Category: Cover Letter

Achieving Success in Your Local Job Search


A question of where

If you are seriously searching for a job in your local area, but you have no idea how to go about it, you might just be one of the thousands of unemployed people in the country looking for work, whether the jobs are local or in other areas of the country or the world. That having been said however, finding a job does not have to be very difficult; in fact, it can be easy when you know where to search.

So the question is, where can you find employers? And, how can you find your desired local job? In answer to these questions, and before any other steps are taken, you should determine what kind of skills and abilities you possess, update your resume and be ready to face the employment search process. There are several available options that can be utilized to find acceptable employment locations.

job centers & newspapers

Job Center – Job centers provide numerous vacancies for different kinds of work. The majority of job centers update their employment board frequently.

Originally, these career centers catered to young jobseekers in the age group of 21 and under. They arrange for appropriate job interviews, which they believe would match the applicant’s skills and abilities. Some job centers also process training vacancies and apprenticeships to young people. Today these centers also cater to adults’ need of employment.

Newspapers – Local and national newspapers, non-profit papers and job hunting newspapers provide advertisements on current job vacancies. You could find all the existing newspapers in libraries and check all the recent job postings.

Most newspapers today have their content available online so you can browse through them one by one and make a list of all the jobs that meet your preferred description.

Journals & agencies

Journals and magazines – Every industry has its own periodicals, magazines or journals. Most employers go to these publications for employing professionals. Some could be bought in magazine stands and others come by subscription. Therefore, if you’re hoping to establish your career based on your completed field of study, you could subscribe to a professional magazine and increase your local job prospects.

Agencies – Employment agencies handle most of the available local work. Covering all kinds of work for various industries, these agencies are listed in local directories and Yellow pages.

Employers’ venues & the Web

Employer grounds – Many companies have job vacancies on their premises. Since such companies as food retailers make use of internal notice boards, they do not advertise in newspapers and agencies, so ou can walk into these companies and ask the front desk for employment vacancies.

The Internet – The most cost-effective way in finding local jobs is through the internet. The greater number of employment agencies, newspapers, top companies, magazines and job centers have their own websites so a job applicant will save a lot of time by searching through these sites one by one and apply for the job s/he prefers.

Making use of all these options could save you a lot of time searching for your desired local job. You could use all of these methods simultaneously to increase your chances of employment.

NAVAN Global, the REAL SEAL!

Matching Your Skills to Appropriate Jobs


Know your skills

Skills refer to the things you do well or the tasks you perform well; so for example, someone who writes well can be described as having good writing skills. It follows then, that a key to finding the most appropriate job in a given industry is to recognize and understand your own skills and communicating their significance – written as well as verbally – to a probable employer.

A majority of the most viable skills are those that are most used in various types of work settings. What are these skills? Would you be successful matching your skills with the job being offered in order to find the right job?

Determine your skills. This will help you in becoming the lead candidate for landing your ideal job. A skill does not necessarily have to be something that was adapted in a work environment. If this would be your first job hunt and you have no job experience to date, you still have a chance in the industry.

Hobby skills help

In more cases than not, skills – including knowledge-based and transferable – could be absorbed and developed as a volunteer, a student, a homemaker, or in many of your other personal activities. The skills you have used for these activities can still be applied to your desired job.

Organizing and listing your personal skills could help you easily fill out job applications, provide useful information for job interviews, and prepare quality resumes. First, you should categorize these skills by separating your interests and aptitudes from your work experience.

Aptitudes & interests

Aptitudes and interest include all of your hobbies, activities in which you have been involved in the past, and all the things that interest you. By making a list of these qualities, you could examine the skills it takes to achieve each item.

Skills from aptitude and interest may be homemaking, playing basketball, fixing cars and others. All of these items could determine if you are capable of working with a team; able to handle multiple tasks; have viable knowledge of human development; have knowledge of electronics and the ability to diagnose mechanical and numerical problems. The list goes on, but make sure to consider the skills that would be most appropriate for a working environment.

Work history

Work history includes volunteer, part-time, freelance, summer and full time jobs. Once you have listed all your past employment and the duties carried out in those positions, examine the skills you utilized to perform those duties and how they will relate to the new job.

Ask for help. As soon as you have your list ready, you could now go to job services that could help you acquire your desired job. You could also search the job yourself. However, always remember to match the skills and abilities in your list to the needed skills and abilities of various jobs.

In most cases, people who seek jobs are threatened with job titles. This should not be the case because as long as your skills and abilities are adequate enough to meet requirements of the workload and job title, the possibility of acquiring your desired job increases.