Eight basic emloyment rules you can't afford to miss.

There many reasons people changing job. Any job getting old one day vs. new job is fun in a beginning and time going fast. Or may be you overqualified and employer do not value that. Or, perhaps place where you work have no room for you to grow. Changing job is crucial for many. If you one of them please read cover letter meaning, and those who knows what cover letter is, here some "eight must have" basics.

1. Your return address, phone number, should appear on the top right hand corner of the letter.

2. Include the date just above the beginning of the letter.

3. Begin with salutation: "Dear Mr./Ms./Mrs." followed by the individual's last name, then a colon(:). If you are applying to a blind ad and don't know the name of the person, it is acceptable to write "Dear Hiring Manager."


4. The first paragraph should state immediately which position you are applying for. Also, you may want to include that you are responding to an advertisement, with the date of its publication.

5. The second should provide information about why you would be beneficial for the company.

6. The third should mention your knowledge of the company or the industry in which it operates, and why it would be interesting for you to work there.

7. The final is your closing, and can specifically request an interview — but don't forget to include the time of day when you are most easily reached. Follow up with a phone call after a few days.

8. The closing should be simple — "Best regards," or "Sincerely" are always appropriate.

Creating new resume also will help you to feel more confident or will help you to see in what place of your career path you right now.

Job interview tips.

The first mistake which is frequently made by people coming on an interview is their appearance. The women loaded with bags frequently "run in". It is better to postpone shopping for a more convenient time. And men for some reason frequently try to combine trip to car-repair center and to the interview. It is absolutely inadmissible to appear on an interview in a sports suit, a vest and shorts, and with a string-bag. Words "I do a renewal" are not so convincing.

There are cases, when people come to the interview with their relatives. As a result, a more active wife who has brought a clumsy husband, takes the initiative on herself and silences the husband. So the impression of a slack and not initiative worker is created about him.

It is necessary to be prepared for the interview beforehand. It is desirable to think over possible questions and your answers to them. To make the resume.

Your task is to receive during the interview as much information about the vacancy and the company as possible.


Following links are helpful:

Resume & Cover Letter Samples

Resume Writers

Are you a master of resume writing?

It's the first way you introduce yourself to a potential employer — and it can affect whether or not HR person bothers to turn the page and even look at your resume. It's called a cover letter, and sending a resume without it usually means your CV will end up in the trash.

Consider the strategy of sending a resume from the point of view of the boss:

If you were hiring someone for a position, what kind of introduction would you require from candidates?

Would it suffice to send a general resume that doesn't even mention the position you are seeking?
Or would you like to see someone that has basic knowledge about your company, the position and can assess his or her strengths and skills concisely and directly in the package of a professionally prepared letter of introduction?

Think of a cover letter as a marketing tool to highlight your most attractive features and make them known to the ones doing the hiring.

Be brief. Don't go over your entire work history. Highlight one or two top accomplishments or skills. The rest you can save for the interview.

Explain how your experience makes you qualified for the position. Even if your background may not perfectly match the job, explain how your experience is relevant and has prepared you for future work.

Quality over quantity. A cover letter should be used to target a specific job at a specific company, meaning you should tailor each letter that you send.

Know to whom you should send your letter. The more influential, the better. You need to know the department head or person who will be screening resumes and address the letter directly.

Always send a resume with a cover letter. Sometimes you could send only a cover letter as a follow up to a conversation with a contact in a company.

How to write CV

Introduction.

