Career Inside Track: As a job seeker, you will face a number of challenges. Here are three of them.
- First, knowing whether they are looking at the right job.
- Second, gaining the experience employers are seeking.
- Third, getting to know people who can help them on the inside of a company.
Here five ways you can become stronger in dealing with all three challenges.
A Day in the Office
Try taking vacation days to research your job. Before I got into the recruiting industry, I took a couple of vacation days to spend time in the office of two recruiting firms. I learned that what the people were doing in these companies were things that I could do. Even more appealing, one of the recruiters had the same background that I had. Seeing the similarity of his experience and my experience, I knew that my skills crossed over to the job he was doing.
Furthermore, I was able to see how the day went from start to finish.
Internships
You might consider an internship. Since many internships offer no pay, you need to know whether the experience will prepare you for starting your career. Before signing up for an internship, find out the purpose of the role. If you see that the internship helps you build job skills and connects you with the right people, sacrificing your time may be worthwhile.
Volunteering
Volunteer work has the potential to land a job. Volunteers do work free. Community service organizations, churches, hospitals, and schools are great places to look for volunteer opportunities. As far as your career is concerned, look for volunteer work will expose you to the right people. Additionally, finding volunteer work that will help you build your skills can help you gain experience that employers are seeking.
I have a friend who started doing volunteer work that led to a full-time job. In this case, the person was approaching retirement age. The kids were out of the house. She had the time to volunteer. She set out just to help people. However, the experience helped her save money to further prepare for retirement.
Project Work
Some companies pay people for project work. Freelance writers, programmers, accountants, researchers, and other skilled professionals find that this type of work through Internet search or through direct referral from other professionals. These types of jobs are great for deciding what you might want to do long-term.
In the gig economy, project work is more popular than ever.
Temporary to Permanent
Temporary to permanent is a great way for people to find and test all types of jobs. I hired two temporary clerical employees who became permanent employees and worked for me for over five years. Recent college graduates find that temporary to permanent is a great way to break into an industry.