Five tips for finding a job!

You go to an educational institute, take demanding requirements, you enjoy yourself and what you do, but then you graduate! Oh graduation, you’ve been waiting for that moment to walk on stage and snatch that degree, since you were a freshman. You enjoy the beautiful moments of being a senior and then the moments of graduation, the pictures, the gifts, thennnn…job hunting!!!! There are lucky people who guarantee themselves a job position for when they graduate and that’s wonderful, but always remember that everyone works at different paces and have different plans after graduation.

You see, the summer after you graduate, everybody has those big questions for you, such as “So what’s next after graduation?” “Found a job yet?” “Oh you know this company is looking to hire, you should check them out.” “Are you thinking of graduate school?” And the questions go on and on and on.

Here are five tips and ways to make your job hunting easier:

1. First and foremost, create a CV!

The first impression of you to almost all companies is your CV. Your CV essentially speaks before you get the chance to. It says, “Hi, my name is…I studied…I did all of these tasks and have experience in these skills…” That piece of paper determines if whether the company should call you for an interview or not. So brush that CV well!!

2. Tailor a CV to the job position!

Now, you are probably talented and have lots to offer, but some companies may not care about the skills that don’t relate to their organization or the position you are applying to. Which is why try to tweak your original CV according to the job title and description, also use key words from the job description of the position you are applying for. DON’T EVER MAKE UP FALSE INFORMATION IN YOUR CV, just highlight the most relevant skills to that job position from what you have done in the past.

Example: You are applying for a marketing position and you have loads of experience in drawing portraits. The company wouldn’t care if you mentioned in your CV that your main skill is drawing, but rather they care about your experience with selling products/services, reaching out to clients, creating and organizing campaigns and whatnot. So tailor your CV according to the job description and highlight the skills that they are looking for.

3. What do you want to do?

You have studied or trained in a specific field, it could be journalism, business administration, engineering, etc. I suppose in every field there are endless opportunities and divisions to consider, so ask yourself what do you want to do as a career? What do you want to have achieved in five years?

4. Tell everyone about your job hunting!

After you generally know what you want to do, keep that in mind and tell everyone. Usually it’s always natural that people ask you after graduation if you’re looking for a job and what in, so always have an answer, because you don’t know where this person may lead you to. He/she may lead you to an opening and an interview.

5. Between the time you graduate and the time you finally find a job…

Source: Qatar Tribune

Keep yourself busy! Don’t sit at home and do nothing. Go find internships and those could turn into jobs. Go volunteer around your community, be active, expose yourself to more people and you’ll never know what a simple conversation can turn into. Also, go freelance! Many companies would pay someone to do a certain project for them and that’s that. You get paid and you add something on your CV.

Here are some people who shared their experiences of obtaining a job:

Ammar Younas, Account Executive at Memac Ogilvy

Ammar is a Media, Industries and Technology (Communication) graduate from Northwestern University in Qatar. In his sophomore year, he had the opportunity to visit Memac Ogilvy’s office here. He was fascinated by the place and wanted to start his career there. He said, “During my last semester, I worked with my career counselor to develop my CV and apply for an internship at Memac Ogilvy.” Younas interned there for four months before being offered a full-time job a week after he graduated from university.

Ahmad Musleh, Software Engineer at Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI)

Ahmad Musleh is a Computer Science graduate from Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar. After his graduation in 2015, he did internships before settling into a full-time job. He started out as an intern at QCRI which then developed into a contractual job. Musleh said that this step of showing his skills as an intern helped ease the decision making of the company to hire him full time. Musleh said, “this automatically placed me on the radar when it came to looking for potential candidates. And this is how I got to know about the opening to begin with.”

Advice Musleh gives to job hunters is to be proactive when looking for vacant positions. He said, “Don't be afraid to get in touch with other alumni too. They sometimes will even help you by forwarding your CV to people who are on the lookout for candidates.” Musleh added, “Even if you aren't on the lookout yourself, pay it forward by putting them on recruiters' radar.”

Fahad Al-Musalmani, Economic Researcher at Qatar Central Bank

Fahad Al-Musalmani graduated with a degree in International Economics from Georgetown University – School of Foreign Service in Qatar. After graduating in the summer of 2017, he waited until November to get a job at Qatar Central Bank because he was waiting for his degree to come from the university. In the meantime, he coached the football team at his alma mater. The way Al-Musalmani found out about an opening at Qatar Central Bank was through his school’s career services.

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