How to avoid common mistakes when applying for a job? Do not be afraid of side jobs and temporary work


It's no secret that yesterday's graduate is quite difficult to find a job. But nevertheless it is possible! With the right approach, initiative, and a bit of luck, you have every chance of going to the office almost immediately after receiving your diploma.

Have you never looked for a job and have no idea how to approach this difficult task? It's okay - read our tips, make a plan and act.

Decide what you need

First you need to understand what you want to do and where to work. Many people think that the main thing is to please the employer. In fact, you should like it too! Think about it: you will spend at least eight hours of your life in this office. It is highly desirable that work and colleagues evoke pleasant emotions, and not irritation, otherwise you will not be enough for a long time.

How to identify inclinations? Grab a piece of paper, a pen, and make a list of your strengths and what you can do. Then write down in a separate column those tasks that you are successful and those that are not. This list will help you understand what you have a passion for and will come in handy while preparing for an interview.


Register on job search sites

If you haven't done so yet, be sure to post your resume on the leading online job search sites (like HeadHunter, Rabota.ru, SuperJob and others).

Don't forget to register on LinkedIn - here you can talk about skills and work experience (if any), add friends to your network of contacts, join interesting groups, post posts and comment on what others write (just make sure that there are no errors). Don't forget to update your profile with up-to-date skills - at a minimum, it will be a convenient online resume, at a maximum - it will attract recruiters who are browsing LinkedIn in search of candidates.

Do your research

So you know what you want to do. Now start looking for which employers have interesting vacancies. When you find a suitable company, spend time and read more about it: find out how it is customary to work and relax there, who is the founder, what kind of people work in key positions. Look for articles and interviews, study the company's website, look for employees of this company among friends and acquaintances in social networks (including the same LinkedIn) and ask them questions of interest. If a company releases a product, be sure to get to know it. This study will be useful to you both at the interview and to understand whether you need each other.


Don't Forget the Hidden Job Market

Don't panic if your dream company doesn't have a suitable job. It happens that a vacancy is not published either on the official website or on the work site, but they are looking for the right employee in social networks or through acquaintances. How to be in such a situation? Find company accounts on Facebook, VKontakte or Twitter - there may well be job advertisements. You can go to the profile of the HR director or the head of the department you are interested in - sometimes they also write about open vacancies.

If nothing is found, take courage and write a letter to the company - this is a normal practice. Of course, it must be thoughtful, competent, and you must send it to the correct address. Contacts can be found in the "Work" section. Remember that an unexpected letter is like an unexpected guest, so write politely and meaningfully so as not to waste someone else's work time.

Take the initiative - make a resume website

Let's say you've found a company you'd like to work for. How to get into it? A girl named Nina dreamed of getting a job at Airbnb. She analyzed the prospects for the service in the Middle East and made a Wix site, where she explained why everything is not going as we would like, and what needs to be done. And she honestly wrote that she really wants to become part of the team.

What did it give? The link to Nina's website went viral on Twitter, the director of Airbnb drew attention to it, it was retweeted by the Queen of Jordan! Take an example and keep in mind that each of you can do this. This good way take the initiative, attract attention and demonstrate your skills to the employer.

Make a Good Impression

It seems that you have interested the employer. Okay, so the next step is the interview. This is where all your research, lists, and developments come in handy. True, the interview can fail miserably if you do not think about what impression you make. To avoid this, dress appropriately (you can find out if the company has a dress code), do not be late, and just in case, grab a copy of your resume.

Come up with a list of counter questions. People who understand everything without words cause bewilderment, so feel free to ask about the company, working conditions, responsibilities, projects and plans.

Learn to sell

Modesty, of course, paints a person, but not during an interview. No one will tell you better than yourself, so let it be known that you are a valuable asset. The recruiter should get the impression that your skills and abilities will be very useful to the team.

Get ready to work hard

Everything worked out, and you were offered a job. Great! Praise yourself and please someone a good gift. And then - start working. In large companies, newcomers are initially assigned very simple tasks but don't be discouraged. It won't be long before you prove yourself a good specialist and projects will become much more complex and interesting.

When forming the first impression, 3 schemes can be distinguished, each of which is launched under the influence of some factor.

    The superiority factor is the inequality of partners in any area. When meeting a person who is superior to us in some important parameter for us, we tend to evaluate him somewhat more positively. Otherwise, we tend to underestimate it. Superiority is fixed in one parameter, and overestimation or underestimation occurs in many parameters.

    Attractiveness factor - if we like a person purely outwardly, then we tend to overestimate him.

    Attitude Factor:

  • Show your attitude
  • Show commitment to professional development,
  • Opportunities for a professional career
  • How important is this job to you?

How to avoid common mistakes when applying for a job?

  • determine the purpose of the activity (what kind of job you would like to get)
  • it is necessary to collect data on the profession, the place of work that you would like to get,
  • it is necessary to measure the upper and lower salary limits,
  • required level of education and work experience,
  • need to know the intended job responsibilities and personality specifications,
  • what selection criteria are used.

