Part 1 : Looking For Jobs
| Jobs : Successful Job Search CV Covering Letter And Exams So, when it comes to looking for jobs, what should you do? Well, before you look for a job, you need to work out what you are looking for. This sounds obvious, but it is surprising the number of people that do not actually do this, and hence either end up down the path where they land a job that they don't really want - and have to go through the whole process again, or alternatively find it hard to get interviews because they do not focus sufficiently. Therefore, the first thing that you should be looking to do is to write down a list of what you want from a job. For instance, are you looking for something that will definitely ensure that you get a pay rise, or are you coming back to work from illness and ready to take any job? Do you feel that you are over-qualified for certain jobs, or do you not really think that you are sufficiently qualified yet for your ideal job? What sort of job would you like to do - something that you have experience of to date, or perhaps you would like to take this opportunity to move into a different area. If you want to stay in the area that you are in at the moment, then of course you have a head start - you will roughly know the state of play within the sector which should help your focus. If you are thinking of changing for something else, then the chances are that you won't really know a great deal about where you are thinking of going. Hence you need to do some research. If you have any friends or colleagues in those areas, or family or relatives, then speak to them about it. Or you could make general enquiries at the job agency, or look on the internet and in books in the library. There may also be magzines in the shops that will help you find out more about the area that you would like to get into. Research is essential so that you can start to do the necessary research and know where to look for jobs. If you fancy changing into journalism, for instance, then you may well find that you need to go on courses and get some sort of qualification before you will be allowed to start applying for a job. Or if you are simply prepared to start off as an office junior and make the tea and do the running, then you may be able to apply straightaway. Either way, getting a rough idea of the area that you are looking at getting into will help you decide where to apply. So, when it comes to looking for a job, there are several places that you can look: the local job agency is the obvious place to look. However, if you are looking for progression in a sector then you may well find out through the place you currently work of vacancies that become available elsewhere, and you should definitely keep your ear to the ground where you currently work to find out what the sort of process and procedure is. If you are thinking of moving up internally to a company, then you will no doubt already know the procedure for finding out and applying for jobs inside the company. Recruitment agencies are also a popular source for looking for jobs, especially if it is the case that you are looking to temp as a secretary or do some sort of vacational work - most people who use these find them very successful. Other places to look include newspapers and magazines. Also through your network of friends and families you may learn and glean useful information about jobs and vacancies that come up, and in that instance you may have a slight headstart in your application. One possibility that is currently underused, but no doubt will become more and more popular in the future is the internet. There are now several websites that contain large databases of jobs in the area, often databasing the adverts from the local nwespaper. These can prove invaluable as yuo can perform a search often to narrow down and find out all the relevant jobs in your area. This will save you a lot of work in looking through reams of magazines and papers to find all the jobs in the area. So, for instance, you could search for secretarial jobs in your area, and perhaps if you have specific salary requirements also input these, and then only jobs relevant to you will come up. A nicely focussed search producing results that you know are relevant to you - and hence you can apply wholeheartedly, knowing that you would like the job, from what you know so far. Thus there are many places where you can look for a job, and you should decide what you want from a job and how flexible you are prepared to be before you start looking.
 Questions about CV writing:
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