Friday, May 8, 2009
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Do You Have A Killer CV
CV is the only important selling tool to sell a Jobseeker. After watching this slide, you will know how to sell yourself and impress the prospective employer affectively through your CV. I am confident that you will like the Tips. Good Luck!!!!!
Do You Have A Killer CV
View more presentations from Rahat Kazmi.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Do You Know The Art Of Salary Negotiations
Check out this SlideShare Presentation:
Do You Know The Art Of Salary Negotiations
View more presentations from Rahat Kazmi.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Time Management Workshop
"Time Management Workshop"
This is a complete workshop for training managers on "Time Management". Don't worry every one has problem Managing Time.
"A Must watch Slide", No one can control Time or Life...but after watching this you will be able to control your Time and in other words control your Life!!
This is a complete workshop for training managers on "Time Management". Don't worry every one has problem Managing Time.
"A Must watch Slide", No one can control Time or Life...but after watching this you will be able to control your Time and in other words control your Life!!
Time Management Workshop
View more presentations from Rahat Kazmi.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
How to write a great covering letter?
A great covering letter can differentiate your CV from the countless others that pass across an employer's desk. Make sure yours stands out.
When responding to an advertised job vacancy, whether via letter, email or fax, you should always include a covering letter with your CV. Treat it as a vital part of your personal marketing literature, which merits attention and consideration. A cover letter introduces you and your CV and is your first chance to make a good impression on your potential employer. Aim to make it entice the reader to take those few extra minutes to consider you against other applicants. Your CV should not be sent without one!
Below are some basic guidelines to help ensure you receive a positive response from your initial contact.
Appearance and layout
Ensure your letter is neatly and clearly presented with no grammatical or spelling errors. Emails should be written in a common font with standard formatting and should emulate a handwritten letter in terms of style.
Content
The content of your cover letter should be brief and structured, avoid lengthy repetition of information covered in your CV. (Unlike a CV, it is acceptable to write a covering letter in the first person.) In particular:
- Your letter should address the relevant contact, whose name often appears in the job advert.
- Avoid Sir or Madam if possible.
- If you are replying to an advert, say so. Mention job title, any reference number and where and when you saw it.
- In some cases an advert will indicate a more substantial letter is required. Always follow a specific instruction and include any information if it is particularly requested, for example, current salary. .
- Briefly outline your current situation and why you are seeking change. Include current or last job, qualifications and professional and academic training, tailoring your information to make it as relevant as possible to the organisation or job applied for.
- Tell the potential employer a little about themselves to demonstrate you have properly read the advert and that you have done some research into the organisation. Also, state why you are interested in them as an employer
- You need to succinctly emphasize why an employer may want to meet and employ you. - Highlight your transferable skills, achievements and versatility; what you can contribute and what makes you different. Mention personality traits relevant to the role applied for, taking care not to appear too subjective.
- Ensure the letter flows freely however and does not slavishly match every point on the job description. The reader should be left with an overall impression that you are a potentially valuable addition to the workforce.
Negative information of any sort should be avoided in your covering letter as well as CV.
Close your letter with a polite expression of interest in further dialogue with the recruiter. Do mention that you would like the opportunity to discuss your suitability further at an interview and that you await a response in due course.
When responding to an advertised job vacancy, whether via letter, email or fax, you should always include a covering letter with your CV. Treat it as a vital part of your personal marketing literature, which merits attention and consideration. A cover letter introduces you and your CV and is your first chance to make a good impression on your potential employer. Aim to make it entice the reader to take those few extra minutes to consider you against other applicants. Your CV should not be sent without one!
Below are some basic guidelines to help ensure you receive a positive response from your initial contact.
Appearance and layout
Ensure your letter is neatly and clearly presented with no grammatical or spelling errors. Emails should be written in a common font with standard formatting and should emulate a handwritten letter in terms of style.
Content
The content of your cover letter should be brief and structured, avoid lengthy repetition of information covered in your CV. (Unlike a CV, it is acceptable to write a covering letter in the first person.) In particular:
- Your letter should address the relevant contact, whose name often appears in the job advert.
- Avoid Sir or Madam if possible.
- If you are replying to an advert, say so. Mention job title, any reference number and where and when you saw it.
- In some cases an advert will indicate a more substantial letter is required. Always follow a specific instruction and include any information if it is particularly requested, for example, current salary. .
