Tag: CV writing

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How To Create An Impressive Video Resume?

Create An Impressive Video Resume?

In today’s highly competitive job market, candidates are creating video resume for rapid employment. Anyone could easily record a video and upload it to the Internet to capture the attention of prospective employers.

The video resume provides detailed information about candidate’s skills and professional life experiences.

In this post, we are going to share tactics to create a video resume that will entice the reviewer. Here is how you can create a video resume:

 Make Sure It’s Appropriate

As a job seeker, you don’t just need to create instead you need to create one that will accomplish its relevant goals. If you’re applying for a position in the online media, then an appropriate video resume can play a key role to land you on the vacant position. Make sure to create a decent video resume that has the potential to make you qualify for an interview round.

Additionally, you should never send a video resume to a company who prefers the “old methods” of hiring because it might reduce your chances of getting the job.

Jot Down a Script

Don’t just make a video instead do some preparation to use this recruitment tool in the best way possible. For this, you will need to create a script that will allow you to answer all questions that doodles in the mind of recruiters.

By creating a boring or dull video, you are likely to create a negative impact in from of the reviewer. Therefore, create an interesting video that will cover all major points that will help you in the recruitment process.

Keep It Short

When it comes to creating a video resume, a one-minute time duration is ideal. According to a report of recruitment magazine, video resume should be short, relevant and not more than two minutes.

Remember that recruiters watch your video for recruitment purpose only, therefore don’t add elements that will make it diverting. A short video will easily show off your personality and avoid elements that can reduce your chances of recruitment.

Be Professional

Don’t include your personal life stuff in your video resume as it’s a professional component. Dress appropriately as you do for an interview and maintain a professional environment as well. It’s really important to have a sophisticated background of shots and make sure it has enough lighting.

A professionally-developed video can boost your chances for employment. Therefore, use an HD camcorder to shoot your video so that you could express your qualities in a clear manner.

 Add Creative Elements

Undeniably, a video resume is the great opportunity to showcase one’s creative skills to a potential employer. Be creative, and come up with unique concepts to make a video that has the capacity to inspire any reviewer.

For example, you can wear professional attire in the video to inspire the recruiter. Don’t add too much creative stuff in your 2-minute video that will confuse the employer. Instead, add elements that will easily capture the attention of employers in a professional manner.

Share It in Your Circle

Once you prepared an innovative video resume then share it with your network. This is will allow you to get feedback so that you can make your video more powerful tool of recruitment. In addition, ask your friends to review your video, and suggest you ways to make it better.

Don’t share your video directly over the internet as it will go viral quickly and you will no longer have control to amend mistakes in it. Thus, take feedback from friends and family first then share the edited version in your professional network.

In the end, it could be stated now that the above information is appropriate for job seekers who want to please their reviewers with video resumes. Share it in your network as well to help out others.

Author Bio

Anna Marsh is the writer of this post. She is a Career Counselor, Veteran Writer, and a Blogging Expert at Assignment Help Deal firm. The majority of her articles discuss the different areas of educational affairs, and career management. She is conscious about her fitness and practices yoga as part of his daily life. You can reach her via Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus.

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Important Tips on Creating a Resume for Banking Jobs

Tips on Creating a Banking Resume

Banking and Finance is one of the fastest growing sectors in terms of growth and employment.

It offers a great job security along with very fine options of employment for jobseekers, right from the high paying investment banking to the secure environment of a government sector bank job.

It’s due to these reasons that we find so many applicants for these jobs giving rise to tough competition. If you would like to cut through this competition and become the next rising star in the banking industry it is very important to have an impressive resume. This post will help you in the same.

A resume is like an advertisement of skills and talents that you are trying to sell to employer. Until or unless your advertisement rings a bell with the employers, or attract their attention it is very hard to get past the cut throat competition.

A CV or a resume would get you the much needed introduction with the prospective employer where you can show your achievements, strengths and cleverly disguise your weaknesses as well.

