Showing Maturity in Your Job Search

Showing Maturity in Your Job Search Image via pexels.com Treat every job application as if it is your only one When you are desperate for a job, you may find yourself applying to any company posting Now Hiring signs and thinking that your best bet is sending a generic resume in with each application. However, these generic resumes will do nothing to make you stand out among other applicants. Look at each job you are applying for and what the position requires. If you know a certain position would value customer service as a skill above other skills, advocate for your customer service skills on your resume. If you are applying for a tutoring job, spend more lines on your resume highlighting your academic and tutoring experience instead of a restaurant job that is less applicable to the job that you are applying for. Check in with pending applications, but do not pester   While its important to follow-up after a job interview and to show continued interest in the job position, you dont want to pester your potential employer or interviewer with constant emails and calls inquiring about your job status. If its been a while since you turned in your application, call the number or email of the person in charge with hiring people. Hopefully, your application just got lost and they can still get back to you. However, they may just not have contacted you because your resume/application didnt fit their ideal hire; dont take the rejection too hard and take it as a sign to improve where you need to and continue with your job search. If you already had a job interview with a company, start with an initial follow-up email to your interviewer. Keep it short and simple; thank them for their time and the opportunity, express interest in the company, and insert last-minute promotion for one of your skills to remind the interviewer who you are and to show genuine interest in the company and position. When in doubt, dress up   With some job offers you wont get a clear description of your position or the initial job interview itself. All you may get when it comes to information about a job interview is a time and a place, leaving you in the dark on whether or not it will be a group interview, on the dress code, or on what you are expected to bring. The last thing you should be worrying about is what to wear or a dress code, especially when youre thinking of ways to prepare yourself for uncommon interview questions or how to promote yourself to stand out in a group interview. Its better to dress up than down. Even if you think the job interview is casual, rolling up to the interview in jeans and sneakers reflects a casual interest in the job; you arent showing that you are putting more effort into working for the job position than any other everyday tasks you would do in such casual clothes. If you show up to a job interview dressed up, you are showing that you are putting effort into the job position and that you take the application process just as seriously as you would if you were working in the desired position. Always prepare a resume   You may think you are unqualified for a job due to a lack of experience in the field or other jobs in other fields. You may think you dont have experience and think its okay to skip out on submitting your resume. However, without a resume to your name, the potential employer will have little to nothing to get to know you by. Nothing can set you apart from other applicants when there is no experience, skill, or background to tie to your name or other aspects of the job application. Put skills and other aspects of your background that would help you excel in the desired position. Experience with a certain computer program? Hours of time spent working with school-aged children? Fluent in another language? Put them on your resume as they could very well be the thing that sets you above other applicants.