Job Hunting Preparation

Salam w.b.t and hello dear readers.

How is everyone doing? I am not so bad, just a little bit depressed lately. Anyway, life must go on. It is been awhile since the last time I posted on entries related to job hunting. In this update, I would like to share on what you can do before starting your job hunting.

Of course, I listed the tips based on my experience, no scientific researches were done :) Before I started looking for a job, I did not get a proper guidance or assistance from anyone, neither family nor friends. I just followed my gut and tips shared by the netizens on the websites. As a result, I spent a lot of time thinking and planning on how to start my job hunting. I hope the tips here would be helpful for those who acquired it, subsequently will make better than me in the hunting. All the best!

Money

This may be the last factor for some of you to consider, but not for me. It is crucial to support my expenses throughout being unemployed. House rent, transportation, utility bills, food and others, you name it. Try to save money as much as you can, because we never know how long we are going to be unemployed. Like me, I was expecting to get a proper job with steady income in 6 months, max! Unfortunately, things did not go as planned. So, I ended up using my savings as well as my mother's  help to survive throughout this period.

Email address

TheHarryPotterFan@gmail.com or HarryPotter@gmail.com, which is more formal? The last thing you want to do is putting your application in the spam box of the recruiter's email. Therefore, create a professional email ID.

Documents

Resume, cover letter, academic transcripts, university and school certificates, recommendation letter, and other. Prepare all the related documents, soft and hard copy. Keep them properly in a file so that whenever you are invited for an interview, you will be prepared. Whenever the recruiter requests the certificates or related documents, you have them ready in the laptop or tablet.

Resume and cover letter

Prepare your resume as well as your cover letter as early as possible. The preparation of these documents is not a one-off activity, it is a continuous activity. You will need to keep improve, update, and tailor your resume and cover letter based on the job descriptions. Thus, make it interesting for the recruiters to read your resume/cover letter. If you use a similar resume, cover letter and send them to 100 companies, I think you may have a problem in the future.

Answer the interview questions

Well, everyone knows that questions would be asked during the interview. So, preparation is the key to crack the interview. During my time, I googled the interview questions on the internet and wrote my answers. Then, I practiced it over and over to improve my speaking fluency thus more convincing. Similar to the previous point, it is not a one-off activity. I would recommend you to keep looking for more recent interview questions and enhance your answers' quality. Sometimes, you have to think outside the box because not every interviewer will ask the typical questions. Check my entry here, Interview Questions. 

Courtesy of Mr. Google :)

Prepare formal attire

Keep a pair or two formal attires in your wardrobe at all time, so you do not have to do a last minute shopping just to find a proper dress. For myself, I will normally panic if this happen because I am really bad in choosing suitable dress. There was one time where I stared at my interview attire for a long time just to make sense if it look okay or not. I had to iron several scarves and blouses just in case I change my mind in the morning. What a waste of time.

Create a reliable network

This is my personal suggestion, create a reliable network of friends or relatives around the country or world, if you want. There are a lot of advantages, you know. For instance, you can exchange news with them on the current job vacancies in the companies or in their states. Other than that, if you lives in Sabah for example, and you have a job interview in Kuala Lumpur. You happen to have a very good friend lives in Kuala Lumpur, close to the interview venue. You can either stay at a hotel or a friend's place. I would choose the latter because it is more save. Well, it is also depends on how good your relationship with your friend is. If you are a type of friend who is taking advantage of others, I would suggest you to forget your intention. That is why it is important to keep in touch with your relatives and friends regardless in happy and difficult situations.

Enhance necessary skills

Determine the necessary skills you want or need to have and then develop them until you master it. Unlike in Australia, SolidWork is still the typical tool, I reckon and I used it throughout my studies. I never use AutoCAD in my assignments. In Malaysia job market, knowing how to use AutoCAD is paramount for engineering graduates. It is not just know how to use it, you must have in-depth understand on how the software works. I realised this when I attended the interviews and from there, I self-taught from the websites on how to use AutoCAD. It was hard, but at least I know the basic functions of AutoCAD. Similar apply to other skills like language, business, you should start learn them through various ways. For instance, part time job, Skim Latihan 1 Malaysia (SL1M), and extra class.

Leisure activity

Do not ever stop doing what you love to do, except if you love shopping very much. Then, you will have to stop instantly, haha...I love to read story books and writing. I kept several books in stock, so I will have something to read whenever I feel bored. I also started writing and created a blog to fill my free time. It would be great if I am a person who love taking photos, unfortunately I am not that kind of person. I went to several places, met people, see wonderful things but I did not snap the pictures. If not, I can share it on the blog. *Sigh, I must learn taking good photos*

Identify your support system

There are ups and downs when you are unemployed and struggle looking for a job. It is not easy and full of challenges which you never expect. Today you may be the happiest person on Earth, but you never know tomorrow could be a day from hell. What I am trying to say is, keep up your motivation and your fighting spirit high. One of the way is to have a strong support system to back you up in whatever situations at anytime without questions. Different person may have their own support system. Well for me, my family particularly my mother and my sisters are the strongest support system in my life.

Anyway, regardless of how you do it, remember to keep pray to our Creator, Allah. Never ever, ever forget the best Helper and the one who creates everything, Allah SWT. He is the one who plan everything for us, always pray He will help us and put our full faith on Him. This is it for now, I hope this may be helpful for those who read this. Take care and see you in the next entry.

Salam w.b.t.

Note: Pray is the best Muslim weapon, thus do not underestimate the power of pray. Let's pray.