Without a proper and well written resume it becomes really hard to get your foot inside the door. When it comes to highly competitive jobs like banking its an absolute must to get yourself a superbly written and well-presented CV that can act as an entry gate towards the opportunity that you are applying for.

While many of the banking jobs require the candidate to go through an entrance exam, especially in the government sector, there are plenty of opportunities in private sectors banks and financial institutions that require you to apply to the vacancies and sit for an interview like any other industry.

Therefore, the perception that a strong resume is not required in banking sector is totally unfounded and uncalled for. Here are some tips that you can utilize while crafting a resume for a banking job:

Set Up Your Own Coaching Business

 Show your passion

The banking industry is one of the most competitive. Due to the intense competition, there are a number of deserving candidates who can be left out of the race just because they did not show enough drive or passion for their job.

Your CV should be able to show your ambition and evidence that you are really interested to take the job hands on. This might involve writing a good summary, or a introductory note in the form of a cover letter.

Make sure to include a brief outline of your career expectations and what you have to offer in terms of skills and attributes.

Give academics due attention

The employers place a high importance on formal education in this industry.

Whether it is a degree in finance and banking or a certification course from authoritative sources, it is important that you are able to show your financial literacy.

Therefore, keep enough space to show you’re academically sound and qualified for the role. You can include numerical figures like passing percentage and university rank, but only in case those figures are above average or extraordinary. In other cases, it is best to leave them out.

Briefly explain your professional experience

Professional experience is different from achievements so instead of clubbing them together, keep the two sections separate. In your experience section include the key data like name of employers, time duration of employment and the key responsibilities you had there.

In the banking industry, your experience with previous bankers matters a lot and therefore it is recommended to prominently highlight it.

Highlight your achievements

The most important part of any CV is the achievement section.

This is where you tell the employer what makes you special and better than others. Hence, you should be most careful while elucidating what your achievements have been in previous roles.

The delicate line should be tread with caution as wrong use of words can smell of boastfulness which is not desirable.

Achievements could be anything from giving a project well before deadline to contributing towards the profit margins or saving expenses and increasing the bottomline margin.

Your achievements should be in line with the skills that you have listed and offer a clear picture to the employer of how you actually put in use those skills to benefit the organization. Achievements should also be able to display your mathematical ability, and attention to detail, the two attributes indispensable for a bank job.

Emphasize on technological literacy

Almost every work is now automated and uses computer software.

Whether it is record keeping, making tables and data visualizations, calculating profit margins, you will be required to work with software and computing devices. Therefore, it is necessary to show ease at using various latest technologies. Any technological handicap can seriously jeopardize your chances of getting a job in this industry.

In addition to the above explained points, you should also be able to prove commitment to work, and show strong work ethics as both of them will be required while performing your job at any financial institution. It is needless to say that keeping a check on correct word usage and grammar is absolute must. For the same effect you can get your resume proofread at least once by an expert.

Author Bio

Saurabh Tyagi is a writer, social media enthusiast and a keen watcher of latest job trends. He is currently associated with Naukri.com, a leading online recruitment company in India. When he is not writing, you will find him reading about the latest job trends in marketing and new media.

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One Line to Secure a Job Interview

With so many people being made redundant and an increase in small company closers, you can see why the demand for every job vacancy has arisen.

To beat the competition, you only need One Opening Line! If you knew which one sentence would secure you a job interview, would you add it to your application?

As we all know, employers quickly skim through your CV and Covering Letter, what they do all read is your opening line, it makes sense for this opening line to be the best sentence on your CV or Covering Letter.

Before writing your opening line, you first need to know what essential skills, qualities and experiences the employer requires, all you have to do is show you have these in your opening line.

Ask yourself, what is the one thing the employer would want me to achieve? This could save outgoing cost, increase productivity, make a profit, moving people forward with their life, it doesn’t matter what the employer requires of you, it’s about how you can prove you will achieve this in just one line.

