Career Flux - Employer

Perfecting Your CV to Help You Change Your Career

It doesn’t matter if you have just finished university, looking to move from part time work to a full time position, looking for jobs in London or elsewhere, or if your current job doesn’t offer satisfaction and you want to begin a brand new career, it’s possible to change your career with a strong CV.

Deciding On a Change in Career

Deciding on a complete career change can be a very harsh and tough experience – especially at a time when the economic climate is in the state that it is at the moment. Due to the fact that job competition is so high, employers can simply just choose candidates that have a good level of experience for available roles and may not consider those candidates that are looking to change positions.

But don’t lose hope just yet. If you’ve made the decision that you definitely want to make that all important jump, then it can be done. Keep positive and focused and you will achieve what you have set out to do.

First things first – when you have made the decision, you will need to develop a strong CV that’s going to impress a potential employer who may also have 500 other CVs of perfect candidates and convince him that he should give you the benefit of the doubt, despite your lack of experience and invite you to the interview stage.

Gather All Possible Knowledge about Your New Career

When you have decided on what career you would like to change to or are searching for a new career in the field you have trained in, find job adverts in that area and see what employers seek within that industry. Research the type of work you will be doing and get some industry knowledge. Why not contact key influential figures within that field to see if they can offer you any advice? Find out as much information as possible and try to build a presence within your chosen field. If you attend a talk or conference, add it to your CV to show that you are serious in beginning a career in the industry. Look out for any available training opportunities such as evening classes and make sure you fully understand what you’re getting into.

Write Your New CV from Scratch

To develop your new CV, I would suggest wiping the slate clean, and beginning from scratch, a new beginning, a new CV. Make a fresh start, this will make you more focused and less bogged down on what you have done in the past.

Now that you have researched your career to see what skills and experiences you need and you have got rid of you old CV, it’s time to sit down and begin work on your new one. You need to carefully match up any key experiences or current skills that you have and that can be associated with the new roles you want to apply for. Your CV needs to show that you have sat down and have carefully thought about this career change.

Add All Relevant Skills besides Transferable Ones

When you have discovered what skills you can transfer then the next stage is to talk about your other skills and how, what you think, they can add to the role that you are seeking. These skills may not necessarily be related to your last job but to your interests at home or any other hobbies you have. For example, if you currently work in human resources but have a passion for fashion and in your free time write a fashion blog and you want to begin a career in fashion or volunteer for a fashion house, then make sure you include this on your CV. This could be essential in getting an employer to notice you.

As you learn more within your new chosen industry, keep developing your CV with new skills and experiences you are learning. If you are in the process of attending a class or learning new skills, add that onto your CV even if you haven’t finished as this will show the employer how motivated you are.

Let Your Cover Letter Explain Your Intentions and Efforts

Just as important as your CV is the cover letter. You need to make clear the reason why you want to change careers. You need to show the employer how determined and focused you have been to make the change happen. You need to talk about how you have gone about to reach your goals and how you had invested a huge amount of commitment to be successful in your chosen field.

Be positive in your job search. I am not going to lie – the transition from one career to another won’t be easy. But even if it is so, what you really want in a career will be worthwhile when you get there.

Filed Under: Career Change, Guest Experts Tagged With: Career Change, CV, Employer, Job Search, Skills

Why Job Seekers Should Have an Online Personal Brand

By Susanna Cha Leave a Comment

Social media can be a double-edged sword. Used wisely it can be used as a way of impressing prospective employers. Conversely, there can be times when information on Social Media sites can count against you.

Facebook

Facebook is a social media website that has become hugely popular because of the many ways there are of interacting with friends. These can include using the many applications that are available to using their chat service. What can really help or harm your brand is how much you reveal about yourself on your profile page.

The default privacy settings on Facebook mean that anyone can find you just by doing a simple search. If you’re looking for graduate jobs, then a potential employer may do a quick search on you.

The ‘Interests’ section on Facebook can be particularly revealing. A prospective employer may come to the conclusion that you will not fit in with the rest of the staff if your interests indicate that your political views differ from theirs. Your interests can have a more positive impact on a possible future employer, but they will rarely be enough to secure a job. The harsh truth is that a negative first impression can easily ruin your chances there and then.

Revealing as little as possible will not necessarily be beneficial either. A prospective employer may find more information on other profiles and decide to whittle down candidates from those profiles. If you are using Facebook to constantly further your career, but also want to use it to communicate with friends, then you’ll need to find a balance whereby neither friends nor potential employers feel alienated.

