CV Resume Blog

First step when looking for a job is resume writing, then you send your cover letter and attached cv to any company who is hiring for a job you would like to do and, eventually you received a call placing you for a personal interview at human resources department. Here comes the first doubt, what should i wear in the meeting?

Sure many people will tell you always need to wear  siut, and tie, when going for a job interview. However at some companies ir you show up wearing so formal dress code everybody will know that is your first time.

Once you receive the call, first thing to do it investigating how the company works; what they really do, how many employees does it have and , of course, what kind of dress code workers are required.  Anyway you need to know what kind of job they are offering to you; employees are suppose to follow a strict dress code when they attend to clients face to face that if they are working at backstage.

In case you are applying for a job where uniform is required and provided by company, business casual wear will be formal enough to show a good impresion. A good advice is to dress confortable but not too sporty: jeans and shirt will be ok but be sure not to wear gym clothes.

Sometimes much more important that what are you wearing is how you wear it. Don’t wear too aged , old-fashioned clothing and be cautious about how clean are you clothes and yourself. Nobody likes to work everyday with someone who looks like he or she were allergic to water and bath products!

Thanks to new technologies resume writing and sending is not the only way to get a job. Social media services have spread very quickly among the Internet users in the last few years and many of these users are not aware how powerful this services can be when you are looking for a new job.

Social media profiles show to the world who you are and what you can do so employers have started to look for candidates in this sites. In this way the employers can access many information to find the perfect person to hire for a certain job that they couldn’t find reading a professional resume.

However you must remember that every you post on the Internet with public access can be find too. So be careful and wise when talking about something you didn’t like at your actual job. Employers don’t like controversial and troubled employees and once they get a bad impression about you i doesn’t matter anymore what your resume says about what have you done.

You have to manage social media as if you were working as public relations services for yourself. It you want to have a personal profile in which to feel free to publish anything be wise about who can reach that profile, don’t accept as a friend anyone who request it ir he or she is not an actual close friend.

You have to think in your resume as it were a spot that is selling you. You need to appear more interesting to the employer than the other candidates to receive the call for a personal interview and, eventually, get the job you are applying for.

In order to get the attention of the employer there are some common mistakes to avoid:

1.    Write a CV  template presenting the same data every time.  Be aware that some data that it is really important in some jobs , it is useless for others.
2.    Spelling and grammar mistakes. Check your resume as many times as you can before print it or send it to the employer, it is really important that it has not any kind of language mistake when somebody read it.
3.    Title the document as CV or resume. Anyone who takes the document already knows it is a resume and titling in that way seems to be a resume example of and office suite.
4.    Use too many acronyms of hard-to-understand expressions although you are applying for a technical job. Sometimes at human resources department are not experts and using abbreviations would be a barrier to understand your presentation and make clear you are a good candidate for the job.
5.    Lying about your qualifications or your skill it is always a bad idea. You could be asked about this aspects at the interview and you would seem like a cheater in front of the employers and nobody wants to hire a liar.

Remember that when someone reads your CV it has to attract enough to make him or her call you for a personal contact and it would not happen if your resume looks like a mess.

It is said that 9 years old children in 2015 will be working in 2025 in jobs we do not wven know now. Same it is happening in our world right now, nobody knew what a community manager means a couple of years ago and suddenly it seems everybody is working on it.

All this changes force workers to learn quickly and they need to be ready. Actually it is not requisite  to have all that data prepared for cv, it is more important to have the attitude, to be ready for the new.

I remember  some people a few years ago that they were to old to handle computers and they didn’t wanted to learn anything about them, Now most of them have to work with computers everyday  and spend the whole day complaining how difficult it is. I would bet all they think about computer skills as resume writing and they realize how fool they were those days.

According to U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics report “Ten Fastest Growing Occupations for College Grads” 2004-2014  five of the top 10 jobs are computer science related and other five are science related and all these fields are in constant evolution. All this jobs mean workers need to learn constantly about new developments and techniques and whoever is not able to do it, will be not a good candidate to that job.

While you are putting all your data together to compose your resume, keep in mind that adaptation and learning skill are well appreciated by employers

Just recently I stumbled across an article about this cover letter generating software called the amazing cover letter creator. It claims to be by far the best on the market and so I didn’t want to talk about this subject.

I don’t understand how you can claim to be the best cover letter creator. I don’t believe in the fact that “In Only 3½ Minutes, You Can Quickly And Easily Crank Out A Killer Cover Letter That Is Guaranteed To Have Your Phone Ringing Off The Hook With Hot Job Interviews And Top Job Offers… Without Writing One Word!”. In my experience every company has its own demands and I if there is one thing they have in common, it’s the fact that they all want a personalised letter which is directly addressed to their company and their demands.

Only the fact that you just have to click a button, fill in the blanks and a “perfectly crafted” cover letter 100% customized for you pops out, doesn’t seem to be good according to me. Not everyone can have the same cover letter which works for different positions and different personalities. What is your opinion about this subject? Do you think these kinds of pre-crafted letters work? Please let me know your thoughts about it.

A cover letter is very important when you are writing a resume. Whether it’s good or bad, it gives a certain first impression and it’s up to you to decide which impression you want to make. There are different ways to write a cover letter and I want to give a couple of tips to write it in one way.

