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This is the fourth part of our 6 part series on curriculum vitae and letters of motivation. You can read the previous parts here: 1, 2, and 3.

Looking for a job is a job in itself. Some people may find the right job by chance, but for the vast majority, finding the right job demands a lot of time and effort, and in some cases money. So the key is to have the right attitude to succeed in your search.

Be Patient. It is worth it.

Fortunately, if you bare the process, the result may change your life for the best. Let’s face it, most of us spend more time at work than with our family or friends, so it is worth the effort.

Take some time to think about what you really want.

Of course you need a wage to pay your bills, but selecting the right job for you is not just comparing salaries or choosing a nice position. The right job has to do with activities you enjoy, with having a sense of achievement, having the opportunity to learn and to develop your skills. The right job for you has to do with the environment in which you will be spending eight hours a day every day, the type of people you will be surrounded with, the values you stand for.  A job that is right for you will improve your  quality of life.

So, before opening the newspaper or hitting the search bar take some time to think about what you really want. What makes you happy? Try to make stereotypes aside. It seems that an administrative position in a nice office is a catch. However, if you are very outgoing and talkative and you get bored easily you may feel quite miserable in that type of job. A job that involves talking with customers facing different situations might be more appropriate for you. So think hard about all of this before you choose your target.

Be ambitious, but realistic.

Once you pinpoint your ideal job, you may face the fact that you do not have a realistic chance of obtaining it yet. But think beyond “now”, think about starting lower down the ladder and the chances the company will give you to make your way up.

Be proactive.

Now that you know what to look for, start looking actively! Where? First of all, tell your friends and family. They might come across the perfect vacancy for you. Or maybe the friend of a friend… so … spread the news! Look at the ads in the newspapers, surf the online job boards, go to recruitment agencies. But most important, if you know of a company that fits your expectations be proactive. Send a nice CV with an adequate cover letter explaining why you would be an asset for the company. It is even better to go in person, ask to speak to a person in the Human Resources department and explain why you are there. There may not be a vacancy at that moment, but they will surely remember you if a position becomes available.

Be optimistic.

Of course it takes time an effort to prepare a good CV, a good cover letter, to search for the right job and to finally hand in your CVs. However, the most stressful part of the process comes right after you send a few CVs and after you visited your dream company and learnt there are no vacancies.

It is very important to be patient, and to be positive that an opportunity will come your way. Do not despair. Stick to the plan. Continue searching for opportunities. If you go up to an employer and ask if there is a vacancy and turn around as soon as they say “No” you will never hear from them again. However, if right after “No” you hand in your CV and cover letter with a smile and explain that you will be grateful if they let you know when a vacancy opens because you are very interested in becoming part of such a prestigious company,  your possibilities to hear from them will be much higher.

Getting a job is not the end of a journey but the beginning of a new one. Life is growth. Be ready to give your best whatever you do. Be ready to learn every day. Soon you will discover that when you are the best at what you do, new jobs will start looking for you!

After Part 1 which covered winning tips for a CV and Part 2 that explained how to adapt your CV for each job you’re applying to, here is Part 3 of this six part series on résumés and cover letters.

What is a cover letter?

A cover letter or motivation letter is a letter, addressed to the person in charge of recruiting the new staff, in which you introduce yourself, explain the reason why you are sending the CV and why you are valuable for the company. It is basically a form to tempt the recruiter into reading your CV.

A good cover letter is specially important when you are applying for a job in a foreign country, because they probably find the name of the University you attended or the companies you worked for unfamiliar. It is therefore crucial that you explain in a few words where you come from, what you studied, what skills you obtained with previous jobs and why you would be valuable for the job.

A good, conscientious cover letter may be the key to obtain an interview.

People seem to be under the impression that a cover letter is no longer necessary. However, recruiters repeatedly complain about the amount of CVs they are receiving without a cover letter, and they explain that just for that reason they may discard that applicant.

Unless the advertisement expressly instructs not to send a cover letter, do. It is a great chance to make a difference. It will immediately show your interest in the job and your professionalism.

When you send your CV by email, you may want to use the cover letter as the body of the email.

When you are handing in your CV yourself, and specially if you go to a company to leave your CV in case a position becomes available in the future, a good cover letter is essential, as you will explain in it why you want a job in that specific company and why you would be an asset for it.

LENGTH.

A good letter will include just the necessary information to prove the reader you are adequate for the job. As with your CV, it has to be brief. Recruiters do not have time to waste reading a never ending letter. A couple of paragraphs will be enough if you choose the correct words.

