It must be very frustrating to spend months applying for jobs without receiving any positive reply. I often hear of people that have spent up to 5 years unemployed and I find it really hard to believe most times. Have you ever asked yourself if perhaps the problem is from your approach and attitude to your job search and application?

These 3 tips will certainly shorten the time you spend as a job seeker:

1. Show your competence on your CV
It’s time you stopped treating your CV as a document that contains history of your life. CV’s remain the most popular ‘instrument for jobsearch’. Ensure every entry on your CV tells a recruiter ‘This is why you must employ me’. Go through your CV and take off irrelevant information like state of origin, place of birth, marital status, details of nursery/primary school education. Introduce detailed information of your work experiences, ensuring that you clearly describe your duties/responsibilities on listed jobs – highlight your competence.


2. Tidy up your job applications
From the moment you hit SEND on your job application, recruiters start JUDGING you. They assess all sorts ‘Can she write? Does she have the right communication ability needed for this position? Is she professional enough? etc. The subject of your email, the body, attachment as well as your email address adds or removes marks from your application. Quit forwarding your CV to recruiters as a way of applying for a job, stop sending blank subjects and empty body emails. An email that reads “see attached CV” does not count as an application.
Carefully draft a covering letter to use for your job applications and paste it on the body of your email when applying for a job.
When I apply for jobs, here is the format I use for the subject of my email – Application: Job Title. For instance, if applying for a job as a Financial Accountant, the subject of my email will read as follows:
Application: Financial Accountant
This was actually the subject of the email I used to get my current job and it was the only application I sent when I decided to change jobs!


3. Prepare for your job test/interview
It is very sad to find that most of us spend several hours applying for jobs but fail at the final huddle – the job interview. You can never be too prepared for a job interview. Put in the effort to get ready for the job interview and look prepared. Prepare your outfit/appearance and also prepare your answers.
The most common interview question is usually the one that most people find hardest to answer: Tell Me About Yourself.
There are a lot of interview preparation articles online, read them up and prepare your answers.

Shorten the time you spend on your job search, do it right!

Visit www.thekrine.com for excellent CV templates and interview tips.

All the best

Isokay! For the sake of fresh graduates without little or no work experience and no special awards in tertiary institution, what are the best tips?

Hi tobybasten,

Don't give up on your job hunt simply because you are a fresh graduates or have no work experience; we all had to start somewhere and build up overtime. If you fall into the fresh graduate/no work experience category, simply draft a skill based CV.

A skill based CV simply captures your skills (ability to do something; expertise). There are certain skills which aid your ability to gain and maintain an employment. These skills can be developed during the course of various activities and are not only developed in an office environment.

Thus:
- A player for a basketball team will have demonstrable ‘Team Work’ Skill
- A football team captain will have demonstrable ‘Leadership’ Skill
- A debate club member will have demonstrable ‘Communication’ Skill.

Please read up the full article on www.thekrine.com to see how to draft a skill based CV:
http://www.thekrine.com/blog/writing-a-cv-when-you-have-zero-work-experience/

Feel free to email the draft CV to info@thekrine.com for a review when you are done.

All the best

tobybasten:
Isokay! For the sake of fresh graduates without little or no work experience and no special awards in tertiary institution, what are the best tips?