Editor’s note: This article was first published in May 2012, during the Spanish employment crisis. The countries and sectors it says were hiring, such as Germany, Brazil, the UK and Eastern Europe, and the cuts in public-sector exam places reflect that moment.
I have just a few months left before I finish my studies. I’ve reached the point where I’m going to try to stop studying, the main thing I’ve been devoted to for several years, and take a step forward in my life by changing what I do. With my studies just finished, in a couple of months I’ll be looking for work and joining the job market.
The truth is that, at the moment we’re living through, signing an employment contract is difficult, if not impossible. But there are solutions for everything, and a few tricks that can open up alternatives in the job search.
Let’s look at them:
National mobility: perhaps in your city you have no chance of getting into the job market because your field is saturated with people looking for work in your trade, and you’ll have to look for opportunities in other places where there are more openings. Examples are IT specialists, engineers and healthcare workers.
Search area: mobility lets you widen the area of your job search, extending it to nearby or distant labour markets. It doesn’t always mean moving house from one place to another; that will depend on the distance between the two towns and the working hours.
International mobility: we recently reported that Germany will need around 200,000 professionals over the next 8 years. This is one of the reasons why more and more Spaniards are trying to emigrate every day, either to improve their CV and training or to earn a salary.
We should always analyse the situation in the country we want to go to and look at our chances of getting a job there. Some examples are Brazil, which is looking for construction professionals, the United Kingdom, which needs healthcare staff, and the countries of Eastern Europe, which want engineers. And let’s not forget Spanish companies established in other countries.
Lower-skilled jobs: it’s no coincidence that 76% of university graduates go for lower-skilled jobs. One way out in the job search can be to apply for posts that require less training than the candidate has, but also to open yourself up to trades other than the ones you first had in mind. Some people even trim the education section of their CV so they can apply for lower-level posts without being ruled out in the first stages of selection.
Trades other than the one you studied: you can find a job that gives you some personal experience of the working world and even a salary that lets you start your own life. You do this while continuing to look, more slowly and with better chances, for the job you trained for and want to do. Whatever you find, you can always change jobs, as long as it helps you grow personally and professionally.
Cover positions: sometimes you start with the easiest option: covering for an employee on sick leave or maternity leave, or relief contracts for workers taking early retirement. These small opportunities can be the beginning of a long relationship, since they can call you back as often as they need you.
Day jobs: it isn’t the ideal job, but it’s a start, and it means you keep picking up opportunities and wages while better ones come along. They are minor jobs, but they cover needs, like trade fair hostesses, event waiters, quality survey interviewers and so on, and they become the necessary first steps in learning to value the effort of working life.
Jobs with unusual hours: there is little demand for them, so they are easy to get. The reason is the hours at which the work is done, which are the least common and the hardest to fill: these are the people who work while others are enjoying their free time.
They are hard to fill because of how they affect the balance between work and family life.
Seasonal jobs: once the academic year is over, and while you finish your training or find your opportunity, it’s a good idea to earn some money in seasonal jobs such as cleaners, receptionists, tour guides or entertainers in summer tourist areas.
Other options, also highly recommended, are the planting and harvesting seasons in agriculture. Around Christmas, you can work during the sales.
Internships and/or grants: previous experience in the trade is essential to find a job in what you have spent several years studying. This is the time to train in the business world by looking for internships and grants that complement your theoretical training with this way of getting in touch with the world of work and business.
Although the pay for internships or grants is ridiculous in many cases, the experience and knowledge will be very useful to you in the short or long term.
Public competitions and civil service exams: the crisis has brought a massive reduction in the number of places offered through public competitions and exams (oposiciones, Spain’s competitive exams for public-sector jobs). You should be aware that this is a long-term investment of time: studying now to get a job with a future later.
Competition in this sector, as in all of them, is very tough right now, and you need to train and qualify properly to win a place, in some cases through work merits and in others through your studies.
Check the official bulletins of the different administrations to look for places as an exam candidate, or as an interim (temporary) employee if you are looking for your first opportunities in public administration.
Relationships with your peers: keeping on good terms with your peers is important so that others share their job-hunting experiences with you, whether by telling you where there might be opportunities or about the obstacles they have run into in selection processes or when trying some of the possible job options.
Taking over from retiring owners: a first step as an entrepreneur can be to take over those businesses with “Closing down, retirement sale” signs that are shutting for one reason or another, and which could be your job opportunity, giving the shop a fresh start as your future self-employed career.
Entrepreneur: setting up a company or becoming self-employed is another way of finding work, one in which you’ll test your strength and your abilities. This blog can help you a great deal with that.
Featured image: Lizzy Shaanan Pikiwiki Israel, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.
