Have you heard the rumor going round Pssst! Theres no jobs! - CareerAlley

Have you heard the rumor going round Pssst! There’s no jobs! - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. Some people dream of great accomplishments, while others stay awake and do them. Anonymous With 4.1 million young people (16 24) unemployed in the US, its a bleak outlook. But one Brit has put the rumor to the test by interviewing 120 successful job seekers from across the world, and learning what they did. Here at CareerAlley, he shares the startling results. If youre looking for your first job, there are probably two obstacles youre facing: Youre not really sure what you want to do Youre not applying to enough firms These are not just guesses, these are the results of comparing the differences between 120 successful first-time job seekers, and 120 unsuccessful ones. I interviewed people from the US, UK and all across Europe to try and learn what it takes to get a job in the current market. It was discovered that successful candidates apply to many more firms, and have much more drive to secure a specific job. Of the successful candidates interviewed, 65% applied to over twelve different companies, and 20% applied to over fifteen. In comparison, 84% of unsuccessful candidates only applied to just two or three firms. Do you see the difference? Successful job applicants send their CVs and Cover Letters to over four times the amount of companies. They increase their chances and get a job as a result. Furthermore, between 100 250 people apply to every single entry-level job in the US. Yet 15% of unsuccessful candidates didnt even want the job they applied to! This is a huge obstacle that must be overcome if you want to make sure you get a job. You must be sure that you want the job. If you dont, then the company wont want you. With so much choice out there, its understandable to see why youd be confused I certainly was. A great way of whittling down the options is to write a list of all the products, services, organisations and people that you love: Starbucks, wine, basketball, Converse, journalism If these are the things you already love and recommend to friends on a regular basis, why not do it for a living? Figuring out exactly what you want to do is the first step to securing a job. The second is to apply to as many relevant firms as possible. As mentioned above, successful candidates apply to over four times as many companies as unsuccessful ones. To really put this to the test, I applied to over one hundred companies and sat back to see what happened. Using productivity tools, I managed to create all the applications in just sixty minutes. Three weeks later I had fourteen internship offers, eight interviews and three full-time job offers (of which I have accepted one). This experiment showed that in the super-competitive job market that exists today, by maximising your chances you really do stand a strong chance of landing a job. This experiment raises the questions as to whether Universities and schools should be doing more to push their students into applying to more positions within the current economic crisis. To try and help young people directly, I have created a free online course explainingwhere to get first jobs. It explains in-depth the research and application strategies I used, as well as more insights from the surveys of successful Graduates. Byline: Tom Church is the author of Communication Is The Key This is a Guest post. If you would like to submit a guest post to CareerAlley, please follow these guest post guidelines. Good luck in your search. Visit me on Facebook