CONTENTS. What to include in the letter?

It is a “letter”, so it should start by stating your address and  full date underneath. This information should be at the top – right corner of the letter. The address of the company you are sending it to must be beneath, but on the left of the page.

Name of the person in charge of recruiting.

It is important that you address the letter to a specific person instead of “Sir or Madam”. This will show that you know exactly where you are sending the letter. If the name is not stated in the ad, call the company and ask, or look up the name of the Head of Human Resources in their web page. And make sure you spell the name correctly!

Introduction. Why you are writing.

Explain why you are writing, what position you are applying for, if you have seen an ad in the newspaper or if you just write because you are interested in working for that company.

First paragraph. Some information about you.

The information you include will vary depending on the job you are interested in but basically you have to state your most important qualifications, what skills you have developed and why they are relevant for the position. They have to know you fulfil the requirements.

Second paragraph. Mention some of your best qualities and why they would be an asset for that company.

In a short sentence, mention some qualities and the fact that you will be a valuable addition to their staff of such a company. You may want to include some adjectives that describe the company (e.g. prestigious).

Ending. Mention you would like to have an interview and your telephone number.

End the letter stating that you would appreciate having the opportunity of an interview, and mention the telephone where they can reach you.

Finish your letter with your signature, as in any letter.

LAYOUT. Classic is always better.

Choose good quality white paper, write using a standard font and print it in black. A very creative letter may be off-putting for the recruiter.

LANGUAGE. Formal.

Remember to check your letter. The register must be formal. Avoid contractions. Concentrate on grammar and spelling. A mistake can be disastrous.

In part 4, we talk about having the right attitude when job hunting.

This blog post is the second of a 6 part series by Silvia on the topic of writing a CV and a motivation letter. Part 1 provided Tips for a Winning CV. Part 3 will be posted shortly.

Each job is different, so should be your CV.

Your CV must be targeted according to the type of job you are applying for, the type of company that placed the ad and the country and language. Customizing your CV may be the key to getting the interview that will give you the job.

It does look like a lot of work to make a new CV for every job you apply for, but it is easier than you think.

Have a full CV ready to be “pruned”

Make a complete CV. Choose a neat layout that would be acceptable for every use and divide it in the different sections a CV should have; Contact Details, Qualifications, Work Experience, Interests, etc.

Concentrate on each section and include every single part of your history in chronological order, starting from the most recent course or job. Each item should have
(1) a title corresponding to the position you had in a certain job or a certificate you obtained from a course or the degree you obtained from University (for example “Receptionist” or “Notary Public”, and if you are writing the CV in a foreign language you should include the translation, stating the equivalent degree depending on the country);
(2) name of the company you worked for or the Institute you got your certificate from (include the website if you are in a foreign country);
(3) the date ;and finally
(4) a short, concise  description of what you did there or skills you gained.

Don’t worry about length at this point. A typical CV should have a maximum of 2 pages when you send it but your full CV may be as long as 5 pages!

Remember to update it from time to time and have it ready in your computer to modify it when an opportunity arises.

What to change

Order:

Depending on the job you want to obtain, you will have to change the focus of attention in your CV. The focus will always be at the beginning of your CV and at the beginning of each section.

If applying for a job that demands work experience in a certain field, choose to start with your Work Experience. Also, if you are a professional you may want to start with that section as it is obvious you have a degree or you would not be applying for that position. This does not mean you do not need to include your Qualifications, but you may impress them more by the fact that you were the Managing Director of a certain company than by the fact that you got a degree from a certain University.

If you have little Work Experience but good Qualifications, then place these at the top.

Contents:

The employer does not need to know your biography and does not have the time to go over every detail of your history. In many cases including some information may be harmful. If you are applying for a job in financing, do you think they need to know that you took a course in French Cuisine?

When it comes to your Work Experience it is important that you leave no gaps. Therefore, you should include all. But you do not need to start from your early years. If you are an accountant and the first job you had in your life was as a waiter in a restaurant, it is not important to include it, unless you are applying for a job in that field and you want to show you know the business from other position.

Also, if your last job was not related to the position you are applying for, but you had a previous job in that field. Go into more detail when listing the previous job. The fact that that item occupies more space will draw the attention of the reader. You may even want to highlight it in some subtle way (like enlarging the font but only by half a point).

Last, but not least, remember to check carefully your contact details every time you send a CV. They will never reach you if you listed an email or telephone you no longer use.

