You are finally graduating and about to step over the threshold and take the first step into the career. But where should you start?
There you have used one, three, maybe six years to prepare for this, and it certainly is not time to relax yet.
When choosing your first employer after graduation, you should of course ensure that the work you get is relevant to what you have studied and what you will spend the rest of your career to. But the first job you take should also reflect your personality that you will get the most out of it.
Does your company have the same values as you?
How pleased are you taking chances? Are you stressed out of competition? You will have the opportunity to work abroad or are you of the nurturing type? There are a number of more personal questions you should ask before you decide where you want to start working life.
And question number one: can you identify with now?
It is important that you can identify with the company stands for, says career coach Trude Kvammen Ekker in Smart careers.
For do not you risk to go on a bang.
It might work for a short while, but then I think most people will feel that the compromise itself. It should be on guard for. It is bad for job health, she warns.
Which corporate culture you thrive in?
What do you think about total change dress style when you start to work? Or to only work with people who are 20 years older than you? How important is it that you get to unfold creatively and perhaps trial and error?
There are big differences in environment and culture within the various businesses. This may affect what qualities they look for in you as an employee, as well as that it has a lot to say for your well-being in the workplace, both socially and academically.
Before you apply your first job, you should do research on culture in the workplace you are considering applying with, advises Ekker.
Google now, read annual reports, and do you know someone who knows someone who works there, grab them.
What might be nice is to orient themselves toward alumni organizations. Where there are very many graduates who are in their first jobs. See if you can reach someone there with quite similar background as you, and call and ask. How is work culture? Is there a lot of overtime? Much of elbows and competition? How is the ceiling height? Ensure that culture plays in tune with your personality.
Large or small business?
When you ask if you want to work in a large or a small business set simultaneously questions about opportunities to climb within the company is important, how close you want to work the upper your bosses and it's important for you to get a lot of responsibility early.
There may also be a question of whether you have decided exactly what you want to work with. In a larger company will namely opportunities to use your expertise to be more to the place. Here there will be greater room for you to go into a professional department and concentrate on a smaller field. In addition, opportunities to participate in courses and continuing education major in a large company.
It is also safer when it comes to wages, pensions and things like that. This is also about values and whether to seek safety, says Ekker.
In a smaller company, you get however welcome the opportunity to try out and taste a bit of almost everything.
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| The Quest For The Perfect Employer |
If you start a small business, it is an advantage that you are much closer to all business processes, and learn more intensively about the company's values. You are welcome tried your hand at a lot different in a short time. On the negative side is that you do not necessarily get the chance to specialize as well.
How adventurous are you?
Despite Norway being one of the countries where regulations are most accessible for entrepreneurs, studies have shown that only 30 percent of all start-ups are still active after five years.
If you dare to pursue a job in a company that still exists somewhere in the startup phase has a lot to do with how you are as a person.
That all depends on the values and linked to your personality. Are you confidence seeker by nature, I would not bet on a startup companies. But you are more willing to take risks, then you will have the chance to be part of a new little adventure that can grow. You can be there in an entrepreneurial phase where you get taught very much in a short time, says Ekker.
How important is the salary?
The question of wages is inevitable, but often a little difficult. How important is salary to you when to enter the working world? Is a thick wallet important than exciting and relevant tasks?
The larger, well-established companies are therefore happy to safer in terms of both pay and other benefits, so it may be an idea to dip in that direction if the answer is yes.
But you should still remember that to just go in search of the heaviest pay checks before you have acquired experience will not necessarily serve in the long run.
One should not be too demanding at the start. Feel free to prove something before going wage. If you start at a normal level, then you have good chances to rise in pay if you make a good effort. Something I repeat often is that wages are based on motivation. Whether you go for jobs with high salaries and are not motivated for tasks where it will fall completely through said Ekker.
Start narrowly:
Looking at the first job as a springboard, where you can learn a lot, and then start the actual CV-building afterwards? Or are you interested in finding a job where the internal career opportunities are great? How important is it to have a reputable company on your resume, you want to move abroad? How important is it with any foreign relations?
It's great if you're coming into a company with good standing and good reputation. It will follow you positively to resume further. As long as you can identify with the company, she adds.
When selecting your first workplace, you should first think long term and feel for where you want your career. The long-term thinking has a lot of motivation and interests to do. Which multi-year objectives you have, and how when you them?
But then it may one must have some intermediate goals along the way and take it in stages, says Ekker.
For it is of course not certain you get your dream job right away.
Probably you will have to have some breadth of vision when trying to find your way there. A tip is to be determined at first, and then apply slightly wider gradually. Ekker emphasizes the importance of gaining relevant work experience as soon as possible after graduation.
The most important is the relevance of the job. It's not like it need to be forever. I think well you can imagine that this is a first step, but it must be relevant.
While it is a fact that there are few employers who like you've jumped from job to job. So a couple or three years in your first job, it's nice to show. That perspective should have.
Be focused and humble:
Once you have set up all these issues and found the workplace to start your career with, it's just getting started with the next, and a bit more difficult task; to actually get the job. Advice number one is to work well with CV and application. According Ekker is something most people can work more with, and perhaps even more important when you have no work experience that is directly relevant from before formulation.
Even if you think you are without experience, you should look for items in the jobs you had before that could be relevant anyway. Have you worked in retail before, and shall apply for a job as an HR employee, put emphasis on customer management and relationship skills you have acquired through shop job.
See what you have done in such a way that it seems relevant.
Otherwise, there are two key attributes that captivates any employer:
Be focused and humble. It's a priceless combination for an employer.
