Friday, October 24, 2008

Places for Job Hunting

There are many places you can look for job.

1. Family and Friends: Your family, relatives and friends should be your first call when you are looking for job. Apart from helping get a job, they can also provide you with the emotional and financial support. Whenever there is vacancy in their place of work, you’ll be informed. So always intimate them of unemployment status and go for further, give them your CV.


2. Companies and Parastatals: Companies, Industries and government parastatals are also good places to put your CV. There is nothing wrong in going to a company and asking if they have an opening. Who knows, you might be lucky and they are short of manpower when you appear with the right credentials. If that’s the case, they’ll ask you to go and write your application letter. Even if they are not recruiting at the moment, leave your CV with them, they’ll contact you when they have an opening.


3. Newspapers: The media has always been a great source of information. The print media in particular helps in this regard, you can get announcement of job opening in the classified section of most daily newspapers. Example in Nigeria, Tuesday and Thursdays Guardian are popular for vacancies. Also Thursday ThisDAY AND Mon Punch are good.


4. Recruiting Agencies: Recruiting Agencies and Consulting firms are another agent of job. They not only tell you where the jobs are but also link you up with the company that is recruiting, usually for a small fee. There are many recruiting agencies and consulting firms around. Examples, Phillips Recruiting, Iris Consulting, etc.


5. Internet: The Internet is a great place for job seekers because of the huge information you can find there. And in this information age, applications for jobs are now sent and processed online. If you know the website of a company or industry you can leave your CV with them real time instead of traveling to their head office. There are many websites dedicated to helping jobseekers by letting them know what jobs are available and when. Examples of job websites are:

www.naijahotjobs.com

www.nigeriancareersonline.com

www.joblogng.com

www.globalworklink.com

www.jobaweb.com

www.irisjobstation.com

www.nogerianjobsonline.com

www.careersnigeria.com

www.careeraware.com

Friday, October 17, 2008

How to Get a Well Paid Job Quickly

If you are trying to get a job, especially in today's competitive market, you need to stand out. And one way to stand out is to become an expert. Usually, we think of experts as people who have spent years in a particular profession and worked their way to the top of the ladder, often spending years studying and gaining endless professional qualifications before reaching expert status.

But that isn't always necessary. Not everyone has the time or inclination to train for years and many jobs don't require advanced degrees. What they do require is people who can perform certain tasks efficiently. So think speed and efficiency.

Therefore, one technique which will help you get a new job is becoming an expert in one small, but important area of your career or industry, an area in which you can perform more quickly and more efficiently than most. Let's look at a concrete example.

As the world or work becomes more technical, computer skills are in demand but these days just about everyone can use a computer. Being computer literate is accepted as part of basic education in the same way that being able to read and write are. So you need to do something extra.

Ask yourself, what is the most important aspect of using a computer in my current job? It might be speed or the ability to perform certain advanced functions on a specific programme.

If it's speed, practise your typing. Even ten to twenty minutes a day will mount up over time. You can find a touch-typing course online or borrow a course from the library. Depending on your current speed and the amount of time you can afford to spend on it, you could increase your typing speed dramatically over the next three to six months. If everyone else types with two fingers, you'll be the company typing expert.

You can apply this technique to any aspect of your job. Look at what isn't working as efficiently as it might and analyse your own performance. What could you do to improve your results? With many tasks, it's simply a matter of focus and practice. With others you may need a little help,which you could get by asking someone else for tips or training or if necessary, you could enroll in a short course.

And remember that being an expert simply means you are better at something or know more about it than the average person. If no-one in your company speaks French and you have a basic grasp, you are the company expert.

Choose a skill which is important in your job and the workplace in general, aim for a high level of competence and you will become someone employers want to hire.

Need to find a job? Get free careers advice at http://www.coolercareers.com

Your resume or CV is the key to your success. Want to write one which gets the results you want? click here to download your free e-book.

Waller Jamison is a careers advisor who understands the difficulties involved in finding a job. She specializes in teaching CV writing.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Waller_Jamison

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Tips For Writing A Good CV(2)

In this article we continue with the information you can find in a curriculum vitae in our tips for writing a good CV. Areas of knowledge or experience is a very important part of your curriculum vitae; because it is the section that describe your ability and accumulated experience. You need to describe your areas of expertise without having to write a long statement. Example, an accountant looking for a job in an insurance company, will use phrase such as general accounting, insurance accounting, brokerage accounting, financial accounting, expenses control, auditing, and so on, to describe his abilities. Any prospective employer will immediately recognize the scope of his experience and that is the catch.


For education, it is necessary to show the names if the schools you attended with dates. Degrees can be shown in reverse chronological order with the highest degree listed first. If you are still in the NYSC program, you must indicate you date of completion. However if you have completed same, just indicate your service year. Also list the names of key professional or trade associations in which you hold or recently held membership to indicate your professional status.


Your work experience is best shown in reverse chronological order. That is, with your current position (or latest position, if unemployed) shown first. Give details of employer, position held, earnings, responsibilities, achievements and reason for change. If there is no way to explain adverse e reason in print or briefly, it’s best to just omit the item entirely.


For your salary, it’s best to writ “open to discussion” depending on position and p[potential. It’s also good to be willing to travel any amount required by the position. Say whether you are willing to relocate for the right opportunity or prefer to remain in your present are. If the job you seek demands some military or police forc3, just mention your rank while on active service. If presently unemployed, or you can report in 10 days, write ”immediate”, under availability. For your references, simply state “available upon request”. Write other things as relevant or pertinent to your objective.


As a final note, I’d like to request for samples of curriculum vitae. If your CV is good and you want it published, so it can be used as an example of a good CV, send it to godsfavourite_ug@yahoo.com. I would really appreciate that. Comments are also welcome from readers.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Tips For Writing a Good CV(1)

The phrase “curriculum vitae” is a Latin phrase that means “the story of my life”. According to the World Book Encyclopedia, it is a biographical summary; it is a short account of a person’s background, education and professional career. Most people call it CV for short. CVs are commonly called Resume in the USA. In layman’s language, it is a document about yourself which will help you get the job you desire. The length is usually 1 or 2 pages but professionally a single page resume is acceptable.

An actively worded CV implies a proactive writer and a well organized CV suggests a logical and efficient person. Therefore you need to set out your CV very well so that it will get you what you want. There is much information required in a CV. These includes personal information, career objective, areas of knowledge/experience, education, professional status and membership, work experience, salary, travel, willingness to relocate, military or police force, availability, present employer contact, interest and activities, community service, foreign languages .Some people are of the opinion that there are major and minor parts of a CV. But I maintain that any information is important as long as it gets you what you are seeking. Let’s examine some of this information.

Personal details. These include the essentials; your name, address, date of birth, LGA and state of origin, marital status, health, height and weight. Present yourself by the name you ordinarily use in business and personal life. If you usually use your first name and middle initial, do so in your CV, but first names spelled out are better that initials.

Your address should be shown in full: street number and name, with street road, court, drive avenue or lane included; spell out both city and state. Normally use your home or everyday phone. For your health simply write “Good” or “Excellent”. If you are using crutches, just say so. Use your actual birth date rather than age, to avoid making your CV obsolete after your next birthday. If you are over 55, you may just omit any reference at all to your age or birthday.

For your career objective, state what you seek for in very concise terms. Try to make it comprehensive though, so that it can cover several related areas, if you have such an objective. Try and bring out what you can do to help any company or industry achieve its goals.