CV Archives - Foreign policy

7 Best Ways to Build an Impressive Resume

Published on September 3, 2020

Crafting a resume is one of the most stressful aspect of applying for jobs for many people. The document should be a simple, effective way to get your qualifications across to an employer. However, it’s tough to perfect the art of resume writing!

Of course, you should always include your education, relevant experiences, and licenses or certifications. But what are the ways to improve your resume that applicants overlook?

Here are the six best ways to build an impressive resume.

1) Strategic Formatting

Always make your resume easy to read. After all, no employer will know what you can do if they can’t make heads or tails of it! You don’t format it like a novel. Concise bullet points with bold titles make for easy organization and easy-to-read formatting.

One strategic formatting tip is to keep your roles, companies, and dates listed in the same columns each time you start a new section. That way, the interviewer can scan their eyes straight down the page without adjusting to a new format with every section.

You should also choose a simple font. Many people stress about the font that feels “right” for them but keep that for your name at the top. The rest should be a simple font, like Times New Roman, Arial, or whatever seems most appropriate for the kind of position you’re pursuing.

Formatting also entails the structure of your content. If certifications make you stand out in your field from other candidates, emphasize these accomplishments by placing them at the top in a section of “Education” or “Skills.” For example, contractortrainingcenter.com has many different exams that allow you to earn contracting certifications. These would be appropriate to highlight on your resume if you were seeking a career in the construction industry.

2) Quantifiable Data

When you write out positions you have within a company, you often want to accompany this information with the job requirements. Most people have bullet points that describe the position they had. However, you should also ensure that these bullets have quantifiable accomplishments, rather than vague statements.

Instead of saying something like, “led new store openings throughout the world,” say something specific with quantifiable results, such as “led new store openings in eight new countries across Europe.”

This small change is eye-catching and underscores concrete improvements you created for your previous job. You don’t have to detail every accomplishment you’ve had – the biggest ones will work to keep your resume short and sweet.

3) Honesty

Not everyone has extensive experience with big company names, and that’s okay. It’s more crucial that you tell the truth at all times. Instead of making up new roles, or fudging what you’ve done, make the qualifications you have sound stellar.

It’s possible to get hired even if you have a blemish on your record. For example, it’s not impossible to get a job if you have been to jail – it may be more difficult for you than it is for others, but it’s all about how you present it.

Don’t forget that you also have an interview process and other chances to get the real you out there in a positive light.

4) Best Qualifications “Above the Fold”

Though we’d like to think it’s not true, most employers only read the first half of every resume they need to consider. That’s why you should keep your best qualifications “above the fold,” or within the first half of the document. This way, you’re putting your most impressive stuff where they’ll definitely see it.

The first one or two sections, including your name, is your first impression. It needs to be eye-catching so it will compel the hiring manager to keep reading. Since you’ve put your most relevant experience first, they will want to get a better picture of who you fully are as a worker right from the start.

5) Update your Resume for the Job

You should have a resume that lists all your professional experiences. This also means you should update it frequently with any jobs, volunteer opportunities, or classes that you may take throughout your career. You should take things off your resume by the oldest item first. It’s also possible to have a CV on hand, which is a more appropriate place for all your experience.

You can take this a step further by having separate resumes for each type of position you apply for.

Looking for keywords in the job description helps with this. If you have the skills in the exact way the employer wants, it’s great to write them down. It’s a surefire way to get noticed, and tell your potential employer that you’ve been paying attention to their listing in particular.

6) Use Common Sense With Contact Info

You should always put contact information in your header. However, you don’t have to put everything – usually a phone number and email address are all they need. Your address will usually only work in your favor if you already live in the area, which means you’re ready to work whenever they need you.

Make sure you have a professional email address to use! This means no addresses from when you were in high school, or from your current job. The easiest way to ensure you have a good email is to connect it to the name you use for your applications.

7) Always Build For Connections

As a final tip, always be sure to introduce yourself warmly to everyone you meet. It will make your working life more pleasant and open the gateway for fantastic references that you can easily use.

Depending on who they are, your references can give you an easy “in” – always make sure to ask their permission first!

In Conclusion

Writing a great resume is daunting, even for many highly qualified people. If it doesn’t look right, it can cost you excellent opportunities down the line.

However, with these six steps, you’ll be well on your way to creating the most impressive resume you can muster.