Job placement tips for people with work experience

Today, the employment system itself has already turned into a set of rules, under which successful employment is almost 100% guaranteed. How to "correctly" get a job, what to say to the employer, and what it is better to keep silent about, what qualities to exalt to the skies, and which ones it is better to forget about altogether - many articles are devoted to these topics. And we decided to start by compiling a resume, since This is the first step towards successful employment.

The resume should contain as much information as necessary for the employer or HR manager. There is even a certain standard in the order of the candidate's personal data.

Last name, first name, patronymic and date of birth are typed in large print. It is preferable that a photograph of the applicant be attached to the resume. In the first lines, you should also write your e-mail address, contact numbers by which you can be contacted at any time. It is necessary to inform the potential employer about the marital status.

If you are writing a resume for a specific employer, then it is better to indicate a specific vacancy that is this moment opened in the company.

On the item "Experience" you should pay attention Special attention. Places of previous work are listed in reverse chronological order, that is, starting with the most recent. The employer is usually interested in two or three last places and a period not exceeding the last 10 years. And be sure to check for grammatical errors.

Here, perhaps, are all the simple tricks of writing a competent informative resume (by the way, experts say that such a resume should take one and a half sheets at most).

Strategies for recruiting young professionals

All employees of any company and corporation, successful and high-ranking now, were once students who began to look for a place in the sun...

Large corporations, both domestic and Western, are developing large-scale programs to attract young professionals, their subsequent adaptation and successful professional growth. Small firms and enterprises are not very willing to hire a "theorist" who has recently graduated from a university. This is explained by the fact that the employees of such companies have neither the time nor the desire to spend energy on a "young fighter course" for beginners, and there is no question of creating a special department at all. If a recruitment agency is instructed to find a young specialist, then often after a while the customer raises the "bar" and reports that he still needs a specialist, albeit with minimal, but still experience.

In this case, there is a certain risk: new employee may turn out to be active enough to defend their point of view and their vision of the problem, and the established team does not always adequately perceive the attempt of a newcomer, still a "green" employee, to change the usual course of affairs, even if these changes are positive. When selecting candidates, one of the main factors, in addition to a diploma from a prestigious university, is knowledge of a language, in particular English, less often another foreign language. Of course, the presence of business qualities is also welcome.

How to avoid common interview mistakes?

Have you ever wondered why a job search turns into a record-breaking 100 meters for some and a tedious, hopelessly long marathon for others? Surely among your relatives or friends there are both. And if career success can be easily explained by the presence of profitable acquaintances, "cool relatives" or just luck, then unsuccessful attempts to get a job are depressing and cause deep bewilderment. It would seem that a person is good for everyone: he has a higher education and work experience, and after sending out a resume, they call from companies, invite him for an interview ... Only after interviews they don’t take a job ... So what is the reason for another refusal? What are the most common mistakes job seekers make during interviews? I will try to answer this question based on own experience recruiter.

Many companies willingly use the services of recruitment agencies, entrusting them with the selection of the most suitable candidates for a vacant position. Therefore, remember: it depends on the results of the interview at the recruitment agency whether you get an interview with the employer, whether the agency employees will consider your candidacy for other vacancies, or your resume will settle as ballast in the agency's database with a bold mark "minus". So let's try to calculate the possible "minuses", since everyone knows their "pluses".

The first and most banal is the appearance of a business person coming for an interview. Unfortunately, often women "run in" to the agency in search of work with loaded bags, packages, boxes. Dear homemakers, in order not to spoil the impression of yourself, you should not combine a shopping trip with an interview. The same applies to the strong half of humanity, which for some reason is trying to combine a visit to recruitment agency with a visit to a car service or car wash. It is absolutely unacceptable to appear at an interview in a tracksuit, T-shirt and shorts, with shopping bags. The words "I'm doing repairs" and so on sound unconvincing. It is best to wear a business suit, even without a tie.

Some prefer to come to the interview accompanied by relatives, and here, I assure you, it comes down to just anecdotes. For example, an active wife brings her husband to an interview. She immediately seizes the initiative of the conversation and answers the questions of the agency consultant herself, without letting her husband open his mouth. It gives the impression that he is dumb. Two minutes later, everyone has already heard about the stupidity and worthlessness of her life partner. After such a visit, the agency’s employees unanimously recall Prince Igor’s aria “Oh, give me freedom ...” and feel sorry for the poor husband, but the recruitment agency is not ready to take responsibility for introducing a sluggish and inactive employee to the employer.

University graduates are special category applicants, they often come to the interview accompanied by their mothers, fathers and even grandmothers. Psychologically, this is justified, since for parents the first workplace child - the same as the first time in the first class. However, do not forget that over the years of study at the university, your child has acquired a huge amount of knowledge, so do not interfere with your child to prove himself at the interview.

If you have certain concerns before going to a recruitment agency, try to get preliminary information by phone (does the agency have a license, under what conditions does it work with job seekers, etc.). Then your doubts will dissipate and you won't have to lead a "moral support group". Going to an interview, it is better to forget the nursery rhyme "Tamara and I go together" and trust your own knowledge and intuition.