Now you know what the employer requires, the type of person they are looking for, to add value to your opening line you need to evidence that you can achieve what you say you can achieve, you can do this by relating it to your own experiences.

This simple technique is how our CV Writing Service achieves maximum success with our customer CV’s

Example Opening Lines:                                                                                                 

  • “Successfully tripled company profits within a 12 month period by….”
  • “My leadership skills and innovation quickly turned around a company producing a high loss into a profitable company by….”
  • “Saved X company over 1 million pounds, by creating a new system to take raw materials to production to the sale of goods bypassing expensive third parties”
  • “Increased productivity and reduced sickness which lead to an increase in profits by 35% year on year”
  • “Experienced in successfully managing multimillion pound projects…”
  • “With over 10 years experience as a keynote speaker, delivering inspiring talks to groups of over 500 delegates…”
  • “My ability to problem solve along with my keen eye for detail, allows me to quickly find areas of high cost; in every company I have worked for this skill has helped me to decrease overhead payments leading to higher profits”
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10 tips when posting your CV online against fraud

CV stole by criminals

I am often asked, “Can I be a victim of fraud by posting my CV on the web?” The answer is “Yes!”

On average, criminals committing identity fraud only need 3 out of 15 pieces of information, don’t let your online CV give criminals a chance to commit identity fraud.

As job hunters are keen to gain employment, many do not think twice about giving companies the information they request. How do you know if the company you are applying to actually exist?

Criminals can easily advertise for a bogus job just to gain your private information, I even saw one job advert asking for a fee for the company to accept your CV.

Protect yourself from CV ID Fraud

1. Google the company name, gain contact details and check if the company exist

2. Be wary with e-mail addresses not containing the company name (some criminals will advertise a fake vacancy for a real company)

3. Ensure your details have not been saved on a computer desktop or in document files when using public computers and internet cafes

4. Don’t leave your paper CV lying about in public places, shred any CVs before throwing them away

5. While job searching on the internet is a great way to find employment, especially when you can upload your CV onto employment websites, you first need to ensure you do not give to many personal details away.

6. Good CV hosting websites will not show employers your personal information without your consent.

7. Your CV should show your skills and qualities, once an employer is interested they can request a full CV and references. This is because your CV is “live” on the internet for everyone and anyone to see, unlike a paper CV which will only be read by the employer.

8. With the age discrimination act, you no longer need to record your date of birth on your CV-stopping criminals from knowing your age.

9. Only give your forename and surname on your CV

10. Do not include your place of birth

11. Never record your marital status, no employer needs to know this and employers should never discriminate against people being married or single

12. You can use a telephone masking service, stopping you from publishing your private phone number

13. Never give any bank details to an employer until you have a job offer in writing. Employers only need your bank details if they employ you and want to pay your wage into your bank account. Never ever put bank details on a CV.

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How to write a good CV

What is a good CV?     

Only a CV that gains you an interview is worth having.

Your CV may look great; have a fantastic image and all the relevant sections. The CV may also tell an employer how amazing and wonderful you are, but if your CV does not gain you interviews then something needs changing.

Sell yourself through your CV

With many people who are applying for work, they will either have a CV that does not sell their skills and Qualities or a CV that records the skills and qualities they have, which are not relevant to the job role they are applying for.

Targeted CV

You need to target your CV to the industry you are applying for. To do this think about the skills, qualities and duties for the job role you are applying for. Read the job specification for the job role and ensure all the essential requirements are recorded on your CV. Take out any information that is not relevant to the job you are applying for. On average employers often “skim” through the pile of applicants’ CVs, spending around 30 seconds reading each CV; this is often due to the large volume of CVs applicants send for every advertised job. Once an employer has created a narrowed-down pile of the job applicants CVs, they will then spend longer dissecting each CV to ensure they interview the candidates with the most relevant skills, qualifications and experiences.