Under no circumstances should you lie in your CV. But intelligent people always find the way to promote themselves by choosing to highlight their good qualities and disguise their flaws or shortages.

In the third part of this series, we move forward to writing a good motivation letter.

This blog post is part 1 of a series of 6 articles written by Silvia on the topic of writing a CV and a motivation letter.

When writing your Curriculum Vitae, it is essential that you follow these pointers:

LENGTH: A CV should ideally be 2 (A4) pages long.

If you wrote more than that, you probably included too many details or information that is irrelevant. You may have had a hundred jobs, but there are only a few that will interest your prospective employer, and in most cases it is sufficient for them to know where you worked last and what you did there. So be concise.

If you wrote less than that you may have left out some information that could be useful for the employer to know why you would be valuable for the job. Even if it is the first time you are looking for a job there is information about courses you took or even skills or hobbies that could be relevant. Notwithstanding the above, do not include unrelated data that will not be of interest to your employer.

LAYOUT: Keep it simple, clear and professional.

Of course a nice layout will cause a good impression, but it must serve the purpose of a CV. It should not be distractive. Employers browse hundreds of CVs and they want to spot the desired information quickly. Too many colours or different types of font may seem childish and unprofessional.

Clearly discriminate the different contents by dividing your CV in sections. The heading of each section (Work Experience, Qualifications, Interests, etc) may be highlighted by the use of bold (better than underlining).

CONTENTS: Contact information, Qualifications, Experience.

You may want to include many different things in your CV that will depict your personality and skills, but employers will read only certain information that is key. If at a first glance they see you count with the desirable qualities they will contact you to arrange an interview to get to know you better.

The essential information you have to include is: your contact details (which should be at the top of the front page), your work experience and your qualifications.

Contact information: Include your Full Name (if not clear which is your surname use upper case), address, telephone (including area code) and mobile number.

Qualifications: Include the relevant information for the job. What school you attended may not be important in most of the cases, but stating the name of the University is. If you are looking for a job in a foreign country, where the name of the University is not familiar, a good idea is to include the web page. Include dates, degree and grades if applicable. Do not include unfinished courses from which you dropped out. However it may be relevant to mention courses which you are taking at the moment of sending your CV.

Experience: Include only the relevant information. If you are applying for a job as a receptionist they will probably not care about the fact that you worked as a babysitter ten years ago, even though you believe it is a good personal reference. Nevertheless, do not leave gaps as they may find this strange and suspicious.

Optional contents: Photo*, marital status, Children. In many countries it is forbidden to request this information due to the possibility of discrimination. They may ask you in an interview if you will be willing to travel often, but they cannot ask about your marital status or whether you have children. If you are working in a foreign country you have to include the type of visa you have. And in some types of jobs (for example Nannies) it is better that you state if you have a driving license.
*This is a strong regional variant. For example, you will almost never see a candidate include his or her picture in a CV targeting the Quebec market, but a photo is often present in a CV targeting the France job market.

ORDER OF CONTENTS: Customized.

Once you have decided what information to include in your CV you must plan the order in which it will appear.

Your contact information should always be at the top of the first page, so it is easy for the employer to contact you and also because your name will be more memorable if it stands out at the top.

Qualifications and Experience should follow your contact information, but which to include first will depend on the job you are applying for and on your experience. The order should follow the principle of “the most important first”. If you have just finished your studies it is preferable that you list your qualifications first and in more detail. If you have worked in the same field of the job you are applying for, it is best to list your working experience, always starting by the most recent position.

All the rest of the information, if any, should be at the end. For example Interests and Achievements, which may be relevant in some cases but most of the time will only give “extra” information.

LANGUAGE: Should be formal, succinct, effective.

You are not writing a letter to a friend. The register of your CV must be formal.

Avoid contractions.

Write in third person instead of using “I”, or explain your experience from an objective point of view. Instead of “I was in charge of training the new staff so I learnt to be more proactive and responsible” explain it as “The position involved training the new employees, which demanded excellent managerial skills and responsibility”

Try to use action verbs which will attract the attention of the reader.

EDIT, EDIT, EDIT: Grammar and Spelling must be flawless.

A grammatical or spelling mistake in your CV can be disastrous. You will be immediately considered sloppy, which will have detrimental effects on your chances of getting an interview no matter the field. So, once it is finished, even when you were very careful while writing it, do take some time to read it with the only purpose of spotting mistakes.

If you have the chance, ask another person to read it, specially if you are writing your CV in a foreign language.

