Chemistry Lands the Job

At last week’s lecture at Queensborough Community College, many students expressed a lack of knowledge as to actual jobs within the International Trade arena and wanted to learn more about how to get one.

Keep in mind that irrespective of your experience, it will be your personality and ability to convey the message that you have a good attitude, are flexible/work well with others, and want to contribute to meeting the goals of the organization that will ultimately get you that job offer. That is, do you have chemistry with the interviewer and potentially with the company (or the department, anyway) as a whole?

Whether dealing with imports or exports, and irrespective of the industry be it apparel, pharmaceuticals, or otherwise, professionals under the international trade umbrella largely seek opportunities in the areas of

Planning and forecasting
Supply chain management
Logistics and transportation
Trade compliance
Sales
Marketing
Accounting

So where do you look for these jobs?

If you know of companies you are interested in, or come across a job listing on www.monster.com that peaks your interest, go directly to its website to read its listings.

Where you do not know the names of companies but have a particular sector in mind that you want to find work in, websites like www.hoovers.com, have listings by industry of companies. For example, going from the “Industry Overviews” tab (listed on the left hand side under “Hoover’s Directories”), clicking on the “Beverages” industry tab, and then clicking on “winemakers” specifically, will lead you to a listing of the most viewed winemaker companies, and from there you can search those individual wine websites for job listings.

Hoovers also has a link to news and press releases by these companies. Learning more about a company will help you in both tailoring your resume and cover letter (and you always want to send both), as well as performing during an interview.

These news pieces can also provide you with the name of the author, and if you like what they have written about, you can likely find them on websites like www.LinkedIn.com and make direct contact with them, perhaps even complementing them on their ideas in the article.

Different online newspapers offer an ability to search by keyword, such as the New York Times, and others, like the Washington Post, allow you to search by sector.

Dues paying membership organizations with a particular focus, such as the Organization of Women in International Trade (OWIT-NY), have job listings around the globe (student membership is $25).

Ethnic based organizations such as Asian Women in Business, also have resources for job seekers as well as other benefits such as their scholarship program for current undergraduate students.

Attending events put on by these groups can also lead to making contacts and ultimately landing a job. Recently, a connection I personally made at an OWIT-NY event led to employment for a new member.

Some cities have assistance for jobseekers, helping them with career counseling, technical and educational services, and workshops. These services and more for example, are offered by the New York City Small Business Services Dept.

For more experienced workers, placement agencies like Tyler Search Consultants, which caters specifically to trade professionals, can be a great resource. Their website has many useful articles and tips on how to find employment for both the experienced and novice jobseeker. It is well worth checking out.

As for your resume, it is not uncommon for human resources to simply perform a word search in order to sort through the multitude of resumes that are electronically received (via email) for a particular job, and to find appropriate candidates flagged through a narrow search like this.

This means it is critical that important key words like “import” or “export” are specifically included. If you worked in a particular country, state it. If you have experience say, with the Maquiladoras, state it. If you managed people, state it and say how many you managed.

Be clear in your language and be dynamic. If you have experience covering the sales floor on your own, don’t merely write in your resume that you “managed the floor by cleaning or just watching the floor when I’m alone.” Rather, express your sole oversight of the sales floor and how you effectively managed the sales and maintenance functions required.

Questions you will want to ask on your interview include:

1. What makes this a great job and opportunity?
2. Why is your company a great one to be a part of?
3. What makes you a great manager/mentor to work for?
4. What are your expectations of a new hire? What are they in 6 months? 1 year? 2 years?

If you’re a student with little experience, take what salary the company offers you. You have little to no bargaining power if you are not currently drawing a salary. If you have a certain requirement you want met, put it in your cover letter or the accompanying email and state it up front. Don’t bother making up an artificial number, as the company will already know what the average salaries are.

Hope this helps!

Questions/comments? Feel free to email me at clark.deanna@gmail.com