work again at 8am? Everyday?

Highly Stressful Conditions

Again, unless your application is for a Land Mine Clearing Specialist, it is equally understood that every job is stressful. I have yet to see a company advertising for “Tranquil and unperturbed conditions”. Even executives at the Banyan Tree swing from the end of their tether many a times.

Female working Environment / Chinese speaking only

The use of the phrase “Chinese Speaking Only” could be a bit sticky. Especially when used in a country where there are larger numbers of Chinese (Singaporean) run businesses. It could easily misinterpreted as “Chinese Only”.

In true cosmopolitan cities, no one would dare to make such remarks. If a foreign language is required, it should say “Knowledge of X language would be advantageous” or “Would be required to interact with Chinese counterparts frequently” if it is a position requiring the use of the language. And this would be immediately tagged with the disclaimer “XXX Ltd is an equal opportunities employer and will not discriminate candidates based on sex, age, religion, race or ethnicity.”

And why a male/female working environment only? If you are L’Oreal or Tampax, I’m sure it would be understood that most men would find themselves awkwardly unsuitable for the job. (Well, there are alternative males, but hey, if they can fit in and do the job, then they should be given a chance shouldn’t they?) Or if you’re Keppel Container services looking for manual labourers, no girl would think they would desire to apply too, or if they want to, they too should be given a chance.

Oh, and here’s my favourite:

Must be willing to travel 15-20% of the time.

Now how’s that for precise? How would you calculate that? Is that off regular 9-5 or off a 6 day week? What if you exceed and travel 21% instead, would that be compensated? Travelling would be travelling wouldn’t it? Why make it sound like a bad thing? Unless you’re going to be living off a suitcase, it probably is sufficient to say that “Travelling will be required”.

Any interesting job seeking experiences to share?