Tips on How to Develop an Impressive Resume

When designing your resume, think of yourself as a salesman and your product is yourself. What are the best features of your product that can attract the buyers? What products are in demand? What are the buyers looking for in a product? So, you need to sell yourself to the employers and your tool to do that is your RESUME. Your skills, work experience, academic qualifications and accomplishments must fit the requirements of the prospective employer.

You have to tailor-fit your qualifications to the requirements of the employer but be sure to be honest and truthful. You play up your qualifications, skills set, accomplishments in relation to the job you are applying for. Refrain from putting irrelevant information in your resume.

·      Contains strengths and their linkage to the requirements of the employer

Relate all your strong points such as trainings, accomplishments, skills, knowledge and experience to what the prospective employer is looking for in an applicant. This is the most critical part of preparing a resume. This is where you sell yourself to the employer. Convince the employer that you are the best choice for the position with your qualifications in relation to the job requirement. If you are able to do this, the probability of hiring you is greater.

·      Free from Errors

A resume full of errors in spelling, typographical, punctuation, or grammatical are indications of your attitude towards work details. It could also be interpreted as disinterest on your part. 

·      Excellent organization and presentation

Organize and present your resume by putting the most important information on the first part. You can design your own resume even if there are lots of designs available. Just be sure to focus on your skills, experience and accomplishments and relate it to the requirements of the job you are applying for.

Your resume must be presented clearly and well. It should be easy to read and has an appeal. A well-packaged resume has more chances of being noticed than one that is haphazardly done.

·      Brief but substantial

The ideal resume is about 2 pages maximum. The best is to stick to 2 pages, the lesser the pages, the better the chances of your resume to go further in the selection process. Managers don’t have the luxury of time to be going over many pages of resume. They are interested in one thing and that is your qualifications.

Do not include qualifications that have no bearing on the job you are applying for. These will not add value to your resume, it could even make your resume a candidate for the waste basket.

Take time and give more efforts in preparing your resumes. This will spell out the success or failure of your job hunt. Review your resume or have someone go over it to ensure that you conveyed what you wanted the employers to know. Just put in mind that YOU ARE SELLING YOURSELF to the employers.

Writing An Effective Job Cover Letter

One important document in any job search is the letter application. Public and private offices alike require the cover letter. This is the first document that introduces an applicant to the employer. The application letter is not the primary document to assess the qualifications of a job applicant but it tells a lot about the attitude, personality and capability of an individual. A well-written application letter gets the attached documents to be reviewed further but a lousy one finds its way to the garbage bin.

 

There is no standard format for application letters when applying to a government post. Here are some tips on how to write a good application letter.

·         Direct and Simple  

The application letter should contain the position you are applying for. The phrase “for any position” is a no no in an application letter. Government publications of vacancies contain the specific position, qualification requirements such as training hours and location of the vacancy. Do not make your application letter too long. Just state the purpose of the letter, position you are applying for and the attachments you have included in your application letter.

·         Free of Errors 

Let your personality, intelligence and capability and interest show in your application letter even if this is a brief one. Ensure that it is well-packaged, no typo errors, no misspelled words, punctuation mistakes. The grammar must be accurate. In short, your application letter should be perfect.

Errors in application letters imply carelessness and disinterest. These are the impressions that a prospective employer will get with application letters full of errors. It can also create an impression of the level of intelligence and work attitude you have.

·         Brief and well-packaged

Ensure that your application letter or cover letter is short and is easy on the eye of the reader. Make it a point that your margin centered the letter on the page. Your cover letter should only be one page. Don’t make a litany of your experiences, qualifications or employment history in your cover letter.With the many tasks of  government offices, reading a long cover letter is not advisable. They don't have time for it.

·         Computer printed 

Your cover letter must be printed from a computer making use of word processor. Never submit a hand-written application letter. Be resourceful if you don’t have a computer, find one. The reason for this is that, hand-written applications are hard on the eyes of the reader, especially if your hand writing is not that good. Your prospective employer does not have the time in the world to decipher your hand writing. The result?, the application may find its way to the garbage bin.

·         Reader-friendly 

A clean cover letter is attractive to the eye. Make sure that your letter is free from erasures and smudges or crumples. Use black ink. Arial or Tahoma 12 fonts are best for business letters. No colors. Use plain and unscented paper. 

Your application letter tells a lot about you. An employer can create an impression about you with your cover letter. Do not forget that first impression lasts. So endeavor to make your cover letter perfect.

Where are the JOBS?

The Philippines more than its neighboring countries has a recorded high rate of unemployment that is primarily attributed to the fast population growth rate and subsequently the increase in labor force group. This scenario prompted the government to embark in creating jobs for the Filipinos by encouraging investments to come into the country. One major cause of unemployment is the lack of skills or education that the country's labor force possess. There are various jobs created with the coming in of different large investors but a greater number of the labor force are left unemployed for lack of qualifications. It is a matter of making one's self qualified for the available jobs.

There are numerous vacancies in the public and private sectors in the Philippines, find out the jobs available and qualify yourself for these.

Tips On How To Qualify For A Government Post

With the increasing number of the labor force, employment has become so competitive that one has to qualify himself to be taken in. Private companies and public offices alike select people whom they find to fit the positions and the work that goes with it. In the Government alone, there are a number of vacancies waiting for qualified applicants. 

Here are some tips you may want to adopt when eyeing a government post:

• You must possess an eligibility

Any post in the government requires some kind of eligibility. This is the Civil Service Examination that you need to pass to be able to qualify for a government vacancy.  There are two kinds of examinations – the professional and sub-professional exam. When you pass the professional examination, you are given the professional eligibility that permits you to apply for second level positions in the government. If you pass the sub-professional exam, you are given the sub-professional eligibility and you are eligible for first level positions.

There are other eligibilities that are covered by other Civil Service Rules but basically, this is what you need when you apply for any government post. 

 

    ·            Visit the Civil Service Commission (CSC) Website

www.csc.gov.ph. Visit this site to see the available vacancies of the government in your locality or the official websites of the different government offices. All government offices’ website has its name on the URL e.g www.dilg.gov.ph or www.dpwh.gov.ph and so on. Here you will find the vacancies of the offices.

 

      ·           Be specific with the Position you are applying for
 

Many new graduates tend to prepare their application letters with “May I apply for any vacant position”. This is a no no in applying for work. You have to find out the specific position they are looking for in their list of vacancies and choose one whom you think you can qualify for. Place that position in your application letter. 

 

·                                Make your application letter and resume impressive

 

Your application letter is your sales letter. You are actually selling yourself to the employer. When you do sales, you have to convince the buyer to buy your products. In this instance the product is YOU. So when you are selling yourself, you need to impress the employer with your qualifications. Spell out what you can do, what you have contributed to the society so far if any. These should be part of the application letter. A lousy application letter is good for the waste basket. The government office is a busy office and has no time to be reading letters that are not well-prepared. Your life is dependent on this job, so make good in preparing your letter application.

       ·         Comply with all the documentary requirements

Ensure that all the documentary requirements are attachments to your application letter. If you submit an application with lacking documents, the tendency is for your application to be filed for future reference. If this job is important to you then you will do everything to produce all the required documents. Normally, the requirements are found in the publications of vacancies of the government offices.

 

Job hunting is no easy tasks, only those who are determined make it. Goodluck  in your search for the best job for yourself.