(ThyBlackMan.com) Increasing your employability is something you can do whatever level you’re at now, and whatever job you want to land. By working on your professional development you can become a more desirable hire to many different companies. Not only this, you might even find that your personal life improves, too! Working on yourself can never be a bad thing. Growing and learning is something humans have been doing since the dawn of time, and stopping once we leave school is a big mistake. Staying in your comfort zone can feel good sometimes, but it’s a good idea to get out of it as often as you can.
Now is the time to step out of your own comfort zone and increase your employability – take a look at the 6 suggestions below:
- Create Your LinkedIn Account
Your LinkedIn account is how you will market yourself when you’re looking for a job and making connections in just about any industry. If you’re not using LinkedIn, then you’re missing a huge trick in your plan. Everybody who values their career and professional development should build a LinkedIn profile.
Make sure you use your LinkedIn profiles as a way to extend what is written on your CV, and to connect with like minded individuals – you never know who you might meet!
It’s also a good idea to look through other social media channels and make sure you only post appropriate content on there – yes, that means looking at your Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook as if you were the employer and then deleting anything that might not look great. Improve your security settings if you want to make sure you can’t be penalized for your personal views. People lose jobs because of things they post on social media all the time, so it’s time to get super smart about how you present yourself online.
- Start Attending Networking Events
If you want to land a career in a specific industry, building relationships with people in that industry is especially important. However effective LinkedIn can be, meeting people face to face is often the best way to gain contacts. There are more than likely numerous networking events close to home that you could attend. Make sure you set yourself manageable goals for these events – how many people do you want to talk to? How will you collect their information, and how will you follow up with them afterwards? Make sure you have all of this planned out!
Although face to face meetings are powerful, make sure you think outside of the box for ways to meet new people in your industry, too. Try searching for groups that are related to your field on Facebook and forums, and once you’ve been accepted into these, you can get chatting with other members. You might even learn something valuable!
- Look For An Internship
Taking on an internship is a great way to get an understanding of the industry that you want to work in. Internships last maybe 1 – 4 months. You may get paid for it, and you may not. You may simply have travel expenses covered. However, all internships are designed to provide you with real, valuable work experience. Many employers want to see that you value your chosen career path and that you have experience in it. Taking on an internship definitely helps you to prove this – some employers will been take an intern on full time afterwards, but this is not guaranteed.
Use any internship you can land as a way to gain experience, build your skills, make contacts, and learn as much as you can about the industry.
- Volunteer For A Good Cause
Volunteering has always been a fantastic way to give your CV a boost. It shows that you’re willing to invest time doing something good for others, and this will only ever be a great quality to show potential employers. It’s also worth noting that having an interest or passion for a particular cause can also act as a great talking point in your job interviews. This makes you far more interesting and employable.
In some cases, blocks of unemployment can look bad on your CV. However, if you’re out of work and still actively job hunting, there’s not much else you can do. Taking on volunteer work can help you to fill that gap and show what a terrific work ethic you have. You’ll show how active you can be even when times may be tough. You never know; you might also find a cause that means something to you, that you choose to do good work for in the long run.
It’s also important to note that many people build great contacts while volunteering. People from all types of careers and paths in life volunteer, so you don’t know who you might meet and where they might help you to get.
- Take The Time To Learn A New Skill Or Gain A Qualifications
If you want to improve your employability, now is the perfect time to learn a new skill or gain some qualifications. Not only will you have something new and impressive to add to your resume and talk about during the interview process, it will help you to keep your motivation levels high and further solidify the idea of the career that you want in your mind.
The great thing about learning new skills and gaining qualifications is that you don’t need to go into full time education these days to do it. You can even find degrees like the online civil engineering masters degree fully online, so you can fit it around anything else that you have going on. They are just as legitimate as gaining qualifications at a college or university, so make sure you consider what kind of method will be right for you.
There are numerous routes that you can take to a career that you want, so do your research and figure out what kind of courses and qualifications match up. Alternatively, you can follow your intuition and simply take on things that you’re interested in and hope that they lead you to where you need to be.
- Get A Driving License
If you can’t drive yet, working on getting your driving license will make you far more employable. More and more companies are relocating to the edges of towns and cities, so you’ll probably need to drive to get into work. In fact, some employers will make it compulsory for their employees to have a full driving license. Getting a driving license will make you more attractive to all kinds of jobs, and not just jobs where you’ll be behind the wheel.
This doesn’t mean you absolutely have to drive to work – many people now take public transport as a way to reduce their carbon footprint and become more eco-friendly. That being said, having this on your resume can still make you far more attractive.
Taking the time to improve your employability can help you to land your dream career, providing you are dedicated and consistent. By working on things like your foundation skills, you’ll be ready to tackle that job hunt with confidence.
Make sure you never stop learning and growing, and keep actively looking for work, even when you’re landing interviews and callbacks.
Do you have any ideas that could help job seekers to increase their employability? Leave your own tips and advice in the comments. Thanks for reading!
Staff Writer; Roy Parker