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Snippets: Common resume characteristics

This is part of a series of articles to make your job hunting experience more meaningful with JobStreet.com.

A well-designed resume should possess these characteristics in common:

• Good visual appeal, an easy-to-read layout and high quality reproduction
• A highlight of your strengths and linking them to the employer's needs; minimizing or excluding irrelevant experience
• Presents your most important information first
• Entirely free from any error: spelling, typographical, punctuation or grammatical
• Succinct and organized; does not exceed two pages.

Do check back on 30 Sep 2009 for more tips!

Making yourself more marketable

What can you do to make yourself more marketable to prospective employers? Here are a few tips to consider:

• Take a little time off to get your head together. A week or two, maybe longer. Then, tackle it head-on. It is a numbers game. The more contacts you make, the better chance you have of finding a job.
• Get involved in networking groups. Talk to friends, family and all the people you know. Tell them your story, plant lots of seeds. Eventually, one of those seeds will sprout. Draw your geographic circle wider and expand the search territory. Are you willing to relocate? If your family is not willing to move, are you willing to work somewhere during the week and come home on the weekends?
• An old favourite of ours: compose or update your resume. This is fundamental because it’s the first opportunity to impress a company or hiring manager. Weed out the typos and mistakes in punctuation. For such an important document which is like your professional name card, it should be well thought out and thoroughly proofread. It’s money well spent to work with a professional resume service.
• Express your email address and mobile number prominently in your resume. Today, front and centre, prospective employers need the ability to contact you electronically.
• Include a well-constructed chronological list of companies and positions. Your career experience and education are the most critical elements.
• Tailor the resume according to the audience. Have a good professional layout to set yourself apart from the rest of the pack because you’re competing against a lot of different people.
• When getting ready for an interview, practice, practice, practice. The more you practice, the more confident you’ll be and the more prepared you'll be to look the interviewer in the eye.
• At the interview, listen and be thoughtful and responsive when answering questions. Pausing to think about an answer is not a bad thing.
• After the interview, send a handwritten Thank You note. This is somewhat more powerful than just an emailed Thank You message.
• Lastly, keep a positive attitude because being on a job search is a full-time commitment.

JobStreet.com in Perak for Resume and Career Clinic

We organised a Resume and Career Clinic recently with KPerak in Ipoh and received overwhelming response with over 300 candidates signing up for the clinic. The Resume and Career Clinic gave the attendees more effective ways in writing their resumes. Generally, as HR Managers would only spend 30 seconds on an average per resume, it would be utterly important that a resume does just that. Too short may mean insufficient information but too long may mean that the resume may not be considered.

 The majority of the candidates were from the working population and some of them were managers who have not written a resume in ages!

Also, attending an interview without the right interview tips may prove to be a disadvantage. With the Interview tips presented at the Resume and career Clinic, the candidates would be better prepared. As they say, preparation is everything and if we fail to plan, we have just planned to fail. Many questions were asked during the Q&A session and it was indeed a session which benefited the job seekers. 

 The event was well organised and both JobStreet.com and KPerak certainly would want to do more for JobStreet.com members in Perak.  So, see you soon at the next event.

Snippets: The less obvious resume errors

This is part of a series of articles to make your job hunting experience more meaningful with JobStreet.com.

One important aspect of your resume that should never be overlooked is the need to check and recheck the resume when it is completed. It’s not only to ensure that your resume will say what you want it to say but essentially, you must eliminate all errors in the resume. This includes the very obvious grammatical errors or typographical errors, but the less obvious errors will be repetition of information, irregular alignment of paragraphs, and perhaps more! So, double-check it!

Do check back on 20 Jun 2009 for more tips!

Snippets: Catching attention

This is part of a series of articles to make your job hunting experience more meaningful with JobStreet.com.

The resume is not the place for you to write an essay. Leave that behind you. In the resume, your personal description should be brief and concise. Your achievements should be highlighted as bullet points. This little open secret will allow interviewers to read faster and understand you better. Remember, your resume is likened to a stepping stone. It’s the first critical piece to lure interviewers to consider you. So don’t let them fish for information in an essay. Help them to catch their attention with brief, precise bullet points.

Do check back on 10 May 2009 for more tips!

How soon can you submit a resume?

I'm sure we all understand the importance of getting our resume ready whenever we want to apply for a job. Last week, we were rather intrigued to find out the level of preparedness of our job seekers. if a dream job comes along, would you be excited? Would you want to apply for it? I would, but would you?

However, wanting to apply for a job is not the same as applying for the job itself. If our resume is ready, it's really no big deal. Just log into your MyJobStreet account and shoot off your electronic resume to the employer. If the job vacancy requires a hard copy of the resume, no problem too: just print it out and send it along. But then, we suspected that some job seekers may not actually have an updated resume ready at hand. They would still require time to update it.

How long will it take them to update their resumes? On our websites in Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia, we've been asking this question in a poll since last week. Here is a preliminary result from these polls:

By and large, we can safely conclude that the majority of job seekers do have their resumes ready at hand. They are quite up-to-date with their latest job information and if a dream job were to come along, they are able to send off the resume to the employer. Indonesian job seekers are the most prepared, scoring 80 percent on the graph whereas Singaporeans seem to be the least prepared with their resumes, scoring only 62 percent. More evidence of their level of preparedness: Singaporeans scored highest when they admitted that they would take about a week to update their resumes. By comparison, job seekers in the other three countries indicated that if they cannot send off their resumes immediately, just give them a day or so to spruce up their resumes before they apply to a job. It's an interesting poll which gives a fair insight into the minds of our job seekers.

