Tips for unemployed to succeed in a tough job market

The ONS recently stated that almost half of recent UK graduates are working in non-graduate jobs. Individuals with degrees in medicine or dentistry are the most likely to find employment shortly after graduation in addition to receiving the highest pay. The remaining graduates are often forced to take on lower-skilled jobs when faced with the competition of those who are similarly qualified and as eager to work.

While the unemployment rate may be dropping, individuals over 50 have even more of a challenge getting a job than the graduates. People over 50 are more likely to be unemployed for the long-term than any other age group due to age discrimination and the lack of suitable job vacancies.

Most Wanted Professions

The following professions are in high demand in the United Kingdom:

• Nurses

• Mechanical engineers

• Doctors

• Electrical engineering professionals

• IT developers and programmers

• IT engineers and analysts

• Civil engineering professionals

• Industrial and production engineers

• Chemical engineers

• Mining and petroleum engineers

• Radiographers

• Chefs

No One is Safe

Whether you are a recent graduate, someone over 50, or in between, the chances are very high that at some point you will have to look for work. No one can guarantee that you will never get fired, move to a different city (or even country), want better pay or simply get tired of the work you have. If you’ve ever been faced with the need to get a job, you will probably agree that searching for a job is not the most exciting process in the world. More like the opposite. 

You start off very enthusiastic. You buy a couple of newspapers to see if there are any vacancies available. You ask your friends and family members whether they know anything about positions that would meet your qualifications. You send out your resume to a fair amount of companies that, of course, are dying to hire you. If you are lucky enough (yes, it is more about luck than about outstanding skills), you will get a job that you want within a few weeks. But another possibility that may happen is that a month, a few months, or even a year later you are still unemployed. Remember that initial enthusiasm? It’s gone. Instead, you are depressed, have an inferiority complex, are totally disbelieving in your potential for success, and on top of all that, have an empty fridge.

Tips for a Successful Job Search

There are a number of things you should keep in mind if you want to make the job search process as short and as painless as possible. First, remember that the power of human interaction and collaboration is nearly infinite. Try to tell your family, friends, close and distant relatives, neighbours – basically, everyone you’ve ever had a conversation with – that you are looking for a job. People talk, and in this case you’ll only benefit from it. You might turn up in a random conversation, someone might call you a nice person and a great specialist, and who knows, maybe there is a perfect vacancy waiting for you somewhere out there.

Then, there are hundreds of thousands of websites with huge databases of available vacancies. Websites like www.trud.co.uk have some very handy filters. Using these filters, you can easily filter out job offers according to the area you live in, work categories and companies. Most of these websites offer CV templates and will send you an e-mail when new vacancies meeting your criteria appear in the database.

If there is a certain company you would love to work for, make sure to regularly check its website for updates. Many companies have a separate page for vacancies that are open at the moment. The list of qualifications, the CV template and the application deadlines for the open jobs are also usually mentioned on the page.

Final tip - take some time to perfect your CV. It should fit into one standard page; there shouldn’t be any overlapping dates; make sure to stress your skills if your work experience is not that impressive. And, most importantly, although the job search might take a while, don’t despair.

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