New Employee Background Check Laws

Published on May 29, 2020May 31, 2020

Business

With the New Year arises the latest crop of Employment Background Check Laws by each state or country. Bosses must familiarize themselves with the latest and new laws and regulations or risk disrupting the law in almost every state in the country. Potential employers have used to a treasure trove of exceptional detail, both online and offline, which can be the aspect in their recruiting decisions. Here are some employment background check laws and regulations that you must know about it.

The latest background check laws ban employers from using various kinds of information, comprising military and medical data, while drug screenings and credit data need a company’s agreement. Alternatively, job candidates frequently share awkward personal details with prospective employers via social networking websites and other Internet resources or social media.

Peopleg2.com helps corporations discover facts regarding potential recruits and ensure that an applicant does not have problems lurking in their past, which may harm the work or make a safety threat for the other workers. As a job hunter, it makes logic to handle your online status and publicly reveal only that information you will be eager to deliberate in a job interview. Read this article to know about the new Employee Background Check Laws.

Criminal Offenses

Criminal faults in the earlier cause logic of mistrust and endanger a person’s application for a specific job. There are various laws in place to ensure that they achieve a fair opportunity without causing too much harm to the company. Here are some of them:

Companies cannot ask candidates about an arrest that does not give rise to a conviction.
You cannot ask your potential selection regarding their appointment or to participate in a retrial or post-trial departure program.
You can request detail regarding the arrests that are expecting trials.
Any job-related queries related to any sentence are acceptable.
EEOC instructions now call for the appraisal of the candidate’s actions since the crime.
No data of crimes will consider if they come with above the particular number of years before the application.
Other features that contribute are the severity of the offense and the rehabilitation struggles of the candidate.

Credit Reports

It is essential to trust employees in situations dealing with personal information of your consumers and finances. Credit history shows very much about an applicant’s morals and general nature. Though, there are many restrictions on how far you can go while you expose an applicant’s credit past. The company must have an acceptable purpose of dragging up a candidate’s credit data. Some instances of this can be:

An administrative designation
Oath peace officer or other law execution job
An appointment for which the detail needed by law
A situation that comprises access to identified personal detail
If the person is a named signatory on the employer’s bank or credit card account
If an applicant has personal or exclusive information
A situation that comprises regular use to $11,000 or more of cash
Without an allowed reason, rejecting employment to an applicant based on personal credit history does not affect and may disturb state law.

Other Laws

The companies should obtain a written agreement from the candidate to execute such a background screening trial. They will also have to notify the candidate that it may be rejected based on the details accepted in the background check data. The companies are supposing to give a copy of the report to the applicant. The candidate can then deny the information in the data for reassessment by the employer.

If the company then selects not to recruit the candidate based on the report, then they should notify the candidate of this hostile action. The best company can assist you with extremely effective background screening solutions and offer you with applicable data.

Background Checks: Limited Details

When a prospective company organizes a background check, laws in many states ban the use of particular information in recruiting decisions. While public records state that use to information cannot be limited, the use of suitable open data may prohibit hiring decisions. The following kinds of data generally are off-limits to companies:

Qualification Records: College records are frequently considered applicable to a job application and may get with the candidate’s agreement.

Criminal Data: It differs broadly from state to state or country to country, frequently depending on the type of work (like child care conveniences and law execution). Some states permit use to criminal data only with the candidate’s agreement, while others do not.

Military Records: It reflects personal data under the Federal Privacy Act.

Bankruptcy: While bankruptcy case is a problem of public data, they may not implicate the decision to recruit them.

Medical Records: When appropriate to the job, companies may need a physical test. Or else, medical records are personal.

Compensation of Employees: A problem of public data; these records only may use if related to the particular responsibilities of the job.

Why Is It Important?

Nowadays, in an extremely competitive job market, though, many candidates elaborate details, hide detail or operate the data on their resumes or CV. Background screening is, therefore, becoming a command for companies that wish to appoint ‘the best employee’ every time. It is significant to understand, though, that there are lawful restrictions for getting background information.

Except for certain limitations associated with medical and genetic details, federal laws or regulations do not prohibit a boss from asking questions regarding a candidate’s or employee’s background, or to need a background check. Though, whenever you use a candidate or employee’s background detail to make an employment judgment, you must follow federal laws that defend candidates and workers from discrimination.

