CPH Career: Opening the door to new possibilities and positions

Ivanka Ruskova

 

People say to me in their first consultation: “I just need a job”, “I just have to get employed”, or “I don’t care about this now and I just want to get an interview”. This is one of the most common mistakes when looking for a job – not having a job goal statement.

Get specific
How many times do you think I have met a candidate who came and said: “I want a job in a finance team, where I will be working with Excel, assisting in performance reports, analysing numbers, so better strategy can be made, hopefully with nice colleagues to collaborate on projects?” Answer: none.

Everybody just comes up with the industry or the field, no more specifics about precisely what they want to do or precisely what they can do. From experience, the furthest most unemployed people go with defining their job goal is to the A-kasse’s page where you must enter a ‘job goal’ – but normally they narrow it down to the title of the position they are aiming at.

Send the right vibe
Naturally, if your aim is “to get a job” – what it reads as is that you are fine with just any job (which we both know you are not). However, you work with this sentence every day (get a job, need a job) – so it becomes a part of you. In the end, what happens is that unconsciously the vibe that you send out with your application is : “I just want a job”.

No-one in HR who reads your cover letter and receives that vibe will be likely to invite you for an interview, since you are not stating the most important thing: why this job at this company.

Opening new doors
And before you rush into describing how motivated you are to start working at ABC or XYZ, let me add that most companies are first and foremost interested in knowing how you can be of use and with what skills you are bringing to the team. So, drop the formalities with the motivation, start your application with a clear statement of your skills –ideally corresponding to what your real and identified job goal is.

This is where I come in, encouraging people to review their job statements, descriptions of favourite tasks, dreams and visualisations of what they really want to do – then together we open new doors of possibilities to a different range of positions or much more specific ones!

 

TOP STORIES

  • Bestselling author of ‘The Year of Living Danishly’ Helen Russell on why she moved back to the UK after 12 years

    Bestselling author of ‘The Year of Living Danishly’ Helen Russell on why she moved back to the UK after 12 years

    After more than a decade living in Denmark, Russell shares why she made the move, how she’s coping, what she already misses, and the exciting new projects she’s working on. “It’s been a very tough decision. I love Denmark, and it will always hold a special place in my heart,” she says.

  • Denmark launches first AI supercomputer

    Denmark launches first AI supercomputer

    The new Gefion AI supercomputer is one of the world’s fastest and will accelerate research and provide new opportunities in Danish academia and industry.

  • Navigating big love, big moves and big feelings

    Navigating big love, big moves and big feelings

    Experts believe it takes seven years to move into a new culture, according to leading Danish psychologist Jette Simon and therapist Vibeke Hartkorn. For expat couples, the challenges of starting a new life together in Denmark can put pressure on relationships, but emotions-focused therapy can help.

  • More and more Danes are working after retirement age

    More and more Danes are working after retirement age

    Politicians debate a lot these days about when you can retire. The reality shows that an increasing number of Danes like to work, even if they can withdraw from the labor market. Financial incentives help.

  • Environmental activist fears death in prison if extradited to Japan

    Environmental activist fears death in prison if extradited to Japan

    Canadian-born environmental activist Paul Watson has been in prison in Greenland for almost 100 days awaiting an extradition decision for a 14-year-old offence against a Japanese whaling vessel that he calls a “minor misdemeanor”. The 73-year-old had previously passed through Ireland, Switzerland, Monaco, France and the USA without trouble, before Greenlandic police arrested him in July.

  • Denmark too slow to ease recruitment rules for non-EU service workers, say industry associations

    Denmark too slow to ease recruitment rules for non-EU service workers, say industry associations

    When the Danish government in January presented the first of its schemes to make it easier to recruit foreign labour from outside the EU, it was hailed by the healthcare and service sectors as a timely and important policy shift. But while healthcare changes have been forthcoming, the service sector is still struggling, say the directors of the industry association Dansk Industri and one of the country’s largest private employers ISS.

Connect club

Connect Club is your gateway to a vibrant programme of events and an international community in Denmark.

Sign up here

Career

  • Come and join us at Citizens Days!

    Come and join us at Citizens Days!

    On Friday 27 and Saturday 28 of September, The Copenhagen Post will be at International Citizen Days in Øksnehallen on Vesterbro, Copenhagen. Admission is free and thousands of internationals are expected to attend

  • Diversifying the Nordics: How a Nigerian economist became a beacon for inclusivity in Scandinavia

    Diversifying the Nordics: How a Nigerian economist became a beacon for inclusivity in Scandinavia

    Chisom Udeze, the founder of Diversify – a global organization that works at the intersection of inclusion, democracy, freedom, climate sustainability, justice, and belonging – shares how struggling to find a community in Norway motivated her to build a Nordic-wide professional network. We also hear from Dr. Poornima Luthra, Associate Professor at CBS, about how to address bias in the workplace.

  • Lolland Municipality launches support package for accompanying spouses

    Lolland Municipality launches support package for accompanying spouses

    Lolland Municipality, home to Denmark’s largest infrastructure project – the Fehmarnbelt tunnel connection to Germany – has launched a new jobseeker support package for the accompanying partners of international employees in the area. The job-to-partner package offers free tailored sessions on finding a job and starting a personal business.

Want to advertise your job with CPH Post?

Contact us

Jobs