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3 STEPS TO SUCCESSFUL CAREER SWITCHING

Career switching is an easy way to boost your pay, because a career switch in the same job sector seems to the employers as a sideways career move where in fact this is a promotional career switch.

The catch is that all employers want you to meet their criteria for their advertised vacancy. Don’t get caught out like other unsuccessful job seekers and record all your current duties on your application.

3 STEPS TO SUCCESSFUL CAREER SWITCHING

STEP 1

To make a career switch is easy. First read the job spec and ensure you fully understand the job criteria.  Obvious I know, but essential

STEP 2

Second target your application/resume/CV to the job criteria; what I mean here is, you may do 10 duties in your current role and the new employer has five of these down as essential criteria.

Don’t waste time and space on your application by recording how you do all 10 duties, just discuss the five essential criteria to really sell yourself to the role you are applying for. IE if you’re applying for a managerial role and record your managerial responsibilities

STEP 3 – The Sneaky Tip

Finally, if you’re applying for as an example as a health care manager and you’re currently a nurse. You can change your job title to Nurse/Manager.

People make big assumptions on your job title, so if you are currently a nurse and you undertake some managerial duties use the slash icon on your job title. Now the manager will generalise and think your main duties are that of a manager.

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How to Write a Personal Profile on a Job Application Form

Personal profiles are generally one to two A4 pages long, they take on average over an hour to complete and need to match the criteria from the job specification.

This article will teach you some value techniques to boost the amount of job interview you receive from your job application forms.

These days most companies allow you to complete the application online, the advantage here is you can start and save your application, only submitting the form when you feel it is ready.

The Personal Statement

Throughout the job application form, you will add your contact details, past employment history and your qualifications, so they do not need to be added (and repeated) on the personal statement.

Most job specifications that accompany the job application form tell you in detail, what requirements the employer is looking to be evidenced on the job application form and the importance the employer places on each criteria.

Example Job Specification:

Factor Essential Desirable Measured
Experience
  • Experience of leading a team
  • Understanding every child matters regulations
  • Experience of writing management reports
 Application Form/Interview
Qualification
  • NVQ level 3 or equivalent in Child Care
  • NVQ Level 4 or equivalent in Management
 Application Form

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As you can see some job requirements are essential and MUST BE EVIDENCED in your personal statement while other job requirements are desirable if you possess them add them to the application form.

With most job specifications the employer will tell you when they will assess each criteria; Interview/Application Form

The Profile Layout

The whole of the application should be easy to read, if you need to add additional pages to the application form, add them and make a note (and give a reference number to each individual page) in the application form so an employer does not miss this vital information.

Always complete a spell and grammar check, if possible ask someone else to check your application form for you.

You can use headings to split up your text; the essential criteria requirements make the best headings. If you do not like to use headings follow a format so information is not missed or duplicated throughout the job application form.

How to Sell Yourself in a Job Application Form

Start with an opening paragraph; a mini summary that can highlight your best strengths and skills in 4-5 lines. For ideas ask yourself these 3 questions:

  • What is your key message you want to convey to the employer?
  • What are your 3 main strengths relevant to the job role?
  • How would the company benefit from hiring you?

The opening paragraph must intrigue the employer, encouraging them to read your statement in more detail.

Avoid writing general information such as “I’m a good team player” write how your experience has made you a good team player, stories work well in personal statements.

Ensure every paragraph you write is relevant to at least one of the essential criteria from the job specification.

Remember you have to prove to the employer that you understand the job role, duties and industry. The best way to prove you possess this knowledge is to record that you have completed the essential criteria in a past role.

Feeling tired, take a break and grab a bite to eat, don’t make mistakes due to tiredness; in most cases, you will have several weeks to complete the application form.

Make your statement interesting; if you were reading the statement would you want to carry on?

  • Keep the statement positive – use stories
  • Use enthusiastic language
  • Highlight your strengths and key skills

At the end of the personal statement, write a brief summary of why you have applied for this role, what has made you pick this particular role and/or organisation?

Complete your Application Forms.

Re-write your application 2 more times, each time edit your statement, deleting negative language and adding more positive stories; you want this statement to be the best it can be, ensuring you get a guaranteed interview.

Imagine you’re the interviewer, really visualise yourself as the person who is going to read your job application form, get into their mind and even sit how you think the interviewer would sit. Read the application form, from the interviewer’s eyes, remember the interviewer has never met you and only knows what you have recorded about yourself.

