While governments are responsible for providing the enabling environment which will cause businesses to flourish, be profitable, expand and provide more employment, the ultimate responsibility for gainful employment lies with every individual. ‘The government’ as an entity will not force you into a classroom to study; or push you to acquire the skills needed for employment. The government will not directly put food on your table. In the free-market system which most countries operate, simple economic rules govern all economic activities. There will always be demand and supply – not only for natural resources, but also for human capital. Can you supply a skill which is in high demand? Then you are not likely to suffer unemployment. I make this obvious example in my book ‘Conquering the Job Hunt’ and I will repeat it here: the skill-set of doctors are of such critical importance that you will rarely, if ever, meet an unemployed doctor. Doctors go through such a rigorous process of study and learning to acquire their specialized skills. Their skills will always be in demand. Unemployment then is not, as the pastors say, “their portion”. This same principle applies to almost every field of human endeavour. There are journalists everywhere. However, someone like Anas Aremeyaw Anas has honed his investigative abilities to the level where President Obama deemed it fit to mention his name when he visited Ghana. Most media houses will consider Anas an asset. There are of course many other journalists without the desire or the drive to stand out or set themselves apart. They are part of the ‘undifferentiated’ mass. They are easily replaceable. Nothing sets them apart. Their employers have no qualms about letting them go during any retrenchment exercises. What value do you bring? The most critical question you must answer therefore is this: What clear and obvious value will you bring to an organization if they decide to employ you? After several years of counselling job seekers, one underlying theme I see among those who have issues getting employment in our already difficult terrain is that they always get the fundamental things wrong. They want a job that will pay them well and help their careers. They do not shift their perspective to the employer. While you are seeking your own benefits, the employer is doing same. The potential employer is asking, “If I take on this person and pay him or her a salary, what results am I guaranteed from them? How sure am I that their output will be greater than the salary they seek so that I can pay them, pay taxes, pay overhead costs and also make a decent profit?” If you are seeking the security of a regular salary, the logical employer is also asking him or herself what benefits they can be assured they will get from you. There is unbeknown to a lot of job seekers, what is called the Universal Hiring Rule: Any employer will hire any individual so long as the employer is convinced that the hiring will produce more value than it costs. I expand on this rule in my book ‘Conquering the Job Hunt’ to help job seekers to make use of it in a practical sense. The bottom-line therefore is this: from your application or cover letters to your curriculum vitae, you must always lay emphasis on how your skills, education and experience will help solve the potential employer’s problems. Key skills which are highly demanded include: i. Revenue generating skills – e.g. customer acquisition, new sales development and general sales and marketing ii. Cost-cutting skills – financial controls, negotiations skills etc iii. Skills which improve processes and organizational efficiency. One statement which I often come across in the curriculum vitas of many job seekers (and which I abhor) is ‘seeking a position in a challenging organization where I can improve myself’. No one pays you a salary just so you can improve yourself. The major reason someone will want to employ you is because you solve problems for them and make money for them and enhance their business. Demonstrate that on your application, CV and at interviews. How well do you market that value? By now, it should be abundantly clear that the difficulties most people have in securing jobs is due to the fact that they do not demonstrate any clear, distinctive value or advantage or skill which sets them apart from hundreds or even thousands of other hopefuls. From my experience however, the issue is not always that the individual facing employment difficulties is not competent or does not have the skills needed. The problem is sometimes the ability of an individual to market himself or herself. Let me illustrate: I once wrote a CV for an HND graduate with an interesting story: Some years back, in the midst of severe shortage of cement in Ghana, this young man was doing his internship with a cement manufacturing company. He worked in a depot in Kumasi. One weekend, on his own initiative, he approached a contractor putting up a big building complex. This contractor had a need: he was facing acute cement shortage. The young man’s depot however had abundant cement. Just by taking the initiative to approach a construction site, he managed to make a sale of GH¢100,000 (or one billion old cedis at the time). Amazingly, this achievement was not on his CV when I met him because to him, it was not part of his “official duties”. Over the period of the cement shortage, this young man managed to approach different contractors and managed to sell very huge quantities of stock. When his internship was over, the depot manager praised him for his work during that period and told him that it was rather unfortunate they had their full quota of employees and so could not take him on as a full time employee. This young man was now left to find a substantive job. In spite of his accomplishments, he was making two terrible mistakes: i. He did not think to persuade the depot manager that he had shown exceptional initiative and ability to sell (he had demonstrated value) and so should be retained because he will add more value than the cost of his salary. ii. He did not place some of these accomplishments on his CV because they were informal initiatives he had undertaken over weekends and out of office hours. I have come across many such examples of individuals not ‘selling’ themselves and their skills well. When I rewrote this young man’s CV, I trumpeted his achievements. The lesson All of us can benefit from researching organizations we seek to work with and finding ways we can add value. Beyond that, we must clearly articulate the value we can bring. That is a major ingredient for successful job hunting. My website is filled with some free samples of CVs and other beneficial documents for readers. It’s www.nanakoware.com. Finally, always remember that your personal and professional networks are key to your career success. Keep in touch with them. The writer is the author of ‘Conquering the Job Hunt’. E-mails:info@nanakoware.com owware@gmail.com