If it is true that there are lots of articles about this topic, in this one we will talk specifically about the steps you should follow in order to have more probabilities of success while finding a well paid and stable job.
First of all you need to check your CV and attract the most attention possible out of it. In Marketing terms this is our product. The competence are those individuals who have a similar profile to ours, regarding experience and knowledge and our client will be the companies.
Our “product” needs to cause the impression that we are organized, creative and talented people to summarize big and important achievements and experiences in 1 or 2 pages. En Europe, United States of America, Canada and Australia the trend turns around have 1, maximum 2 pages in your CV and depending on the country a photograph is included or not. Generally CVs are without picture because of legal issues that go against discrimination as is the case of USA, Canada or England, nevertheless in countries like Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, France, Holland or Germany Recruiters and companies prefer the layout with a photo included in the upper right side of the CV. In the case of Australia there are no anti-discrimination laws in place but generally, most candidates (80 – 90%) don’t add a photo. In Africa, as it is in Australia, there are no anti-discrimination laws and the most of the candidates send their CVs without a photo.
Nevertheless in Latin America actually there is not a maximum limit for the CVs. According to the country or world zone the CVs Layout changes, however the most important is that it contains the necessarily information without exceeding the quantity and having always a chronological order and possibly with exact dates, at least starting and ending month and year of each activity, being it working or studies activity, locating the most recent activity first. In countries where a Cover Letter is required, this document plays also an important role. This Cover Letter must be focused in the Job Ad you’ve seen and remarking why you should be the chosen one for that position, which means what can you contribute to the company that other profiles cannot?
After having customized your CV and Cover Letter as what the position requires, it is recommended to create, it could in MS Excel, a target list of companies where you would like to work for. This target list must be fed with information everyday so that you can identify the Stakeholders of the Project and their contact details. In this step is where a lot of people fail, because they don’t invest the necessary time for such an important milestone. Looking for a job is a job itself, and the one who doesn’t develop well his/her duties will have a smaller probability of finding a good job in a short period of time.
Once the main actors, to whom we are going to send our information, have been identified and after having sent our CV (It can be the same day, or maximum 2 or 3 days after sending your CV) it is recommended to call the person in charge of the Recruitment Process in order to verify the reception of the CV. This is a key call, because in this short period of time we need to express our desire in the dynamism of the company and how interesting is this position for us as well as to mention 2 or 3 key points that stand us out of the other candidates. The same way that companies talk about their USP (Unique Selling Proposition) at the moment of offering their products or services, we need to talk about our differentiation in relation to the competition and remark what makes us unique. We must have a lot of caution in this step and do not exceed the contact limits having always a prudential time between calls or emails to verify the reception of the CV o the process status.
I hope this article will be useful for your professional career.
Kind regards,
JUAN DAVID VIÑAS RESTREPO
