So, You Are Looking for a Job

WHAT MUST YOU BEGIN WITH?

There are several traditional ways of looking for a job.

A civilized and active means of looking for a job is studying the market of the offered vacancies to get an idea of necessary demands and size up your own chances.

The best way of doing this is to use the help of employment agencies or to independently study the ads of job opportunities being published.

Announcements of job opportunities can be read in different printed publications. But which of them is worth reacting to?

Don't put much trust in ads in the yellow press. Solid companies place ads in prestigious expensive publications with a firm reputation.

Your main task is to understand whether the position being offered is consistent with the levels of your skills, education, and experience in work.

The structure of job opportunities ads is usually the same: the name of the vacant position, the list of the candidate's professional duties, the demands made of the candidate, and the system of compensations and benefits. Ads are often published by employment agencies on behalf of their clients. The address of the office is usually not given — it is suggested that the resume should be sent to a P.O. box or else faxed.

Having carefully studied the demands and duties being offered, an experienced reader may extract information on the activities of the company and the prospects of its development.

The phrases often used about "successful work over many years in the Russian market", "New missions being opened", etc., really testify to the company's dependability, serious prospects for its growth, and the durability of its stay in Russia.

First, one must pay attention to the position. To grasp what lurks behind the position's English name, there is a need to visualize at least in general outline the personnel structure at Western companies. For instance one may be misled by the incorrect interpretation of the word "Assistant". There is a need to understand that this word does not at all imply secretarial functions. A more exact meaning of this word is: mate, aid, apprentice manager, high-class specialist capable of independently tackling the tasks set to him.

Therefore using all possible means, try to learn as much as possible about this position to prepare yourself as best as possible for a meeting with the employer.

Carefully read the demands made of the given position. The demand to know a foreign language is very important. In most cases there is a need for free command of the language — Fluent English. Free command implies an ability freely to deal with a foreign manager, competently to compile documents and speak on the phone. This demand may prove to be the most important.

Quite often the ads do not decipher other demands in detail. For example, the ability to type in Russian/Latin. According to international standards, an adequate level of typewriting is a speed of 60 words per minute. Therefore, when claiming the given position, you need to check your speed or bring it up to the required level. Besides, a secretary is usually required to be able to work on a personal computer. In general, if the ads meticulously enumerate the software products, systems, languages, etc., which the candidate must necessarily know, remember that these demands have a strictly binding force.

Job Hunting

Resume

An excellent resume may help you get the job of your dreams and a poor resume may mean a lost opportunity.

Since this is the first piece of information a company will receive about you, it is critically important that your resume be well-written.

It should be presented at the beginning of any interview that you have with a company. Ideally, resume should not be longer than one page.

The contents of a resume can be roughly categorized as: 1) PERSONAL INFORMATION (address and telephone number), 2) JOB OBJECTIVE, 3) EDUCATION, 4) EXPERIENCE, 5) SKILLS, 6) EXTRACURRI­CULAR ACTIVITIES, 7) REFERENCES.

The resume begins with PERSONAL INFORMATION, name, address, telephone number centered at the top page.

After your address, a statement of intent or JOB OBJECTIVE should be written. This objective should be well thought out from the very beginning since it will influence how you will write the rest of the resume. It should not be too general, eg: "To obtain a managerial position in a Western company."

Think about your job search and career goals carefully, write them down in a way that shows you have given this much thought.

For example: "Objective: To obtain a position in telecommunication that will allow me to use my knowledge of engineering and take advantage of my desire to work in sales."

Notice that your desire to have a well-paid job is not included in this statement. A focus on money in your resume's first sentence will not make the best impression anywhere in the world, not just in Russia.

After the statement of intent, describe your EDUCATION.

List the universities,institutes and colleges you have attended in reverse chronological order.

Any studying you have done abroad should be included and courses that you have taken that are relevant.

If you graduated with honors, you should definitely include this. A "red diploma" can be called "graduated with high honors" in English. Do not include your high school.

Your working EXPERIENCE is the next section. List your experience starting with your most recent place of employment and work backwards.

Spell out the exact dates of employment, your position, and the name of the company you worked for.

Provide information about your responsibilities, emphasizing important activities by listing the most relevant to your objective. Do not use complete sentences! List your responsibilities in short statements that do not include the words "my" or "I".

Following experience, you should list your special SKILLS.

These include your language skills, computer abilities, and any other talent that relates to your statement of intent.

When describing your language abilities, it is best to be honest about assessing your level, "Fluent English," "native Russian," "intermediate German", and "beginning French" are all ways to describe your language abilities.

EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES should be included in the next section. Student or professional organizations you belong to, travel, sports and hobbies should be listed here.

Do not list "reading" or "writing" as an activity. It is assumed most people with a higher education do these things regularly.

The last section of your resume is the REFERENCE section. List at least two people, not related to you, who can describe your qualification for the job.

Their names, titles, places of work, and telephone numbers should be included. If you do not have space on your resume for this, write "Available upon request." You will then be expected to give this information to a prospective employer if it is requested.

The style and format of a resume are extremely important. Your resume must be typed, preferably on a computer in order to format it most effectively. A neat and well-written resume with no spelling mistakes will give an employer the impression that you are accurate and take care of details.

A resume will not get you a job. An interview with a company will get you a job.In order to have the opportunity of interviewing with a company you should send your resume with a cover letter.

Changing your job

Some people say that Americans go to work with resumesin their pockets. In this country, it is not unusual for people to change jobs frequently;changing jobs is a way of advancng professionally and financially.It is not considered strange for a person to have three or four jobs over period of ten years.

If you have a job and want to change it, keep the old job while you look for a new one. Having a job gives you an advantage.You can take your time and be selective. You also have more bargaining power.You may get a better salary offer if a prospective employer knows you are not in urgent need of a job.