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YES Job Search Guide: Strategies That Work! Updated January 2009
666 Sherbrooke St. W., 7th Floor Montreal, Quebec H3A 1E7 T: 514.878.9788 F: 514.878.9950 info@yesmontreal.ca www.yesmontreal.ca
YES Job Search Guide: Strategies That Work!
The YES Job Search Guide: Strategies that Work! Copyright Š 2009 by the Youth Employment Services Montreal Foundation. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Published by YES Montreal 666 Sherbrooke West Montreal, QC H3A 1E7 Telephone: (514) 878-9788 Fax: (514) 878-9950 Email: info@yesmontreal.ca www.yesmontreal.ca
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PART I - SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISES................................................................................... 4 WORK VALUES ............................................................................................................................. 4 INTERESTS .................................................................................................................................. 7 SKILLS INVENTORY .................................................................................................................... 10 OCCUPATIONAL DAYDREAMS...................................................................................................... 12 PART II - JOB SEARCH ACTION PLAN ..................................................................................... 14 NINE STRATEGIES THAT REALLY WORK ...................................................................................... 14 PREPARE THE INFORMATION THAT YOU WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW ABOUT YOU............................. 15 THE FIVE MOST EFFECTIVE METHODS OF FINDING A JOB............................................................ 18 THE FIVE MOST INEFFECTIVE METHODS OF FINDING A JOB ........................................................ 18 COLD CALLING .......................................................................................................................... 20 DOS AND DONT'S OF COLD CALLING ........................................................................................... 23 EXAMPLE ................................................................................................................................... 24 PART III - THE HIDDEN JOB MARKET ..................................................................................... 26 NETWORKING YOUR WAY TO A NEW JOB ..................................................................................... 26 SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO CREATE NEW CONTACTS ................................................................... 27 NETWORKING DOS AND DON’TS................................................................................................. 29 PART IV - INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEWS .............................................................................. 30 THE INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEW .............................................................................................. 30 CONTACTS ................................................................................................................................ 32 HOW TO CONDUCT AN INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEW .................................................................. 33 WHEN TO CONDUCT AN INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEW................................................................. 33 APPROACHING THE EMPLOYER ................................................................................................... 36 PART V – RÉSUMÉ / C.V. PREPARATION ................................................................................. 37 COMPONENTS OF A C.V. ............................................................................................................. 37 TIPS FOR STUDENTS WITH NO RELEVANT WORK EXPERIENCE ...................................................... 39 WORD FINDER - ACTION VERBS .................................................................................................. 40 RÉSUMÉ DOS AND DON’TS .......................................................................................................... 41 SAMPLE RÉSUMÉ ....................................................................................................................... 45 PART VI - PREPARING A COVER LETTER ................................................................................. 47 WHO YOU SHOULD SEND THE LETTER TO................................................................................... 47 THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND WHEN WRITING A COVER LETTER ...................................................... 48 WHAT YOU SHOULD SAY IN THE COVER LETTER ......................................................................... 49 SAMPLE COVER LETTER ............................................................................................................. 50
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PART I - SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISES Work is something that most of us will have to do eight hours a day, five days a week, for the next 40 or 50 years of our lives. When planning for your future, therefore, it is crucial that you understand and identify your work values, interests and skills in order to plan for a satisfying career.
A WORK VALUES RATING SATISFACTION FROM WORK Step 1 The following list describes a wide variety of satisfaction that people obtain from their jobs. Look at the definitions of these various satisfactions and rate the degree of importance that you would assign to each for yourself, using the scale below: 1 2 3 4
Not important at all Not very important Reasonably important Very important in my choice of career
Help Society: Do something to contribute to the betterment of the world I live in. Help Others: Be involved in helping other people in a direct way, either individually or in small groups. Public Contact: Have a lot of day-to-day contact with people. Work with Others: Have close working relationships with a group; work as a team toward common goals. Affiliation: Be recognized as a member of a particular organization. Friendships: Develop close personal relationships with people as a result of my work activities. Competition: Engage in activities which put my abilities against others where there are clear win-lose outcomes. Make Decisions: Have the power to decide courses of action, policies, etc. Work under Pressure: Work in situations where time pressure is prevalent and/or the quality of my work is judged critically by supervisors, customers or others. Power and Authority: Control the work activities or (partially) the destinies of other people. Influence People: Be in a position to change attitudes or opinions of other people. Work Alone: Do projects by myself, without any significant amount of contact with others. Knowledge: Engage myself in the pursuit of knowledge, truth and understanding. Intellectual Status: Be regarded as a person of high intellectual prowess or as one who is an acknowledged "expert" in a given field.
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Artistic Creativity: Engage in creative work in any of several art forms. Creativity (general): Create new ideas, programs, organizational structures or anything else not following a format previously developed by others. Aesthetics: Be involved in studying or appreciating the beauty of things, ideas, etc. Supervision: Have a job in which I am directly responsible for the work done by others. Change and Variety: Have work responsibilities which frequently change in their content and setting. Precision Work: Work in situations where there is very little tolerance for error. Stability: Have a work routine and job duties that are largely predictable and not likely to change over a long period of time. Security: Be assured of keeping my job and a reasonable financial reward. Fast Pace: Work in a circumstance where there is a high pace of activity, where the work must be done rapidly. Recognition: Be recognized for the quality of my work in some visible or public way. Excitement: Experience a high degree of (or frequent) excitement in the course of my work. Adventure: Have work duties which involve frequent risk-taking. Profit Gain: Have a strong likelihood of accumulating large amounts of money or other material gain. Independence: Be able to determine the nature of my work without significant direction from others; not have to do what others tell me to. Moral Fulfillment: Feel that my work is contributing significantly to set a moral standards which I feel are very important. Location: Find a place to live (town, geographical area) which is conducive to my life style and affords me the opportunity to do the things I enjoy most. Community: Live in a town or city where I can get involved in community affairs. Physical Challenge: Have a job that makes physical demands which I would find rewarding. Time Freedom: Have work responsibilities which I can work at according to my own time schedule; no specific working hours required.
6|Page Step 2 Choose the ten "Work Values" which you rated 4 or 3. Step 3 Prioritize them in order of importance to you. WORK VALUES 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9 10.
JOB SEARCH PROGRAM The YES Job Search Program is designed for youth aged 16-35 who are looking to jump-start their careers, find employment or return to school. Offering over 260 workshops annually, professional employment and career counsellors facilitate and guide participants in strategic job search activities and provide individual counselling. In addition to scheduled appointments, YES offers 15 minute dropin sessions, Monday to Friday from 11:00 AM- 12:00 PM, with a Job Search Counsellor. YES offers an intensive French course for job seekers, translation services for résumés and cover letters, free access to our computer lab with Internet, fax machine, photocopier and courtesy telephone. YES also has an extensive job search library with all the essential resource materials for everyone’s employment needs.
YES NEWS ONLINE Keep on top of YES news and events! Register for the YES e-newsletter on our website at www.yesmontreal.ca.
As a not-for-profit organization, YES Montreal (Youth Employment Services) enriches the community by providing English-language support services to help Quebecers find employment and start businesses.