The best way to use job agencies to enhance your job search results
Job agencies are a quick option for job seekers that are starting out in the job market. Yet in a jobs market that is as competitive as that of Kenya, finding a job through an agency is more challenging that most people recognise.
If you are starting out to find a job and are relatively young, the appeal of the job agency marketing voice may be very attractive. They will tell you things like you do not need to sift through the employers yourself and plenty of such cool sounding information.
Some things that job agencies will not tell you
It is for the largest part true, but as merchants selling a product, most job agencies will leave out important details that would have helped you make a more informed decision on the best way to go about finding jobs in Kenya.
First; a job agency will not tell you that they are a business whose key interest is to make money. They usually will sell themselves as a service giver who only has your best interest at heart. That pitch, you will soon discover as you interact with the business world, is not even true in the world of charitable organisations.
All services that are set up are intended to serve the customer, and that word 'customer' is what makes the difference. The primary customer of a genuine job agency is not you the job seeker, rather the employer. You can see the acid test of a genuine job agency on this article.
Second, a job agency will not tell you that the more of you there are on their database, the easier it is for them to get those all important corporate clients. For that reason, a genuine job agency will need to have a lot more of you the job seeker on their data base, than the jobs they can make happen.
The third thing they will never tell you is that it is technically impossible, within the highly competitive jobs environment in Kenya to find jobs for as many people as there are on their database.
The fourth thing they will not tell you, and this is vitally important, is that they are most often paid to find higher level officers than starting job seekers. If you are starting out on the job search, you are basically on the lowest rung on their list of priorities.
There are many more things they do not tell you, but let us leave that there.
That said, I do recommend that you work with a reputable job agency. But what is the right place of a job agency?
Where then should you place job agencies in your job search?
A genuine job agency is an excellent service provider to help you craft your CV. I see way too many 'crafted in a River Road cyber' type of CVs that are great dustbin fodder for employers to leave that unsaid. Hear it from me, your CV is your representative in the jobs world. Getting this document right is crucial to your job search.
Some agencies will charge for this service, and some will not. There is really no rule there. However, a great CV will not come purely from the agency 'expert'. If you have no idea who you are, they will bring out a CV that indicates that you do not know who you are.
Agency CV experts are a bit like the computer; garbage in is garbage out. It is your duty to give them information that they can craft to make you look good.
Once done, it is very important to keep a copy of this CV with several agencies. Why?
For the very reasons we sited above; you are one in many that they are serving. Do not give your CV to one agency and go home and rest.
The most important place of a job agency in view of the high competitiveness for jobs that is in the Kenyan jobs environment is as a backup. You job agency CVs should be in your mind and in your activities a spare wheel or a 'just in case' option.
Searching for a job in Kenya is like fishing with a net. The wider your net, then the more your chances of catching fish. And I can guarantee you from years of experience, your own efforts will get you results before any agency calls to ask the spelling of your second name.
However, let us say that you engage your own job search plan and get a job, but the job agency fails to deliver. Then you have nothing to lose.
But let us say that even knowing important factors working against you finding a job through an agency, you used that as your primary search method and it failed to deliver, then you do have a tremendous lot to lose.
Take your CV to the agencies, but get cracking to find yourself a job. At the level of the competition for a job, ensure you work all options, both agency or yourself; whichever gives you results first.
Questions and Answers
There are two kinds of job service providers that any entrant into the job market in Kenya should be very wary of. The first kind are the seemingly helpful ones who set up offices in some back-street and promise you a job at a fee. The second group, and these are a complete sham, is people who pose as officers in various places or who claim to have connections with some office or other and can 'hook you up' with a job at a fee. How can you avoid both kinds of con artists?
Any industry that has low entry requirements is great breeding ground for fraud. In fact, anything on the earth that has easy or simple entry rules has the amazing innate characteristic of attracting abuse and fraudsters. Providing an easy service in an industry with 2million entrants every year attracts both fraudsters and genuine service providers. Good understanding of basic principles is your surest protection against inefficient services and fraudsters when searching for jobs in Kenya.
As you are reading this sentence, and if you are looking for a job, are between 21 to 35 years, and are living in Kenya, then there are a minimum of 9,999,999 other young people who like you are in Kenya in this moment and are looking for a job. Competition for a job in Kenya is stiff, true. But stiff competition does not mean you do not have a chance. Learn a few tricks from these champions.
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Any industry that has low entry requirements is great breeding ground for fraud. In fact, anything on the earth that has easy or simple entry rules has the amazing innate characteristic of attracting abuse and fraudsters. Providing an easy service in an industry with 2million entrants every year attracts both fraudsters and genuine service providers. Good understanding of basic principles is your surest protection against inefficient services and fraudsters when searching for jobs in Kenya.
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