how to be competitive in the job market? Is the job market different at competitive times? As I stated earlier, companies’ hiring seasons determine gaps in the human resource market. However, that is not necessarily everything to determine competitiveness in the job market.
Labor market supply and demand factors
The competition here will come from two basic factors that economics often call supply and demand. It is job supply (the number of jobs that require recruitment) and job demand (the number of candidates who need to find jobs in the human resource market).
When these two factors have a difference, it will affect your probability of finding a job. For example, when the job market has a very large demand for human resources, but the number of job searches is very small, employers will have less choice.
Some businesses can choose the option of “lowering recruitment criteria” to meet the demand for human resources in time to ensure stability for organizational activities. Then the probability of finding a job will increase.
On the contrary, when the number of jobs becomes scarce, the unemployment rate is very large; same job position, but at this time, employers will receive a lot of application information from candidates. This makes the selection process more rigorous and the criteria prioritized for suitable candidates more. Therefore, the probability of finding a job. Yours will be greatly reduced.
What I want to emphasize here is that you should find out the recruitment needs and the number of job seekers will differ the most at any time to decide to apply. It will greatly increase your employment opportunities.
That is when you already have a job and want to receive a new change, but if you are unemployed, please confirm that every season is your recruitment season. You don’t have to think too much about this.
how to be competitive in the job market? Do you possess a rare skill?
However, that is not all that I want to convey and share here. In addition to supply and demand, another aspect you should consider is whether you currently possess a “rare skill” or not. So what is the definition of rare skill and how do you know it.
A rare skill in my opinion is evaluated based on three aspects: one is that it can contribute and create benefits to the corporate environment, the other is that it must be difficult to acquire imitation, and ultimately it must have space for you to express and promote.
Skills create benefits for businesses
In the first aspect, to illustrate more clearly, you can see that if you have skills in manipulating and performing calculation functions, analyzing excel is very complex and the job you apply for is beyond professional knowledge. It takes a lot of analysis and calculation on excel, which is capable of making contributions and benefits to the business.
Another example you can imagine is that you don’t study foreign languages but have a very good command of Chinese or another language, which very few students know. It opens up opportunities for you to work in FDI enterprises or non-governmental organizations, etc., where foreign languages are a means of daily communication. Thus, your probability of finding a job is also higher than that of others.
Skills that are difficult to imitate or acquire
The second factor I mentioned is that it must be difficult to achieve and difficult to imitate. Why do I care and evaluate this aspect of a rare skill, really if in a short time other people can reach the same level and accumulate that skill as you, it’s not that rare again. It became a general, universal skill that anyone could quickly accumulate.
Taking the two examples above, I believe that to be able to use excel algorithms at a complex level of analysis, you need to learn and practice a lot not only at the centers but through the process of self-learning.
Similarly, if you are not a foreign language specialist, then in addition to learning your specialty, you have to work hard and spend a lot of time before your foreign language reaches a certain level to use fluently at work.
There is space to promote
The third factor I add here is the space for you to practice and develop. What if you have a skill that meets the first two factors, but in the community or country environment where you are living and looking for work, no position requires that skill.
Everything becomes worthless because we give the labor market what it needs, not what we want. Something has value only when it has a useable purpose for some purpose, including the value of your labor and the value of your skills.
