Posted by ResumeHelp on October 22, 2009
Job Seekers who believe that they have an ideal educational background and job experience for a particular job, when later find out that another applicant has been selected, should know that they are not alone. Even with a perfect resume, excellent skills set and brilliant interview talent, things can go twisted.
This article contains some of the basic reasons of why job seekers miss out on good job opportunities. We have also included some key solutions that will help our job seekers minimize their chances of losing one of their dream jobs.
1. Importance of a Cover Letter
A well-presented Cover Letter definitely creates a good impression on the employers. Getting the basics right, easily makes a difference and allows an application to stand out in the competition. The cover letter is your first sales pitch to a potential employer. A good one introduces you to the employer and explains why you are superior among other candidates applying for the same job.
2. Make Your Resume Precise and Attractive
We have all read novels and stories that take forever to get going, which insists on recounting every single insignificant detail of the central character’s existence before finally getting to the heart of the account. This is not a luxury affordable for your resume. First impression really matters! Your resume is a marketing document, and hence, must attract the readers’ attention.
3. Shortage of Time at the Employers’ End
Employers get to see loads and loads of resumes during their recruitment period. Applicants can make the employers’ life easier by keeping their resumes’ content short and accurate. It is essential that you set fire to the readers’ attention in the very beginning or within thirty seconds/less.
4. Incorrect English
Why risk a dream job on poor English writing? Only job applications written in grammatically correct and fine English are given importance by busy employers. The rest go to the bin.
You might be well-qualified and perfect for a particular job, but the employer may disqualify you if your resume contains incorrect sentences and wrong use of vocabulary. We can’t stress enough just how important this is. Don’t depend on the spell checker because they miss grammatical mistakes.
5. Proof Reading
Nothing looks worse on a job application than spelling errors. It shows that you didn’t take enough care or time to look over your application. Spelling errors can result in depicting your wrong impression on an employer. Check and recheck your curriculum for spelling and grammatical errors prior to sending it off to the employers. Small catches make a big (and bad) impression, silently implying that you are careless, linguistically challenged, or both.
6. Highlight Your Achievements
You need to highlight your achievements. Remember your resume is your sales document, if it does not say clearly and unequivocally why you should be employed then it has failed.
An employer will only want to hire you if they can see a benefit in it for themselves. So, do tell them that you are beneficial for the company.
Listing your achievements in your resume can also benefit you, in case the employer you have applied for uses some application to filter candidates from his resume database. Such applications are useful for employers, as they can filter candidates using their desired keywords. Honing your Interview skills can help also. You may have the best resume in the world yet fail with the interview. If you need help interviewing, here’s where to get help.
Reprint from http://blog.rozee.pk
Posted by ResumeHelp on December 3, 2008
Whether you’re preparing for a job interview, writing that resume, preparing to give a speech before a crowd, or writing up a business presentation, it is critically important for you to make sure everything is correct. When it comes to your career, you can’t afford to make any mistakes.
Using poor English during a job interview, as well as on your job resume can cause you not to get the job. If you are giving a speech, using poor English will make your audience think you’re uneducated. If you submit a written proposal to your manager, and it is written with poor English, it may very likely be rejected. As you can see, failure is not an option.
Here are some of the most common English mistakes that can destroy your chances of career advancement, or your chances of getting the job you want.
The First Of These Mistakes Is Pronouncing Words Incorrectly
While this mistake may sound easy to avoid, it is one of the most common mistakes that people make. I had a friend that used the word obsese instead of obese. Was she a dummy? Certainly not – just not careful. To become a master at English, it is not enough for you to know a word, or understand its definition. You must also be able to say it correctly. When you fail to pronounce a word correctly, even if people think you’re somewhat intelligent for using the word in the right way, you will be criticized for not saying the word properly.
One of the best ways to fix this problem is to break the word down into its syllables in your head and speak it slowly. This is how we teach children to read and speak English. By breaking a word down we can sound each piece out until we know it well enough to say it correctly every time.
The Use of Slang
The second mistake you can make is using slang. What is hard is that most of us learn English by listening, not reading. Especially in groups with friends. Which means that we pick up the everyday English that these people speak. Some of it is fine, while a lot of it is just slang and bad grammar.
Now most people born in this country know what they are saying is slang and when they interview they “clean up” their speach and talk properly. A good way to help is to “practice interview” with a friend that speaks well and ask them to help you cut out those slang words.
While slang may sound cool when you’re talking with your friends, you will not want to use slang words during a job interview, during a speech, and definitely not on your job resume. If you do, it is very likely that you just killed your chances of being successful.
A Failure to Speak or Write Carefully
This is a mistake that gets a lot of people in trouble. They speak without taking the time to think carefully about the words that come out of their mouth. Not only can this cause your interviewer to become confused, it may also cause them to become offended if you say the wrong things. We all have been guilty of this from time to time and it is something to carefully watch.
When I say speak or write carefully, I am talking about grammar as well as the impression you make on your listeners or readers. I have a very good friend, a college graduate from the University of California who writes terribly. Why? I am not sure, but I know that when she was doing business proposals she would always send them to my wife (an English major) to correct the grammar. Without the corrections our friend would have seemed illiterate, yet she isn’t. And she does not speak like she writes. Interesting isn’t it? She is brilliant but a poor speller.
Conclusion
English is a difficult language to learn. In fact it’s one of the top 5 hardest (Russian, Chinese, and Vietnemese rank up there too). Because of this most people are understanding with people that are from another country. However - if you were born here and speak poor English then you have no excuse and a person interviewing you will be put off by bad English.
If you really don’t think you can write a good resume for yourself we have a recommendation for you:
101 Before and After Résumé Examples is a downloadable manual of professionally written sample resumes that show you step-by-step (using 101 REAL before-and-after examples) exactly how to create your own job-winning resume – or transform one that isn’t working for you!
With 101 Before And After Resume Examples you can study the proper way to write your resume and even borrow some of their sentences to help make your resume look professional.
If English is your second language and you have trouble speaking properly during an interview then we highly recommend the book English Harmony. Like you, Enlish is the author’s second language and he found himself struggling during conversations and often forgetting words he knew. His method will help you in a few easy steps to remember the words you know and to be able to speak English with confidence. It’s very affordable and will help you during your interview.
