How To Turn Your Temporary Job Into A Full-Time Job
There’s all this plan you have mapped out for your future and having a temporary job is probably not part of that plan. So while others are celebrating, you are doing more calculations, trying to find a way of getting your dream job.
You also possibly already know the benefits of a temporary job but you feel it’s time to venture into the full-time market. If you’re one of those people, you like what you see or have in your current temporary job you’re thinking of ways to turn your current job into a full-time one.
If that is so, then you’re in the right place. Here are ten steps you can take to turn your temporary job into a permanent one.
Keep Increasing in Value
You must find new things to learn. Learn all you can and all your work has to offer. Read articles and ask questions on things you don’t understand.
Get better at what you do and add a whole set of skills to it. Make yourself useful to everyone around. You should not let the version of you that got the job still be the same one after three months into the job.
As you increase in knowledge so does your value too and soon your employer will be thinking twice about letting you go.
Always Stay Positive
One sure way to walk your way into the hearts of your colleagues and employer is to have a nice attitude. Even if it looks like nobody is watching, a lot of people actually are. There’s already too much stress and troubles in the world and nobody is spending time browsing how to add additional problems to their lives.
You might indeed have a lot to worry about. This current temporal job is likely one of them but taking your problems to work won’t help you solve them.
Always be calm and maintain positive thoughts. Your thoughts have a way of influencing the way you live your life and even what comes around you. It also reveals the kind of person you are- not confident.
All the worrying cannot guarantee you a permanent position but even destabilizes the temporal one. So why indulge yourself? Instead, take your time meditating on the right things. We guarantee you’ll feel happier, stronger, and clearer to plan your future.
Be Hardworking
This is of course important. No employer will offer a full-time job to a lazy and unproductive employee. Even the permanent workers do not go scot-free for long being lazy not to talk of the temporal workers.
We advise you not to take more work than you can handle at a time, to ensure you produce maximum quality outputs. Also, if you can ensure you do not give constant excuses when it comes to your tasks, it will make your transition to a permanent position more feasible.
Get used to taking the initiative. Show yourself as a mature, responsible worker that doesn’t need to be spoon-fed every time.
Be careful to do the work you were employed to do before venturing into other tasks and do it so well your employer would be sorry to see you go.
Get Yourself Noticed
Working hard and going the extra mile is good but if it’s not noticed then it’s almost a waste. Now, we are not saying to go around blowing your own trumpet or wearing your accomplishments like a medal on your neck. That will get you out of the workplace, faster than you expected. How then do you do this?
It’s simple, let your work do the talking. Don’t let jobs you can help with go without volunteering for them. More importantly, ensure you offer quality service. Dishing out results is awesome but dishing out quality results consistently is bound to get heads turning in your direction.
Find that one thing you are absolutely good at and latch onto it. Make it yours. This is how to make yourself indispensable to the company.
Look for challenging tasks around the office and take them on as projects too.
Note: Do not be a busybody, always in people’s faces and tasks to get yourself noticed. Oh, they’ll notice you alright and also be wondering how long your contract remains to be over with the company.
Build Relationships
Don’t try to exist on your own. From the moment you find yourself at that new job, blend in and become a part of them. A referral can come from any one of the people, you never can tell who has the ears of the superiors in the workplace.
Blending means you also become privy to work news. It will help you know where best to step your foot as you go about your duties.
You also can never tell in whom you will find real, long-lasting friendships that will help you in the future.
Your Physical Appearance Matters
Clothes say a lot about the wearer. Dress to say I’m a confident person. Ensure you look smart all the time. Wear clean, professional clothes as needed for your job.
Watch your shoes and headgears. You want to leave a good first and continuous impression. You don’t need to have the whole world. Just a few good clothes are enough to make your statement.
Then, you add a good speech and an awesome manner of approach to it. All in all, cultivate such a personality that people see you coming afar and smile or wave you close by instead of praying for you to pass by their desks quietly.
Go For the Job
Yes, ask about the job. How would they know you are interested if you don’t make this known? Waiting to be approached first is an error you must correct immediately if you have not already done so.
There are three reasons you might find it hard to ask for full-time employment:
- Low Confidence: You think you’ve not done enough or worthy enough to be given the job if it’s available anyway.
This is not true. You are only expected to do to the utmost of your ability and if you have done this, you should be at peace. You have every right to ask. What have you got to lose anyway?
- Excessive Self-importance: You find it embarrassing to have to ask for a permanent job even when you want it. You may feel it makes you look low, maybe clingy. If this is your case, then you don’t want the job enough yet.
You’ll need to kill that pride and get moving towards that goal of yours. Here are two ways to do it. Ask yourself how your ego will keep you when your contract is over. Two, make a long list of reasons why you want a full-time job. Those reasons should spur you on.
- You are Not Sure About How to Go About it: We would like you to know that there is one way to do this. It’s simple- Ask questions.
During your stay there, you should have become close to some persons. This is where relationships come in handy. Ask them about it.
Professionally ask your direct superior about an open position and make your desire known to him. Listen to his/her advice on the issue.
If you know someone in the same office that got to a full-time position from a temporary one, there’s a good bet they have worthwhile information on it.
Also, if there is a vacant position, apply for it but inform your superior about your decision, there just might be a special consideration or advice for you.
All that is needed is that you make your desire known.
Keep to the Rules of Your Workplace
A sure way to get yourself pinned on the negative side of your company’s board is to always be caught disobeying their rules and regulations. Stick to the ethics of your profession too.
If you are always looking for shortcuts to achieving your tasks, you will probably fall prey to the wrong side of the law.
This should be your first stop before going for the job, read everything on their rules and regulations, and decide to keep to it. If you have not already done this or you have been defaulting, this should be your next stop.
Prove Your Professional Integrity:
Don’t be so overwhelmed or desperately trying to change your position to a full-time one that you lose focus or become willing to do anything.
You must stand by the values you believe in. Lying or trying to get another person in trouble to secure your position will not end well in the long run. Do not accept to do any tasks against your beliefs.
It’s no longer a secret, some of the shady things that go on in the workplace. Some superiors ask for money to recommend you for the job, others have been known to ask for sexual favors. If this comes up, it is enough reason to get you running out of the workplace.
Believe us, there’s no use going the opposite path to integrity. First, it has no real guarantee of getting you the full-time position.
Second, it will always stay on your conscience. You will always remember what you did to get that job and no security can come from it. Also, there’s the need to maintain the position in the future, how will you do it?
Third, these things never truly leave. There’s a high chance that the person will keep records of it to get you to do worse things in the near future, threaten you from exposing the truth when you want, or use the evidence to keep you from ever leaving the job. What a bummer right? When you did all those things to get the job and can’t even leave on your own?
Fourth, it proves that the company has no true value for talent. You need a full-time job where your value is what is considered before your addition to the team. This way, you can always increase it to stay needed.
Be Open to Refusal
This may not be what you want to hear but it’s the truth. Not all temporal jobs will lead to a permanent placement. Knowing this early, will save you heartaches where you’re asking, “did I do something wrong,’ did I not work enough?”
You probably did not but the company may simply not have any vacant fill time position available at that time.
Your aim should be to leave such a good report of yourself wherever you are. Then if a position opens up in the future, you would be foremost on their minds, they can’t help but call for you.
Also, those valuable relationships you built working at your temporary job are not a waste. They can be connections to a better job in the future or just plain valuable friendships in the long run.
The knowledge you gathered from the temporal job is yours to keep for life. You can put it to good use either personally or add it to the experience section on your CV.
You must know that life comes in stages. Do your best wherever you find yourself, keep adding value to your life and you’ll see unexpected doors open for you.