Have in mind that a lot of candidates apply for a job offer, and thus the chance of choosing you is little. Here you can see some useful tips that will help you flee the unpleasant situationsduring a job interview.
1. You should get familiar with the employer, the company, the activities, because you do not want to say something against the established positions of the prospective company that will hire you.
2. You should never be late for you interview, there is no employer or a company representative that will wait for you. There are a lot of candidates, and in most cases the vacant position is only one. You will definitely make a bad impression if you mess up the whole schedule for the day. What we advise you to do is to call on the phone well in advance in case you need to be late. It is not appropriate to walk in looking tired and in a hurry and to interupt an interview with another candidate.
3. It is neccessary that you answer thorougly all the question. It is wrong tactics to use short sentences and little words. One of the most important things is the language culture of a candidate. Most likely, some of the questions will be confusing or even missleading you in the wrong direction. In this case, if you have troubles answering, make sure you spill it all out while you try to answer. The silence or not answering a given question is a minus for you and will not give the interviewer a good impression. But in any case, keep in mind to avoid the answer „I do not know“. You better apologize for the current misunderstanding and uneasinest of mind. But do not keep silent in any case and do not let your eyes wonder around in order to step out of this uneasinest.
4. The looks are very important for a successful interview. Make sure you spend enough time in preparing your tidy appearance, which will definitely be valued from the person interviewing you. As the saying says it: "They meet the person by his looks, and sends him by his mind".
If you really desire to start the offered job, make sure that you prepare for the interview well in advance. This way you will make sure that you are a serious competitor of all the other candidates.
1. Personal details: Your full name, address, e-mail and a phone number, date and place of birth (the last can be left for before the interview). Do not use an e-mail like klouna@..., rather use something more official - asenmitov@...
2. The position you apply for.
3. Education: first put the last school you went to, and then you make a list of the previous ones.
4. Professional experience: you first start with the present or last position and company you have worked on, and then you list the previous ones. The accent should fall on the realmatters,that you have executed.
5. Skills and additional qualifications: here you can list the ones you have documents for. For instance: foreign languages, computer literacy, driving license etc.
6. Interests: this part of the CV is filled up only in case you are sure that the interests you have are relevant to the position you are applying for.
7. References: They are stated only if the employer asks for them.
When you apply for a job, the CV should always go with a accompanying letter. Usually, it is pretty short one. In it, you should state why you are sending your CV, what position you are applying for, where you know about the job offer from. In a couple of sentances, you should state why do you think you should be hired to this position.
It is good in a paragraph or two in a good manner to state your desire to work in this company and on this position. Every employer wants you to work for him, not to do them a favour. The letter edns in the traditional way with sincerely yours, name and a signature.
You should check for spelling mistakes. The style of the CV is very important. Do not forget that in order to be invited for an interview, the company should first get familiar with the CV and the accompanying letter.
You should check the text for spelling mistakes—make this two times, and then ask a friend or relative to do the same. You should present your best side in your CV. It is not obligatory to state your age or marital status. Leave enough space in between the sentances in order to avoid your CV to look to crowded. You should bold all the beginning of each paragraph. Your personal details should go in the beggning, in the center of the page. The same goes for the position on your previous jobs. You should state if this was a part time job. You should use the month and year when listing your previous job offers. Do not forget that the information in the CV can be checked by your future employer.
When you are writing your CV, do not forget this even for a moment. Every other approach to your CV is useless.
Visualize a situation when on the desk of the employer there are 40-50 Cvs sitting. From the whole pile, he will invite only 8 or 10 people for an interview.
You can be an excellent specialist in your field, with a lot of experience and skills, but if your CV is not showing this, there is no way you will get an invitation, except you are the only candidate. It is a pity for your employer, and mainly for you.
Yes, that is correct—through your CV you sell yourself. If the employer likes what you have to offer, he will byu it, meaning that he will meet you in order to present to you the job offer in details and to see how you can work together.
Most of the people write standart Cvs. With them, they as if tell to the employer that they need the job deperately, and as if they beg him. These are the bad Cvs that remind me of bad TV commercials.
