Between your own little job-seeking money perhaps sponsored by your parents and what you get from the Job Seekers Allowance, you’d think that it’s more than enough to go about your daily business of job hunting. If lightning doesn’t quite strike for you when you’d really like it to and you’re not part of the very lucky few who manage to find a job within a few days of starting their search, job hunting can become a bit expensive. The costs can add up very quickly, especially if what otherwise appears to be a straight-forward routine really drags out with very little positive indications that you’ll finally land that job.
Saving a little bit here and a little bit there can work out in your favour though, as opposed to unwittingly letting the many small costs add up to what can become a really expensive exercise. You have to be aware of exactly what you spend money on as part of the job-hunting process, which encompasses some indirect costs in addition to the very obvious ones.
There are basically three main areas one spends money on when job hunting, including:
- Appearance & Presentation
- Documentation
- Travel Expenses
Some of the not-so-obvious costs associated with the job hunting process include searching for listings that are in line with your job-seeking requirements, making what can be unavoidable voice phone calls, collaborating with and enlisting the services of a career councillor, and in some cases even making childcare arrangements where applicable. These are the areas in which the fine margins and small details can work for or against you, and this is where a little bit of insight can have some great cost saving implications for you.
Focus on Individual preparation and job-hunting tasks
If you look at each individual task you have to complete in order to prepare for your job hunt, or indeed each task that forms part of the job-hunting process, you’ll find that there is more than one way of doing it and therefore more than one way of saving money. Think about your presentation — you obviously have to present yourself in an appealing way to your potential employers when attending an interview, but you’re by no means going to attend an interview at the same company each time, so a total of only two smart, formal outfits are all you need in the presentation department. You actually only need one which you must keep clean, but a second one is perhaps needed just so that you have a back-up. You never know what could happen.
The same goes for travelling costs. If you have interviews lined-up with companies or prospective employers located in the same general region, this gives you the perfect opportunity to take advantage of services such as all-day travel passes. Prospectors are a lot more flexible than you might initially think, so it’s simply a matter of making an enquiry, which could afford you the convenience of setting appointments according to a time schedule most suitable to you. A ten minute walk between two lined up interviews would save you much more money than having to take another bus to get to your next appointment, for instance.