Job Market Insight And Interview Tips
There is no getting away from the fact that securing a job is a lot more difficult than it has been for a long time. Competition is fierce. In the past, you may have been competing against ten other people for one role. Now you can find yourself competing against hundreds. This is because the supply for workers is larger than the demand for jobs. Thus, you need to make sure you stand out from the crowd. Your CV needs to be perfect and you need to make a positive impression at the interview process. However, that’s not all…
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You also need to be aware of what is out there at present. You need to use the current job market to your advantage. We all have our dream jobs but you need to be realistic too. Look for gaps in the job market. Take note of the industries whereby vacancies seem to be in excess or there is high demand for the services. A personal trainer job is a good example of this, as more and more people are health conscious today but require that extra bit of support. Assess your skills and see if they are adaptable to the job vacancies on offer. Hone your skills if necessary. There is nothing to lose but everything to gain by increasing your knowledge and capabilities. Not only will you develop the skills required but your potential employer will be impressed by the effort you have gone to in an attempt to secure the vacant position.
The good news is that if you are looking for jobs in the UK, you won’t be short of options. There are several industries that have job vacancies available and so there should be something for everybody. The field with the most positions on offer has to be engineering. Over the past few years, this has been a field students have been encouraged to consider getting into. A lot of people have studied this course at university because it is predicted jobs will flourish for years to come. The roles available are varied. You’ve got vacancies for experienced positions, such as Head of Engineering. However, there are entry role positions if you are looking to find a way in the door. For instance, there are companies looking for welders and fabricators, these require basic DIY knowledge/experience.
Nevertheless, engineering is quite a particular field of work and so not everybody will be able to find a position for them in this industry. Luckily another area of work that is flourishing is sales and marketing. This is a great field to get your claws stuck into, especially as there is typically an array of entry positions because a lot of companies provide their own training. You will usually agree with a wage depending on your experience and thus you certainly have the opportunity to work your way up the career ladder. If you are looking for an entry position then the role of ‘sales agent’ or ‘sales & customer services executive’ is a good route to go down and there are several of these vacancies available now.
As we have also briefly discussed, the field of personal training and anything that is fitness and health-related is also worth considering. There are lots of jobs opening up in this area, as people are more concerned about what they put into their bodies than ever before. Moreover, there are more career titles being created in this field, so there really is a great range of options available to you.
Engineering, nutrition and fitness, and sales and marketing are both advisable routes to go down. Admittedly engineering is more of a niche and so this is not an area suited to all. Yet a lot of people will find a place for themselves in sales and marketing. Nevertheless, other substantial vacancies for jobs can be found in the industries of customer service and domiciliary care – so don’t rule these out.
Now that you have a good understanding regarding what is and is not flourishing at the moment, let’s take a look at some tips to help you bag that dream job once you start the process and get an interview…
There are lots of different types of interviews today. One that is becoming increasingly popular, though, is the competency interview.
If you have been asked to partake in a competency-based interview but you have never had the experience of doing one before, then you will undoubtedly feel a bit anxious and worried.
Firstly, what is a competency-based interview? Basically, it is a contemporary interview method which seeks to not only discover your ability but your actual behaviour. For instance, the interviewer may ask you how you would react to a certain situation and so your answer will enable them to determine not only your understanding but what you are like as a person. It is an interview type that requires a lot of research and preparation on your part, but this is not something you should feel scared or intimidated about.
So what sorts of questions may you be asked a competency-based interview? As mentioned, it is all about you, your behaviour and how you would act or have acted given a situation. Some examples include: Can you tell me about a time in which you had to deal with a conflict in the workplace? Can you tell me about a time in which your team failed to meet the expectations required of them? On the other hand, can you tell me about a time in which you performed to a higher level than was expected of you? And so on and so forth…
Finally, what is the key to acing a competency-based interview? There are a whole host of things you can do to give yourself the best possible chance of success. The most important thing to do is prepare, prepare, prepare! You should sit down and think of your past experiences in the workplace and try to think of as many examples as possible which may be relevant to the interview. For instance, think of times you excelled, worked as a team and tackled a difficult problem.
In addition to this, you have to be confident or at least feign confidence in everything you are saying. Remember this interview is all about you, your approach and your experiences. Thus you need to speak in an assured manner to let the interviewer know that you are comfortable and confident with everything you have done. Do not hold back; let you and your personality shine.
Furthermore, you should embrace any problems that you have encountered in the past and use them as a tool to show how you have progressed, that you have acknowledged what went wrong and that you know what should and should not be done. By failing to express any negative behavioural traits the interviewer may think you are hiding something.
If you follow the advice given in this blog post and do your research then I am sure you will ace your competency-based interview. There is no denying that the job market has changed in recent years. Hopefully, you now feel a bit more prepared for tackling it.
*This is a collaborative post.
