Taperman articles

Summers jobs

Unlike the common belief that summer is not the best time to conduct a job search as college students and high school students eat up the vacancies, summer is one of the better times to look for job openings. The myths regarding market, vacations, lagging budgets, etc. are false and a little guidance would make the job search during summer more effective and returning.

•Improve your telephone skills. Recruiters might be on vacations and your telephone calls would be bombarded with replies from an answering machine. But instead of seeing that as a lost chance, be prepared to improvise on it.

Make careful notes about the date of return in the office of the concerned person and send the application e-mail asking for interview to be delivered the day after his/her return. Set up reminder for self to call him/her back the second day after his/her return to check about the vacancy.

•Leaving a voice mail is an obvious choice but ensure a clear, informative voice mail and state details like your name, telephone number twice but the message once. Also, suggest a time for a callback so that you are available when the employer calls. An example might be:

"Hello Sir/Madam/Name, I am …………I am calling as…………..I can be reached at ……………….and the best time to contact me would be……. Again, this is………… and my number is ……………Thank you!"

•The telephone number should be accompanied by the area code as many a times, the employer does not know your location and also, the time zone. Try giving more than one number if possible and both the numbers should be repeated twice.

•Although you mentioned your area code, but you can leave information about your time zone as well because the person might be too busy to check the same and might call you at a time when you might be asleep or unavailable.

•If English is not your native language, take your time to speak slowly but clearly.

•Summer time is a great time for social activities like picnics, ball games etc and participation in them would allow you a chance to interact with lots of people. These gatherings not only serve as source of information but increases your network and you might end up with an interview slot because of word-of-mouth publicity and referrals.

•Work as a volunteer, which again adds to your network. Summer allows you many opportunities to volunteer and benefit from emotional rewards as well that can boost your mental attitude if affected by a long unsuccessful job hunt run.

•Persistence is the difference between winners and losers. Many people believe in the popular belief about grim chances of finding job in summers and therefore, your doubled efforts would see you a winner.

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