1. Know Yourself, Your Strengths and Your Weaknesses!

You should have an understanding of your value, your abilities, and strengths that you offer to the market. “You should also be aware of your weaknesses,” Jeff adds. Sometimes these weaknesses are essential criteria in your ideal job so understanding them may allow you to improve on them more and fine tune your place in the position you’re after. “Use this as a chance to identify the things you need to work on to achieve your goals.”
2. Know What You Want and Where You Can Excel

Don’t go into something half-hearted – as it will show the second you walk into the interview, if not on your CV. “You must know what you want,” Jeff says, citing an interview with Warren Buffet, the world’s most successful investor and third richest person in the world, as an example.

“The question put to him was “what advice would you give to young people starting out?”, to which he answered “do something you love, something you are passionate about because here you are most likely to excel at this. Furthermore, doing something you love doesn’t become work anymore.”
3. I.D The Opportunity

“Identifying the opportunity no longer relies on just using the standard job search functions,” Jeff points out. “If you are dead-set on a company or industry, then you should spend time immersing yourself in the company or industry, speak to industry experts, major suppliers and regulators”.

“Yes, it is a good idea to network using social media, but also stump up the cash to attend live industry events,” he adds. “You may uncover similar companies that you would love to work for, and this multiplies your opportunity set.” Human connections at certain industry events are also something you can’t plan – but can make all the difference. “Make no mistake, a lot of this becomes a numbers game,” he points out.
4. Gain An Interview

You need to be able to obtain an interview, and this often occurs based on your resume, so have a professional review it if needed. “Or better yet, show it to any friends or family who are Hiring Managers somewhere,” Jeff suggests. “Your resume needs to have sufficient experience, and the experience should cover the key tasks in their job description,” he says. “Look for similar ideal roles and ensure your experience discusses or has some treatment of the key tasks listed in those job descriptions. This will maximize your chances of getting the phone call to bring you in for a face to face interview.”

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