本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛The basic components of job search process
Piece Together The Puzzle, Get Successful Employment
As newcomers, after we come to Canada, we need to find a place to live, maybe a school for our children and we need settle down. However, we cannot say that we have successfully immigrated without satisfying employment. For most of newcomers, seeking employment looks like a complicated process, however there are some basic components we can use as a guideline.
Labour Market Information (LMI)
National Occupational Clarification (NOC)
Go to http://lmi-imt.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca to check out LMI and http://www23.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca to find NOC. By doing the research, we will find out which areas are hot and which areas are not. In addition to checking out LMI and NOC, we also need to find out where, who the employers are and what the requirements are for the particular occupation.
Set SMART Career Goals
Knowing what the employers want is as important as knowing what we can offer. By assessing our education, experience and skills, we can set SMART short-term and long-term goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Tangible). If we don’t know where we want to go, we will go nowhere.
Cover Letter, Résumé and Business Card,
After we know LMI and our career goals, the next step we need to do is to prepare all the documents to market ourselves. The format of these documents varies from country to country. I strongly suggest going to employment agencies and asking counsellors for help.
Networking, Cold Calling and Responding the Job Postings
When someone asks me what the best way for looking for employment is, my answer is to use all the approaches open to us. No jobs are waiting for us. We need to take initiative to network, make cold calls, respond to the job postings and so on. It is a sales game, the more actions we take, and the more possibilities there are for us to get interviews.
Interview
If we get an interview opportunity, we need to prepare very well for it. If the employers give us chances for interviews after reviewing our résumés, it means that our non-Canadian experience is not a barrier for this position. What the employers want to know in the interviews are: first, are the qualifications written on our résumés and cover letters true? Second, can we communicate well in that business environment? And third, do our personalities, attitudes and values fit with the work team? The soft skills are just as important as the hard technical skills. Lots of employment services provide interview techniques. We can also ask for mock interviews.
Follow Up
Don’t just wait after being interviewed. We need to send a Thank-You Letter or make a phone call to follow up. The purpose of a follow-up is to show that we are still interested in the position, to show our appreciation to the interviewers for getting to know us and to state again our qualifications needed for the positions. We can also use Thank-You Letter to make up for some questions that we didn’t answer well in our interviews. Don’t ignore the small letter. Maybe this is the only one thing that will set us apart from many candidates.
Self-Confidence
Self-confidence is needed throughout the whole employment search process. We are confident if we are good at something. We also need to be confident if we are not good at something. No one is perfect at everything in all aspects. We should be confident that we have the ability to learn and to catch up. “It is the attitude and not the aptitude that brings you to the altitude.”
Persistence
There are so many factors affecting getting employment. Some of the factors we can control, some of them we cannot control. You may find employment in one month of your employment research, six months, one year or maybe longer. The longer it takes us to find employment, the more important it is for us to be persistent. Think about how we learned to walk when we were babies. The amount of times we fell down is as the same amount of times we stood up. Seeking employment is the same. If we are persistent at doing what we need to do, eventually we will get to where we want to go.
Skills Updating
The more I experienced, the more I realized what Canadians value—learning. We need to update our language skills as well as technical skills. The updating process is life long learning. Continuing learning is not easy, so we need to keep balance between our effort and leisure time to keep us healthy, physically and mentally. Remember adversity cannot beat us and only makes us stronger.
Actually, employment search process varies from person to person. We may skip some steps of the process, however we cannot fail any one of them. If you are still doing the employment search, it is time for you to find out where you are stalled, to sort out the puzzle, and get successfully employment.
If you need more information about job search, please feel free to call 416-789-7925 ex.250 and get free services.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
Piece Together The Puzzle, Get Successful Employment
As newcomers, after we come to Canada, we need to find a place to live, maybe a school for our children and we need settle down. However, we cannot say that we have successfully immigrated without satisfying employment. For most of newcomers, seeking employment looks like a complicated process, however there are some basic components we can use as a guideline.
Labour Market Information (LMI)
National Occupational Clarification (NOC)
Go to http://lmi-imt.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca to check out LMI and http://www23.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca to find NOC. By doing the research, we will find out which areas are hot and which areas are not. In addition to checking out LMI and NOC, we also need to find out where, who the employers are and what the requirements are for the particular occupation.
Set SMART Career Goals
Knowing what the employers want is as important as knowing what we can offer. By assessing our education, experience and skills, we can set SMART short-term and long-term goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Tangible). If we don’t know where we want to go, we will go nowhere.
Cover Letter, Résumé and Business Card,
After we know LMI and our career goals, the next step we need to do is to prepare all the documents to market ourselves. The format of these documents varies from country to country. I strongly suggest going to employment agencies and asking counsellors for help.
Networking, Cold Calling and Responding the Job Postings
When someone asks me what the best way for looking for employment is, my answer is to use all the approaches open to us. No jobs are waiting for us. We need to take initiative to network, make cold calls, respond to the job postings and so on. It is a sales game, the more actions we take, and the more possibilities there are for us to get interviews.
Interview
If we get an interview opportunity, we need to prepare very well for it. If the employers give us chances for interviews after reviewing our résumés, it means that our non-Canadian experience is not a barrier for this position. What the employers want to know in the interviews are: first, are the qualifications written on our résumés and cover letters true? Second, can we communicate well in that business environment? And third, do our personalities, attitudes and values fit with the work team? The soft skills are just as important as the hard technical skills. Lots of employment services provide interview techniques. We can also ask for mock interviews.
Follow Up
Don’t just wait after being interviewed. We need to send a Thank-You Letter or make a phone call to follow up. The purpose of a follow-up is to show that we are still interested in the position, to show our appreciation to the interviewers for getting to know us and to state again our qualifications needed for the positions. We can also use Thank-You Letter to make up for some questions that we didn’t answer well in our interviews. Don’t ignore the small letter. Maybe this is the only one thing that will set us apart from many candidates.
Self-Confidence
Self-confidence is needed throughout the whole employment search process. We are confident if we are good at something. We also need to be confident if we are not good at something. No one is perfect at everything in all aspects. We should be confident that we have the ability to learn and to catch up. “It is the attitude and not the aptitude that brings you to the altitude.”
Persistence
There are so many factors affecting getting employment. Some of the factors we can control, some of them we cannot control. You may find employment in one month of your employment research, six months, one year or maybe longer. The longer it takes us to find employment, the more important it is for us to be persistent. Think about how we learned to walk when we were babies. The amount of times we fell down is as the same amount of times we stood up. Seeking employment is the same. If we are persistent at doing what we need to do, eventually we will get to where we want to go.
Skills Updating
The more I experienced, the more I realized what Canadians value—learning. We need to update our language skills as well as technical skills. The updating process is life long learning. Continuing learning is not easy, so we need to keep balance between our effort and leisure time to keep us healthy, physically and mentally. Remember adversity cannot beat us and only makes us stronger.
Actually, employment search process varies from person to person. We may skip some steps of the process, however we cannot fail any one of them. If you are still doing the employment search, it is time for you to find out where you are stalled, to sort out the puzzle, and get successfully employment.
If you need more information about job search, please feel free to call 416-789-7925 ex.250 and get free services.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net