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If you are used to applying for jobs or even very short term contracts like translation jobs, you will doubtlessly be aware of having to write a resume, which is also called a curriculum vitae (CV). Numerous people have a hard time with writing their CV and this is not surprising because there are numerous different ways of composing one. In this piece, we will take a look at composing a CV

All we employees have a history. We all went to school and we all have had jobs, the disparity being how long we went to school, how long we have been working and what we have been working at. The art of writing a winning CV is how best to present that history so that you put yourself in the best possible light without misrepresenting yourself.

The first thing to do, even before you start looking for a job, is to set down everything you have done of any importance in the best date order that you are able to remember. This is obviously easier for some than for others but it is vital to get the time line as accurate as possible, because future mistakes might be interpreted by prospective employers as lies and that is the last thing that you want.

Now you can begin searching for a job, although you have not written your CV yet. But you are ready to. The point is, you cannot compose a good CV unless you know who is going to be reading it. Your CV is the story of your working and educational life and you cannot compose a good one until you know who your target audience is.

You would not write a steamy novel for children and you would not write a fairytale for adults. Try to look at it from the employer’s point of view. If you are 45 years old, most employers would think it irrelevant that you went grape picking in France in the autumn when you were 16.

However, it may not be inappropriate if you were demonstrating a longterm knowledge of the French language so that you could get work as a translator. Similarly, it is better for a young person to put that fact in than an older person, because it depicts a willingness to work on behalf of the younger person.

They say that there are around 28 people chasing every job in the UK now and I bet it is a lot more if the career is a decent one, so you can imagine the boss sitting there, the phone going every ten minutes, people asking questions, routine jobs needing to be done AND he or she is short staffed (hence the vacancy) AND there is a stack of job application forms (CV’s) to read through.

You would like yours to stand out for the right reasons. You want the boss to be able to scan down the page and think that was clear and simple. Luckily, the days are gone when handwriting was an an issue, although for some jobs an extremely well hand-written CV would still be very striking, but I have not seen beautiful hand-writing for decades, so stick with the word-processor.

A very short covering letter should introduce your CV, only to make it obvious what you are applying for. I would attach that to the CV with a paper clip, so that it may be easily discarded. Then the CV:

Name Address Tel No Email

Relevant Qualifications:

Previous Work Experience:

Leave white space to make the page easily readable, say one blank line between data in a section and two between sections. Use a clear font of readable size (10-12). I like 12 because I can read it without my specs.. Start qualifications with the highest most relevant and experience from the last position and work down.

Try to keep everything on one page, but do not cheat to do it by squashing lines up and decreasing the font. Try not to make the boss curse you before you have even met each other!

Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on quite a number of topics, but is currently concerned with Professional Translation Services. If you want to know more go to our web site at Real Translator Jobs Advice.

Many people find it very hard to sell themselves as a product or a commodity and that is because of modesty and because they do not see themselves as products and commodities. We are people, we are individuals, are we not? The answer to that question is not as easy as it should be.

On the human level, yes, obviously we are all people and we are all lovely people with feelings, emotions and problems. However, when you are an employer, you have jobs to do and deadlines to meet and although it is a real shame that the child of employee number 456789 has broken his arm and he requires time off, it is a nuisance to getting that order out on time.

Depending how important the job is of employee 456789 naturally and how large the workforce is. In a shop, it could be a disaster, in a factory, it scarcely matters. It is natural, no matter what business managers and owners have been taught to say, it is a nuisance if things do not go well in business. It is the job of a business manager to flatten out these bumps.

When you start to see the concerns of your employer or even interviewer, who represents the employer, you can begin to see methods of how to advance your career by selling yourself. Therefore, the employee (or business owner who wants to sell) has two things to do to begin with.

First, find out what the employer wants and second, find out what you have to give. You might think that you already know the answers and maybe you do, but let’s go over them anyway. An employer wants you, as an employee to make his life easier. You can do this by being punctual and dependable.

The employer already has a decent concept of what you can do by looking at your CV. What the employer does not know is whether you are trustworthy and reliable.

Now it comes down to you. You can corroborate your CV, but the employer has almost certainly already done that anyway. So, your task is to prove that you know something concerning the firm, that you are interested in, what it wants to achieve and that you will pull out all the stops to help achieve that.

If you are not able to say that, maybe you are applying for the wrong career. Enthusiasm counts for a lot. Nowadays there are often 20-30 applicants going for each job, therefore become more selective and be more well-informed about the companies you apply to.

Finally, it is important to be polite. This shows itself in a number of ways. You should dress in an fitting fashion. Casual/smart is fair enough for most jobs, smart to formal is vital for others.

Men should be clean-shaven, with a full set or at least trimmed. It is not good enough to go looking as if you did not have time to shave because you got up late, because you don’t care about the position.

In general women understand this better than men, so I won’t preach, but I want to give two examples. My father’s last bit of advice to me when he retired from the family firm was:

1] Do not employ people who have a newspaper folded on the sports page, because they will stay in the toilet working out their bets

2] Do not employ people who roll their own cigarettes because you have to pay them to roll them

I understand if you disagree with my Dad’s tips, but employers are just human too.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece writes on quite a number of topics, but is currently concerned with Professional Translation Services. If you want to know more go to our web site at Real Translator Jobs Advice.