The opinion of a native will also be useful regarding the format of the CV. Even thought the pointers mentioned in this article are universal, there may be slight differences depending on the culture.

All the effort will have a reward. Remember that your CV is your first contact with the person in charge of appointing someone for your dream job, and as someone said, “you never have a second chance to make a first impression”.

In the second part, we talk about adapting your CV. according to the job you’re applying for.

Thanks to New Brunswick that is. New Brunswick’s Government announced earlier this month that they will help with the translation from English into French of all the Vancouver 2010 Games documents. They pledged $60,000 to a non-profit group, Sport New Brunswick, to provide with the translation.

One would think that Quebec would have been a more logical province to come forward with such an offer. Still, New Brunswick (Nouveau-Brunswick in French) is actually the only bilingual province in Canada per their constitution. Quebec, for its part, is the only Canadian province whose (sole) official language is French. Canada has two official languages, English and French of course, so it makes a lot of sense for the Games to be bilingual.

A story from PC World announces that Toshiba has developed a cell phone version of their PC translation system which translate between Chinese, English and Japanese.

The software uses a speech recognition method that uses one of two systems: statistical machine translation or rule-based machine translation. According to the article, tests provided fairly good results, although they state that the system is prone to misidentify some words, which in turn causes bad translations.

You can read the full article here.

As we wrote before, we’re not big fan of machine translations here; however, we do applaud the technical advances that have been made in the past years in this field. Google, for instance, is pouring a lot of energy in their Google Translate feature, and it seems that with technological advances coming from every corner of the world, accurate machine based translations could be something of a not so distant future.

I just read about this site on TechCrunch. The idea is very simple; you type a phrase in English, and Translation Party uses Google Translate to translate it in Japanese, and then re-use Google Translate to translate it back in English, and so forth until it reaches an equilibrium – a point where translating back and forth will always lead to the same translation.

Translationparty.com

Watch out, it gets addictive!

Tags: Google Translate, Japanese, TechCrunch, Translation Party, translationparty.com

With connectivity between all parts of the world growing at an incredible rate, the language barrier between people increases as well. While the people of certain areas may speak the same language, it is the dialects and regional twists that create issues, especially with languages that are speaking by a great number of people throughout a large area. The perfect example of this is Spanish, which can be broken down into two main dialects.

Spanish is the second most natively spoken language in the world, following Mandarin Chinese. While obviously spoken in Spain, it is also the native language of most Central and South American countries. Spanish is a Romance Language, derived from Latin and closely related to the other languages of Spain’s Western European neighbors, like Italian and French.

European Spanish as we know it today found its roots in the 1200’s. While the language had existed for a long time before that, it was in this period that King Alfonzo X chose his dialect as the language of Spain. His dialect, the Castilian dialect of Toledo, became the written and spoken European Spanish as it is known worldwide today. Later on, explorers traveling to the “New World,” the Americas, introduced Spanish to the native people they encountered.

The explorers in the Americas had no way of communicating with the native people. As time went the natives began to understand Spanish, with the explorers using captives as interpreters for those who did not understand. Following closely behind the Spanish explorers was the Catholic Church. Missionaries to Central and South America created schools for children and teens, teaching in only Spanish. This caused the language to penetrate into the cultures. As Spanish gained more and more of a foothold on the Americas, native languages began to fade away. As Spanish became the dominant language, the native tongues had a minor influence, helping to create the variants found all over South America, leading to the different variations of Latin American Spanish found in various countries.

While those who speak Latin American Spanish can understand those speaking European Spanish and vice versa, there is a major grammatical difference between the two. The most glaring difference is that the plural second person, “vosotros,” does not exist in Latin American Spanish. There is no usage of the pronoun form, which translate to “you all,” or the verb forms. Instead, “ustedes” is used. “Ustedes” is the polite form of “you.” Those who are fluent in the language can understand either variant. This understanding has been aided even further through the media as well as the education system. While the variants are understood by many, if not all, Spanish speakers, it is easy to tell the difference, as well as the origination of the variant.

The differences between Latin American Spanish and European Spanish pose a challenge when we must select our target audiences. For a specific narrow market, the most successful translations cater to the audience, using the variant of the locale. For attempting to communicate with a large number of Spanish speaking people, this leaves a decision to make as to which variant to use with the trade offs involved.

Tags: dialects, Latin America, Spain, Spanish, variants

Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese are similar written language in that they have a very similar grammatical structure, though they are considered to be completely separate due to their slight variations. The main variance between Simplified and Traditional Chinese is that they are written using different characters; one being highly intricate and difficult and the other being a simplified version with less complicated characters.

