Job and Career

Размещено на http://www.allbest.ru/

Job and Career

Our life is an odd mixture of different moments of action and inaction, work and rest. Work provides us with an inner creative joy. It saves us from the routine and apathy of life. It puts our energies to a proper use. Unused energies create disorders in us. They make us physically unhealthy and mentally unhappy. Time hangs heavy on our shoulders when there is no work. It provides us with money for our life hood. It makes our life meaningful and peaceful. Idleness is more boring and painful than work. When a worker builds up something new, he feels encouraged and elevated and thus gets pleasure from his creative work. Where there is no need, there would be no work. Where there is no work, there would be no joy in life.

Thus to become a full-fledged person you have to find a proper career.

How do you choose a career? Part of the problem is the size and complexity of the job market itself. Five hundred and sixty-three different occupations were listed in a recent publication of the Belarusian Department of Labor, and this list is probably incomplete. Try to collect as much information as you can and evaluate yourself. Be sure you know your own interests and talents.

Unfortunately, not everyone takes this trouble. Those who don't can make costly mistakes. For example, some people simply follow in the footsteps of a parent or a relative. One young man I know became a doctor because that was his father's profession. Yet he could not stand the sight of blood. Watching an operation made him sick to his stomach. One day he had to amputate a leg, and, after making the first cut, fainted in the operating room. A young woman I know became an accountant although she hated maths. Her uncle encouraged her by promising a job in his company. It took her several years, and several disasters with the company books, before she realized her mistake.

Procrastinating, postponing a decision, is another error people make. I'll get started tomorrow, or next week, or next year. These people refuse to face the problem, hoping it will go away. But if you don't take the first step now, how can you plan for the future, take the right courses in school, get in the right programmes? Procrastinators just drift missing many opportunities.

So, make a short of your interests, talents and preferences and become a job hunter.

Hunting for a job can be tricky. However, the hunt can be rewarding, for it can lead to wonderful career opportunities. Through telephone calls, correspondence, interviews, and other contacts, the job hunter will (1) meet people, (2) share information, (3) get glimpses of various companies.

You can find the job you want if you prepare yourself for the hunt. You should first prepare a resume, listing accurate information about your education, past work experience, affiliations, and so on. A resume that is too general may undermine your possibilities of being hired. What is important for one resume may not be important for the other.

Once you have created a resume, you are ready to begin serious job-hunting. You should look through “help wanted” ads in newspapers and visit employment agencies. You should let your family, friends, and acquaintances know that you are looking for employment. Remember that only 10 percent of all job vacancies appear in print.

You should also attend job fairs, often held in major cities or on university campuses. This information can be obtained from local or university newspapers or employment offices. Recruiters from various fields interview prospective employees or accept resumes and/or give out employment applications. Some employers do presentations for interested employees.

Then you will need to gather information about the organizations you are interested in. This research is important because it will give you insights into the company, and your potential employer will be able to see that you are prepared for the interview. This show of interest could help in getting you the job.

You should write a cover letter to accompany your resume and/or application. This should be a one-page formal business letter in which you introduce yourself, state your reason for writing, briefly summarize your qualifications, and request an interview.

Once you are granted an interview, you should arrive well-prepared. Prepare questions to ask during the interview. You might ask about the specific job responsibilities, ask about the possibilities for advancement or promotion, and find out about the special benefits the company offers. Avoid going into too many details about the salary at this time.

Above all, dress appropriately. This tells the employer you are a professional. In other words, if you are interviewing for a conservative, multinational company, you should not wear casual clothes like jeans and sneakers; get dressed up! Then, during the interview, sit up straight, speak clearly, be attentive, look the interviewer in the eye, smile when appropriate, and try to relax. If you become nervous, take long, deep breaths and remember you have a valuable commodity to sell - yourself. Remember not to say negative things about yourself or your former employers. You should be friendly and act like you really want the job.

Many employers ask prospective employees to complete a job application and or take an exam before the interview, so be sure to arrive about 20 minutes before the scheduled appointment. To be prepared, bring along extra copies of your resume, samples of your work, recommendation letters, and other supporting documents that will strengthen your application. You will certainly make a good impression by anticipating your employer's needs.

After the interview, send a follow-up letter to the person(s) who interviewed you. In this one-page letter, you should thank the person for the interview, briefly summarize how your skills match the requirements, reiterate you interest in obtaining the position.

If you don't hear from the prospective employer within a specified period of time about one week, depending on the situation, it is okay to phone and ask about the status of your application. At this time, you can find out when the company plans to fill the position and you can use this opportunity to remind the interviewer that you are still interested in the job.

And when you get the job, don't relax and just make your job work for you.

Here are some suggestions:

Don't let the salary be your main reason for taking the job. Sometimes a lower paying job with the right company and the right contacts can do a lot more for you than a higher salary. Decide what is the lowest pay with which you can be satisfied. Then decide what other things can be important. How much training and/or experience can you get on this job? Some companies give their new employees priceless training. On-the-job experience can be very valuable to you when you apply for your next job. It gives you the practical experience that no school can offer. This can lead to a much higher salary later. What chances are there for advancement within the company? Sometimes accepting a lower paying job gives you a chance to show your boss how capable you are and how valuable you can be to the company. This will pay off later.

OK, so now you have the job and you want to make an impression -- you want people to notice you. What can you do to become a valuable employee? Do a little bit more and do it well. It really isn't that hard to be successful in your life. It's too bad, but many people try to do as little as they can on the job. Take advantage of that -- do just a little bit more. This is not to suggest that you should allow anyone to take advantage of you. However, it is suggested that you do your work faithfully and competently and to the best of your ability at all times. There is a saying: "Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door." One way to be noticed in a company is to suggest little things that can improve the routine way that things are done. You must be careful here, however. Sometimes a way of doing things has been established that has been carefully thought through and has advantages that you don't realize. The wrong suggestion can hurt you as much as the right suggestion can help you.

Do remember that other employees can be helpful to you. You should at least try not to score points by being critical of a fellow employee who is also doing his or her best job. Ambition, jealousy, and personality differences are encountered on any job, but the more friends you make and the fewer enemies, the better position you are in. There are times when you will need the help of your fellow employees. It is then that your prior actions can result in the kind of back-stabbing that hurts.

There is another important point to be made. Sometimes you may realize that you made a mistake by taking this job. Don't feel married to it. If it will help your career, quit it and look for another. This is the time when the friends you have made, the reputation you have earned on the job, and the experience and training you have gotten will be most helpful. No job is ever a waste of time because if you have given it your best, you have learned something from it. Take all this with you to your next job and continue to move up from there.

First, of course, you have to get the job. When you do, though, it's up to you to become a valuable employee. Good luck!

job work resume career

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.

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.

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.

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. 8

EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES should be included in the next section.

Student or professional organizations you belong to, travel, sports and hobbies should be listed here.

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.

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 sendyour resume with a cover letter.

When you use a resume to apply for a job, you also need a short cover letter. The cover letter should not simply repeat information given in the resume; instead, it should begin by identifying the job for which you are applying and telling how you heard about it.

You can then add any other information not included in the resume which might be important-for this particular job. Finally, request an interview; include your phone number, and when you can be reached.

Address the letter, to a specific individual whenever possible.

Develop a bridge between yourself and employer at the very beginning -tell how you learned of the vacancy.

Give a brief statement, emphasizing your qualifications for this position.

Use words directly from the job ad to describe what you. can do.

Emphasize what you can do for an employer rather than what he can do for you.

Show enthusiasm throughout your letter.

Размещено на Allbest.ru