High quality welder and still don’t have a job?
If you are a good welder and find yourself without a paying job, there are a few things you should know to improve your situation. What many Americans in any kind of job don’t understand is how vital it is to spend time creating a high-quality resume.’ Year after year men and women go by without thinking much about their personal resume. For welders, it’s especially important to create a high-quality resume and continually update it with additional skills and experience. If you want to get an idea of why it’s important, read on!
Experience doesn’t matter anymore…
Calm down, the experience does matter, it just doesn’t matter that much anymore. The experience has been compensated by a quality education, from the middle level. By the end of their high school years, most young men and women will have a very solid foundation of manufacturing and welding skills; this assumes that they followed the course of study. Today’s welding college teaches all the important aspects of code welding, which I find is lacking in many 25 year veteran welders. I’ll delve into why I think it’s important to become an educated welder in a future article, for now just know that most educated welders will have more actual useful knowledge of the art of welding than “veterans” who have been a hot rod for 25 years. Don’t let that inflate your head, they are still way ahead of you in practical knowledge. For now, just know that experienced or not, putting your skill set front and center is vital!
Learn how to make a resume…
So you’ve taken the time to hone your skill in welding and fabrication, that’s wonderful! This skill will take you far and earn good money for you and your family. However, if you haven’t taken the time to learn the art of resume writing, you’re selling yourself short; or not at all. It is important to take a few days and sit in front of your computer to learn the basic software of the office suite and learn how to build a resume. If you don’t have a computer (you should be in 2016 by now), there are plenty of options available, starting with borrowing from a friend, family, the next door neighbor’s cat; Actually, almost everyone has a computing device, so get up to speed. There are many resources available online to learn how to write a resume. You took the time to pass your driver’s license exam so you can drive to work. Now take the time to pass your hiring test, so you can have a job to drive to. Knowing how to create a quality resume is just as important as learning to drive. Learning to display your talents is a vital skill that you will use all your life, so perfect that too.
You are a product, so sell yourself…
Life is about marketing, you go to sleep and wake up surrounded by advertising. Almost every product you own is branded and in some cases designed to force you to look at the logo from time to time. Do not think? Try turning on your phone without looking at the Apple or Android logo; or window, or blackberry, if that’s your thing. The sad reality is that quality products don’t sell without good marketing, and bad products sell like hot cakes thanks to good marketing. See yourself as a product that can add value to the potential “buyer”, why should they buy from you? What can you offer that no one else can? If two welders are face to face, I go with the one who gave me the resume that I like the most. That’s marketing at its finest, they sell us the products before we even see them at the packaging level!
My favorite villain…
If you haven’t been living under a rock for the past few years, you may have come across a wonderful Disney movie ‘Despicable Me’. I can use this movie to illustrate my point. Imagine Mr. Gru’s henchmen all in one room looking for a new job (this almost happens in the movie). Let’s say all they know how to do is weld, so they come to XYZ Welding Co. looking for work. They all look the same to me, so which one do I prefer? The forces of supply and demand are at play here. So the best way to break down the barriers is to let XYZ Welding Co know you are the one to hire without them seeing you or your skills; your resume will work for you!