That comprises discrimination based on race, shade, national origin, or religion, disability, genetic detail (containing family medical history), sex, and age (40 or older). These rules are implemented by the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission). Background checks can give necessary information before deciding to appoint an employer. Though, maintaining the requirement for details with confidentiality rights and evading discrimination maybe a gentle procedure.

Fast & Easy CV Writing Tips for 2020

Published on May 26, 2020June 1, 2020

Business

One of the most important things when looking for a job is your CV. It is quite simple – you get it right, you might get several interviews at once, but get it wrong, you might be facing rejection time and time. As you already know, each CV is different since people want to show why their set of skills makes them suitable for a job position they are applying for, but they all have a similar structure. If you sat down to write your CV, but you came across some obstacles in writing it, this article is practically made for you. In the text below, you will be able to read about some tips for writing a CV. Let’s take a look:

The Best Tips for Writing a CV

While the appearance and structure of your CV can be easily changed to fit your skills and working experiences, there are a few sections that every employer wants to see. The categories you need to include in your CV include:

Your Name, Professional Title, Contact Details

This should be located at the top of your resume. You will need to include your name and surname, professional title, as well as your contact details. You will not have to write a title like “Curriculum Vitae” or “CV” since you will be wasting space. Consider your name to be the title of the CV. For your contact details, you should leave your phone number and email address.

Your Personal Profile

Image source: warwickcareers.com

This section of your resume is one of the most important ones. It is a short section where you will be able to show the employer who you are and what you care about. To properly fill in this section make sure that you answer these three questions:

Who are you?
What are your career goals?
What can you bring to the company?

Your Experience and Work History

The work history section will give you the opportunity to state your previous jobs, work experience, and any internships that you might have finished. You should start with the most recent one and work your way back to the oldest work experience that you have. When writing down each position, you should write down your job title, the employer you worked for, the dates when you started and finished the job, as well as the responsibilities you had.

Your Qualifications and Education

Similarly to the work and experience section, you should list your education achievements in reverse chronological order. Include the name of the schools you attended, the starting and end dates, as well as the qualification and grades you got.

Additional Sections

According to the experts from jofibo.com, there are some additional sections that you can add that will make your resume stronger. The additional sections include:

Your Key Skills – if you want to show off your skills, you can add a key skills category under your personal profile section. However, keep in mind that you should not overdo it, 4 to 5 skills are enough.
Your Hobbies and Interests – if you want to boost your resume some more, you can add a hobby and interest section at the end. But, do not use generic hobbies like “reading” or “watching movies”, instead, list a hobby that will make you stand out from the crowd of candidates.
Your References – adding a list of referees is no longer needed in a CV, however, if you do have space left you can either list your references or include a line that will let your employer know that they can get your references if they request for them.

Conclusion

As you can see, writing a CV does not have to be a time-consuming task and by following the tips from this article, you will be able to quickly and efficiently right a CV that will land your interviews. So, do not waste any more time and start working on your resume right away.

Superb Tips on How to Write a Good Resume

Published on October 14, 2019

Business

Want to get a job at a prestigious company but have not the slightest idea of how to impress a potential employer? You should keep in mind that your success partially depends on your resume. However, not all job seekers understand it. They think they can tell about their experience and professional skills personally, but remember, if you want to meet your employer, you need to create a superb resume, which will make them invite you for a job interview. So in this insightful review, we’ll talk about simple things that will help you compose a superb CV, allowing you to get the job of your dreams!

Remember, your CV needs to be polished to perfection. So if you don’t want to do this yourself or you have no idea of how to properly create it, you can ask ResumeGet for help. In such a scenario, you’ll get a professionally written CV that will be easy to read and properly composed.

A Few Comprehensive Tips for Making a Good Resume

Take a look at your current CV and organize it following these guidelines.

Choose an appropriate CV type

You probably know that there are a few types of resumes: chronological, combination, targeted or functional. It is up to you to decide which one to choose, but you should keep in mind that a lot depends on your circumstances and the position you want to get.

Create a legible CV

A hiring manager looks through tons of CVs every day. So, your goal is to make it very easy to read. To achieve that goal, you need to use a legible font (Calibri, Times New Roman or Arial) and the average size (between 10 and 12). Moreover, you should also try to avoid dense blocks of texts and use standard margins instead. If you are asked to send a physical resume, you should use a white paper. Remember that colored papers can distract the attention of the hiring manager.

