If you’re thinking about changing jobs in the coming months, you’re probably anxiously scanning headlines for any news story having to do with the job market. Will it be harder to find a job this year than it was last? Many job seekers seem to think so. Although perception isn’t everything, it’s always interesting to know what other job seekers think of the market. This week’s roundup looks at that, plus why you really and truly need to be on LinkedIn, and how to interview when you’re an introvert.
(Photo Credit: JD Hancock/Flickr)
Hannah Morgan at Career Sherpa: Will Finding a New Job Be More Difficult This Year?
Jobvite released their annual survey, 2016 Job Seeker Nation, and Hannah Morgan is parsing the results. For instance, why do so many people think it’ll be harder to find a job this year than it was last?
“38% said it is harder to find a job this year than last year,” she writes. “(Which was the same percent as reported in 2015). Nothing has changed here. It is unclear what will specifically make finding a new job harder, however. My guess is that people are looking for a new role with more responsibility or requires greater skill set and this usually means there are fewer of these types of jobs available than entry level or lower level jobs. Typically, jobs higher up in an organization are filled by promoting an internal candidate and therefore don’t get posted. And this means, job seekers may not see as many mid- to high-level jobs on job boards. Thus, it may appear harder to find that next level job. (The key to finding any job is through networking…which seems harder!)”
More on the results over at Career Sherpa.
Neil Patrick at 40pluscareerguru: Is This Career Suicide?
Know someone who brags about not being on social media? Use Patrick’s story about his LinkedIn-averse friend to warn them about the risks of being totally unconnected online:
One of [my friends] recently lost his job in a reorganization. He was one of the guys that had no LinkedIn profile at all. Naturally I am doing all I can to help him recover from this situation. But I am sorry to report we have no good news yet.
Can I say that if he’d had a LinkedIn profile he’d not be in this situation? No, that would be naive. It wouldn’t have prevented him losing his job. And it wouldn’t guarantee that he would find another one completely effortlessly.
But I am sure that if he had developed a strong personal online brand, a global network of relevant business contacts and a position as a go-to expert in his field, he’d have infinitely better prospects than he has right now.
Lisa Rangel at Chameleon Resumes: How Introverts Can Show Passion During a Job Interview
The struggle for introverts, in a nutshell, is that they’re more internally focused people – and much of the rest of the world isn’t willing to take the time to dig in order to find out what’s on their minds. Nowhere is this more problematic than at a job interview, where quiet people might be mistaken for those who don’t care.
One of Rangel’s tips: “At its most basic level, a job interview is nothing more than a conversation between two people to see if they can help each other out. If an introvert can see a job interview as a conversation between two people, instead of having all the attention on them, then they are more comfortable.”
See more of her advice for introverts headed to a job interview, here.
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