Twitter

On Twitter, you can protect your Tweets when you sign up, which means that only followers will be able to view your information. It is easy to follow someone on Twitter though and whereas Facebook users are more likely to use their real name, Twitter users are less likely to do so. This is due to the fact that you can follow people who aren’t friends.

If you choose to protect your Tweets after you have already tweeted, then some of your information will still be available for the general public to see. Old Tweets can be found just by using Google.

LinkedIn is a social media site that is probably the most important of all social media sites to use for finding graduate jobs or jobs generally. This is the social media site of choice for employers and those looking for work.

On LinkedIn you can turn your activity broadcasts on or off. Plus, you can select who can see your activity feed and who can see your connections. LinkedIn should be used for more serious social media purposes by building up contacts in your area of expertise. Having the right contacts can really impress a potential employer.

Conclusion

You should protect your personal brand and bear in mind, when looking for graduate jobs, that potential employers will Google you. Use all your social media accounts to make the best impression, but in a way where your own integrity is not undermined.

Filed Under: College Graduates And Interns, Featured, Guest Experts, Personal Branding, Social Media For Jobs Tagged With: college grads, Employer, employers, Facebook, LinkedIn, Social Media, Twitter

Three Cover Letter Mistakes You May Not Realize You’ve Made

By Jessica Hernandez Leave a Comment

Author Byline: An exceptional resume authority, Jessica Hernandez and her team of credentialed writers partner with professional- and executive-level candidates to open doors to jobs at prestigious corporations, achieving over a 99% interview-winning success rate.
Author Website: http://www.greatresumesfast.com

Cover letters are tricky—and from what I’ve seen during twelve years in the careers industry, writing a cover letter is one of the most researched job search topics of all time. As a former recruiter and HR manager, I want to share with you some cover letter mistakes you may not even realize you’re making!

1. To Whom It May Concern …

Lead with this sentence and it probably will concern no one. It’s always best to find out who the hiring manager is or the recruiter’s name, but at least address it to someone at the company. With today’s technology there are multiple ways to do this—researching on LinkedIn or by calling the company and simply asking for the name of the hiring manager are just two ways to go about this.

2. Talking about yourself …

Might seem like quite the oxymoron when the purpose of a cover letter is to talk about yourself, but what I’m referring to here is leading off your cover letter with something like: “I found your job posting to be of great interest to me …” or: “I feel like I’m the best fit for this job opening …”

These openers are all about you and fail to address the most critical element of a cover letter—how you will meet the needs of the employer.

3. Failing to copy and paste your cover letter into the body of the e-mail …

Nothing is worse than spending time fretting over a cover letter and working hard to get the wording exactly right only for it to go unnoticed or unread. If you’re applying for an opportunity via e-mail, don’t just attach the cover letter to the e-mail. Instead, copy and paste your cover letter into the body of the e-mail; it is much more likely to be read this way. A prospective employer may never open your cover letter attachment, but they will most likely take the time to read your e-mail.

Remember these three tips when submitting your resume and cover letter to increase your chances for being noticed and most importantly—remembered.

For additional tips on job searches, resumes, and cover letters, follow us on twitter @GreatResume.

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

Filed Under: Guest Experts, Resume and Cover Letter Tagged With: Cover Letter, Employer, Job Search

How Can Employers Benefit From Job fairs?

By Ewan Cambell MacDougall Leave a Comment

Few employers are struggling to find employees at the moment with so many job seekers, but with such a saturated market it can be difficult to sort through such a wide variety of applicants. One tool that more small companies should be utilizing is a Job Fair.

Why You Should Attend Job Fairs

You may think that at times like this when finding applicants is relatively easy, the expenditure of visiting Jobs Fairs is unjustified; however for smaller companies it is now more than ever that you can find value at these fairs.

With so few jobs available, job seekers are greatly widening there net and applying to jobs that don’t really suit their backgrounds. Job Fairs allow you to target your potential applicants a lot more specifically as different Job Fairs are open to different groups of people. Most Universities hold several Job Fairs every year allowing you to target applicants not only by education level but often also applicants from particular fields of study. You will therefore only be talking to applicants that have the skills you require.

When you are receiving a large number of applications, it can be hard to give them all the attention they need, particularly if you are a smaller company. It can therefore be all too easy to mistakenly pass up good candidates because of simple flaws in their applications. Job Fairs allow you to quickly conduct miniature informal interviews with any potential applicants that are often much more effective for deciding if a candidate would be a good fit for your company than traditional application processes. Many Job Fairs have 1000s of attendees and you can easily talk to hundreds in one day meaning you get to know a lot more candidates a lot quicker. The strong ones will stick in your mind.