Keep your CV focused

The most common mistake of all job seekers is extraneous information in their CVs. They try to include as much information as possible. But in doing so, they reduce their chances to get the job of their dreams. More is not always better. You should make your resume more focused on the position you want to get. To put it simply, you need to focus on experience or skills that will help you get this position.

For example, if you apply for the position of a software developer, there’s no need to tell about your experience of working as a seller or driver (if you have this experience). You should pay more attention to skills that qualify you for this job.

Remember, that your resume shouldn’t be longer than one or two pages.

Create a consistent CV

When we say consistent, we mean consistent formatting. Add more bullet points and make sure that all of them are formatted the same way. Some job seekers add circle bullet points in one paragraph and choose an absolutely different format in another section. You should definitely stay out of the crowd but not like that.

Proofread your CV before sending

You should make sure that your CV doesn’t include any mistakes. If there are any, your chances of getting the job of your dreams will be lower. So before sending it, make sure it doesn’t include any common mistakes. You can either do it yourself or hire a professional proofreader.

Add keywords

Before you create your resume, you need to carefully look through the job postings. Before you apply for this or that position, you need to study job descriptions and check what keywords are used in them. Your goal is to add them to your CV. In doing so, you’ll show that you have the skills your employer is looking for.

Use active language

Remember, when writing your resume, you should use active language, avoid slang or extraneous words. Don’t use too long sentences; it would be much better if you make them shorter. In this case, it will be easier to read them.

All in all, writing an effective resume is easier than you might think. Just follow our guidelines and you’ll definitely get the job of your dreams!

Is It Time for a Job Change?

Published on September 30, 2019

Business

Even if you feel comfortable in your current job, you might be well past the time to change it, and you may not even realize that anything is wrong at all. It’s important to pay attention to the big picture and be alert about new prospects for your career development. Because you only have so much time to set yourself up for a nice retirement, and it’s a good idea to push as hard as you can during your most productive years. And in today’s market, this often involves changing jobs rapidly.

The Benefit of Jumping Jobs

In many industries, especially those in the tech sector, jumping between jobs every 2-3 years is actually statistically more lucrative than waiting for promotions and raises. In most cases, you can expect your salary to grow by 5%, maybe 10% annually when you stay in the same company. But you can easily negotiate for 25% and more when going to an interview for a new job. It’s all about knowing what you can bring to the table, and knowing how to market yourself properly. And that’s a skill that you’ll have to put a lot of effort into developing too.

Know Your Value

That brings us to our next poi-nt. You need to know your value. You might think you do, but many people actually underestimate their potential and what they have to offer. Take a look through your professional history, and you might see some patterns of accomplishments that you haven’t been paying attention to before. Polish up your CV and make sure that it represents you in the best light possible. This will take some time, but it will be well worth the effort once you start sending out those applications. Companies value people who know how to describe themselves best.

Expanding Your Search

You should also consider looking for opportunities in different areas. Sometimes this might come with extra requirements, like learning a new language. You can compensate to some extent with the help of a service for CV translation via ProTranslate, for example. Keep your eyes on the prize and know what kind of a company you want to work for, and get started with your search early on. Different countries have their own unique requirements in their job markets, and it’s important to understand how they work if you want to have a good chance of landing a job in those places. Sometimes, it will take a while to properly adapt.

This is something you should try to think about on a regular basis. Never get too complacent with where you are in your job, and always try to strive for more. There are many ways to get paid better and put yourself in a more comfortable situation, but it won’t happen without much effort. It will all be worth it once it’s all said and done though, and you’ll find yourself in a much better place in your life before you even know it – and that change will be permanent.

How to Write a Great CV

Published on September 11, 2019

Education

A curriculum vitae or CV for short is a document used to apply for a job. It allows you to state your education, skill, previous job experience, which enables you to successfully represent yourself to potential employers. A standard CV should not be longer than two sides of an A4 paper. To make sure that it runs across the recommended two pages, your main points should be your education and experience. In this article, you will be able to learn what things should you include in your CV, as well as some tips on the format of it. Let’s take a look:

What to Include in a CV

Contact Details – you should include your full name, address, mobile number, and your email address. You do not need to include a photograph or date of birth unless you are applying for a modeling or acting job.