The poll will still run on our websites until next Monday and you still have time to cast your votes. Here are the links to the four polls:
Malaysia: click here
Singapore: click here
The Philippines: click here
Indonesia: click here

Testimonial from A Job Seeker

In response to the tough economic situation, JobStreet.com organizes talks, seminars and resume clinics. And it was heartening yesterday that we got a very thoughtful email from Mr Ravi who had attended one of our seminars two weeks ago. His email has certainly made our day! :)

Ravi, it was our pleasure and we wish you all the best in your job hunt!

I attended the resume clinic which was held on 18 Feb. I found the team from JobStreet most helpful and informative; sharing their experiences and expertise with those affected by the slowdown in the global economy. Though I have been fine tuning my resume on many other occasions and having spoken to many headhunters before, none have come close to the assistance that has been extended by JobStreet's staff led by Chen Chow, Suresh and Daryl. Whenever I asked if my resume was okay, the response would be it was good although I did have my doubts but with the help of your team, I now have comments from many of my friends and close associates who have commented that the resume that I have put together after attending the clinic is by far the best I have at this time; from outlining my work experience and achievements in a clear format that is easy to read and understand. To be honest, one headhunter was telling me that it makes her life easier, all thanks to JobStreet's corporate social responsibility initiative.

I now am getting more hits on my profile and have 4 interviews lined up over the next 1 1/2 weeks since I attended the clinic.In fact I got a call from a headhunter after an hour of applying for a job. Forget about it being the 1st interview but I feel really good. I know times are difficult but I feel some much more positive now compared to a month ago. I hope to land a job soon and want to be able to share my success with others(provided I get a job soon).

I have also taken the liberty to spread the news of JobStreet's CSR initiative of the retrenchment and resume clinic to my former customer's and people who have been badly affected by the global economic slowdown. I would strongly recommend people to attend this clinic as it helps us to project the right image thru our resume so that they can easily gauge who we are. The tips on what clients are looking for has also been very helpful. I always knew that clients search for key words and skills and the clinic has help me better understand the system on how to make it work for jobseekers more effectively.

Thank you to the team from JobStreet who have gone out of their way and making sacrifices of their personal time to help those in need. I want to be able to help others too once I am able to get back on my feet, to give them guidance when possible.

Best Regards.
Ravi

Do read up on our various career/resume/interview tips and discussion at JobStreet.com Forum for Career & Education, and post your questions there! 

Coping with Recession

For many, 2009 is approached with much caution and apprehension. A reminder of the worsening economic situation is always around the corner, with news splashed across the papers, blasted over the radio and discussed over meals. In fact, the government has just announced that Singapore is facing its worst-ever recession.

For the luckier ones who are employed, they are clinging on to their jobs with uncertainty for everyone knows the cruel reality that restructuring and downsizing exercises are inevitable occurrences during times of recession.

With that, JobStreet would like to share true life accounts contributed by some fellow Jobseekers on how they coped with recession and retrenchment...we are certain that they are stories many can identify with.

If you have been affected too by the current recession, or would like to share on your experiences, please leave a comment! Remember, you don’t have to be alone in this.

Best Regards,
JobStreet.com Singapore

 

Happy New Year from JobStreet CAMPUS

Happy New Year! Happy Job Hunting!

As we're entering the New Year, a lot of students who would be graduating in 2009, would be joining the job hunting!

What differentiates this year with previous years would be that the global economy and regional economy is no longer as solid as past few years. So, you would need to be a lot more proactive to get your dream jobs. There are still a lot of jobs out there, but just that it would be more competitive.

Here are some of the tips that you might find useful. (Do share more tips that you have too! and let us know whether these tips work or not)

1. Start the process of job hunting early.

2. Know about job outlook/job trend.

3. Prepare a solid resume. Make sure you follow all the best practice of resume writing!

4. Read up about the company, before you apply.

5. Submit applications early to the companies that you are interested.

6. Follow up with those companies that you have applied.

7. Respond promptly to the companies that try to contact you.

8. Further prepare yourself, before attending the interview. Know about the company, what they do, the job function. Be prepared to showcase your knowledge of the field, soft skills, maturity of thinking and dress appropriately for the interview.

9. Impress the interviewers during the interview. This process starts from the moment you arrive. The secretaries could be "eyes" for the interviewers too. Be there punctually. Speak confidently with the interviewers and build rapport.

10. Send thank you notes after the interview and keep constant follow up.

11. Repeat the processes above for various companies.

Good Luck!

And if you are in Malaysia, there would be a mega career fair, called JobStreet.com Malaysia Career & Training Fair '09 .This is the largest career fair in this region, with more than 120 companies going to be there.

Last year, 116,000 job seekers throng the career fair, and for this year, this number could be even bigger.

So, mark the date (16-18 January 2009), 10am to 7pm, MidValley Exhibition Center, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

If you do know any of your friend who is looking for a job or internship/job attachment etc, do spread the words to them.

Do sign up online, so that you can skip the line there.

Happy Job Hunting!

Snippets: Cut the fat from your resume

This is part of a series of articles to make your job hunting experience more meaningful with JobStreet.com.

In your resume, remember to highlight the major achievements in your work experience or academic career or co-curriculum activities instead of listing a few pages of your entire lifetime. Keep your list short but full of impact. Mention only what’s relevant to the job and leave out the irrelevant. For example, there’s really no point to include your achievement at being a participant in a drawing competition because it leaves little or no impression on the employer.

Do check back on 20 Nov 2008 for more tips!

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