FINDING THAT JOB

While the intention of this book is to provide you with great answers to
tough interview questions, it would be remiss of me not to at least
touch on the subject of job-hunting. After all, you either need to be
actively looking for and applying for jobs or be the subject of a
headhunting exercise before you can stun them with your carefully
crafted answers!



Job vacancies fall into two camps: those that are advertised and are
made available to the public (either the internal population of an
organisation or the public at large) and those which are sometimes
known as ‘hidden vacancies’ – those which are given to recruitment
agencies, headhunters and the like, or those which are not yet
advertised but you have made a speculative application for.


Did you know that it has been estimated that only around 15 per cent
of available vacancies are actually advertised in newspapers or magazines?
Newspaper advertising costs are verging on the prohibitive for many
organisations these days. Even small-circulation, provincial newspapers
can charge several thousands of pounds for one-off adverts in the
‘situations vacant’ section, so many employers are turning to alternative
media such as the Internet. There are many well-known job sites in the UK
such as TotalJobs.com, Reed.co.uk, Monster.co.uk etc. Most job sites will
also allow you to register your search preferences and then e-mail you
when jobs matching your selection criteria are posted.

However, many employers still like to place adverts in specialist
publications such as trade and professional magazines in the hope that
the specialist readership is more likely to elicit a greater response than
the pot luck that is generic press advertising. Choose where you search
for your next job carefully.

OK, so you’ve now seen an advert that has caught your eye and you are
sure you want to apply. Firstly, does the advert say that applications are to
be made by supplying a curriculum vitae plus covering letter or via
application form? Lets look at some pointers for dealing with each of these.

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