Profile – a profile should be at the beginning of the CV and it should concise a statement that will highlight your key skills and attributes or the reasons for deciding to work in the particular field you are applying to. You should choose a few skills and achievements while articulating them in your career goals.

Education – state and date your previous education, including any professional qualifications that you might have, placing the most recent ones first. Where relevant, you should also include individual modules.

Work Experience – the work experience should be listed in reverse chronological order. Also, you should ensure that anything you mention is relevant to the position you are applying for. If you have a lot of relevant work experience, this section should be listed before the education part.

Achievements and Skills – this is where you write about the languages you speak, as well as your IT level. Whatever you choose to write, you should not over-exaggerate since you will need to back up your claims during the interview. According to the experts from GekonntBewerben, if you have a lot of skills that are relevant to the job, you should do a skills-based CV.

Interests – simply writing “reading books” or “socializing” will not attract the attention of the employer. However, if relevant to the job, your interests should provide a picture of who you are since it will give you something to talk about during the interview. You can include things like writing your own blog, or being a part of a book club.

References – you do not need to provide the names of references. You should also not write “references available if requested” since most recruiters will assume this is the case.

CV Format

You should avoid fonts like Comic Sans, instead choose something more professional, easy to read, and clear – such as Times New Roman or Arial. Also, the font size should be 10 to 12 in size, but nothing smaller than that. Also, section headings are perfect for breaking up your CV. List everything in reverse chronological order so that the employer can see you most recent achievements first.

How To Write a Good CV

You should use active verbs wherever it is possible. There should abstemiously be no grammar or spelling mistakes. You can use spell checkers to check if the CV is well-written. You should also avoid using over-used phrases like “hardworking” or “team player”, instead you should use real-life examples that will demonstrate your skills. Also, take a look at the company’s website in order to ensure that your CV is targeted to the role and employer. Keep in mind that your email address should look and sound professional.

Conclusion

The tips from this article will help you write the best CV and it might be just the thing you need to land the job you wanted.

Is relevancy and length of your resume important?

Published on September 5, 2019November 27, 2019

Business

If you are updating your resume or even writing a new one, you are probably faced with a daunting task. You know that it has to be well-written, concise and to include all necessary information. When there is a job opening, managers receive hundreds, and sometimes even thousands of resumes, so you have to ensure that yours won’t get overlooked. In the following text, we are going to give you some tips on how to write it and also discuss how important is its length.

The first piece of advice we have got for you is to never send the same resume for different job applications. If you use a generic one, it will never stand out from others and it might never be inspected. When you write or customize an existing paper, it is a good idea to have a job description nearby. What’s more, read it thoroughly before writing the resume. This way you will know what the requirements are, thus what information you should include and what to omit. The CV should not be overcrowded with unnecessary information, because not only will they make it too long, but the chances are no one is going to read it.

This brings us to our next point – the length. If the resume is too short it might seem that you have no experience, therefore, the company cannot benefit from your work. On the other hand, if it is too long, the managers will not lose precious time reading it. Even though there are no specific rules when it comes to this and there is no right answer, there are some things that affect the length of your CV.

The biggest debate is whether one should write one-page or two-page resume. The first one should be used by people who are hunting for their first job. This includes recent college graduates, people who only have a small amount of experience in that field or even those that are making a career change. In order for your resume to make a good first impression it has to be concise, include important keywords, and list your achievements. On the other note, employees who have experience of 10 or more years and thus have many accomplishments in their careers should write the two-page resume. It is always better to format a CV to be readable and professional instead of cramming everything onto one page. Just keep in mind that the second page of it probably won’t get as much attention as the first one, so you should organize it in a way that all the important information are easily detected. Take a look at some great resume examples at The Ladders.

Lastly, many people opt for hiring professional writing services to complete this task for them. Since they fully understand the importance of the CV, they perceive themselves as not capable to rise to the challenge, so they ask others for help, which is okay. If you are considering this option, from this CNBC article you will learn some things you should know before employing a writing service.

All in all, as you can see, although there are no specific rules when it comes to writing a CV, there are still some guidelines that you should follow. Use the job description as guidance, customize a resume for every job application, use specific keywords and also apply bullet point to highlight the important words or phrases.