As the interviewer, did the “you” on the application form come across well? Do you feel the application form has mentioned all your strengths’? Will the interviewer want to interview you, now they have read the application form?

Ask Yourself:

  • What have you missed from the application form, which needs to be added?
  • Double-check the job specification, have you highlighted all the essential criteria in your personal statement?
  • Is there anything else you can do to improve the application form?

Now you have a completed application form, an application form that really highlights your strengths and skills, you are probably really proud of this application form, especially after all the hard work you have put into it.

Keep a copy of this completed application form as you can use this draft copy as a basis for all your future job application forms.

When writing a new application form, copy and paste the statement from your original application into your new one, edit each new application/profile to make it relevant to this new position and company, this will save you a large amount of time.

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Job Search Tips For Over 50’s

There are many myths surrounding job searchers who are 50+, with the most common myth being that employers always prefer to recruit younger candidates.

The truth is, that most employers just don’t care about your age they are more interested in your skills and experiences, in short, the only question a potential employer ask is what added value can you bring to our team?

These days 50 isn’t that old, especially as the retirement age increases.

Years gone by, when many of the jobs were in the manual labour of some short, the older generation were discriminated against as they could work as fast or for as long as a younger and much fitter employee.

Nowadays, many jobs are the form of communication, information and innovation. The over 50’s aren’t worn out, they fighting fit, and your key selling point IS YOUR AGE, you have vast experience, you have made mistakes and had great successes, this is what the employer and employee who can get on with the job, an employee that can use their experience to create bigger profit margins, the employer wants an employee who will add value to the team.

If you are still worried about being to old, you can follow these few “Don’t” remember age discrimination is illegal, by following these rules the employer will only see your experience not your age.

1.       Don’t record your DOB on your resume or CV

2.       Don’t record the year you were born on your e-mail 

3.       Don’t add all your previous jobs to your CV – just the last 5 years

4.       Don’t make your social media pages accessible to anyone

5.       Don’t apologise for your age, your age is a selling point, don’t even mention how old you are, as many people can’t guess it when they meet you at the job interview, 

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Glossery of Application Terms

Have you ever completed a job application form and as you are completing the many sections you find yourself not understanding all of the employer’s application language? What do you do, Guess? Research? Or Panic?

To help you, we have written a glossary of terms for you to use to check you have the correct meaning to each term, helping your application be the best it can be. To help other job hunters, you can add a new Application Term and Descriptions that we have not added in the comments below.

Glossary of terms

Accredited training Nationally recognised training
Annual leave Paid holidays employees are entitled to
Apprenticeship Apprenticeships; Participants earn while they learn – combining practical work with accredited  training
Appraisal   A yearly or quarterly appraisal of your work normally undertaken by your line manager
Block release training The release of apprentices from their workplace to attend full-time vocational study
Bonus An additional payment made by an employer for good performance, meeting targets or greater productivity
Business hours Usually Monday to Friday from 9 am to 5
Casual work Employment with various working hours depending on the need of your employer
Commission A fee or percentage paid to a salesperson on each sale
Curriculum Vitae (CV) Written summary of a person’s educational qualifications, employment history and personal details.
CV writing service A service that will create, design and write your CV
Danger money Payment for work that involves some risk. in addition to your normal wage
Deductions Money taken out of your pay for payments such as health care
Dependant A person who is wholly or partly supported financially by someone else.
Discrimination Unfair treatment of someone, because of their colour, politics, race, religion, gender or other personal attribute which does not relate to work performance
Dismissal When an employer ends an employees employment
Flexitime Employees can start and finish work earlier or later than the normal times – hours need to be made up or extra days off can replaced hours overworked
Freelance Completing a project for someone at an agreed price
Full-time work 35- 40 hours; Full-time workers are eligible for annual leave and sick leave
Gross pay Pay before tax and other deductions have been taken out
Income tax Tax deducted from an employee’s wages by the employer and paid to the government
Job sharing One full-time job is shared by two or more employees
Maternity and paternity leave Time off while paid to cover a period of several weeks before and after the birth of a child
Minimum wage The lowest wage which may legally be paid to an adult employee –varies due to age
Net pay Pay after deductions have been taken out
Off-the-job training Training taken place outside of your work place
On-the-job training Training taken place inside your work place
Overtime Time worked that exceeds your contracted hours
Part-time work When you work less then 35 hours a week; Part-time workers are still eligible for annual leave, sick leave, etc
Piecework You are paid per number of “pieces” you pack or produce
Probation period A trial period that enables an employer to assess if an employee meets the job specification
Promotion Advancement to a job higher up the career ladder
Redeployment Movement of an employee between jobs in the same organisation
Redundancy pay Compensation paid by an employer to an employee whose services are no longer required
Reference A statement about your personal qualifications and character written by a third person
Retirement The end of employment, due to your age
Salary The amount of money you will earn whilst in employment
Seasonal work Work that is only done at certain times of the year
Self-employment A person who works for themselves
Shift work Working various patterns of hours; work may be rostered into two or three shifts over a 24-hour period.
Sick leave Paid leave to sick employees
Study leave Leave given to employees to attend courses of study that are approved by their employer
Trainee A person who is being trained by experience members of staff
Union An association of people working in one industry able to negotiate on behalf of employees with employers
Voluntary work Working for no pay
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How to Quickly find a Job Online – 10 Quick Tips

