Job Hunting 103 : Navigating pre-employment assessments and tests

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Submitting Online Applications: Dos and Don’ts

How do I submits Job applications online?   Is always the first question I usually get when I am trying to find a job.   I want to make sure I apply in the right to get some kind of response and maybe a good interview possibilities.  This will be me telling you how I apply and making sure I get the right response and possibly invitations to apply type of jobs.   Each person will have different results depending on how they complete the process.

  • Do find the jobs that you want to do.
  • Do follow up with recruiters or HR after the interview.
  • Do write the applications as if you are the best fit.
  • Do create a resume that fits that job.

And

  • Don’t Just apply to any job you can.
  • Don’t be in a hurry to fill out the application
  • Don’t send a generic Resume.

Each employer will vary depending on what they may require you to do to get an interview, so you must read the job description and try to figure what they may need.  You can also start filling out certain job assessments online by using the Indeed assessment portal.  Like everything else this helps the employer know if you have the right qualifications and skills that they might be looking for.   You can also do some more self assessments are something that you can do to prepare for some of this and this could ultimately help you identify what you might be good at if you haven’t already done that.   Knowing what you are good at will help you get the job,  Even though I said that in the other blog posts.  This is how you can get a job that you might be good at.

Following the Job applications requirements will be something that no one can truly master because the employers sometimes makes it harder than it typically needs to be.   They want to make sure you want the job and that can make it even harder to get the job.   However once you have the job the satisfaction of saying you’ve got a job far out ways the hardship of getting the job.

Customizing Applications for Various Job Types

Why would you need to customize an applications?  That is the first questions you might have, when you think about the whole purpose of the application.   Some more interesting aspects of customizing the application is that makes it harder to any employer to track from employer to employer.   Most of the time, they aren’t tracking people but if you have already applied to that company before it makes it a bit harder to look back at the other applications and associate it with the same person.  After you decide which job you want to apply to, customize the applications or resume to make them see your the best possible fit for the job.  If you do this right, you might get an interview with company and be offered a job.

Understanding Pre-employment Assessments

Knowing what the employer might want you to do like an assessments from your local state unemployment office or some other places.  Knowing that you may need to be able to type a certain amount of speed or that you know how to handle customers.  This tells the employer that your skills match what they might be looking for so this can be great way to show off your skills in the application process.  You should do a background check on yourself, and even tell your references you are using them to apply for the job, that way they know to expect a possible phone call.   Sometimes employers will call or just they asks for the references for one reason or another.  I will say there is an good blog post from Indeed of what you might need to do for the pre-employment checks that you might need to do.   Some other good places to look:

As you can see, there is so many things that must be done before you get hired that it is almost impossible to go through the whole process of talking about the pre-employment tests and assessments but this is generally just to help you understand what you might need to do to get that job offer either before the interview process or after the interview process and they want you to do the pre employment testing to make sure you are the right candidate for the job.  So i can’t possibly talk about all the process.  You’re going to have to do the research before you get through the whole process.   However this is just a small bit of what you might need to do accomplish getting a job.

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How to Install your Favorite Apps on Linux OS.

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Command Line Rocks

I simply love using command in Linux.   I currently using Linux Mint because I didn’t want to upgrade my laptop to Windows 10.   If you know anything about Linux, they seldom install the necessary apps for Laptops or Desktops.   You’d have to install them separately and some of the apps do some really useful things on Linux.   Such as the touch pad inidcator which will disable the touch pad when you are typing or when you are using a mouse.   I hate to use the Graphical User Interface to find and install these apps.  So I decided to create a shell script to install the needed laptop apps for any installation of Linux on a Laptop.  I do like to install programs from the GUI but that is when I am looking to install one program or just curious what they’ve added to the Synaptic Package Manager.   Since most of these apps are open sourced, I thought it would be nice to show you how to create a shell script that you might want to use from time to time.  The nice thing this helps if you are re-installing Linux or installing Linux on a new laptop Linux.

Creating a Shell Script

Before you begin this process, you’ll want to wrap your head around how to create the Linux script.  Once you learn about the process of creating the script.  You will understand more about the next process but you should at least get the basics so you can know what you can and can’t do in a script.   A shell script is almost like a batch file in Windows and you can do a lot of things in it.  Some things you can do are If/then or Echo, or Sudo commands.   If you want to make a complicated menu then that is fine also. I believe simplistic is best.   So I created my own little simple script to install the laptop apps that will help me on my laptop.

Laptop-linuxinstall.sh

echo Installing Touchpad Inidcator
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/atareao
sudo apt update
sudo apt install touchpad-indicator

echo installing cpu frequency Inidcator
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:artfwo/ppa
sudo apt update
sudo apt-get indicator-cpufreq

echo Installing Battery Optimization
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:linrunner/tlp
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install tlp tlp-rdw
sudo tlp start

echo Installing Laptop Mode Tools
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/apps
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install laptop-mode-tools

You could easily copy this and paste it into a text editor and start using it right away but I hope you at least learn about scripting.   This script will work with Linux Mint or Ubuntu, but I am unclear if it will work with other Linux OS.  This is why you will want to learn the create your own script because you might have to modify or add new lines into the script.  If you decide to use Laptop Mode tools, I suggest you read about how to configure the tools once you installed it.

Changing Permission in Linux

Changing Permissions

Once you have created the script and saved it to a file you will need to change the permissions of the file so Linux can run it from command line or if you decide to run it from the GUI.   You can either right click the file > Properties then go into permissions (See above for example) and check mark “Allow executing file as a program” or go into terminal mode.

Go to where the file is located and type “sudo chmod +x filename.sh”  and enter your Password.  Once this is done you can now either use the GUI or type “./locationoffile/file.sh” in the terminal.

All is Good!

After you have done all that, You now should keep the shell script on several locations so you can always use it if you need it.   I occasionally like to reinstall Linux to keep the system running smoothly so that is why I created shell scripts to install my favorite programs or stuff I might want to use on my laptop.   Do you have a favorite application or a suggestion please feel free to leave a comment below.   I’d love to hear what you install on your Linux OS and why.