How to keep up with today’s CV trends

Published on April 13, 2019

Education

Unemployment rates are still unacceptably high in far too many countries: with the official numbers often far below reality. With so many people desperate for work, it’s no surprise that there are so many job applicants for every position. Job seekers are constantly under pressure to stand out from the crowd: and this means keeping up with today’s CV trends.

(1) Prepare your CV for ATS software

Many large companies use ATS software – designed to filter through a pile of CVs and pick out worthwhile candidates. Despite the fact that both HR managers and developers acknowledge the software’s shortcomings, it continues to save recruiters hours of time and for this reason, it is unlikely to go away any time soon. Consequently, if you’re applying to an FTSE 200 or Fortune 500 company, there’s a fair chance your CV will go through the software.

ATS software can be confused by the use of tables and graphics so for these companies, it’s better to pick a simpler CV layout that focuses on content. Plenty of sites have templates you can download and fill in and to help you with the choice, here are two suggestions: Cvtemplatemaster.com and prospects.ac.uk. Of course, feel free to browse some other websites as well and the find the one that you like most.

It’s also vital to analyze the job advert and pick out keywords and phrases that the software will be scanning for. If, for example, they specify a BSc in Computer Science (and assuming you have one!) make sure the exact same words are used on your CV. Take care if a past employer used a more obscure job title such as ‘Customer Relationship Liaison’ rather than ‘Account Manager’ – it’s better to use titles that the employer is expecting because these are the ones that the ATS software will be searching for.

(2) Write a keyword-rich personal statement

A CV used to have just a few basic sections: personal details, work history, education and references. Now employers expect to see a personal statement at the top which should follow a very definite format, as follows:

Explain who you are.
Explain how you meet the requirements of the job.
Explain what you’re looking for.

The best way to understand how this works is through an example. Here’s an extract from a real-life job advert from Recruitment Site ‘Indeed’:

“Customer Service Advisor:

To excel in your role, you will need:

Face-to-face customer service experience

Strong communication skills

A passion for delivering excellent customer service

Ability to remain calm when under pressure

Basic IT skills”

So how would you write a personal statement that matches this advert? Here’s an example:

“I am a Customer Service Advisor with three years of face-to-face customer service experience in the motor repairs trade. Working at a highly reputable, very busy repair shop in central town, I am highly capable of delivering excellent customer service in a high-pressure environment. I have developed strong communication skills through liaising between customers, suppliers and mechanics. I also have excellent IT skills, having worked with various systems in the shop. I am looking for a full-time role in the motor industry.”

Note how the above example uses the EXACT keywords from the job advert – this is crucial for two reasons.

Firstly, if the employer IS using ATS software, that software will be scanning for those keywords. Don’t try and use alternative synonyms – this may fail the ATS test.

Secondly, if the employer is manually reviewing your CV, they will only spend a few seconds scanning it to see if you meet the requirements. In fact, according to Cambridge Network, the amount of time spent could be as little as 6 seconds!

Your personal statement needs to immediately demonstrate to the employer that you have what they are looking for. If you try to make them work harder by reading further into your CV, they are likely to give up and dismiss your CV altogether.

(3) Understand the F Pattern

Paper CVs are a thing of the past – now it’s all about technology and the majority of CVs will be sent digitally. So what does this mean for job seekers looking to design the perfect CV?

Back in 2006, the NN Group released a study that showed how people read content on the screen, demonstrating that peoples’ eyes tend to move in an F pattern. Many experts got pretty excited by this and encouraged people to design their online content around that pattern. Unfortunately, they had misunderstood the study.

Put simply, the F pattern is bad. If the content forces people to read this way, it means the content is poorly designed and the user is not fully engaged. The last thing a job seeker should do is deliberately design their CV to meet the pattern.

Fortunately, the NN Group’s Senior Vice President Kara Pernice put us straight with an updated article explaining the mistake in 2017. She also listed off the ‘the Best Antidotes to the F-Shaped Pattern’ which are essential reading for any job seeker looking to stand out. You can read her update here.

Finally…

Understanding today’s trends is essential if you are to make any impact at all in a saturated and highly competitive job market. By preparing an ATS-friendly CV with a strong personal statement that avoids the dreaded F-pattern, you will give yourself the very best chance of winning that all-important first interview. Good luck!