Quick tips to find an online job

In the past job hunters, would leave one job and quickly walk into another, in most cases without even having an interview – this job search technique no longer works, as employers often interview a number of candidates to show they are not discriminating against anyone.

More recently job hunters would look for advertised jobs in the job magazines, newspapers and in post office windows, you can still find vacancies this way, but the more homes that have the internet the fewer employers pay to place an advert in a paper. With the introduction of the internet, job hunting in the ’00s has changed:

Online job hunting has made finding vacancies, once you know what to do, quick and easy, in many cases employers will look for you.

10 online job hunting tips for you to use.

1. First, you need to spend time writing a targeted CV and Application Form and save these to your desktop. Spend time writing these documents and ensure you have highlighted all your skills and qualities that will sell you to the employer. To save time and to ensure you have a good CV you can pay for a CV writing service

2. Now you have your CV and application form, you can use these as a template for all your applications. When you next have to complete an application form (most application forms are now completed online), to save time copy and paste the answers from your saved application from into your new job application form. You may need to edit some of the answers to target it to the new job role. You can do the same with your CV.

3. Add your CV to job search engines such as Monster and Reed, these way employers will look for you. In most cases you can also set up alerts on search engine websites for jobs under industries, you will start to receive vacancies via e-mail within a couple of days.

4. On Google set up alerts for “industry name” new jobs and “industry name” creates new jobs. Google will e-mail you articles, websites and blog post for new jobs in your industry; You will now be one of the very first job hunters to hear of these new vacancies.

5. Visit company WebPages, under the tab “jobs” or “careers” you will find company vacancies; many companies will not pay job search engine websites to advertise vacancies as they feel they gain enough traffic from job hunters to their own site.

6. Join twitter, facebook, linked-in and other social network sites. You can link, be-friend and follow industry jobs, companies, job search websites, sector skills councils. From this you will start to receive hundreds of links to jobs and articles in your industry.

7. Use social network sites to ask industry experts question around industry jobs, new contracts and possible interview questions, many social network users are only to happy to share their own knowledge with you.

8. You can also use facebook or twitter to set up a page for “looking for ‘industry name’ Job” you can use this as an online CV and add links to your other websites so employers can see your work – this is a great resource for the media industry.

9. Use www.yell.com to find industry/company e-mail addresses, open your e-mail account and add all the e-mail addresses to the BCC (this way employers will not know you have made a mass e-mail) add your CV as a PDF attachment and put your cover letter text in the body of the e-mail. Speculative job searching is underused and has a 40% success rate.

10. Finally, Google “Job Title” in “Location” and find hundreds of links to local job adverts.

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How to gain an Interview from a job fair

Gain an interview from a job fair

Job fairs are held throughout the UK, being organised by recruitment and job advertisement companies as well as local councils and public service companies. Job fairs can be held for both general job roles or targeted to a specific sector.

First find out which company/sectors are attending, if even one company for the industry you are interested in is attending, then it is worth going.

Before you go to a job fair ensure you know which career and job role you are interested in. Many people gain career ideas by meeting with a qualified career advisor.

How to prepare for a job fair?

1. First, the impression you make at the job fair counts, often the same person who interviews you for a job position, will also attend the jobs fair. We all know that First impressions count.

2. Research the company you are interested in like you would for an interview. Companies are always impressed if you know something about the company’s history.

3. Check and update your CV, if you’re unsure how good your CV is, have your CV reviewed by professionals. You need to take a targeted CV to the job fair.

4. Dress smart, people make instant presumptions on your appearance.

5. Most importantly, prepare a 60-second introduction you can use with employers. Don’t make it sound too scripted, but it should quickly explain why you are attending the job fair and what you are looking for.