It is critical that your CV emphazises how you are valueable for the employer. It should contain evidence that you are the solution to his problems.
Every other position is different. The employer is different. The situation is different. All this needs you to be able to decide on the format of the CV format you will need.
* „Chronology CV” - use it if you want to put an accent on your career. This CV will tell the employer that you have enough experience in the given sphere.
This format of CV is good when you will use the name of your last employer as an asset.
Do not use chronological CV when you have been changing your job too often, when you look for a job for the first time, and in case you are totally changing the sphere.
The chronological CV is the most seen CV, but is also the one that is not used properly.
* „Functional CV“--use this format when you want to emphasize on certain qualities you possess, skills, i.e in trade, marketing, advertising, design, programming etc.
This format is useful when you are looking for a job for the first time, or when you have changed too many working places.
The minuses of this format are that through it, you can demonstrate how your career developed. The functional CV is not a good choice when it comes to people who have had too lillte tasks in the past.
* Focused CV (my favourite)--it focuses on a particular job position. This means that you know exactly what the employer has to offer when you apply for this job.
The focused CV will do you best when you want to make a great impression , when you are familiat with the job opening and the advantages you have to offer, even if you are missing too much experience.
Do not use this format when you just want to have an universal CV. Other cases when it is not advisable to be used are when you lack skills, or when you are not familiar in details with the position you are applying for.
Many people use one and the same CV for different vacant positions. Some of them only make copies and send it anywhere they can.
This conduct means no success. It is like the candidate himself does not believe in his success, that he is not sure that he will be invited to an interview. This means he thinks that the quantity will help his chances of being invited.
I think that the chances stay the same, and you only lose your time by doing this.
Before you send your CV to an employer, look at it in a critical way. Are there enough useful things in it? Has something new happening in your career? Does it contain some old or useless information, numbers, names, facts?
Yes, I am aware that there are people, who think that the most important thing is to have a long CV. I think the other way „ The longer the CV, the smaller work it does.“
A one page CV will get your thought focused and the message you want to send to the employer more precise.
Furthermore, if you do not put everything in it to the last detail, you give your employer the opportunity to know more if they ask you for an interview. And this is exactly what you want, don't you?
Longer CV s have the risk of getting the reader bored too easily and thus the employer will not be able to focus. And have in mind that the pile on his desk is almost always huge.
If you really would like to put an accent on some facts, but you cannot do this on one page only, think about including a couple of annexes to your CV.
For instance, if you decide to apply to an university, you will put the names of your books and publications in a separate annex, titled „Publications“.
As I already mention, the CV is a tool for selling. For this purpose, use strong words, mainly verbs, in order to get your message across in the best way. This way the employer will make good conclusions about you.
Here is a list that every single employer dreams of seeing:
Manage Sell Organize Enterpreneur Betterment Optimize Develop Coordinate Produce Expand Make up Put into use Control Grade Build
These verbs will show that you are a person that can manage problems on his own, and you do not only work, but you always show results from your work.
There is nothing worse that an empty CV—the one that is long but does not tell much.
In you have the chance, mention the exact numbers of the clients you have won, sells you have made, the names of new geographical regions you have won to work in, key clients, number of economies done.
Someone would say: „This is a company secret“. The employer will think that if you are doing this with your previous employer, you will do this with him as well.”
Do not be so shy—not everything is always such a big company secret. In either way, you will be asked about the numbers and facts in the course of the interview. If the one that interviews you is a professional, he will know what he wants.
Furthermore, your potential employer will want to know what you will be valuable and usefull. Help him out, do not make this task difficult.
The way your CV looks can definitely help and give you better chance to be invited to an interview.
Here are some ideas:
Leave enough blank spaces around different paragraphs—this way the text will breath and will better catch the eye of the reader. Use bullet point (but not too many)--they help the reader remember the most important things. Underline or bold key information, titles or sub-titles (but not too much) If you have the chance, use slightly better type of paper, classical sizez A4 and white. A better looking CV will make it distinguished from the whole pile.
Most of the Cvs use the standart Times New Roman font, but I guess you do not want to be conventional, but rather stand out. In this case, use not so standart fonts like Arial or Verdana for instance. (as you might have notice, I am using Verdana to write this text).
