We often hear people looking for someone to review their resumes before applying for jobs. Once they are shortlisted for a job test or interview, they will ask the same or another person for job interview tips. 

On the other hand, due to the high unemployment rate and large pool of job seekers, employers and recruiters developed very competitive screening and shortlisting criteria for candidates to be called for written tests and oral interviews for the advertised jobs.

Surprisingly, most job seekers are reluctant to seek career guidance regarding the selection of studying programmes, career and profession choices, etc. 

Instead, they rely on their own views, experiences, and perceptions of various professions to build their careers. This shows the career development gaps between what the job market or employers need and what job seekers have or know.

Employers go beyond applicants’ outstanding cover letters and resumes and mastering general interview tips, though they are basic prerequisites for job applications and interviews. They look for individual motivation, ambitions, and inspiration to apply for the job opportunity and the values one will add to their business. 

It is essential for the job aspirants to reflect on the following prior to proceeding with job applications:

Do you understand the industry and the sector where the potential employers operate? Do you understand the organisation’s history, vision and mission, where they are heading, and what they want to achieve? 

Are you updated with the trending information about the challenges and changes businesses are experiencing and how you will assist in offering relevant solutions or values to their business development, growth, and prosperity? What are your long-term career goals and aspirations, and do they align with those of the organisation you are inspired to work with?

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Career development is about continuous improvement through learning, change, flexibility, and adaptation. Therefore, it is critical to prepare to learn from others and be willing to be corrected on what you already know, which may not necessarily be correct or right.

As for the current secondary school students, how do they choose subject combinations and courses to study at high schools or colleges? Where do they get career and business development information? Who are their mentors, coaches, and counsellors to guide their decision-making process on selecting, developing and growing their career or business goals? 

Author Mike Sun, in his book Career Development For New College Students: How to Find the Right Career Path and Get the Job that Makes You Happy, explains how students can find the right career information and get the job that suits their happy life.

Honest self-assessment

The starting point of the career counselling and development process is thorough and honest self-assessment, which involves getting to know your hobbies and interests, personality and passions, strengths and areas for improvement, and aspirations and ambitions. 

What do people say about you? Who is your role model, and who do you wish to become in the future? Identifying your unique skill sets will give you a distinct advantage over other job seekers and make you far more attractive to a potential employer. 

Make a list of your technical and transferable skills. Combining your interests and skills will increase your motivation and make you a stronger candidate – always important but especially critical in a tough job market.

The second step is exploring career and business development options relevant to your self-assessment report. You can also talk to your parents, spouse, siblings, fellow students, and workmates about how they see you and about the repeated talents, habits, and characters you have exhibited under their watch. 

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This is a very important stage for parents to cultivate in their teenagers the belief, courage, and confidence that they can become what they want to be in life. I can recall the interviews I have been watching about the career life of Indra Nooyi, former CEO and Chairperson of PepsiCo. 

During one of her public speaking, Nooyi narrated how her mother used to ask her and her sister at nine and twelve to speak about what they would do as Prime Minister of India, signing the documents as the PM. 

As a result, she became Vice President and Director of Corporate Strategy and Planning for Motorola (1986 – 1990) and chairperson and CEO of PepsiCo (2006 – 2018), thanks to the guidance and career counselling she received from her mother. 

Individually, make your own longlist and shortlist of career choices and be guided by a coach or counsellor to decide which option is best to pursue.

Goal-setting

Career goal setting is the third step in the career counselling process, and it focuses on how teens can make their long-term and short-term SMART career and business goals. I tend to split business from career to show that one can develop and grow professionally as an employee, an upcoming employer (the entrepreneur), or both at once. 

The most important tool at this stage is an action plan, which is the framework of a list of goals, tasks and activities, resources needed, timeliness, and mechanisms to track and measure progress on career and business milestones. 

You can refer to self-development gurus Brian Tracy and Hays Recruitment goal-setting models. As a high school student or fresh university graduate, how can you become a leader or distinguished professional in institutions such as Vodacom, Safaricom, NMB Bank Plc, or Tanzania Breweries Ltd (TBL) in the next 10 to 20 years? 

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How can you become an investor by having shares of East African Cables Ltd, KCB Bank Ltd, or a Country Representative of an international organisation in East Africa by 2040? Alternatively, what does it take to establish and own a successful business?

Job searching, networking, and job application come in as the fourth step right after the above three steps have been done and completed successfully. Ian Allan, in his book The Job-Hunting Book, differentiates the job-search process from the commonly used job applications—resumes and cover letters—by introducing research about the industry or sector where the employer operates. 

Allan also insists on researching the employer and the advertised job, networking with relevant professionals for career information and advice, using LinkedIn as a professional platform, and finally, customising the cover letter and resume for job applications.

At this stage, the job seeker has applied for a job and is now being called for job testing and interview, which is the fifth stage of career counselling. 

However, due to the high number of applications received for the job, and after preparing a longlist from the designed screening criteria, recruiters and employers use written tests—aptitude, psychometric, and personality assessment—to shortlist candidates for oral interview(s), usually a minimum of three, no maximum, until they get the successful candidate(s). 

An oral interview can be conducted twice: once with the managers and again with the directors, partners, or Board Members. Both tests and interviews examine candidates’ general and technical knowledge about the job and the employer’s business, skills, competencies, attitude and behaviour, ethics, teamwork, business management, and team leadership. 

Candidates may need to practice different types of written tests and give oral interview simulations or presentations with support from their network, including family members, mentors, or coaches, before going for interviews.

Career growth

The sixth step is career development and growth, which refers to continuously acquiring new knowledge and developing new skills and competencies throughout one’s career life. This can be done through formal and informal learning processes, such as attending classes for extended academic programmes or short courses on leadership and management. 

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Other approaches for consideration that promote career growth include acquiring work experience, job rotation and job enlargement, transfers and promotions, using personality assessment, psychometric tests, performance evaluation, and 360-degree feedback to address areas of improvement, using succession planning and the nine grid-model approach, etc.

In her book Career Change, author Joanna Penn says a boundaryless career means one can work in any industry, sector, or location. Therefore, it is very important to know the reasons for and how to manage career change and transformation as the seventh and last step of the career counselling process. 

People change jobs, employers, and professions for reasons such as looking for high-paying jobs, promotion to senior roles or fame, growing their career to the executive level, and looking for more challenges and opportunities to acquire new knowledge and develop new skills. 

Other reasons for relocations can include family reasons, developing secondary passions or interests, leadership and management challenges, a change of work environment and work relationships, becoming an entrepreneur instead of an employee, etc. 

The career change process involves self-assessment of the reasons for the change, having the qualifications needed for the next job, waiting time while looking for new opportunities, enlarging your network, updating your resume, attending additional training, managing personal finance, etc.

In summary, therefore, career counselling or seeking career guidance does not commence from the undergraduate college or university stage. Instead, it starts from junior secondary school or even before, depending on how quickly a teenager can catch up. 

Parents need to start conversing with their teens about their future career aspirations by highlighting available career path options and assuring them with endless parental guidance and support. 

It is also important for teens and youth to know and consider their interests and passions, as their chances for a successful career are higher than being forced to pursue their parents’ wishes only.

Damas Ndalechi is a Tanzanian working with UNDP East Timor as a Career Counselling Specialist for the Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship Skills (YEES) Project. This article represents his personal views and opinions, not his employer’s. He can be reached at dr.ndalechi@gmail.com. These are the writer’s own opinions, and they do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of The Chanzo. Do you want to publish in this space? Contact our editors at editor@thechanzo.com for further inquiries.