There will always be people looking for work, whether someone has just graduated from school or they have recently been laid off or even if they are just looking for a change in careers. Regardless of their situation, people seem to just shell out their resumes, without thinking about what they are actually applying to or if they will be right for the job or not, especially if they are in dire need of a job. With the bad economy, the job availability situation is bad, as companies decide to downsize rather than expand.
Jim Beqaj wrote a quiz, How to Hire the Perfect Employer: Finding the Job and Career That Fit You Through a Powerful Personal Infomercial, in an effort to help people hone their skills toward the perfect job for them. Beqaj owns a business consulting and recruiting agency.
Take the quiz below to help find the right employer for you:
1. Careful and honest assessment of your strongest and weakest areas is essential in both searching for the right job and performing well in interviews. A ‘personal balance sheet’ which helps you find common denominators in the things you enjoy most and least and clearly identifies your strengths is a must.
Are you able to easily articulate your “good at” list and do you have solid evidence to back up it up?
2. Getting a job is great, but finding one that doesn’t match your personality ultimately leads to unhappiness.
Do you have a plan to find a company and people where your personality type will be a good fit?
3. There is no such thing as a job without conflicts. Satisfaction and happiness with a job can be greatly affected by the manner in which you prefer to handle conflicts, and the way others resolve conflicts.
Do you really know your preferred style of resolving conflicts?
4. Figuring out whether a company and job is right for you is determined by assessing whether a company is made up of people with whom you’re compatible and a company culture in which you will thrive.
Are you prepared to interview the interviewer by asking questions that will provide the information you need to determine this?
5. Revealing who you really are in an interviewer; your passions, strengths, attitude and personality will impress an interviewer and also help determine whether a job is really right for you.
Do you have a ‘personal infomercial’ – your compelling pitch and presentation that sells you and makes you irresistible to an employer?
6. Passion, enthusiasm, and energy can trump experience. Most employers ultimately want people who love what they do and exude a positive, compelling, and powerful attitude, brimming with passion.
Are you prepared to present yourself in a manner that will overcome any potential shortfalls in experience and put you at the top of the list of applicants?
7. Sending resumes out blindly to a general category of businesses in your field or matching your college degree is a mistake. Narrowing your list of companies to ones with the highest probability of success in terms of where you are both wanted and needed saves time, reduces frustration, and makes you a well-oiled job-seeking machine.
Have you identified your ‘Target Rich Environment’ – companies who want you and need you, with the type of work, people and culture in which you will excel?