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3 Ways to Improve your Employability
For any person searching for the perfect job, the job hunt can quickly become draining. After applying to position after position, you feel as if no one will ever call you back. When you go to interviews, you feel intimidated by the other applicants there. They seem to have so much more experience than you do and you wonder how you’ll ever be able to find employment.
The good news is that even if this is you, it doesn’t have to be you forever. You can improve your employability skills and make yourself more competitive and a more ideal applicant. Here are three great ways to help you get started.
Creating a dynamite CV/LinkedIn profile
What may be holding you back is not your experience level, but how you present it. A great CV can attract the best employers and explain your experience in a succinct format. Sometimes improving your employability is as simple as revising your CV and making it easier to comprehend.
Here are a few easy tips to make your CV more attractive to employers:
- Tailor your CV each time you apply to a different job. Do not send the same CV to each person. Talk about your experience in a way that will be useful to your potential employer.
- Check and double check for grammatical and punctuational errors. These are big deterrents for an employer.
- Be accurate and truthful about your experiences. If you make it to the interview stage, you may be asked for references for a particular job, and you’ll have to admit you lied. Save yourself the hassle and be honest.
- Do not write paragraphs; use bulleted lists. These are much easier to read and scan than big, block paragraphs.
- Avoid listing any personal hobbies or interests. This is a professional outline of your work and experience, not a dating profile.
Don’t forget about building a LinkedIn profile as well. This social networking site is dedicated wholly to professionals, and the profiles themselves look like interactive profiles. You can boast about your jobs as well as your volunteer work. If you list any skills (which you should), your connections can vouch for your skills.
Employers often look to LinkedIn profiles for examples of work and any personal recommendations. Include th link to your LinkedIn profile on your CV so employers can take a close look at your work and your connections.
Improving skills through volunteer work
Having blocks of unemployment looks bad on a CV, but if you’re out of work for several months and actively job hunting, then there isn’t much to say. When you cannot get paid work in your preferred field, there is another option: volunteer work.
Volunteer work is a great way to give back you your community and show that you’re not above helping out others with no pay incentive. You can build relevant work experience simply by being an active volunteer and making good use of your time.
Doing volunteer work also shows that you’re active, even when you have don’t have a job. Employers like seeing that you’re active and still doing more than just hanging out on the couch all day. If you can work for a cause that you’re passionate about, you may find a new area of employment that interests you.
You can also build great contacts while volunteering. Volunteer work brings in people from all types of careers and paths in life, and the connections you build as a volunteer may be able to offer great recommendations on LinkedIn or let you use them as references when you apply for jobs.
Undertaking a support system
After being out of school for some time, you might find that you literacy and numeracy skills are not what they used to be. You may forget how to use certain mathematical formulas, and you may not feel confident in your ability to write a solid cover letter and CV.
Fortunately, you can work to improve those skills, thereby strengthening your skills set along with your CV. At the Kangan Institute, we offer Literacy and Numeracy Support course that will help you build your skills and make you more confident in your reading, writing and mathematics abilities. If you’re considering taking on a apprenticeship or enrolling in VCE courses, this nationally-accredited course will help you sharpen your skills and prepare you for returning to the classroom.
Once you complete the course, you’ll feel more confident as you apply for jobs. Your CV will look sharper and look more attractive to employers. When you go to interviews, you’ll feel more assured of yourself and ready to take on new jobs.
Improving your employability will help you land the job you’ve always wanted. By improving your foundation skills, you’ll be ready to go on the job hunt or return to the classroom and excel. Whether you’re interested in early childhood education or music, your newly improved skills will help you as you grow in your education.
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