With unemployment rates at their highest level in decades, it takes much more than just a decent resume, a strong connection with a bank manager, or even a general manager in a reputable company to land a job. While you quest after your dream job, HR managers spend an equivalent amount of time hunting for the best catch for their open vacancies. This is mainly due to the faulty Egyptian education system which produces a huge pool of unqualified candidates and applicants.

The two sides of the supply and demand process in this case are the candidate and the company. I asked myself several times, after taking into consideration unqualified applicants and shortages in vacancies, how can I be the employee of choice? Am I a good catch? And how can I find the most convenient and suitable job for me?

I figured out that everyone should have a job-searching strategy. And to build your own strategy, you have to go through and answer the questions below:

1. Identification

Who am I? What do I want and need? What am I looking for? The most common mistake the majority of fresh graduates do is say that they want to work anything. “Anything” is not a reachable point.

First, you have to identify what is unique about you, what sets you apart: your skills, competences, knowledge, experience, and achievements.

Second, identify your destination. Set a clear, identified target after determining what makes you special; no one can find an unidentified thing. One of the most important things that you have to do in setting your job searching strategy is knowing which kind of job you are looking for. It shouldn’t necessarily be related to your educational background, it could be related to a talent you have, a language you know or civil work experience you gained and decided to shift your career path towards.

2. Do Your Homework

After the identification step, you now know your current status and which destination you want to embark on, and it’s finally time to write everything you learned in a curriculum vitae (CV) or resume. CV is a summary of one’s education, career objective, professional history, and job qualifications, for a prospective employer.

Sadly, the Egyptian education system is so focused on your academic performance, or teaching students particular technical knowhow, that they forget to prepare you for the big world of practical work, and many students are unaware of how to write a CV. As a matter of fact, your CV will be, without a doubt, the single most important part of getting a job, so you have to start right now.

As recruiters in HR departments, we receive hundreds of CVs every day. This makes your homework a little bit harder, because your CV needs to be catchy, summarized and to the point, highlighting the qualifications and the work experience the job requires. You will figure out all of these points from the job post itself, which means your CV will be modified according to the vacant position you are applying for. Try to keep your CV informative and interesting to read, neither too long nor too short. Always remember to do a spell check; bad spelling is a complete ‘no-no’ and it’s easily avoidable.

3. Where to Start?

Okay, let me summarize the previous points: first you discover yourself and what is unique about you, then you determine your target job. Finally you need to have a CV ready to be sent and distributed.

Now you are ready to start job hunting. There are various ways to search for a job which can be differentiated in two categories:

A. Online:

Do you know that feeling of remembering one of your old friends and wanting to say hi? The first thing that comes to mind is Facebook! You didn’t have to scan through dozens of phone books, you just typed your friend’s name into the search box and immediately you were chatting with someone who had seemed like a distant dream only a few minutes before.

This is essentially how the online search for a job works. Job search engines and custom alerts do most of the boring legwork for you, leaving you to get down to business with potential employers whose job descriptions and salary offers line up with what you’re looking for. There are many channels for the online job searching:

B. Offline:

Offline means that you are not electronically connected to the internet. It depends more on real interaction and your referrals and networks. It also includes many channels like:

In the end, it’s a win-win situation; you need the job and the company needs an employee. We spend a lot of time trying to find you: the qualified candidate for the position. So be ready, and start the job-searching game!

Mostafa Mohamedy

EDITOR: Nada Adel Sobhi