- Briefly outline your current situation and why you are seeking change. Include current or last job, qualifications and professional and academic training, tailoring your information to make it as relevant as possible to the organisation or job applied for.
- Tell the potential employer a little about themselves to demonstrate you have properly read the advert and that you have done some research into the organisation. Also, state why you are interested in them as an employer
- You need to succinctly emphasize why an employer may want to meet and employ you. - Highlight your transferable skills, achievements and versatility; what you can contribute and what makes you different. Mention personality traits relevant to the role applied for, taking care not to appear too subjective.
- Ensure the letter flows freely however and does not slavishly match every point on the job description. The reader should be left with an overall impression that you are a potentially valuable addition to the workforce.
Negative information of any sort should be avoided in your covering letter as well as CV.
Close your letter with a polite expression of interest in further dialogue with the recruiter. Do mention that you would like the opportunity to discuss your suitability further at an interview and that you await a response in due course.
For more informative tips visit specialist jobsite for Finance and Consulting professionals:
Knowledge is power: How to win interview nerves?
The more you know, the less you'll be nervous. It may seem strange but true to mention, but it amazes me the number of people who go to visit a company knowing nothing, or next to nothing, about it.
Starting the preparation
So where to start? Company websites, is the short answer. It's very rare for a company not to have a website these days, and it's incredible what you can find on some of them. In addition to corporate history and press releases, many organizations have stacks of downloadable reports and reviews. Increasingly, you can even find video presentations, which make research easy and fun. In fact, if this kind of information is available on your prospective employer's website, you may seriously compromise the impression you make if you don't use it.
If the company that's interviewing you doesn't have a press centre on its website, it's simple enough to search for relevant articles yourself. All national newspapers are available online these days, with archives that reach back over years. Just enter the company's name in the search box. You can do this directly in a web search engine too (google.com, altavista.com)
Finally, you can get some incredibly useful information by phoning the company. Investor relations departments will always send you the latest report, and secretaries can be astonishingly forthcoming about their bosses' 'little foibles' - even to complete strangers.
Thinking about the questions you may be asked
As mentioned, your CareersAndCareers consultant will advise you on the format your interview will take (some helpful information on various types of interviews is available in the Candidate Advice section on this website). But you should also devote some time to thinking about all the possible questions you might be asked. It sounds like a daunting task, but look at it this way: the only questions you'll be asked that don't relate to your prospective company will relate to you. Which means you'll just be putting time into thinking about yourself!
This is the point at which to return to your resume, since the information here will form the basis of any interview. Study your resume and think about the questions which could arise from it. Say, for example, you've mentioned on your resume that you managed cost centres in a previous job. Imagine being asked about the easiest and most difficult aspects of that task (easiest/hardest questions are useful in relation to any achievement). Or, if you've said on your resume that you managed a budget, envision being quizzed about the details of that budget. In general, be prepared to talk about:
- Problem solving (your biggest problem in particular)
- Planning how you could have performed better with hindsight
- Any gaps in your resume
If it's difficult to develop objective curiosity about your own resume, study someone else's and then apply any questions that occur to you, to your own. You could also give your resume to an intelligent friend or relative and ask them to quiz you about your career.
The famous question - "What's your greatest weakness?"
There are some famous 'impossible' interview questions around, the most dreaded of which is 'What's your greatest weakness?'. Rather than tell your interviewer that your perfectionism lets you down, think carefully about the qualities of the people doing the job you're interviewing for, our advice is, "everyone has weaknesses”. The important thing is to pick the most forgivable one for the role you're doing. A good way into this is to think about the strengths necessary for your role and then think how those strengths could shade into weaknesses. For example, confidence can shade into arrogance; dedication can shade into blindness to the task, and so on.
Other things to cover in your preparation include your:
- Motivations
- Expectations
- Long term career plan
A popular interview question these days revolves around your greatest achievement. It's important to exercise some discretion here. If the most important aspect of the prospective job involves leading and motivating people, talking about finishing the marathon may not be the most relevant reply. Remember, your interviewer ultimately wants to know what you can do for the company. Hence, for most jobs (not all!) your achievement should probably include an element of teamwork. Once you've chosen an achievement that relates the skills required for the job, write a few paragraphs about the situation, using some of the questions and issues discussed above to guide you.