Although the fees for attending Job Fairs can be quite high, they are actually fairly good value; Job Fairs are well advertised to a well targeted audience. If you are attending a Job Fair, you can often then reduce your own recruitment budget. Many University Job Fairs will also include a link to your company website on their own site which can be great for your websites SEO. Your staff members attending the fairs also get an opportunity to see what’s going on at other companies; information you can use to improve your own environment.

How to Get the Best from Job Fairs

If you are a smaller company, it can feel like you are at a disadvantage at a Job Fair; you will often be competing alongside much bigger companies that job seekers will already be thinking of working for. However, this can actually work to your advantage; these big employers are drawing the traffic to the fair, but you have as much access to this traffic to broadcast your message too.

Job seekers, however, will be unlikely to talk with you if it’s not obvious who you are and what you do. It is therefore very important for you to create a booth and banner that put out not only your company name, but what it is you do and what you can offer employees. This banner stand is what will attract job seekers so make sure it’s good. There are a number of specialist companies like Marler Haley who have expertise in helping small businesses with this. You can check out their portable banner stands here.

Some companies will also try and attract people to their stand by handing out freebies. If your budget stretches to this, it can be an effective strategy, but try and make sure any gift you distribute is linked to your industry so that people coming to get it are actually potential employees and not just someone after a freebie.

When you do give out freebies (and even if you don’t), try and bundle it with more information about working for your company. Many job seekers suffer from information overload at a Job Fair, so your pitch can easily slip to the back of their mind by the end of the day and if you’ve given them all the details written down, it will be easy for them to follow it up later.

It is also very important that you are selective about which fairs you attend; if your budget only stretches to a small number of fairs, then pick the ones that are most likely to have the applicants you are looking for. This not only gets you the best value for your investment, but sometimes very niche fairs will give discounts to employers who fit them well.

If you think that attending a University Job Fair could be a good decision for your company, call the Career Centers at your local universities where there will almost certainly be someone happy to give you all the details of their upcoming Job Fairs and what specifically they can offer you.

Filed Under: For Employers, Guest Experts Tagged With: Employer, employers, job fair

Consider These 3 Tips When Writing Your Six-Figure Resume

By Jessica Hernandez Leave a Comment

Jessica Hernandez, expert resume writer, is a nationally-recognized resume authority and former HR Manager who has achieved over a 99% success rate securing interviews with prestigious organizations through exclusive, personal branding strategies.
Author Website: http://www.greatresumesfast.com

Once you reach the executive level and begin writing resumes for a six-figure salary, it becomes crucial that you go that extra mile to show you can provide the results a company is looking for. Your executive resume is beyond important in convincing an employer of this.

The problem many top-level professionals experience when writing resumes is they fail to show the depth of their experience. If you want hiring managers to absolutely believe you’re qualified, then you have to show your worth. Here are some tips to help push you toward your goal:

Know the Company

It’s difficult to determine how a company can benefit from hiring you without knowing what they need. Sure, you can find this out from the job posting. But it’s better to think from the perspective that you are already working for the company. This way, you can begin researching their needs, issues, etc. in depth.

Based upon what you’ve learned about them, what steps would you take to solve a specific problem for them? How would you handle some of their internal or external conflicts? How would you go about ramping up their business in your chosen department? These are questions you should already know the answers to as you cherry-pick the information you want to include about yourself in your resume.

Solidify Your Winning Qualities

In your resume, cover letter, and executive biography, it’s important to not just show a company who you are as an employee, but introduce it to your brand. You might be able to prove that you’ve been a great employee in the past, but showing that you are a staple in your field proves that you identify with it—and it identifies with you.

One way you can introduce your brand is by adding links to your resume, including your LinkedIn page, professional Web site or blog, a couple of publications you’ve been quoted or featured in, videos you’ve given speeches in, etc. Your commitment to your field can equate to a commitment to the company, which is why it’s good for them to get to know you beyond the past jobs you’ve worked.

Show Them Your ROI

Making a great return on investment (ROI) is always crucial for any company. As a prospective employee, you will be one of these investments that companies want to believe will bring in good returns. A great way to show that you’re a great ROI is by quantifying the results of your previous employment.

Count out how many people you’ve managed, how many times your department won awards, how much money your department made under your management, etc. This helps employers visualize the results that you could potentially provide for them.

Also, remember there can be no spelling or grammatical issues on your resume at all. It must be submitted in a perfect state to be taken seriously. If you remember these tips in the writing process, it should flow more smoothly than ever before.

For additional tips and advice on resumes and cover letters, follow us on Twitter @GreatResume or visit our blog.