5 Reasons to Study Vacancies Even If You Have a Job

2018-04-17

“The very idea! I already have a job! I have things to do except that!”

This seems to be a silly idea to read current job vacancies when everything is alright. However, the labour market is not like a soap opera with a happy ending: you have found your perfect employer and will live happily ever after…

One day, the necessity to look for a job will arise (yes, again). Good if it is your own initiative and you have enough time. When you find the suitable offer depends on your readiness. The readiness includes the following components (check right now if you can answer these questions).

Demands of the labour market

Check if you understand the demands of the labour market to your speciality:

• What are the employers’ demands to specialists in your area? What must you know, be able to do?


• What salaries do employers offer and for what? (How does the range of demands to the candidate correspond to the offered salary?


• What knowledge, skills, the experience is appreciated more than the “standard kit” - what the majority knows and can do?


• What programs, applications and other IT-products must a specialist in your field master to be highly appreciated by employers (i.e. to be offered a good salary)?


• As for VIP vacancies, what special requirements do they have to specialists (their skills, experience, personal qualities)?

If you are not sure how to answer any of these questions, your idea of the labour market is rather vague.

Probably, there is nothing tragic about that, but let’s imagine for a second, that you will have to search for a new employer tomorrow. You will complete your resume and it will turn out suddenly that you are obsolete as a specialist. Employers require knowledge of foreign languages, using programs that you have never heard of before; vacancies mention certificates that you don’t have.

Of course, if you are working in a dynamic company with a large staff where everyone is keeping up-to-date, there are no chances for obsolescence (unless you have a rare gift of laziness). However, if a specialist stays on the same post for too long and performs the same tasks and uses the same tools for years, and the company is not interested in his or her further training (and the more efficient work), there are chances to get “rusty”.

Careful study of vacancies

Careful study of vacancies helps to achieve some important results:

• To make a list of basic skills which are necessary to be sure that if tomorrow you will have to enter the labour market, you will be offered a couple of job opportunities with a decent salary.


• To make a “Basic+” list of skills - if you have these skills, you can apply for better vacancies and employers will not torture you with long interviews and doubts if you are a suitable candidate or not.


• Decide what skills and experience you lack to apply for the best - the most highly paid - vacancies


• Assess yourself. Answer the question: what position am I on the scale “The middle - the good specialists - the expensive professional”.


• Identify the direction of your further professional development. Let’s assume, today you are an accountant and want to become the chief accountant in an international company. Or you are a designer and strive for the post of an art director. Or you are a secretary with a knowledge of foreign languages and wish to be a professional translator in a translation agency. Look through vacancies in the field that you are interested in and decide what skills and experience will make you competitive and what else you need to learn to get decent offers from employers.

Probably, it is troublesome and it is easier to decide on the spot - when the need for a new job arises, you look through the vacancies, analyze and catch up. The problem is that you can’t become a higher paid specialist in a week: you have to gain experience and practice your new skills. It takes time. Why not start today? The first step is to assess your own value and competitiveness.

A subscription to vacancies in your field is a good tool for keeping up with the trends. You needn’t keep in mind that you have to look through the vacancies tomorrow: your receive them by email and you can set the time interval yourself (once a week is quite enough if you just monitor the labour market).

Profound analysis

For you not to start with a scratch, we have prepared a summary list. You can print out this list and make notes while looking through vacancies. In a month, assess the information that you collected and make conclusions. Here is the list:

1. I am interested in a job as a…


2. Generally, employers require:
   
   
   
   1. Skills: ...
   
   
   2. Software: ...
   
   
   3. Certificates: ...
   
   
   4. Personal qualities: ...
   
   
   5. Other: ...
   
   
   
   


3. The average salary offered is from… to…


4. The most important skills (mentioned in VIP vacancies) are…


5. Today I can offer the employer:
   
   
   
   1. Skills: ...
   
   
   2. Knowledge of software: ...
   
   
   3. Personal qualities: ...
   
   
   4. Other: ...
   
   
   
   


6. In six months I would like to offer the employer:
   
   
   
   1. Skills: ...
   
   
   2. Experience (what tasks you will be able to solve that you cannot solve now): ...
   
   
   
   


7. The average salary in my field is ...


8. In a year I would like to earn ...

Time-consuming? Yes, but you won’t have to look for a job and puzzle over how to ask the employer about a higher salary. You will always be in demand in the labour market.
Let the last two lines be your stimulus. The goal expressed in a number is much more convincing than an abstract one.

If you have read the article up to the end - you surely have good chances to be competitive in the labour market. Be realistic - a well-paid job won’t come easily. However, you can make an effort and deserve it. Good luck!