What difficulties do young people face at the beginning of their careers and what can be done to make the job search easier?
Competition for jobs is greater than ever
Although competition for jobs is felt across sectors and job levels, it is especially high for those looking for the first job that matches their career goals. For such positions, young people very often compete not only with their peers, but also with more experienced candidates who are changing the field of work.
What’s more, the job search process has been changed beyond recognition by the Internet compared to 10-20 years ago, and the globalization of the workforce also means that for some positions, candidates are competing not only with local talent, but also with global talent.
Ernest Zimus, a junior program engineer at Luminor Bank, shares that he encountered a lot of competition while studying abroad and looking for a profession-related job there.
“During two years of job searching in the UK and Belgium, I had many job interviews and negative responses from employers. I filled out my portfolio of personal projects, redid my resume several times, consulted with specialists working at the university, but I still didn’t get results”, says E. Zimus.
According to the young specialist, two things helped him get the position he wanted – self-confidence and sticking to his set goal to improve and work in his field.
High requirements for work experience and skills that do not match them
High competition goes hand in hand with higher and higher requirements for the same positions and, in many cases, an inevitable mismatch between them. Luminor Bank talent attraction specialist Eglė Marozaitė emphasizes that lack of experience in the desired position is normal, as combining studies and work is indeed a big challenge.
“It can be very difficult to find time to work in a certain organization when studying full-time bachelor’s studies from morning to night – I have experienced this myself.” However, in most cases, this does not prevent employers from making high demands on candidates. Therefore, I would suggest that young professionals, if possible, look for ways to gain at least the minimum necessary experience on their own, and look for real professional opportunities in organizations that attach more importance to soft qualities”, advises the expert.
Higher priority than before for soft skills
Unlike one or two decades ago, when the most important thing when looking for a job was the matching of professional qualifications, now young people face another requirement, increasingly emphasized by employers – soft skills, such as the ability to communicate, solve problems, work in a team or independently and a lot others.
“When we choose a candidate, especially for the position of an intern, it is important for us to have human curiosity, the courage to make mistakes, the determination to learn new things, to ask questions, regardless of the available knowledge or experience,” emphasizes the talent attraction specialist of Luminor Bank.
She is seconded by Luminor Bank junior analyst Tautgirdas Dudoravičius, who adds that an accurate reflection of not only professional but also soft skills is necessary both when creating a resume and in the first job interview.
Personal archive photo/Tautgirdas Dudoravičius
“Presenting myself correctly was one of the biggest challenges for me when looking for professional practice. It is important not only to emphasize skills, but also not to overdo it and find the golden mean that allows a potential employer to get to know me as a person and an employee. The most successful strategy for me is to spend time after each job interview thinking about how it went and where I could improve myself to make it even better,” advises T. Dudoravičius.
A few tips to make your first job search go more smoothly
According to E. Marozaitė, one thing that every future young professional could and should do is to develop their human qualities.
“Even if there is a lack of knowledge in a specific field, with a lot of desire and discipline, it is quite easily acquired. However, good human qualities and values, such as positivity, determination, self-confidence, the ability to accept and give constructive criticism, and others are surprisingly rare, and their significance is enormous,” the expert emphasizes.
T. Dudoravičius adds that a quality that is very useful not only for young people, but also throughout life in general is the constant pursuit of knowledge.
“This is something that needs to be cultivated throughout life, because it often happens that when we reach a certain limit, we stop being interested and improving.” I think that this can happen when you get your dream job at the beginning of your career, because then we may no longer have external motivation to improve, so you should maintain it yourself,” says Luminor Bank’s junior analyst.
Another way to make it easier for young people to start their careers is to look for mentorship and internship opportunities. According to E.Zimus, the mentorship and advice of other persons had a great influence on his career development.
“As an intern at Luminor Bank, I learned a lot of skills that I still apply at work. I used to ask a lot of questions, but now I can not only work independently, sometimes even team members come to me with questions, which I am happy to answer and help,” he says.
According to E. Marozaitė, one of the opportunities to gain much-needed experience is Luminor Bank’s Illuminate project, where students and graduates are invited to complete a two-month paid internship.
“The internship will last ten weeks from June 26. until August 28, and the remuneration for the intern will be 950 euros per month before taxes. Upon successful completion of the internship, some interns will be given the opportunity to stay with the bank on a permanent basis. It is important to note that applications can be submitted until April 12 in this link“, says the Luminor expert.
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2024-04-08 12:51:13