Are you in a career that you want to change but you don’t know where to start your job hunting? Are you a fresh graduate looking for a job and you are stuck? Looking for a better salary but stuck with your employer? Are you in a job that does not give you time for other activities and opportunities for young dynamic people like job hunting? Are you not enjoying your job and want to move on? Well this brief article is for you. I will be sharing tips on how to begin job hunting with a small budget and time. We will expound this topic at a later stage.
Jobs like banking provide little or no time for other activities, new graduates finish their semesters without even a clue on how to begin their long journey to a brand new car, home and good family (the life we dream of). This can be a daunting affair and I want you to have a glance at an email we received from one of our readers this morning.
Hi?
I am clearing school 17th December and I don't know where to start as far as job hunting is concerned.
Where do I start please?
XXX
Job hunting is a ‘dirty’ job and once you engage in job hunting have a hardened mind that you will undergo a lot before you get the dream job that you have always thought of. People say that ‘baada ya dhiki ni faraja’ which I can translate that good life comes after transgression. If you are a fresh graduate it even becomes more dirtier depending on where you went to university. There is always this common believe in Kenya that jobs are in Nairobi and only in big companies thus people end up in Nairobi (not a bad idea) and drop CVs with Safaricom, Barclays, Equity, KCB, PwC, CfC, and the rest of the big companies that are perceived to have available jobs for graduates – Wrong. Next week we will be carrying an article on the best employers in Kenya and the salary ranges and the same week about the best paying jobs and degrees in Kenya and salary ranges.
If you are a desperate graduate (in a good way) you will find yourself in industrial area and Baba Dogo hunting for jobs in the Muhindi factories – Wrong. I have a friend of mine who works with KCB as a training manager and guess what he did at university – Bachelor of Science (Leisure and Recreation Management) from Kenyatta University. He started as a bank clerk around two years ago and now he takes home a six figure salary not because he was lucky but he knew his priorities and job hunting strategies. For those of you who are employed in small jobs and you can access the internet, I won’t understand why you don’t have a job of your choice especially if you can have your details (CV) in soft and you can get internet for around two hours a day.
To a fresh graduate:
You should start hunting for a job at fourth year of whichever is your final year during the first semester – there is no other way. At this point start creating connections with the outside world and understanding the employment or job market. Ensure you get somewhere to stay (small crib), you can share many of you to get economies of scale, ensure you have a small budget and lastly and the most important get rid of the shyness in you (build confidence). Basically follow the following steps:
1. During your first semester make contacts out there or if you can’t ensure that you can stand alone.
2. Be checking job sites to monitor the trends in the market and newspapers. At this point, attend all career sessions and recruitment exercises that you can.
3. Slightly into the beginning of the semester, start constructing your CV as if you have completed studies awaiting graduation.
4. At this point you should have identified the specific industry that you want to approach for jobs instead of a haphazard approach to all the companies that exist. Identify if you want to go into the banking sector, insurance industry, NGOs, government or any other. This may sound difficult but be sure it helps in differentiation.
5. Have enough copies of your CV and start dropping them even before you finish your last semester from the identified companies (use yellow pages).
6. Drop them without fear, set your daily targets like 20 CVs per day on specified companies. Drop them, drop them, drop them without any fear of intimidation.
7. If you can afford to go electronic, then you are lucky because most employers are going electronic like using this tool to advertise their jobs which you cannot find in the newspapers.
For employed people looking for other opportunities.
If you have access to the internet then it becomes easier for you because it is very hard to come by a middle earning job in the newspapers but because the internet provides cheaper solutions, then most of those middle jobs will be found there.
All I can advise you is to have your CV in soft and a cover letter in soft. When a job is advertised, then match the job requirements with yours and then send the CV after customising both the resume and letter to fit to the situation. Do like that and I can assure you a job within four months.
We will cover this topic in more detail sometime later.
All the best
