- What are you looking for?
- What are your unique skills that sets you apart from someone else?
- Where can you see yourself in 5 or 10 years?
- What is your passion?
Passion
The most successful people always say “Do What Your Passion Is”. Ask anyone successful and you will get the same answer. Passion is what makes you give your 110%. What do you like to do and when you spend time doing it, time seems to slip by and you do not feel tired. That is your Passion.
When you discover your path of passion, the remaining factor is your will to learning and be humble. “Learn for life. Learn to learn and you will learn”.
How do you present yourself and good communication skills. Do you talk to people and offer a lending hand. Show your enthusiasm.
The final stride is all about luck and contacts. Luck and contacts seem to overlap. They can work without each other. Have luck without contacts, will get you nowhere and having contacts with no luck is the same.
Looking Around
Firstly, find out about yourself. Look at CVs of friends, peers, family members. Do not be shy to get help. When you ask, most probably you will be surprised how happy your friends would want to forward their CV to you.
Social networks!!!! linkedin, facebook.. etc. your mate who used to go out and play with. They are your friends and perhaps your potential link/employer.
Looking out for Your Job
Go to the local library and search for yearbook. This will provide you with the information for employment chances and with a listing for all companies requiring IT related people.
Cover Letter
Your cover letter should be about 3 paragraphs. Staring with introduction and your objectives.
Always send your mail to the manager in charge of HR and with recorded mail. This is very important so as your mail will get past the first few stages. Always follow up your first letter to show your interest. With this in mind, surveys say that 1 in 300 lose their jobs or get into the wrong job.
Choose Paper
- Ivory White – never pure white
- 120g minimum weight
- This of how special your CV can be compared with others
- Technical Jobs – Arial Font (Size: 10 – 12) Arial Fonts give a modern look. (Sans Serif.) This allows for a cleaner look.
- Media or Business – Times New Roman
- Your Name must be on top (Size: 14 – 16)
- Under the heading will be your profile to talk about yourself. A personal description (slightly informal) will make you stand out of the crowd. Employers read hundreds or thousands of CVs a day, so do not make your look like a phd thesis. Simple, elegant, straight to the point.
- One good reference is the newspaper horoscope section under your stars. This will give you about 3 – 4 sentences to describe yourself. Notice how the stars description makes you feel good, this will have similar effect on the reader as well.
- Most employers are interested in key skills and key achievements. A career summary, education summary, interests and hobbies then follow this. Education summary should not be all but just enough, giving you topics to talk with during interviews.
- Get a decent affordable suit/attire.
- Simple is best.
- Spend sometime on your hair or face. Have that beaming, alert and sincere look.
- Be in good spirits by talking to people and friends. DO NOT LOOK SLOPPY.
- Be patient and do not be afraid to ask. They are hiring a person who fits into their group. Not a smart aleck, who is antisocial, wants to be the know it all and looks down others.
- Just be simple and natural, be yourself, dont have to act what you are not.
Before going to interview, call up the company to ask for information about the company. Give instances like you are in a project doing a survey on their field of expertise and require information about their company.
Posture, body language, handshake and eye contact is really important. The first five minutes can determine whether they would want to employ you. Do not panic. At most, try again. The purpose of the interview is to find the chemistry of you and them. If theres love at first sight. You’r hired!
Internship……. Say that you are willing to work for free with them just providing your travel expenses. If they are not happy, they can choose not to employ you. Very often they will take you in. People who find their goals often have the one simple question: Why, What, How?
Frogs turn into princes