Respectable recommendations and remarkable CVs do not guarantee the
complete success during the job interview. The most important thing is an
interview itself. Remember that on the interview you have a so-called
small encounter with the employer. Though there will be no winner or
loser but it is really important. If you will have a nice interview both
you and employer will be winners. There is an old joke about three girls
who applied for the position of a secretary and typist. They were asked
several ordinary and standard questions and they all replied
differently. However it turned out that their replies were not important and the
position was given to the girl with big breast. This joke has not lost
its originality and urgency nowadays. Firstly it says and reminds us
about particular rules of the employer during the interview. And these
standard rules are not common for everybody. They vary very much. It
means that we have to learn the common features of the interview bec
ause it is practically impossible to learn all the rules. It is
difficult to avoid risks and hilarious situations which you can face with
during the interview. But we will talk about them a little bit later.
First of all let me introduce or just remind you some rules of the
successful interview. These rules may be very helpful for all of you.
Get ready for the interview.
As it is said, improvisation is good when it is well prepared. Do not
be sure in your ability to act without being ready for it. Be ready to
give two types of different answers - answers for common questions,
which would come in use during all the interviews and special answers
oriented on particular employer. These are necessary tasks which you have to
complete if you do not want to have extra risks.
Think over the questions which you will be asked anyway. Ask one of
your relatives or friends to play a role of the employer and try to
rehearse your future dialog. Avoid any words and pauses like: Well+you
know+you see+" and so on. If you have an opportunity to take a video of
yourself - do it. Rehearse your pose, manners of behavior and pay your
attention on each detail.
Be ready for different surprises. They can be much unexpected. Every
simple and ordinary question becomes very difficult to answer in case it
was asked in a strange way. Let's see an example of such questions:
How can we use your professional skills in our company? Or what
advantages do you have for working in that sphere?" you should not think that
the employer have doubts about your skills and ability to cope with all
tasks. Just say: I think that I can be useful for your company
because+.." and tell the employer about your advantages.
Prepare short and bright examples which show your attitude towards the
work and can assure the employer that you have the best features for
getting that position. If you come and say that I can work - it means
that you say nothing. Find out all possible information about the company
where you would like to work. You should be interested in everything:
the type of the company, this specialization, what services it can
provide for their workers, its latest achievements, structure of
organization and if it is possible, plans for the future. Talk to people who can
inform you about the situation in the company. Useful information you
can find in special business editions. Of course, you have to work hard
and spend a lot of time to get ready. But on the interview you would
have an opportunity to show your knowledge and for example say: I have an
experience of arranging PR companies and I suppose it would be useful
for your company.
It is necessary to express your motivation to work for the company or
the organization. For example: being a student I decide to specialize
in PR. Now your company needs a good specialist in it and I am ready to
work for it and improve that sphere."
The invitation on the interview is usually made on the phone. The first
contact and any first impression are very important for you. Warn your
family that the employer may call in the evening or at weekends. Do not
have a phone conversation in a room where a TV-set or radio is turned
on or somebody is talking. Mind your Ps and Qs. May be this proverb is
rude but it is necessary to keep a neutral tone of your voice and manner
of speech. Do not be lazy to ask the name and surname of the person you
are talking with and his or her telephone number to be aware of
situation.
You should dress properly for the interview even there is no dress code
in the company. Check your costume and footwear. It must be clean and
fresh. Do not leave it for the last moment.
Being late for the interview is like a death! Try to learn the route in
every detail because post address is not enough. If you have and drive
a car remember and try to avoid traffic jams. It is better to come 10
minutes before the interview.

Resume "must have"

What one does not need to include in the resume

Do not include into your resume all your job history. Your potential employer is interested only in the last three to five working positions for the period about ten years which are meaningful to the job you are applying for. Resume should be official. Do not overload it with personal information, that is: information concerning your relatives, your weight and health. Do not apply your picture to the resume (only when required by the employer).

In conclusion pay attention to the following detail: your resume should be immaculate, that’s why ask somebody with the excellent knowledge of English to check your resume for mistakes. Besides, do not trust Word Redactor, check your resume twice before sending it to employers. Read it aloud to see if there are any mistakes or ambiguities.

Rules of the resume composing

Remember three key ideas:

1.You have only one chance to succeed with the help of your resume when it is being read for the first time.

2. Writing your resume follow the rules of selectivity. The information for the resume should be selected according to its aims.

3. A successful resume may become the reason of a personal interview with the employer but it does not guarantee getting the job.

Your aim is to make the person reading your resume want to meet you

When there has been announced a vacancy for a more or less serious job, employer gets an astonishing number of resumes. And there is a possibility that your particular resume might not be noticed at all even if you meet the employer’s demands. The resume is read by live human beings. If you are not lucky, your resume may be read at the end of the second hundred of the letters. By that time managers try to get rid of the letters because they already have enough appropriate candidates. That’s why the task is to attract their attention. For that aim your resume should look different from the others. Psychologists advise to use paper of an unusual color. Do not hurry to the store to get some poisonous colored paper. Among the most suitable colors are light-grey, light-yellow, light-green and, best of all, ivory (never use pink or blue!). Of course, paper should be of the highest quality!

Main requirements and regulations:

The style of resume writing should be concise, concrete, active (never write that you participated, helped and so on. It makes them think that you rendered random service), honest.

Resume should be well-structured and be written in a simple language. It must take minimum of your potential employer’s time to look it through and make the decision about it. Your key abilities, achievements and experience should be evident.

One should be very concrete in the formulas’ selection. Don’t write:

Have been teaching

Helped to decrease the number of mistakes

Quick at acquiring new knowledge

Instead you should write:

Has trained two new employees, reduced the number of mistakes by 10% and saved 50000 $ for the company, mastered new procedures in a record short terms – during two weeks

Don’t write wordy and avoid passive tense. Avoid long phrases and intricate words. If you have to use special terms, make sure that they will be understood by everybody. In describing your present work use verbs in the present tense and accordingly if you describe your previous jobs use past tenses only. Be consistent: if you have used some contraction once, use it through the whole resume (but it is better to write all the words in full forms). Avoid using the pronoun I. Prefer positive information to negative do not write settled complaints, prevented the profits from falling, switched my position . Instead you should write helped the clients, increased the product’s potential on the market, advanced in my position.