Your achievements
Writing about your achievements and experiences is a good brain flow exercise. On the night before an interview, when your research is complete, it's a good idea to take a few sheets of paper and just write out what you feel about your career so far. Start anywhere and write anything that comes into your head. You'll be amazed at how effective and comforting this can be. Apart from giving you the confidence that you've covered all relevant points, it's a great way to tire out your brain and ensure you get a good night's sleep!
Finally, don't worry about having interview nerves to some degree. It's only natural to be apprehensive in an important situation. Nerves are healthy. What you want to avoid is debilitating fear, and if you're fully prepared, this shouldn't be an issue.
For more details, vist the specialist website for Finance and Consulting professionals:
http://www.careersandcareers.com/
Starting the preparation
So where to start? Company websites, is the short answer. It's very rare for a company not to have a website these days, and it's incredible what you can find on some of them. In addition to corporate history and press releases, many organizations have stacks of downloadable reports and reviews. Increasingly, you can even find video presentations, which make research easy and fun. In fact, if this kind of information is available on your prospective employer's website, you may seriously compromise the impression you make if you don't use it.
If the company that's interviewing you doesn't have a press centre on its website, it's simple enough to search for relevant articles yourself. All national newspapers are available online these days, with archives that reach back over years. Just enter the company's name in the search box. You can do this directly in a web search engine too (google.com, altavista.com)
Finally, you can get some incredibly useful information by phoning the company. Investor relations departments will always send you the latest report, and secretaries can be astonishingly forthcoming about their bosses' 'little foibles' - even to complete strangers.
Thinking about the questions you may be asked
As mentioned, your CareersAndCareers consultant will advise you on the format your interview will take (some helpful information on various types of interviews is available in the Candidate Advice section on this website). But you should also devote some time to thinking about all the possible questions you might be asked. It sounds like a daunting task, but look at it this way: the only questions you'll be asked that don't relate to your prospective company will relate to you. Which means you'll just be putting time into thinking about yourself!
This is the point at which to return to your resume, since the information here will form the basis of any interview. Study your resume and think about the questions which could arise from it. Say, for example, you've mentioned on your resume that you managed cost centres in a previous job. Imagine being asked about the easiest and most difficult aspects of that task (easiest/hardest questions are useful in relation to any achievement). Or, if you've said on your resume that you managed a budget, envision being quizzed about the details of that budget. In general, be prepared to talk about:
- Problem solving (your biggest problem in particular)
- Planning how you could have performed better with hindsight
- Any gaps in your resume
If it's difficult to develop objective curiosity about your own resume, study someone else's and then apply any questions that occur to you, to your own. You could also give your resume to an intelligent friend or relative and ask them to quiz you about your career.
The famous question - "What's your greatest weakness?"
There are some famous 'impossible' interview questions around, the most dreaded of which is 'What's your greatest weakness?'. Rather than tell your interviewer that your perfectionism lets you down, think carefully about the qualities of the people doing the job you're interviewing for, our advice is, "everyone has weaknesses”. The important thing is to pick the most forgivable one for the role you're doing. A good way into this is to think about the strengths necessary for your role and then think how those strengths could shade into weaknesses. For example, confidence can shade into arrogance; dedication can shade into blindness to the task, and so on.
Other things to cover in your preparation include your:
- Motivations
- Expectations
- Long term career plan
A popular interview question these days revolves around your greatest achievement. It's important to exercise some discretion here. If the most important aspect of the prospective job involves leading and motivating people, talking about finishing the marathon may not be the most relevant reply. Remember, your interviewer ultimately wants to know what you can do for the company. Hence, for most jobs (not all!) your achievement should probably include an element of teamwork. Once you've chosen an achievement that relates the skills required for the job, write a few paragraphs about the situation, using some of the questions and issues discussed above to guide you.
Your achievements
Writing about your achievements and experiences is a good brain flow exercise. On the night before an interview, when your research is complete, it's a good idea to take a few sheets of paper and just write out what you feel about your career so far. Start anywhere and write anything that comes into your head. You'll be amazed at how effective and comforting this can be. Apart from giving you the confidence that you've covered all relevant points, it's a great way to tire out your brain and ensure you get a good night's sleep!
Finally, don't worry about having interview nerves to some degree. It's only natural to be apprehensive in an important situation. Nerves are healthy. What you want to avoid is debilitating fear, and if you're fully prepared, this shouldn't be an issue.
For more details, vist the specialist website for Finance and Consulting professionals:
http://www.careersandcareers.com/
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