Looking for work can be a daunting process for people. Writing resumes, scrolling job banks online, and preparing for interviews can be stressful. There a million articles out there about writing a resume and preparing for an interview; this article instead aims to go over some other keys to getting a job.
Work Search
Labour Market Information
We have mentioned labour market information (or LMI for short) in almost all of the articles in this series so far - it’s that important. Labour market information will let you know many important things to consider when job hunting such as:
What industries are hiring
A standard entry level salary
What training may be required for certain jobs
Where work in particular fields is concentrated
If you’re interested in accessing LMI for Newfoundland and Labrador, you can check out the Department of Advanced Education, Skills, and Labour’s page on Labour Market Information here: https://www.gov.nl.ca/labourmarketinformation/
For Canada in general, the Government of Canada also has an LMI page, which can be found here: https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/trend-analysis
Networking
Networking is something that gets mentioned almost as much as resume building, and that is for good reason. Building professional networks can be vital to getting the jobs you want. Here are some stats:
80% of jobs are never posted online
35% of people have had a LinkedIn conversation turn into a job opportunity
70% of people hired in 2016 were hired at a company where they had a LinkedIn connection
Networking allows people to have you as a candidate in their mind when new opportunities come across their desks, which can lead to an opportunity without all of the running around town and dropping off resumes.
Career Experiments
We talked a bit about career experiments in our Career Decision Making article (which you can read here: ); basically career experiments consist of “trying out” positions or workplaces that interest you. This can be done through volunteering, job shadowing, internships, etc. These opportunities are a great way for you to learn about the company and how well you would fit there. It also helps to build networks with people working there. Many internships and volunteer terms lead to full time jobs because you have integrated yourself into the workplace.