A cover letter is always built up in three different sections. On the first paragraph, you want to identify the position you are applying for, how you found out about the job vacancy and of course why you are interested in the job. On the second paragraph, you have to convince the company that you are a good candidate for the job offer by discussing the offer and summarising why your skills are related to the job. Furthermore you can give some accomplishments of yours and some positive characteristics that may help you to get the job.

Finally, you should write a closing paragraph where you thank the company for considering your CV and it’s always good to say that you hope to make a chance for a personal conversation with the interviewer. This shows how hard you want the job. But whatever you do, make the company believe that you write to them in person, when you are applying for different jobs, it’s better to make different cover letters which are personally directed to the company where you are applying for the job. Making them personal shows your interest and involvement.

There are many people who ask the question what they do wrong when they don’t get accepted for an interview or fail at the job interview itself. In fact there are many different theories about it and everyone claims to know the answers. I disagree with this. There could be a million of reasons why your CV is not good enough and I think these reasons differ from company to company.

The fact is that you cannot do anything about it. You just have to move on and apply for another job. Because when you keep on trying, eventually you will find the job that serves you right. Of course there are many tips for enhancing your chances of getting a job. Here are 5 more I found and might be interesting for you.

The first one is that you don’t have to be afraid to ask the companies you sent your job resume to or where you did an interview their feedback. They know what they are talking about. They are experts; they have read your CV and interviewed you. So they are the ones who know what you can do better or what you can change.

Secondly you want to make sure that your resume is not longer than two pages. Keep it nice, clean and simple. This means that you don’t want to have any unnecessary information on a professional resume. Interviewers take maybe 30 seconds to look at your resume so you want to make sure that they read what you want them to read in this amount of time.

Furthermore it would be good to practice your interview techniques with a friend. Ask for feedback on how comfortable you look and how you connect with the interviewers. Ideal would be to go and see a career counsellor who can give you professional hints.

The fourth tip I want to share is that you should conduct as much information about the job you apply for as possible. Try to identify the company, look for figures and study it closely. It’s a huge advantage when you look interested in the company and it’s a good way to look well prepared for the interview.

Finally it could be good to send a follow up. In here you send a thank you note together with a copy of your CV. In this way, the company will be reminded of you and maybe call you for another job vacancy.

As we all know, it’s good to have contacts in order to get a job and Social Media can help you building up a solid network of professional connections.

These days networking is not only about going to meetings and talk with people anymore. Nowadays we all have different professional and personal ‘social networks’ on the internet. When I say names of websites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, everyone knows what I am talking about. You don’t need to go from the one meeting to the other one anymore to build up a network, these days it’s all about Social Media. Future employers check LinkedIn pages and other sites to receive as much information as they can find about possible employees. So basically in these days you can get or forget a job online.

We use social media at home, at work, on our mobile phones,… It’s becoming a lifestyle and what is more important, is that everyone can see what you are doing. This includes the company you work for or you want to work for.

We all know the double feeling when our boss wants to add us on Facebook. You think it will be rude to decline it, so you accept the offer. But have you ever considered giving him limited access? You can do this very easily and you can keep your privacy and not be rude at the same time. This is just one examples of coping with your online professional and personal network. Internet is controlling our lives more than ever, but we need to change this into controlling the Internet to build up a solid network online.

Finally I want to give you more information about some Facebook pages that might interest you when you want to apply for a job somewhere. The first one is called Resume Writing, CV Writing and Jobs and has over a hundred fans. The second one is an upcoming page called Your Guide to CV Resume and Cover Letter and gives you more information about how to get a job.

You are trying to find a new job but you don’t really know how to start writing your CV, it’s very important that you use the right format, say the right things, don’t say too much and be specific at the same time. This all freaks you out and you need help to elaborate the best resume possible for you.

On cv-resume.com, you can find al kinds of resume templates that you can download to create a job-winning resume. The site offers free samples of different templates from a professional and functional format to an experienced and combined format and an executive and chronological one. Furthermore you can download free examples of skill phrases and you can find free examples of different cover letters. In this way, you don’t have to worry anymore whether your resume is established in a good way or not because you know that this is the way that you want your CV to be.

The only thing you cannot forget is that a CV has to be personal, so tell everything in your own words with your own experiences.  Of course it is important to have a good resume which looks nice, but it is even more important that it’s your resume and you are happy about it. A sample CV is a way of helping you with your job resume but they are not meant to copy blindly without thinking for yourself.

You are looking for a job and you are interested in working overseas. Don’t expect that the resumes and interviews are the same in every country. They all have their own habits and ways of coping with solicitations.

You know how you can execute a solicitation in Shanghai, Brussels or in Copenhagen? If you don’t and you want to work in these cities, I suggest that you search as much as you can find about it. Is your marital status relevant on your CV? Do you write down all your experiences? For instance in England, a good resume is considered short, really punctual and around one page. What do you wear during a job interview? Can you speak overtly about money? How much do they usually pay in these countries?… These are all examples of what you should keep in mind when you are applying for a job placement abroad.

Furthermore, there are some requirements in several countries depending on where you are applying. Sometimes it is required to talk about your hobbies, put a picture on your CV (for example in Spain), add your date of birth, talk about your language skills (entire Europe),… I, for once, had to write about my favourite music bands, favourite movies and series, favourite soccer teams,… The interviewers said that they wanted to know more about me and see if I could fit in the company’s culture and habits. So it is important that you find out everything that is necessary to insert on your CV and to say during the solicitation.

The last advice I can give is to write a great cover letter and a solid CV because you have to win the confidence of foreign people who can also choose from candidates of their home country.