Cv for Interviews

Posts Tagged ‘People’

There are two parts to the perfect job: obtaining it and keeping it. Its easy enough
to get hired for the job of your dreams but being able to keep that job for the long
haul is another story. With such an up and down turn in the economy over the
years many companies are downsizing and even the best people are losing their
jobs. How is it that some people are terminated while others manage to keep their
jobs? Is there something special that separates those people from the others?
One reason some people keep their jobs while others around them are being
downsized is their dedication. For some people a job is just a job and those are
usually the first ones to be eliminated when there is the need to cut staff.
Companies have a tendency to keep those employees who are dedicated, loyal and
put forth a little extra effort to get the job done. These are the people are receive
recognition for their efforts and are the first ones to be considered for a promotion.
You must become one of those dedicated people if you want to not only obtain the
perfect job but also keep it throughout a struggling economy.

Although there is never a guarantee you will keep your job, the harder you work
and the more dedicated you are the better the chances are that you will still being
sitting at your desk when others have been terminated. In places where no union
enforces the rules, the newest person is not necessarily the first person to go but
rather the person who has the least amount of dedication and loyalty to the
company. This person comes in on time and leaves on time seldom working
overtime while the dedicated employee may even come in early or stay late without
recording the time, especially when work needs completed and there is no budget
for overtime.

You invested a lot of time and effort into obtaining your perfect jobnow you want
to use that same effort and dedication to keep your job and rise to higher levels.
Develop your own standards rather than following what others around you are
doing. Put worth the effort that you feel is right for you and dont pay attention to
what anyone else thinks you should do. The choices you make will determine
whether you are the person who stays or goes when your company needs to make
staffing cuts.

If you want to increase your chances of getting your perfect job, you want to make
sure you do well at the interview. One of the most important things to remember is
to remain focused on the interviewer and the interview. There is no quicker way to
fail at an interview than to allow the interviewer to see you looking out the window
or daydreaming rather than focusing on him or her and the interview. It is not only
rude but it makes the interviewer feel you are not interested in the interview itself.
Some people just feel as long as they are listening to what the interviewer has to
say there is no need to maintain eye contact. Unfortunately this is an incorrect line
of thinking and in fact makes the interviewer feel you are not really interested in
anything he or she has to say. Keep in mind that the interviewer is sizing you to
see if you are a good fit for the company, so if he cannot read your eyes because
you are staring into space you may as well leave the room because you have
already lost any chance of getting that perfect job.

Even if you find interviews boring, and most of us do, you still have to maintain an
aura of interest if you expect to be hired for that perfect job. Its not difficult to
pretend to be interested for the few minutes you will be talking to the interviewer.
Remember, if you fail at the interview you will have to continue the process but if
you present a good image and are hired you do not have to go to any more
interviews.

If you have trouble focusing when you go to an interview, try practicing at home so
that you can get into the habit of maintaining eye contact with your interviewer in
order to increase your chances of getting that perfect job. Learn to look at the
interviewer instead of out the window, into space or down at the floorworse yet,
looking at messages on your cell phone. Your focus and attention need to be on the
person who is interviewing you and not on anything else in the room. Remember
the interviewer has other things to do and has taken time out of his or her busy
schedule to interview you for the job.

Creating a resume or CV is central to the search for a job, but is something most of us hate doing. Unfortunately, very few people are adept at presenting themselves in the best possible light and this can mean their application is rejected at the first hurdle.

One of the biggest mistakes most people make is sending out the same resume for every application. It’s a big temptation – you’ve spent hours getting the details and layout just right, or perhaps you’ve paid a considerable amount of money to have someone write it professionally. The trouble is, each resume needs to be tailored to the job in question, and it’s vital that you do this if you want to stand out from the crowd.

What does tailoring a resume mean? It simply means writing it specifically for the post you are targeting. To do this you must recognise the keywords the employer will be looking for and relate them to your own experience. Keywords will be found in the job description and person specification, or in the job advertisement and on the company website. They describe the skills, qualifications and experience needed for the post. Keywords should stand out on your resume – don’t forget that in the first round of the selection process, resumes are usually only given a 20 second glance. So if the interviewer doesn’t see what he’s looking for, your resume is destined for the shredder.

Here’s an example of targeting: let’s say you are a secretary who speaks several languages and can take shorthand in all of them, but are applying for a job in an office where only English and audio are used. Languages and shorthand, impressive as they are, would not be the most prominent skills on your resume. Instead, you would focus on the skills required, which might be fast typing, advanced Excel or Powerpoint. Languages and shorthand would be mentioned briefly, perhaps under the heading “Additional Skills.”

Another common mistake, usually made by older applicants, is including their entire work and educational history. It’s usual (in the UK) for CVs to go back only 10 years in terms of work and if you have a degree, school qualifications can be omitted, unless specifically requested or relevant. Employers occasionally ask for a full CV, in which case you do have to include everything.

Choosing the wrong format can also condemn your resume to the bin – different styles work best in specific situations. Many people stick to the chronological resume, but this is not always the most appropriate. It works well if you have been steadily progressing up the ladder in a particular career, or if your most recent jobs are likely to impress the company you hope to work for.

A skills-based or functional resume is great if you have gaps in your work history, as you can use it to highlight the fact that you have exactly the skills the employer is looking for. It’s also useful if you are moving to a new career or area of work and your work experience isn’t completely relevant.

A targeted resume is aimed at a precise job or career, for example if you retrained as a teacher in your 30s or 40s and were applying for a teaching post, your work-related heading might be “Teaching Experience” and your main skills would all be relevant to teaching, for example using IT in the classroom and curriculum development. For soft skills, such as communication skills and team work, you would use examples from your teaching career.

You may need to have different styles of resume for different applications. If we use the previous example of the secretary, she might have had a series of language related jobs and is now applying for linguist and non linguist posts. She could choose a chronological resume for the language jobs and a functional resume for the others.

To sum up, individualist every resume for the job concerned, choose the most suitable format for the situation and remember: keywords must jump out at the reader in the first 20 seconds.

Before you can begin to seek the perfect job, you have to be able to define what it
means to you. There is no generic meaning nor will you have the same definition as
someone else, even your spouse or significant other. Everyone looks for something
different and thus the meaning of the perfect job will differ even among family
members. It may even have a different meaning for you now than it will ten years
from now. In short, the perfect job is the one that offers what you want and gives
you the satisfaction of feeling you accomplished something when you go home at
the end of your shift.

The first thing you want to do is make a list of what you expect from a new position
whether its with your current employer or whether you are planning to go to a new
company. Unless you are able to identify what you seek it will be very difficult to
find the perfect job. You would be going into it blindly much like looking for a house
without having any idea where you wanted to live or what amenities you wanted in
it. You always want to have a plan, some idea of where to begin. The more details
you list, the easier it will be for you to find what you want from the beginning
instead of continually changing jobs while you look for the perfect one.
Dont expect to find one generic definition for the perfect job because you are not
going to find it. You will view it differently than anyone else you know because at
least one thing is going to be different. For some people the perfect job may be
something that allows them to work a set work schedule very day while others may
be looking for the convenience to telecommute one or more days a week. You want
to identify what it means for you regardless of what it may mean to anyone else.
Make a list of all of the things that are important to you in a job or career and then
work from your list to find that perfect job. Take the time to look for what you
really want rather than taking the first thing that comes alongit doesnt look good
on your resume if you continue to job hop instead of attempting to find the position
you want from the start.