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Finding jobs without leaving your desk!The thought of looking for a job, applications, interviews or even your first day at work is quite a task! Endless piles of newspapers, pages of application forms, panic and stress of interviews or maybe disappointment at not being offered one. But things are changing and you can prepare and research those jobs in a much easier way. |
The starting point….should I be a police officer or
a DJ?
Before you start this process, you need to have a think about what sort
of job you want to do. Having a chat with a Connexions / Personal Adviser will
help you do that. You need to make sure you know about the work, the hours,
the salary, qualifications needed and training opportunities. You need to make
sure that it’s the sort of thing you could see yourself doing for roughly 37
hours a week, because it’s a long time to spend doing something that you don’t
like. Once you think you know what you want to do you'll need to start the
process of Job seeking.
How do I do that?
Once again you can talk to a Careers/ Connexions / Personal Adviser
for useful information and advice or maybe your tutor / careers co-ordinator
at school or college. Your parents can also help you start searching and offer
advice and support. There is a Job Seeking section on this site which is full
of information to help you with CV’s, Action Planning, Interviews, Finding Vacancies,
Self Assessment and Application Forms. So check it out!
You don’t have to wait every week for the job pages in your local paper. There are now thousands of jobs being advertised on-line. Even smaller companies are starting to put their vacancies on their websites and many Careers / Connexions Services advertise local employment opportunities on their websites. There are even websites that have been designed just for jobseekers. They hold the details of jobs all over the country or even the world. You can search for jobs by the area that you want to work in, the type of job you want or both!
Monster.co.uk, claiming to be one of the busiest sites on the web, offers several additional services such as personal careers management accounts, job news and information and a Careers / Connexions centre where you can research information on companies and links to a network of other sites.
Top Jobs on the Net – UK is another site that offers not only jobs on-line but also careers tips and links to other recruitment sites. One of the useful aspects of these websites is that you can register a CV which you can send directly over the internet when choosing to apply for one of their vacancies. Or you can register your details on a database which will e-mail you with relevant job vacancies as they come on-line.
What else can I do
There is no guarantee that you’ll find the perfect job using these sites, but they do give you access to lots of jobs at the touch of a button. The sites are particularly useful if you want to look for job opportunities within a specific company as you can usually link to the company’s website and look at their information. This will be really helpful if you are trying to complete an application form or if you have been offered an interview.
Using websites to search for jobs can be very convenient. The Employment Service offers on-line job information including information on training schemes available for young people. You can also have a look at the events held in your area and other initiatives taking place.
Basically, you don’t have to worry about opening hours of employment agencies
etc. as you can access the web at any time. You can do your research comfortably
either at home or through other internet accessible machines which can be found
in many local Careers / Connexions centres, schools / colleges or libraries
and other places (some of these are free and some will charge a fee). You are
not limited to just local information, you can look at jobs in different cities,
counties or even countries.
You don't have to trawl through a newspaper looking at all the jobs, with the
web you can tell the websites what kind of jobs you are interested in and they
will find them for you. It can be much cheaper, especially if you can get
free access to the internet. You don't have to buy newspapers, you can usually
request more information on-line at the touch of a button. Applications can
now be submitted on-line which not only saves you the price of postage, but
also means that you don’t have to wait a couple of days to receive and return
an application form.
Choose the sites that will be best for you. If you want local work based training opportunities, check out your local Careers / Connexions service site. If you want to look further afield check out one of the bigger sites mentioned above. If you want to search for something specific, for example, a job, a company website or even more information on job searching techniques, use the search engine as mentioned in the ‘Webtastic’ article on this site.
If you want more information, contact your local Careers / Connexions centre and ask what internet facilities they offer. They might be able to offer you not only free access but also a list of job searching sites that have been tried and tested!
Jennie Glitherow |
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