Yahoo Finance 6 Ways That You Can Look For a Job Like a Pro in Singapore
For many Singaporean employees, job hunting is like practising a sport—you have to do it all the time to keep yourself on your toes. That explains the high turnover rate at local companies as employees shun their jobs for new ones at an alarming rate. If you hate your job, as most people here do, here’s how to get a new one pronto.
Job search websites
If you want to do all the legwork yourself, you can spend weeks trawling through job search websites and applying to each suitable job vacancy you find. While there are a few sites that charge job seekers a fee, most are free. It’s hard to say which sites are the best as it really depends on which ones employers and recruiters in your particular field decide to post on. Here are some of the more popular ones with large volumes of vacancies.
Obviously, you’re going to need to ensure your cover letter and resume are in good shape before you send them out. Once you’ve sent out your application, it’s up to the employer or recruiter to contact you. You might never ever get a reply from some, while others will get back to you within a few days.
Industry-specific job portals
While websites like JobsDB and the like are a mixed bag of job vacancies, depending on your industry there might be specific job portals or classifieds that will enable you to make a more targeted search. If you’re not sure which job portals cater to your industry, ask a colleague. Chances are half your office is looking for jobs on them anyway.
Legal – Law Society eClassifieds
Finance and accounting – efinancialcareers
Oil and gas – Energyhires
Individual websites
If you have a dream company you’ve always wanted to work for, check out their website, because there’s a chance they’ve posted about a job vacancy on their “Careers” page.
Even in the absence of a job posting, it’s still possible although more difficult to get an interview by emailing one of the managers or bosses—yes, you heard that, look for one of the people in charge rather than going through HR. Just make sure the post you’re emailing about is something they can actually hire you for. So don’t email the head of finance and ask for a job in marketing.
Eunice, 31-year-old CEO of recruitment firm Career Shine, says, “It’s good to be able to go direct, but you must be able to impress, otherwise you will leave a bad impression.”
Recruiters
Eunice laments, “Nowadays people like to be headhunted.” Job seekers no longer want to do the legwork themselves, and instead choose to rely on recruitment firms like Career Shine to ferret out job vacancies, tidy up their resumes and contact employers on their behalf.
Remember that recruiters work with thousands of resumes each day, so it’s your responsibility to contact a recruiter and stay in touch. If you haven’t heard from your recruiter for a few months and are still on the market for a job, drop him or her an email to say hi and send a copy of your updated resume.
Note that certain recruiters specialise in specific industries, and these guys typically come back with a lot more job vacancies, so do your research.
Social media
According to Eunice, an increasing number of candidates are browsing job opportunities and receiving offers on social media platforms like LinkedIn.
To do this well, you’ll need a complete profile, and if you have any sort of portfolio online include a link to it on the site. Many recruiters are also adding potential candidates as connections, so using LinkedIn to connect with them can be an alternative to the traditional route of setting up an appointment via email.
Referral
Multinational firms often hire through referral, meaning they get their existing employees to recruit from their personal networks. This means that broadcasting your desire for a new job could result in your being recruited by that guy who’s been on your Facebook friends list for years, making your tolerating his humble-bragging posts all worth it.
What methods have you used to get jobs in Singapore? Tell us in the comments!
The post 6 Ways That You Can Look For a Job Like a Pro in Singapore appeared first on the MoneySmart blog.
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