Top 9 Job Search Tips For 2019
Many of us go through career changes – sometimes voluntarily and often involuntarily! So let’s get started on our “9 tips for 2019," from the podcast archives of The Successful Encore Career from Employment For Seniors.
1) Managing a Successful Career Change
A key to a career disruption is to immediately begin to move through the change. We all want to “hide under the covers” for a while, but financially we can't do that. If we immediately hit the ground running, we'll have more motivation, momentum and likely more success.
We need to deal with our transitions logically and move past the emotions
Know our family needs us to move on
Use all of our networks and contacts – everything we're involved with (e.g. social organizations)
And don't be embarrassed or afraid to ask for help – someone will come to your aide, and in turn you can help another in the future.
2) Transferable Skills
“Transferable skills” are often touted buzz words, but not always clear in meaning.
Why is it important to know and understand transferable skills?
Strengthen your marketability for a position by clearly communicating your transferable skills
Employers want to know you have the skills to do their job.
Understand the skills you've learned in previous jobs that you're bringing to a new job
Leverage your application and show you're the most qualified candidate
Identify Your Transferable Skills:
Think about the skills you used in your last job – what were you successful at?
What were you responsible for?
Write down the skills used to reach your accomplishments
Break down each job on your resume by those skills, then compare the list of skills to the position description of the job you're considering . See what matches. Then prepare examples of how you used those skills to provide the interviewer with powerful “accomplishment” statements.
Transferable Skills will...
Make your job search more logical
Provide for a strong resume and cover letter
Enhances the job interview with strong statements of your successes
Let’s the employer/interviewer know you're the best candidate!
3) Lifelong Learning
Learning – sounds difficult. Yet how many of us have learned to book an airline flight, or found a new restaurant online? Did we follow our grandchildren on Facebook? Or possibly learned a new card game, a new piece of piano music? We are likely learning something new every day. And learning will make us great job candidates!
One major issue mentioned by many employers, regarding mature job seekers, is their inability to learn new skills. Qualified applicants have to convince employers that they're not only able to learn new skills, but they consider learning to be an important step in their continued success in the workplace.
Computer skills are usually the first issue facing older workers. Technology changes each minute – how can anyone keep up? There are many other skills critical in today’s job search, such as writing, communications, listening, public speaking, math/accounting/budgeting, leadership, teaching/training/tutoring, and many more.
Our role as a job seeker is to provide employers with an overview of our up-to-date skills and the successes we've had using those skills over the years. Our resumes, cover letters, and interviews should highlight all of our skills, but particularly those we've more recently learned and/or updated.
Mature job seekers have many opportunities to learn! A huge proportion of those opportunities are free of charge, or very reasonably priced, either located right here in our community, or online. Central Ohio has many learning opportunities.
NEW RESOURCE: At the Columbus Metropolitan Library, you can now use your library card to enter online courses through LYNDA. Normally the courses have a cost, but use the portal through the library website with your library card and you have thousands of courses at your fingertips - free!
4) How To Prepare For An Interview
Interviewing can