Writing a Personal Profile

A personal profile is on average 4-5 lines describing all your skills and qualities that are relevant to the job role you are applying for. This should be a “Selling” paragraph that shows you at your best. Often the employer will read the personal profile first, if they like the sound of you they will continue to read your CV.

Use a powerful opening line; the opening line needs to catch the employer’s attention. What have you done that will impress an employer? What do you have that an employer will want? “With over 10 years of experience in retail management working with the UK’s leading retail companies, I have been responsible for increasing profits year on year for the past 6 years.” As you can see the opening line above highlights 3 key points to impress an employer:

10 years experience

Working with the UKs leading retail companies

Increasing the companies profits

How to create ideas for your Personal Profile

A great way to get your creative juices working is to mind-map; get an A4 piece of paper and draw a little picture of yourself in the middle (this can be a Stick-Person) draw on some hair, eyes, glasses, etc to represent you, like you would do when you were 10 yrs old (this is to get into the mind of your inner-child and will help you to be more creative) Think and write down everything you like about yourself, everything you are good at.

Most people find this hard to do at first, but once you get going you want to be able to stop. Don’t be shy; no one is going to see this, write down every little thing, not just worked related but anything you are good at. You may have recorded a verity of work, hobbies and family related task, now think what skills and qualities that make you good at this task? And record all of these.

Keeping going until you have exhausted your brain. As an example – Cooking – good timing, multi-tasking, planning ahead, following a list/recipe, work under pressure, experienced, good pallet, etc

Once you have done this, your mind-map will be full (and hopefully overcrowded) with task, skills and qualities. Now think about the industry you are applying to, think about the job duties, skills and qualities needed.

Circle (in a bright coloured pen) all the tasks, skills and qualities you have on your mind map that are related to your job goal. You will find that often a certain skill or quality will have been mentioned several times throughout your mind-map, write these down as these can often be your strongest transferable skill and quality (your selling point)

You now have a list of your strongest skills and qualities that are needed for the job you are applying for, this is the basis for your personal profile. Turn your list into a paragraph, adding a strong opening line. Re-read and then edit your personal profile 3 times/or until you are completely happy with your personal profile.

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How to Write a CV

Having a CV (Or Curriculum Vitae meaning “Passage of Life”) is an important tool for all job searchers, as a CV records all your employment history and qualification on one document.

You can use your CV to prepare for interviews/interview questions, to assist you when completing application forms and for applying for work.

CV Image.

The layout of your CV is important, on average employers spend around 30 seconds initially “skimming” through your CV, this due to the amount of CVs employers receive for every advertised job role.

Keep your CV to 1 or 2 pages, use Headings and Breakers to split up the CV text, making it easier for the employer to read.

What to put on a CV

Contact Details.

Record your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address. Ensure your telephone (and especially your mobile) number is correct, due to the number of times individuals change mobile phone companies and numbers, people often forget to update their CV.

Also, use a professional sounding e-mail address.

Personal Profile.

A personal profile is a paragraph around 4-5 lines recording all your key skills and qualities that are needed for the job you are applying for. This is often the most important part of the CV, as this is often the first section on the CV an employer looks for and reads. Ensure your personal paragraph shows you in your most positive light.

Employment History.

Start with your current or last job and work backward; record the company you work for (company name) date you worked there (just add the years you worked as this will help delete small periods of unemployment) job title and duties.

Keep your duties brief and relevant to the new job you are applying for. Often people will record information they felt was important, where you need to record the information and duties your potential new employer wants to know about.

Qualifications.

Record the education establishment, years attended and qualification achieved. Record qualifications achieved at school/college/university and qualifications achieved in employment.

Hobbies.

To end your CV record what you enjoy doing in your spare time, if possible record information that again is relevant to the job you are applying for. Never record “socialising with friends” as this is often mistaken for “drinking with friends”

Record any Volunteering experience as many employers enjoy see this very positively as it shows, commitment and dedication.

References.

You can either record your references, or record “references available on Request” As most employers will only ask for your references during or after the interview section of the application process.