How to beat the competition
Knowing that you are the best candidate for the position is not enough – you need to prove it at the application and interview stages by providing evidence of how your talents and experience confidently translates to the advertised position.
The theory of organisation culture is currently very prominent within global organisations, so before you start applying for the posts it’s important that you are completely clear about a number of issues. Are you suitable – for the work itself, for individual employers, and for the countries in which you might be based? To secure the best chance of success, you need to assess yourself. You need to consider two crucial aspects of your personality – your skills and your core values. Skills are what you can bring to an organisation and core values are your strongly held beliefs that will determine what you want out of work.
Your skills
All jobs require a series of core competences or personal skills that employers look for. It’s not difficult to find out what skills employers seek – attend their presentations and look at their brochures and websites.
Focus on what you can offer an employer in terms of your skills. Think about the specific skills you learned in your education, during extra-curricular and voluntary activities, in travel and in previous jobs. Language skills and evidence of adaptability will be especially useful for a European career.
Write down your work-related skills and how you have demonstrated them. These will come in useful when writing your CV, making applications and attending interviews and assessment centres. If you haven’t got the skills that an organisation wants, think about how you are going to develop them.
Your core values
Examining your values is just as important as looking at your skills. What do you want out of working life?
Security, a challenge, money, personal development, making a contribution to the community – or, most likely, a combination of these? It’s also a good idea to consider what you’ll be getting and giving up by moving to a different country.
Another aspect to think about is your work style; in other words, how you prefer to operate in an ideal job. You can usually identify your work style by looking at how you have operated in the past – in jobs, in study, in your social life or while travelling. Think about whether you like focusing on the detail or the bigger picture. Do you enjoy working alone or with others? Do you need variety in your work and can you cope with the pressure of deadlines? Each organisation has its own culture so do your research to make sure you know you’ll fit in.
SWOT yourself
Take a tip from experts in marketing. If your career was a product how would you develop it? What are your
STRENGTHS (and how do you maximise them)? What are your WEAKNESSES (and how do you cope with them)? What are your OPPORTUNITIES (such as making the most of your education)? What are the THREATS to your application (such as lack of research and preparation)? A so-called SWOT analysis can bring objectivity to your job-hunting.
Getting on with people
People come in all sorts of bodies with all sorts of minds. Inevitably, in your career you will work with people who are more talented than you, less talented, a joy to be with or a pain. Life is full of personalities and in a mature working environment you’re expected to get on with them. That’s why so many interview questions centre on teamwork and resolving conflicts.
10 tips for researching an employer
How aware are you of your potential employer’s needs and strategy? Find out whether you need to do some research on the following crucial questions.
1. How did the organisation begin?
2. How profitable is the organisation compared to its competitors?
3. What is itsmost/least successful product or service?
4. Who is its biggest customer? Could you describe it?
5. Who are the key people within the organisation?
6. Who is its biggest competitor? What do you know about them?
7. What are the organisation’s strongest values?
8. What differentiates the organisation fromits competitors?
9. What events are likely to shape its future?
10. What picture does the public have of its products/services and reputation?
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