Sunday, September 21, 2014

Job Hunting for those without a degree.


Job Hunting for those without a degree.
Matthew M. Conley
09/21/2014


I wanted to create a quick How To for those looking for a job, that may not have a degree. I see posts on line all the time from people stating they can not get a job for X reasons. Realistically it's BS. Anyone can get a job (i.e. get paid to do something) if they put there mind to it. So what I would like to do is to show people the steps. I realize if you may have never finished high school, you may have missed that class on how to get a job.

First things first. What do you want to do? You can do almost any thing for work. You would be shocked at the number of jobs that can be had without a degree.

Quick list of jobs that do not require a college degree.

Second, you need a resume in this day of age. Chances are good you have had at least one job in your lifetime. So you need to convey that. Basically it comes down to, Where you worked, How long you worked there, What you did there. Accomplishment you achieved while being there. Look at successful people's resume, and see how they have it set up. Realistically you want it to be only 1 maybe 2 pages long. If it's more than that, you are boring your reader to death, so it better be a good read. I am personally guilty of this.

Quick articles on resume building:





Remember that a resume and cover letter are your first chances of making a Good Impression. That said, DO NOT LIE ON YOUR RESUME. It is far worse to lie on a resume than it is for it to not be as strong as you would like.

Phone numbers, we all have them. But sometimes we don't. A quick bit of advice; Google offers Google Voice, which allows you to have a phone number, that isn't directly attached to a cell phone. So you can have it go to your home number, or any number you set for it. The big key part, it allows you to have a voice mail account for free. So you can have a number to give out, without having to give our your real number. If you don't have a number for people to call. It gives them a number to call. The voice mails are then emailed to you. This way you don't have to give our your “buddies” number for awkward moments.

Now that you have a resume we can start looking for jobs. Indeed.com is a job search engine I like. I will also say get a linkedin account. Most good jobs now a days are found via linkedin.com . You can hit craiglist.org for local jobs. Print up your resume, and go hit the local companies.


Interviewing. Yes your nervous. Yes you want this job. As much as I hate to say it, practice your interviewing techniques. Really neat article:



Also in an interview, Do NOT bad mouth your previous employer(s). Be yourself. Be calm, as you can be. You want to leave the interviewer thinking well of you. Also if you can make a good attempt to stand out above the crowd. I went on an interview I didn't think I had a shot at, figured to have fun with it. I made them laugh really hard, but showed that I could do the work. I got the job.

If you get the job, Great! Time to start working. If you don't get the job, time to move on to the next potential. Rarely will you get the chance though to find out what you did wrong by the interviewer. So don't dwell too much on it. I mentioned before to practice in front of people. Doing so, they will help you learn what you did wrong. If you feel like you need practice. It can be worth setting up interviews for jobs you do not necessarily care about, just to practice. I have done this, and found out that I would actually enjoy the job.

Good Luck.

Also a note. This is an article, There are millions of better ones, written by experts of the field. This for me is just a way to show others it's possible to get a job, and how to do it. I am far from close to being a perfect writer.

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