By: A UNO Student at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, as part of Heather Nelson’s Service Learning Academy class.
So, getting a job these days can seem pretty easy, you can just turn right around the corner, and you'll find a minimum wage job for pretty decent hours. But the problem is the minimum wage right now is around $13 to $15. What I'm going to do is give you 7 tips on how to get a job that pays you $16 or more on day one when you meet the employer.
Tip #1: Research
Before you even consider working with somebody you will want to research the absolute **** out of the company you want to work for. The best way that you're going to be able to communicate who you are to the employer that you are interviewing with is to know a little bit about his or her company. The best way to do this is to go online, research the company go look up their core values, go look up their mission statements, go see where their locations are. If you go to a job fair, ask questions to familiarize yourself with the company from someone who works there. If you want to work with any company, you better make you know them like your own parents, siblings or even your friends.
Tip #2: Read the Job Description
Read the job description. This is very important when you are going in to interview with any company. It's easy to say, yeah I want a $16 an hour job I don’t care what I do, but if you don't know the criteria behind the job and you end up showing up the first day and they say, “hey can you do this with a computer” or “can you work with your hands here” or “can you do this there” and you can't do these things because you didn't read about the job, your chances of getting the job are going to go down, so the best way that you're going to anticipate this is by going and reviewing the job description that you are going to interview for. And remember it is better to go with something that you are familiar with than to go with a job that just pays a lot of money. Find something that you are passionate about, OK, that is what this is about job hunting is about finding one's passion.
Tip #3: Practice Questions
This is one thing that you will need to consider, what type of questions will they ask. Knowing this will help increase your chances of landing a job on day one significantly. If you know what the employer will ask, and you know how to answer those questions you will do better in the interview process. The best way that you can do this is going online and look up common questions employers ask in interviews. You will want to practice through about 5 to 10 questions for a few hours before the interview process.
Tip #4: Dress Decently
When you are about to interview for a job that pays $16 or more the employer is going to look for a couple of different things and the very first thing you want to consider in the back of your mind is the dress code. The way you look is going to improve your chances of getting a job at least by 70%. I work in the construction industry and when I went in for my interview, I took an approach of dressing like Sunday best, and it helped me look professional. When you go into your job interview you need to look professional so here are a couple of things, I'm going advice you on. You can either dress your Sunday best or you can dress kind of moderate to nice looking. If you go the moderate approach, I will say wear khaki pants and a nice polo shirt. If you have piercings or tattoos, try and cover that up as much as you can because employers now a day have set the bar for professionalism pretty high. Look your best
Tip #5: Resume Time
Now obviously this is going to be the most basic thing for any interview process and that is creating a resume and a references list. Obviously, you are already in the mindset of “hey I want this job” what kind of experience are you going to be bringing to the table for this employer? because that's one of the things that the employers are going to ask you. “What can you do that would benefit this company” he's going to look at your resume and see all the things that you are good at so when you are preparing your resume or your references list or a cover letter or anything that you need to bring to this employer make sure that it looks puffy and awesome with your experience, what have you done, what can you offer to the company. I remember in my interview for the construction company that I work for one of the things that they asked me is that I've worked with this water mitigation company for about five years what is one thing that you have learned with them that would greatly benefit us and I told them the best thing that I learned from them is the leadership skills they taught me how to work with a team and also to work well under those who are in authority now I'm a yes man. I will do as I am told and at the same time I lead a lot of people around me and so that is one of the things that I put into my resume to show to the employer hey this is what I'm good at and that is one of the things that you need to consider putting in your resume what are you good at how do you stand out from the rest of your competition. because ultimately at the end of the day this is a competition for at least one spot for this job.
Tip #6: Ask Questions
One of the things that I have personally seen in the interview process is the employer asking hey do you have any questions for us if you want the interview process to go well it is highly encouraged that you come with questions now you may thank you have all the answers to the questions they have already been presented to you but it is never below you to ask the same questions again to the employer because they will look at you and say hey this individual is interested in what he or she wants to do with us so be prepared to ask questions come up with some questions before the interview um ask your friends and family hey what should I ask during my interview. There are never enough questions to ask but at the same time, I would say keep it somewhat short and sweet and ask maybe two to five questions of the employer when you go in for your interview.
Tip #7: Be Respectful
Now I have said this before dress code matters but the final thing that matters the most that will increase your chances of landing a job on day one is manners how you present yourself before the employer I guarantee you will look 10 times better if you have good manners you will keep the swearing through basically nothing you will act respectfully and you won't have a posture of good body language have some positivity when you go in for your interview
Obviously, there are more tips and tricks on how to land a job they want but here are specifically seven that I have used in the past to help me in my interview process and the seven helped me land a job on day one if you put these into practice, I guarantee you will do great.
For more tips for a great interview, check out this LINK!!!
If you would like more info about the Level Up Career Fair, click HERE!!!
I would definitely check out more blogs and posts about the fair HERE at Freedomtainment.com!!!
We CAN'T wait to see you out at the Gene Leahy Mall, and don't forget about the Tailgating Party at 2:30PM as we cheer on the Nebraska Huskers!!!