Change is a perpetual concept in the employment sector. This is precisely the reason why new requirements and qualifications are demanded by employers every year. Unsurprisingly, this affects the way people look at employment in general. In the past few decades, job seekers have become more aware of the trends in labor and employment. This results in an extra effort being put into using the correct resume format, improving interpersonal communication skills, acquiring technical expertise, and the like. Having said that, only a handful of people truly understand the factors that affect their employability. That is why, in this article, we are going to discuss some things you need to consider to increase your chances of landing a job.
Educational background
Your educational background is perhaps the most obvious factor that can affect your employability. Naturally, it serves as a metric for employers to check if the skills and expertise you have are in accordance with what the job position requires. Thus, employers typically hire people who have graduated with a relevant degree in relation to the position being offered. With that said, you must be aware of the appropriate job opportunities for you. For example, do not expect to get hired in the medical field if you graduated with a business degree, or vice-versa.
Keep in mind as well that some companies are very stringent with their educational background qualifications. An example would be if you graduated with a finance degree but the job position requires having an accountancy degree and strictly only that. Even though some of your skills and expertise overlap, some job positions really entail having the exact set of skills that you may not have because of your educational background.
Appropriate documents
One of the quickest ways that employers sort through hundreds and thousands of job applications is by briefly scanning the documents that have been submitted. During this process, a lot of employees fail because of submitting poor-quality resumes, irrelevant cover letters, and some even have missing documents. If you really want to give yourself the best chance of getting hired, go the extra mile and render the extra work needed to make the most attractive and convincing application you can produce.
Communication skills
This factor has grown to be one of the key considerations for employers, especially in recent years. While it is true that most job positions only require you to accomplish a segregated and designated task unique to you, most employers typically prefer those who can also do well with collaborative work. Collaborative work requires you to be able to effectively and efficiently communicate with your workmates and other employers to successfully carry out the task assigned to your group or department. That said, even if you are extremely skillful at your specially designated work function, employers may still be apprehensive about hiring you if you do not have good interpersonal communication skills.
Technical expertise
Aside from any relevant work experience and educational background, your technical expertise could also improve your chances of landing a particular job position. This is especially true in recent times where businesses have incorporated more modern methods of operations, such as data systems, accounting software, as well as cloud data storage and backup. You do not even have to be extremely proficient with these applications from the start.
As long as you are technically inclined with things like typing, understanding computer parts and software, and you know how to navigate your way into basic applications, you will certainly be preferred over those without any knowledge of these things at all. If you know that you are skilled at certain technical tasks and functions, be sure to include this information in your resume. During these times, a competitive edge is always helpful to make you stand out from the rest of the competition.