In the ideal case, your CV will contain three types of information—work experience, education and your contact information. The ration between the first two things whouls be 80%:20%.
This is why you should not put inside useless things. This is stupid thing to do since you will have to put everything on one page only.
I have the following things in mind when speaking about useless things:
Sex PIN or date of birth Marital Status Children Colour of your eyes Height Health status Hobbies All interests, courses taken, skills etc that are not relevant to the position you are applying for. Alient words Addresses of previous employers Picture The flag of the European Union or any other graphic Titles like CV, Resume or stupid titles like „European format for a CV“--this can be seen without you saying it. Just start it with your names.
Make sure that your CV does not include any spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes or stylistic mistakes. There should not be any technical mistakes either. All this will ruin your reputation and will tell the employer that you are extremely abscent minded.
Write such a letter every time you apply for a job. It makes the effect from the CV stronger and makes some points about the CV and facts in it that are extremely important.
The best CV can be underseen if you include a standart letter when presenting it: „ Dear Sirs, please reffer to my CV and diplomas blah blah blah.....I hope blah blah blah...“
Letters like this do not say anything. In one moment, the employers stop reading them.
For the perfect letter, you can invent totally new things, but the most important to remember is that they should emphasize on concrete skills you possess.
And even more—the letter should be sincere, interesting to read and enthusiastic. A letter like this will provoke the employer to look at your CV again and meet you for an interview.
In your CV, you can easily state things that are not absolutely true, you can exaggerate, or even make up facts in order to be invited to an interview.
Such a strategy is your 1000% guarantee that you will not get the desired position, and also that you will never go to an interview in a certain organization.
To be sincere does not mean that your CV should become in detailed timeline of your life. You can drop off certain facts about your experience if you think that will not mislead the person that interviews you.
However, for everything else, the sincereness is the best policy.
Every candidate should present to his or hers potential employer his/hers CV and a cover letter. For you, the cover letter means that you have an additional opportunity to present yourself to the employer, and the employer has some ground on which to make his initial understandings of what you have to offer to him. This also helps him make the short list. Sometimes the cover letter is the one that weighs the most when choosing what people to invite to an interview.
As you may already know, the employers are different, and so are the job openings you are applying for. This is why the cover letter should be written for a certain employer and a job opening. It should evokely show the employer that you possess the skills that are required by the position you are applying for.
The cover letter is a good opportunity to compensate for some wek points in your CV. For instance, if you possess some skills which you gained through practice, and not after qualifications, you can state this in the cover letter.
The first impression is the most important and it is really essential that your cover letter looks good and contains certain things.
- There are certain aims, which you should set when writing the cover letter.
• To show to your employer that you have advantages over the other candidates for this certain position.
• To state concrete examples for your experience and skills—how exactly you used them on your previous job.
• To state how exactly you can contribute to the position you are applying for (the employer wants to see you contribute to the whole team, rather that to do only certain tasks well);
• To look at your CV and make it more detailed if needed.
• To state good motives as of why you are applying for this position.
• To make good impression in front of the employer, in order to get an invitation for an interview.
1.It is too long;
2.Just a standart copy of a cover letter;
3.Written in hand;
4.There is not the position you are applying for, or/and its referal number.
5.Inaccurate or untrue information (sooner or later, the truth will come up);
6.If it states your physical characteristics if the position does not ask for this.
7.Contains bad words about your previous employers.
8.Has mispelling.
Personal details: three names, address, e-mail and contact phone. Do not list an e-mail address like bratched@abv.bg, but rather use something more official like – Ivan_Petrov@abv.bg.
2.The position you are applying for and where did you hear about this position. (ad in a newspaper, internet etc)
3.Your personal motives and interests to apply for this job opening.
4.Information about whether your profile meet all the requirements for this position—education, experience, skills etc.
5.Do you have experience in the job, possibly similar to the one that you are applying for.
6.Do you have any knowledge in the field.
7.What will the company gain if they hire you.
8. Do you have ambitions to grow as a professional.