Of course, you need to prepare for the interview in advance, it is advisable to think over possible questions and your answers to them, and write a resume. By the way, your task is to get as much information as possible about the vacancy and about the company at the interview. It may very well be that the procedures established in the company, for example, penalties for being late, limited smoke breaks, or something else, will absolutely not suit you ...

The main thing is that everything you say should sound correct. Imagine yourself in the place of an agency consultant who hears the following monologue: “I don’t remember the name of the last company, but I changed so many of them over Last year... Salary? Yes, I did, but I don’t remember how much ... Is it worth contacting a recruitment agency in this case, or should I train my memory first? ..

You should be prepared to be asked the reason for leaving your previous job. The motivation for your departure is very important... Do not be shy to say that something did not suit you at your previous place of work. After all, you are not sentenced to work in the same company all your life! However, criticism is good in moderation.

Imagine the situation: a female pharmacist comes for an interview, who works in a prestigious pharmacy, the salary level suits her quite well. However, from her story it follows that there are certain rules in the pharmacy that literally drive her crazy. For example: customers need to smile politely, keep an eye on the showcase - arrange medicines neatly ... and also ... you can’t drink tea together, only take turns ...

In general, the management is abnormal, they only think about income and customers. Here is the horror! How unlucky a person is with a job! But we all sometimes go to pharmacies and, oddly enough, we want to be smiled at, and the employer is unlikely to need an employee who takes Ozverin ...

And here is another mistake made in the interview. Nice girl, who is applying for the vacancy of a referent-translator, is holding up well at the interview and, having practically received a job offer, she suddenly says: “Is it possible to finish the working day a little earlier, otherwise it will be difficult for me to keep up with“ my favorite series.

The result of such a statement, I think, is clear to you: another candidate has been hired, and we no longer disturb the girl - let her watch TV calmly ...

And what is the most important thing if you passed an interview at a recruitment agency?

If you successfully passed an interview at a recruitment agency, and it offered your candidacy to an employer - be careful! Not only possible employment for this vacancy, but also further cooperation with the agency largely depends on your behavior at a meeting with the employer. Our agency (many agencies) practices the presence of its consultant at the interview in the company. And here you have to pass a double exam: the employer evaluates you as a possible employee, and the consultant evaluates you as a potential candidate for similar vacancies in other companies.

Therefore, going to an interview, think about what will happen if you, for example:

  • be 15 minutes late for a meeting with the employer;
  • having received an offer from the agency about a new vacancy, you will again be late for a meeting with the employer;
  • you will not come at all to a meeting with the employer, about which employees of the recruitment agency warned you in advance;
  • forget to wash your hair, put on socks... in general, put yourself in order;
  • come with a persistent smell of alcohol after a night of partying.

The list can be continued indefinitely ... So - nothing will happen! And, above all, there will be no more job offers, in search of which you turned to a recruitment agency. After all, any agency values ​​​​its reputation ... Do not make ridiculous mistakes, because, no matter how trite it sounds, the successful completion of the employment process depends on you.

And finally, you may need a diagram " how to tie a tie ".

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Be prepared to introduce yourself and tell what you are looking for. Introduce yourself to the first person you meet and extend your hand for a firm handshake. Ask if the hiring manager is available, as they are usually the ones who handle the people inquiring about vacancies.

  • Tell the person that you are interested in the job; don't ask if they have vacancies. You can say something like: “Hello! My name is (Full Name) and I really want to be part of your company. I have worked in cash handling and customer service for a couple of years, hold a customer service certificate and am fully available. Would you be so kind as to take a look at my resume?”

Get ready to fill out an application. You may meet an employer who will ask you to fill out an application on the spot. You should be mentally prepared to spend an adequate amount of time carefully filling out the application. All details you provide must be accurate and grammatically correct.

  • Again, review the online applications as mentioned in the previous section, as this can really come in handy. When viewing an online application, you will be able to think of all the answers ahead of time without having to come up with them on the spot.
  • Be prepared to provide all requested documents. Many companies will ask you to provide everything right away, including the documents listed in step 4 of the previous section. Be prepared to submit all of these documents along with the application they will ask you to fill out. However, do not give your list of recommendations unless you are asked.

    • If you are not sure whether or not to provide your documents to a potential employer, just ask casually: “I took copies of my resume and certificates with me, if you want, you can take a look.”
  • Be prepared for an on-site interview. You may be asked to attend an on-site interview. If this happens, keep in mind that this will probably be a quick interview, not a long one. A potential employer will likely look at your resume and ask a couple of questions about it to get a better feel for you as a person and learn more about your experience.

  • Before the meeting ends, ask about how long you should expect a response. Since you applied for the job personally, it will be better to keep track of news from the company. Before leaving the office, ask how best to contact them for information on the progress of your case. You can say, for example: “Should I wait for an email from you or should I call you?”

    • Such a statement will signal that you are really interested in becoming part of this company. However, when you ask this question, it's important that you sound calm and professional, not desperate.
    • If a person tells you that they will contact you and prefer that you not call or write yourself, do not take this as a rejection. You have every chance of getting a job, the company may just have certain rules regarding communication.