Landing That First Job

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Landing That First Job?

• A Sharing Session for Students
• Of Industrial Systems Engineering
• National University of Singapore

Low Peck Kem Country HR Director
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Topics

• The Job Market
• Where to look for jobs?
• Preparing your brief
• Cover Letter
• Resume Writing
• Interviewing
• At the interview
• Follow Up
• The Correct Attitude?

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The Job Market in Singapore

• There has been a recovery
• Jobs are coming back
• We need to be careful
• Gone are the Golden 70s
• Gone are dotcom days in late 90s
• Emerging markets
• China, India and Thailand
• They could be your FUTURE employment countries

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Where To Look for Jobs?
The Press
Internet
Agencies
Networking
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Preparing Your Brief

• Writing that cover letter/resume
• Watch your grammar
• Show your enthusiasm
• Clean up your format
• Especially if you are submitting a hardcopy
  application
• Dont use fancy font
• Dont use fancy paper
• Address to the right company
• Be careful of typing over the addresses
• Consider using mail merge

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Use Action Verbs
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The Resume

• Your calling card and door opener
• Highlight pertinent information about your
  skills, experience and achievements
• Should be formatted (chronological or functional)
  to
• Accurately reflect you and the work you are
  seeking
• Document your qualifications
• Be customized for the reader and the position of
  interest
• Convey information that emphasizes your fit

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A Word About Online Applications

• Companies and recruiters soliciting applications
  online
• Include a cover letter
• Be careful about typing your resume in ASCII
  format
• Formatting features are lost
• Substitute
• Asterisks for bullets
• Dashes for lines
• Capital letters for bold or underlined text
• Spacebar for tabs
• Hard carriage returns for word wrap

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What Employers Look For In A Resume?

• CONTENT
• Summary of work-related experience
• Documentation of work-related experience
• Your ECA
• Your office bearer positions
• Documentation of achieved results
• Synopsis of work-related experience
• Keywords

• STYLE
• Clarity
• Succinctness
• Attractiveness
• Professional Appearance
• High Impact

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Remember! Tailor make your brief

• Every company believes it is unique
• Your cover letter/resume must respond to that
  belief
• Customize your cover letter/resume to meet the
  specific requirements of a potential employer
• Change, when necessary
• Your work objective
• Highlight certain accomplishments over others
• Keywords in your summary statement

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The Interview
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Before you attend the interview (1)

• Industry information
• Historic trends
• Recent trends
• Noteworthy companies within the industry
• Company information
• History, size, growth rate
• Profitability
• Financial history and current status
• Company Culture
• Changes in Company Structure
• Changes in Product Lines or Services

• RESEARCH
• To find out whether or not it is a place you want
  to work
• To discover what skills the job or the company
  most values
• To ask intelligent questions
• To give you an advantage over your fellow job
  seekers

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Before You Attend The Interview (True or False)

• The person who would be your future manager is
  your decision maker
• The interviewer often feels as much anxiety as
  the interviewee
• The interviewer knows what he wants and knows how
  to select the right candidate
• The more prepared you are for the interview, the
  better impression you will make
• You should let the interviewer take the lead and
  ask the questions. Your role should be answering
  those questions in detail
• You should continually sell yourself during the
  interview
• First impressions can make you or break you

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The Interview (1)

• The common questionTell Me About Yourself
• Your 90-sec introduction

Spend the bulk of the 30 secs on what you are
targeting (industry, function, even specific
companies)
Briefly explain your education/ career history
Q
Past
Future
And
60 secs
30 secs
Critical Juncture
End with a question to the listener
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The Interview (2)

• Beware of generalities
• I am extremely experienced
• Do you mean 2 years experience? 5 years? 20
  years?
• I have an exceptional record of service
• Do you mean achieving your fund raising quota?
• I have good communication skills
• Do you mean some presentations that you made that
  helped to win accounts?

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The Interview (3)
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The Interview (4)

• What kind of skills do you have would benefit
  this company?
• I believe that my budgeting and sourcing skills
  would benefit the company. In my last appointment
  as the publisher for the Engineering Clubs
  magazine, I was able to
• Negotiate for another 5 new advertisers to be our
  patrons
• Source for a new commercial printer that charged
  us S1,000 lesser for the printing costs
• Overall, I was able to come in at S2,000 below
  the allocated budget

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The Interview (5)

• What are your greatest strengths?
• Well some of my greatest strengths lie in the
  areas of counseling, reporting and organization.
  An example of an experience in which my
  organizational skills are very important is a
  call centre position I had with Agilent
  Technologies. I was responsible for a caseload of
  50 clients which meant that I had to keep careful
  notes and records, and of course I had to review
  these notes before each meeting with a client. I
  was commended for the attention to detail in m
  reports, which was able to provide because I had
  kept such well organized files on my clients. I
  am proud that because of my organizational
  skills, I was able to handle such a large client
  base. I am confident I will give your clients the
  same level of respect and detailed, in depth
  attention.

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The Interview (6)

• Dealing with Stress Interviews
• Could be a deliberate test
• Trick questions
• What would you do if you caught a fellow employee
  stealing?
• Why did you apply for this job?
• Question behind the question
• If you dont know the answer
• Wow! Thats a good question. Thats something
  that I like to think about
• Illegal questions
• Use a calm and tactful approach

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The Interview (7)

• Handling the Phone Interview
• Stand up while you re talking
• Smile
• Listen, extra carefully
• Keep your answers less than 90 seconds long
• Vary the pitch or tone of your voice more than
  you normally would
• If you like, put something you like in front of
  you while you talk

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The Interview (8)

• Ask questions!
• Why is this position open?
• Why did the person most recently in this position
  leave?
• What would you like done differently by the next
  person who does this work?
• What are some of the objectives you would like
  accomplish short-term and long-term?
• What do you (the interviewer) like most about
  working at the company?
• Where could a person go who is successful in this
  position, and within what time frame?
• Now that we have talked about my qualifications,
  do you have any concerns about me fulfilling the
  responsibilities of this position

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Follow Up

• Write a thank you note within 48 hours
• Express your pleasure and interest
• Contain something that causes the interviewer to
  remember you.
• Send individual thank you letters to all those
  who have interview you

• Post Analysis
• What went well? Why?
• What did not go well? Why?
• Would would I do differently if I were to repeat
  the interview
• What key facts did I learn?
• What interview skills must I further develop?
• How well did I listen to the responses I got?
• How does this company meet my needs?
• In what ways do I meet their needs?

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The Correct Attitude to Your Job Search
If I have a choice, I dont want to work past 7
p.m
I only want to work in marketing
I dont want to work in Changi South
I have not been successful so far. I hate to drag
myself to another interview
I expect a 10 increment
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What Employers Expect From Young Graduates?

• Punctuality
• Dress conservatively
• Traits
• Confidence
• Enthusiasm
• Diligence
• Persistence
• Willingness to learn
• Work discipline
• Less emphasis on money

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Happy Prospecting
Great works are performed not by strength, but by
perseverance Samuel Johnson