On the hunt... again

I guess you can call me  career job-hunter. Every so often, i find myself on "the hunt" for various reasons. In my most recent jump onto the fray, there are changes I've noticed in the whole process.

The job market is decidedly LARGER now. For a writer like me, there are now more avenues for the skill. The best way to take advantage of the breadth of opportunities out there is to to BE OPEN to new things.

When I was starting out, the only jobs available to me were journalism, copywriting, feature-writing and corporate communications. These days, you have content-development, proposal-writing, email-writing and social media content management; not to mention non-voice support in call centers which would require good writing skills too. The bottomline is: if you can write, be ready to write about anything. The key is: have a skill that you can build on.

There are more options on the workplace and work hours now. There are shifts. There is telecommuting. If you prefer the traditional office-based 9-6 jobs, there are still a lot of those. If you go by the other options though, you can avoid the traffic and rush hour, but you will have non-traditinal working hours as well.

Be prepared for one-day processing.  This is not to be taken lightly. One-day processing means you get the job within the day, if you pass. Passing means a rigorous application process that entails hours of waiting. Be prepared to wait -- and I mean, the patience-testing-kind of wait. How long? Some could last 12 hours for the entire process. No kidding. So, bring a book or install a good game in your phone. And do not forget to bring a charger and even a power bank.

And, of course, the traditional tips still work here.

And the best tip I can give: BE YOURSELF. No one can question what you are and who you are. Besides, trying too hard to impress employers might just set you up to fail in the job if you do get it because you make them expect too much from you.