Skills Shortage Vs Increased Competition

The news this week announced that the UK is heading for a fall and we should all prepare for one of the biggest and longest periods of recession that this Country has ever known. House prices continue to fall month on month, mortgage lenders are rapidly withdrawing fixed term deals, credit card companies are tightening their offers, fuel and utility bills are on the increase and we have even been warned this week to stop wasting our food as it is driving up the cost of the average weekly shopping bill.

With a recession, a number of things can happen to the job market, the main being that almost over night we have gone from a period of relative relaxation where highly sought after jobs are not in short supply to the position we are in now where the job market is massively competitive. The long and the short of it is that we all need to earn more money. The basic cost of living is rising and some of us who were in quite a comfortable position this time last year now have to keep a watchful eye on our expenditure. So what does this mean for the average job hunter? The fundamentals of increased competition, much like sporting events, is that you have to be on top of your game in order to succeed. You have to market yourself for success, if you don’t, in the declining economy we are all facing, and the only way forward is failure. Here are some top tips for self promotion;

• Re-write your CV. No matter how good you think it may be, it could always be better. Make sure you concentrate heavily on your key transferable skills and achievements. Many think a list of their responsibilities on the CV is good enough. It isn’t. If you don’t feel that you can appropriately write the document yourself then pay a professional to do it, a few hundred pounds is a very solid investment into the future of your career
• Take as many opportunities as possible to further your education. If your place of work is offering courses of any kind, then enroll on them. You never know when these skills will be useful to you.
• Network amongst your friends, family and colleagues, you never know what knowledge someone else has or what contacts they have. The more people that know of your core skills and abilities, the more opportunities suddenly become available to you.
• If you see a job that you would love to do and that suits your profile, then apply for it. Do not get caught up in ‘that is too good for me’ or ‘I would love to do that but I don’t want the rejection’. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
• If you are registered with recruitment consultants or headhunters then check in with them regularly, twice weekly if possible. Don’t ever feel you are being a burden, they receive a very healthy commission for placing you in a new role; do not let them forget that you exist. Get them to match your profile as closely as possible to every available vacancy on their database.
• Never think that any interview is a waste of time. Even if it is for a job that doesn’t suit you perfectly, it is a great opportunity to test and refresh your interview skills.

On the flip side of the coin of course, it is no secret that larger companies throughout the UK are becoming increasingly worried that there is a skills shortage for talented professionals to fill key roles. In almost every skilled sector, especially IT, sales, legal, medical and technological, there is an overwhelming anxiety felt by our government that the UK is not producing enough qualified and educated professionals in the right sectors to enable world-class competition on a global scale. With emergent economies like India and China beginning to produce expansive new generations of highly trained individuals, the current and future situation for Britain could be bleak. Therefore some of our largest employers are investing enormous amounts of time, energy and money in the attraction of talent from every corner of the UK. If you’ve got skills to offer British industry then right now, you are indeed in demand.

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