Example: “ Hello, my name is Dave Smith, I currently work at (Company Name) I am interested in applying for a position as a (job role) within your company, I have 3 years experience working in this field and feel that I would fit in well with your company”

How to act during the job fair.

1. Timing is everything, job fairs can be very busy and when you speak to an employer you want them to listen to your excellent prepared introduction. Wait until the employer is free and head over and introduce yourself.

2. Carry all your documents and CVs in a smart case; remember people judge you on appearances.

3. If an employer is busy talking to an employer on a different stand as they sometimes have inside information regarding the employer you really want a position with. Need careers advice?

4. Shake hands with the employer and be prepared to answer question regarding your skills and experience, like any informal or formal interviews prepare questions to ask the employer.

5. Discuss the application process and ask the employer what type of examples/skills they like to see on the application form. This way you know your application form will be targeted to each individual employer.

6. Finally, thank the employer; shake hands and move on to the next employer’s stand. Need a new CV

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How to gain work

Knowledge is Power

Successful job hunters make every effort to ensure employers know they are the right person for the job. Once you see a career or job you want, put every effort into getting it.

· Spend time researching the industries find out which skills, qualities and qualifications employers are looking for.

· What industry jargon and terminology do employers use?

· Which websites do companies from your sector advertises on?

Remember No-one owes you a job; you have to make yourself employable by selling your skills, qualities, experience and attitude to a potential employer.

Timing is everything

On average job hunters spend 3-4 months from looking for work to gaining employment. IT DOES NOT HAVE TO TAKE THIS LONG! Let’s break this down a little:

Often job hunters spend 6 hours a week looking and applying for vacancies (less then 1 hour a day) this is a short amount of time and if we doubled this, we could be employed within 2-3 months, what would happened if we spent 3 hours a day job searching? Even job searching for 3 hours a day will leave you with enough time for all the things you want to do in your day! Many different factors affect the time it takes for an individual to gain work and it is not possible to know exactly how long it will take you to gain employment. All job searches need to plan their week and decide how much time a day/week you give yourself to job searching….then stick to it.

If you want something different, do you something different

Successful job hunters are adaptable and will changes tactics when needed. If you can’t gain employment ask yourself why? Can you find jobs to apply for? If not, do you use the same job websites every time you job search? Most people do, if something doesn’t work, change it. If you send your CV to 10-20 employers and you don’t gain an interview, then you need to change your CV.

If one person can do something, other people can learn to do it

Do you know someone who has recently gain employment? Do you know someone who works in the industry you are applying for? If so, you need to ask them what they did do to gain employment. Sometimes our best resources are the people around us, lets learn from the successful one’s and then we too can be successful.

Gain detailed intelligence; if they sent a CV ask them what information they recorded on their CV. During an interview; what did they wear, how did they sit, what answers did they give. It’s always the small details that give you an edge over other job hunters.

If you feel like a job hunter, you will be a job hunter

See job hunting as a full time job; get up at 9:00, wash, shower and dress in your casual business wear. Now you will start to feel like a job hunter. Have a diary of all the tasks you have to complete in the week (research, preparation, strategies, networking) and carry them out. Take breaks at the same time every day and at the end of the day or week review what you have achieved. You will feel like a Job Searcher Employee and this will motivate you to gain full time employment.

Planning your finances

Job searching is not expensive, successful job hunter will plan their finances ahead. First look at your income and/or savings and work our how much spare money you have after paying for the essentials of living. How much do you have leftover?

Now make a list of all the items you need to spend money on to gain you employment; Interview Clothes, Transport, Stationary, etc. *Depending on your situation you may be entitled to financial help. Some items you will need to buy in advance, while others can wait until you move forward with your job searching. Be aware many people gain invitations to invites with only a short period of notice.

There is no failure, only feedback

How do marathon runners keep on going, when after 18 miles their muscles ache and their chest is tight with pain? Determination! We can all achieve anything we put our mind to. Most job hunters give up after the first week or two (or after the first rejection letter) as they thought gaining employment would be easier than they thought it was. Step back and ask yourself-

· What am I doing well?

· What can I improve?

Successful job hunters reflect on a daily basis and find their personal feedback helps them achieve their goals.

Think outside the box

Successful job hunters will have several job goals they are looking for, they will all have similar duties and responsibilities, by widening their job search successful job hunters will be able to find more vacancies.

Successful job hunters will look for advertised vacancies and will also contact