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Career Climb: 5 Key steps applicants should take to be job ready

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On the 2nd of December 2017, the Andela Learning Community Supported by Google hosted its very first ALC Career Fair aimed at providing employment opportunities for 92 graduates from the first phase of the program.

The main goal of this event was to connect talent with businesses, but equally important was ensuring that these graduates were taught new things that improved their employability skills. We worked out a programme line-up that set out to help them with career planning, job readiness and a panel discussion where they could gain knowledge from different perspectives.

Here’s a summary of the key points below:

1. Know yourself

“Your own self-realization is the greatest service you can render the world.”

It is important to know your skills, interests, and passion. At some point in our lives, a lot of us were confused on what we wanted to do, some of us are still confused and are in the process of discovering, some others are just getting to the point of uncertainty and confusion. It’s okay to not know what you want and to be confused. However, we must know that organizations want to employ people who are self-aware. Knowing what you want makes the job hunt a lot easier. Why? — you are able to apply for the right jobs and subsequently sell yourself better than most — simply because you know who you are and what you want.

2. Identify possible jobs of interest

Don’t be that person that applies for any and every job out there. You’d be surprised how easy your job search becomes when you become specific about your interest(s). Although that tenacity is admirable,  recruitment managers may question an applicant’s interests, focus and even competence.

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Always be specific about the roles that interest you and the capacity to which you can optimally function on the role before applying to an opening.

3. Create an awesome resume or CV

An awesome resume or CV for most recruiters is one that speaks. We don’t need it to be pretty, we need it to do a good job in speaking for you before the actual interview. A speaking resume/CV is one that is comprehensive yet concise, keeps the recruiter engaged, gets the recruiter interested (or even excited) in speaking or meeting with you.

READ: Three reasons why your CV is rejected

4. Be fully prepared for your interview

Preparing for your interview is paramount to your success. Failure to prepare is setting yourself up for failure. Look at it this way, you do all the work to bag that interview opportunity — the perfect chance to sell yourself to get the job and you mess it up just because you failed to prepare. That would be sad.

Research the company, the job role, organizational culture…everything! Take out time to rehearse possible questions and what your responses would be. Do this till you’re completely comfortable and confident.

5. Be prepared even before the job

When you know what you want, it is expected that you start preparing for it; understand the job duties, the job expectations, skills required to succeed on the job and everything else that can better equip you. Prepare before even landing the job, you would not be taken aback by the role in itself.

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YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: #CareerClimb: 3 ways your response to rejection could land you a job

This article was written by Jessica Akano, Talent Acquisition Manager at Andela.

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