Concentrate attention on your achievements. Do not write I have worked there for three years, performed extra work. You should write: got a promotion and two salary increases, always performed my job in time.

Resume must be correctly designed. It is connected with the peculiarities of human perception. Resume should be readable. Remember that illegible resumes are never read. Define all the most important headings, see that your resume is designed in one and the same style. Choose the style which is easy to read (big margins, a medium font, enough space between the lines and so on and so forth). One must combine equal intervals, neat margins and one must not ignore indentions. It is better to print your resume with a laser printer so that your text looked more presentable. Resume must be short. It is very important to put your resume on two pages maximum. The optimal size is one page. Usually, each resume takes 15-20 second of manager’s time. During that period the manager marks your as perspective or absolutely unsuitable. That’s why you might not have the second chance. During those 15-20 seconds you should demonstrate the grounds of your pretensions on the job. Describe in detail your recent experience for the 5-7 years. Don’t use minor features. Resume must be well thought-out. Its contents should correspond to the position you are striving for. If you can apply for different jobs, send a few different resumes. Resume must be conclusive. List the results of your previous job, using figures and per cents, show your real achievements. Resume must be exact. Avoid too general information and extra definitions. Resume should be true. Don’t boast writing about your positive experiences. Be sure that you can prove all the information which you included into your resume. Resume should be finished. Employers understand that if they ask for recommendations, they will get them. That’s why do not write in the end that recommendations are attached.

One should say in the very beginning that there is no unified form for the resume. Investigations in the area show that employers pay attention first of all to the previous job, secondly, to the job history, and then to the candidate’s qualification. So it should contain the following data:

1.Your name, age, contact phone.

2.Your aims (why you are applying to that very company, what kind of job you are looking for).

3.Education (starting from your last place of studies, that is in the reverse chronological order). And here you should mention the date when you started and the graduation date, the name of the educational institution, faculty, specialization, granted qualification.

4. Your working experience( again in the reverse chronological order): the date when you started and finished working, name of the company, its priorities, name of your position, the number of your subordinates (if any), your responsibilities and concrete achievements.

5. Complementary education – courses, seminars, trainings, probations

6. Extra skills (computer skills, knowledge of foreign languages, driving license, typing skills and others)

7. Your advantages (mention a few of your personal traits which differentiate you from the others and help to achieve high results).

HOW TO WRITE A GOOD RESUME

HOW TO WRITE A GOOD RESUME

So, one morning after you woke up, went to the bathroom and had a nice breakfast, all of a sudden you realize that it is high time to start looking for the job. There are two most wide-spread ways to look for the job.

The first way is through somebody’s protection using your family, friends or any other type of relations. There is no advice here except for to have as many acquaintances as possible, especially in your professional sphere. It has been proved by experience that communicative people have less problems searching for jobs because the more acquaintances you have the more it is possible that your future employer might be among them. But at the same time you should not expect that all of your friends will recommend you to their bosses. We live in a very competitive time when everybody is afraid to lose their job (what might happen if you fail to succeed in the new place? It is quite possible that the person who recommended you will be fired too).

The second way of searching is more civilized – through the agencies. That is when you go to some career agency which has a number of vacancies. In that case you start competing with other claimants. To win the competition is not an easy target. Except for professional knowledge, you should know standard technologies used by employers for personnel search. And, of course, you should convince your employer that you are the kind of specialist he has been dreaming about during his whole life. Here you will need basic psychological knowledge to go through all the testing, interviews and other terrors.

That’s why when you decided to start searching for job, do not rush to phone all the agencies in town which you have found in the directory. You will have to do it but later.

Instead, start writing your resume. The advice is reasonable because first of all, 99.9 % of the agencies require resumes designed according to certain rules and, secondly, the process of resume writing is a good way to structure your thoughts and ideas. What kind of job do you want to get? In what activity sphere? With what degree of responsibility? What is your knowledge and professional experience in that sphere? What are your strong and weak points? What career path do you imagine for yourself? What post will satisfy you? You should be maximum honest and objective. Be the judge for yourself. The final resume will depend on your answers.

Being unemployed in a critical for the economy time, one feels at least helpless without any means of subsistence. And there arises an important question what to do in the first place (especially if one has never faced such a problem). However saturated the today’s market is, the demand for professionals has not just remained but is also constantly growing. It goes without saying that the supply exceeds the demand which leads to a great competition. That’s why the most important aim of the competitors is to attract attention to his/her nomination. And the professional resume is a visiting card here. One should not hastily send his ill-defined resumes which have been once seen in the press, in the Internet or on TV to all faxes and e-mails. First of all, one should pay attention to how one’s resume is printed, structured and written. Here is advice on how to write a correct resume. A lot has been written on the subject of resume writing. So, let’s concentrate on the most important details.