Guest Post: Jawad Diab Damir

Jawad is one of Chris' Fall 2011 Professional Speaking students at Carnegie Mellon. Here he writes about getting the job you want.

One of the issues that greatly disturb the student, especially in the graduation year, is securing a job. A recent research in Britain has revealed that three out of four students worry they will be out of work when they graduate. In this blog post, getting the job you want, we present a reasonable approach for getting the job that the student is looking for.

The first step in the proposed approach is to specify a job preference. In this step, the student should determine which kind of job he or she is looking for. To know more about the market needs, the student can consult the career services at his school or the people who work in the same industry. Moreover, the student should consider the other criteria that limit his or her options. Criteria might include the business type, the company location, size, and reputation, as well as any other criteria that the student feel is important to his or her decision. Each student is expected to assign different weights to the criteria.

Once the preference is determined and the other criteria are specified, the student should prepare a list of all companies that have an available position that satisfies his or her preferences. The list might be prepared from different sources; such as the university career services website, public job websites, newspapers, business social networks, companies’ information sessions, as well as any other sources that the student might use to find jobs. The list should include information about the company name, location and contact info, the position title, and the required skills for this position. After preparing the first draft of the list, the student can search more sources to expand the list, or to filter the list.

At this time, the student should have prepared the resume. The resume is a document used by employers to explore the job seeker’s abilities, skills, education, experience, and any other information that might be helpful for the recruiter to make the employment decision. The resume should be typed in a way that is clear and easy to read. For students with 2 or less years of professional experience, a one page resume is preferred. Despite that there is no specific format for resumes, a common sense for formatting resumes exist. For example, the first section in the resume is usually the objective section; which explains why the student is applying for the job. Furthermore, the education section usually comes before the work experience section, and the items in both sections are ordered chronologically. There are many websites that provide detailed information about the resume format, style, and guidelines.

Then the student should send the resume to the companies on the list. The student might send a customized resume for each company or a general resume for all companies. If the student is found eligible for the position, he or she should expect a call or email from the company to schedule an interview. Simple questions about the job preference and future plans may be asked during this call. During the interview, the student is encouraged to have a copy of the resume. The rational for this recommendation is that many of the questions asked in the interview are derived from the resume; and so, the student can expect the next question before he or she is asked about it. If called for a second interview, the student should use the questions raised in the first interview as a roadmap to prepare for the second interview.

Finally, the student should keep in touch with the employer; even that he or she didn't get the job.