6 Top Ways To Find Employment

Why do we have so much unemployment? What are the top reasons for unemployment in the world? What are the top ways to find employment? To begin with, we ask these questions repeatedly. And they are evergreen questions. Then do we have answers to these questions? Let’s try to find out the 6 top ways to find employment in the post. What we are going to focus on is how to get employed and stay employed.

Why are we discussing employment when we actually want to find fulfillment in life? Well, livelihood is one of the 10 drivers to find fulfillment in life. It is the foundation of our physiological needs, as explained in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

“We need to give importance to skill development because this way we can end unemployment.”

–Narendra Modi

6 Top Ways To Find Employment

Willingness to Work

This might sound interesting. Is willingness to work a driver to find employment? We may say there is unemployment because jobs are just not available. Well, job market is and will be always competitive. But does it mean jobs are not available? Also, we say we cannot find enough skilled people to do the job. Then what is the problem? We are in a global economy and with internet the world has truly become global. Even if we have restrictions or controls on immigration to move to another country for work, there is work that is available online. There are clients geographically thousands of miles away willing to pay for work that one can do remotely.

Therefore, one of the most primarily pre-requites for employment is the willingness to work. And one may not be willing to work always, even if they are unemployed. This could again be contentious. Isn’t it? Don’t we say work is worship? Then why we are not willing to work many a time even if we truly believe work is worship? There could be several reasons driving this decision.

Reasons for Unwillingness to Work

Lack of Interest

First, it could be due to lack of interest to do a particular type of job. One may say it is beneath me to do this job. It could just be one is looking for a particular job but getting what they are really not interested. What should one do? Not work until they get the right job? And stay unemployed? Is there not an opportunity to learn from any job? Even if it is for a short stint until we find the job of our dreams, is it not worth a try? Is it not better than expecting entitlements from the government? And in most developing countries, expecting entitlements is a more luxury, and that option is just not available.

Pay Less

Second, it could be because it might pay less. Well, pay is competitive. It depends on the demand and supply theory. If one has a particular skill for which the market will pay X, then it might be unreasonable to expect Y if it is significantly more. One can always look for a higher pay job for the same skills. But is it reasonable to stay unemployed until one gets the pay one wants?

Location Preference

Third, it could be because of locational preference. This is a challenge many times when considering job offers. There are places in the countries we live that have more job opportunities, and there are also countries in the world that have better job opportunities.

Social Stigmas

Fourth, it could be because of societal stigmas attached to a particular type of job. For example, the caste system in India has dictated for centuries who is going to what type of jobs. There are also social stigmas in patriarchal societies around women should not be bread earners. And should only do household chores. We live in an unequal world. Or it is just okay to stay at home unemployed until they get a job that matches their social status.

Respect for All Jobs

Not all societies have respect for all jobs. They might not give equal importance to all jobs. The job of a janitor is as important as the job of a CEO. Isn’t it? We all are playing our roles. And everyone has a role to play, just like in a match of soccer, everyone has a position to play in. A society grows in maturity as it respects all jobs.

Hunger to Learn

Learning is the second driver to finding fulfillment in life. Why is it a driver? Well, it sets the pre-requisite to gain our skills that is need to do the job. So, to get the job we want, we need the skill that the market will pay for. Hence, there is a need for a hunger to learn. Do you agree? The hunger to learn is the drive that keeps the skill development engine moving.

We learn through formal education. We also learn through informal education. Today, there are many ways to learn continuously after we have completed our formal education. There are so many resources online. Both free and paid. And of course we pay for the value it provides or what we will pay for.

Practice and Experience

You may know about the 10,000 hour rule. Malcolm Gladwell explained this in his book Outliers. This rule states that to master any skill one needs to spend about 10,000 hours practising it. That’s about 20 hours per week for 10 years. One could speed up that to 5 years with 40 hours per week as well. This is where experience comes into play. We may hear many times we didn’t get a particular job we yearned for because we didn’t have adequate experience. Well again, practice makes a man perfect, goes the old saying. In a nutshell, practice and experience are the underpinnings for skill development.

Skill Development

That leads us to skill development. Well, they pay us for the skills we bring to the table. In today’s world, we need to upskill ourselves continuously to stay competitive. Organizations upskill their workforce so many times it’s mandated. One needs to assess one’s skills and learn new skills that the market needs. Depending on the type of work one does, we need to look for new skill requirements and work towards developing those skills continually.

Willing to Take Risks

This might sound interesting, right? Willing to take risks. Well, are we willing to take risks always for what we truly yearn for? For the employment we really want, we may need to take additional risks.

For an example, if one wants to find a job in another country for better prospects, there is always that additional risk that one needs to take. Say one is has a comfortable job in a country. But wants to move to any of the best countries in the world for job opportunities from a developing country. There are many risks they need to take. I could relate this to immigration related uncertainties, then finding work with no job offer. Having to do any job like working in a fast-food joint until one finds the job that they are really interested in or aligned with their education and skills. It is then a question of subsistence.

So life is all about risks and how much we will take to get what we want. That is the question. Does it make sense?

Moving Out of Comfort Zone

That also brings us to the last section of this post. I relate willing to take risks for what we really want and moving out of our comfort zones. Do you agree?

The aim of this post is to cover the top ways to find employment. Or top ways to get employed. If we really want to get employed, most of the times we need to move out of our comfort zones. It starts with finding employment. Staying in employment. And excelling in employment. We need to move out of our comfort zones to find success and true fulfillment in life.

Conclusion

To conclude, life is about choices. To get employed or not is many times a choice than a situation imposed on us. Gainfully getting and staying employed is the underpinning of finding fulfillment in life. Because that provides our livelihood. And livelihood is not only the foundation to meet our basic needs but also is the overarching embodiment to achieve self actualization in life. Let me know what you think in the comments section.