treasure_mi: nice topic.d bottom line is that u shouldnt waste ur time sitting home n doin nothing. Moreover, dont waste ur time on unnecesary and unprofitable ventures. Be wise

Tayothinks: You know the saying, “Applying to jobs is a full-time job”?

Don’t listen to it.

What You Should Be Doing If You’re Unemployed

Applying to jobs you’re not qualified for (which 50% of job seekers reportedly do!) is counter-productive to your job search. Competition is too fierce. Even qualified applicants aren’t getting callbacks. So, stop applying to so many jobs and allocate time each week to becoming more hirable. Here’s how…

1. Volunteer

Volunteering can increase your chances of being hired if you’re strategic about it. Unemployed teacher? Help out with after school programs or volunteer to be a coach’s assistant. Web designer? Find a local non-profit in desperate need of a re-design and offer your services pro bono. By volunteering somewhere relevant, you’ll keep your skills fresh while enhancing your resume.

2. Keep Your Skills Current

If you lack a skill commonly required for jobs you’re seeking, spend time each day building that skill. Take advantage of numerous free resources online, including tutorials, e-books, and how-to videos. If you’d rather have more of a class setup, then look for free or affordable adult education classes in your area. Alternatively, if you already possess the necessary skills but haven’t been practicing, the do so. Skill atrophy is a huge concern for hiring managers, so practice and get yourself ready for pre-employment skills tests.

3. Network

There are two parts to networking: reconnecting with your old contacts and forming new ones. Depending on where you are in your career, reconnecting might mean contacting professors, college advisers, and internship supervisors, or it might mean getting in touch with old colleagues, bosses, and business acquaintances.

Find them, e-mail them, call them. Ask them to coffee. Ask how they are (networking is social, after all) and let them know the specifics of your job search (industry, location, etc.). See if they know of anything or anyone.

Most importantly, follow up!

At a temporary dead-end with your current contacts? Make new ones. Go to networking events sponsored by your university, industry, city, and so on. And look beyond traditional networking events. Consider going to lectures, neighborhood council meetings, even community bar crawls (go easy on the sauce). Each of these provides an opportunity to meet people with similar interests, and you can have fun in the process.

Again, follow up!

4. Freelance

Some job seekers are opposed to anything that’s not a full-time job. If this sounds like you, it’s time to change your mindset. Freelancing is a great way to boost your skills, resume, portfolio, professional network, income, and confidence. Search for freelance openings here.

5. Build An Online Presence

Get found online. Start a blog, spruce up your social network profiles, create an online portfolio to showcase your work. Find companies you’re interested in working for, subscribe to their blogs, and follow them on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Find decision-makers at those companies and follow them as well. Learn what they’re talking about, do a little research, and then engage with them online. Impress them with your interest and insights.

Worst case scenario — you’ll learn what’s important to them and use this information to customize your application when a job opens up.

Better case scenario — you’ll establish a rapport with someone who will recommend you for a position and/or tell you about unpublished openings.

Best case scenario — you’ll impress someone so much over time that they’ll create a job for you or bring you in for an exploratory interview.

What are you doing to become more hireable?

sluvy4tune: You can even start a bulk sms Portal as it doesn't need you to speak techno-Jargons to own one

I have not left my house 2day but I have made some gud amount of money #NoBrags

Scarpon: sit at home and chop akara

zangiff: you can also try blogging but its a way of investing ur time

sluvy4tune: You can even start a bulk sms Portal as it doesn't need you to speak techno-Jargons to own one

I have not left my house 2day but I have made some gud amount of money #NoBrags

occam: Volunteering is just the same as slavery. Don't waste your time working for free. Any company that values your contribution to their bottom line should pay for your effort.

Employers are only after results and profit, not to help pad your resume with "make up" work

obichijiokeobi: A year after my youth service, I got a job as a waiter in an hotel in Abuja; am confessed whether to take up d job,because am nt doing anything for now. What do u advice?

sluvy4tune: You can even start a bulk sms Portal as it doesn't need you to speak techno-Jargons to own one

I have not left my house 2day but I have made some gud amount of money #NoBrags

occam: Volunteering is just the same as slavery. Don't waste your time working for free. Any company that values your contribution to their bottom line should pay for your effort.

Employers are only after results and profit, not to help pad your resume with "make up" work

obichijiokeobi: A year after my youth service, I got a job as a waiter in an hotel in Abuja; am confessed whether to take up d job,because am nt doing anything for now. What do u advice?

serenegroup: i disagree my brother. volunteering is one of the ways experience is gained and also an avenue for being choosen for a job when ever there is an opening any where. when u volunteer u are also training urself for a better opportunity in the future

occam:

For non-profit or charitable organisation, yes. If it's a business, NO. Situation may be different in other countries but in U.S.A/Canada, it's no longer an attractive option. So many reasons why it's not a wise option, but I'll cite one.

In summer time, organisation recruit summer students (and usually top students) with a view to developing/mentoring them for future employment. And these are paid jobs. As a volunteer you will be doing similar jobs to these students, so organisations do not see any advantage with bringing in somebody they don't need.

Most volunteer work, generally involve less challenging tasks. Experience is only gained when you're exposed to real challenges and risks.

Fhemmmy:

That is so not true, there is something called gaining experience and instead of staying home with nothing added to your Resume/CV, you could volunteer somewhere to gain some experience/exposures and by so doing some networking as well.

Fhemmmy:

What do you think Industrial Training was supposed to achieve?

occam:

Industrial training is different since employers may have the need for that person. Also, there are tax advantages depending on the state/province

Fhemmmy:

We are not talking what the employer is gaining, for an unemployed person, there are few things that could have made the person not marketable, such as:
1. Lack of experience
2. Lack of knowledge of opened position
3. Not well networked
4. So much more.
By volunteering, you will be able to gain experience, yes, you are not getting paid, but experience will work for you later, you will be networked cos you are not staying at home doing nothing and your brain is doing nothing, but being busy while you work, though no pay, and you are networking while out of the house compared to when you home watching movies.
In all areas, nothing wrong in volunteering, even at the office, some people do it to get experience in other areas and be more marketable.
Never see it as slavery . . .

occam:

I'll talk about lack of experience:

Volunteering in an office by doing filing, paper work, researching online, creating documents with MS Word etc is not experience. As a volunteer this is the kind of task you're assigned to do. You end up everyday asking "Is there any job I can do?"

Real experience comes from working on a project, identifying problems, finding solutions, meeting with various stakeholders and ensuring the results are delivered. Most volunteering jobs may not expose you to this kind of experience

Fhemmmy:

And those are some of the experience that someone that has gone to the Polytechnic to study Office Admin might need. . . . I think you have seen too much of Nigerian students being maltreated that made you to not blv anymore in gaining experience by volunteering.
Chairman, there are some real volunteering, for example imagine an architect that just finish school and have no portfolio at all, and decided to go and volunteer to work with one of Nigeria's biggest architectural company (Dont know one), gain experience, and now on his CV he has such experience on it for a year, that will make companies' looking for experienced architect to give such a person a chance.
Not all volunteers do Suya errands . . . .

eduson002: ok.nice idea but some unemployed graduates dnt even have d money start any of these. which advice u go give nigerian graduate whe get only 2k for acct

occam:

Why not put together your portfolio and approach the company that this is what you can do to help reduce costs, increase revenue or bring in customers. If they believe you can help make profit, they'll offer you an incentive. "Show me what you can do for me" is the mind set of most businesses.

Too many people approach this companies thinking they're are good Samaritans. Remember they have to set up an office space for you. Why? just so you can gain experience.