Chinese written characters consist of two parts. The first part is the signific which is the actual word, and the second part is the phonetic which is the sound associated with the word. While Traditional Chinese is composed of complex ideographs made up of many strokes, Simplified Chinese offers a reduction of the number of strokes used per signific, as well as a reduction in the number of overall characters in use.

Simplified Chinese was created after the end of the civil war which resulted in the creation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. It was designed by the government as a way of promoting literacy among the citizens of China. The idea was that with a simplified writing system, it would be easier for more people to become literate, leading to better education of the general population. In order to effectively simplify the writing system, the characters of Chinese writing were made less intricate and easier to write. Over time Simplified Chinese was adopted throughout the country, except for Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Traditional Chinese is the written language used in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and various other areas of China. Traditional Chinese is the writing that has been used in China for thousands of years and the characters are extremely intricate in their design. The characters of Traditional Chinese require a significant amount of pen strokes to create. A big part of the reason that Simplified Chinese text was never adopted in these areas was their political separation from mainland China.

Though Simplified and Traditional Chinese have the same grammatical structure, most who know one style cannot understand the other. The variations in the ideographs between the two styles are enough to make it seem as though they are two completely separate languages, thus creating a true language barrier between the two.

There are two main dialects in China, Mandarin and Cantonese. While the two dialects are closely related to writing style, they are not indicative of each other. Simplified Chinese does not translate into one dialect, nor does Traditional Chinese translate into another. Mandarin is spoken throughout most of China, while Cantonese is spoken in the Guangdong province in Hong Kong. Guangdong was the earliest area of China to begin trade with the West, and this interaction with foreigners helped form the Cantonese dialect.

The connection between dialect and writing style is actually very minor, but very important. Depending on the area, different dialects match up with different areas for translation. Since Mandarin is used in Mainland China, as well as Simplified Chinese writing, any writings translated for the mainland would have to be in Simplified Chinese in the Mandarin dialect. Taiwan is similar in that it uses Mandarin dialect, but writings would be in Traditional Chinese. Hong Kong differs since the Cantonese dialect formed there. Writings would be in Traditional Chinese, but in the Cantonese dialect.

Ashley Augello is a freelance writer and Public Relations professional. She graduated from Villanova University in 2007 with her Bachelor’s Degree in Communication. Ashley can be reached at ashley.augello@gmail.com.

Tags: cantonese, china, mandarin, simplified chinese, traditionnal chinese

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is a familiar term to almost anyone who owns and operates a website – especially a website that is used for business. This is what puts your business in front of internet users and what keeps bringing in new customers; however, some website owners make the mistake of only focusing on Meta tags and keywords during their SEO efforts. On the contrary, there are actually many aspects of Search Engine Optimization that should be considered when one is marketing a website. One such important, and often overlooked, consideration is a country-specific top-level domain extension.

Why These Extensions Make For Good Business

When you are trying to attract an international audience, a good way to do so is to translate your website into (at least) a few of the most often used foreign languages around the globe. But in order to attract as many international customers as possible, you need to take this strategy a step further by attaching the translated website to a URL containing a country-specific top-level domain, a TLD, extension.

Consider this: Each country has a customized form of Google just for them, such as www.google.co.uk for internet users in the United Kingdom. As expected, many internet users from foreign countries, especially those not fluent in English, are likely to utilize the Google search engine specific to their country (as opposed to the one found at good ‘ole www.google.com). This is for two reasons:

1. These country-specific search engines are more likely to feature websites written in a user’s native language. This means that internet users in a non-English speaking country won’t have to wade through a bunch of English-based websites just to find what they are looking for, in a language that they can easily understand.
2. They can find relevant content, which is targeted directly at them, and nearby merchandise vendors with greater ease. Many times those of us from English-speaking countries can forget how alienated non-English speakers can feel when searching a World Wide Web of English-based content. It can be a much friendlier place when all the articles that pop up are in your own language.

The frequent use of these county-specific search engines is just one of the many reasons why using a country-specific top-level domain extension is an essential component to targeting an international audience.

There are also two important SEO-related benefits that you gain from when using this kind of domain extension: these domains will be ranked higher than normal dot-coms in country-specific search engines and the owners of these domains will then have the opportunity to be included in exclusive county-specific website directories.

Ranking Higher in Country-Specific Search Engines

The ability to rank highly in country specific search engines is one of the best methods for growing a large international customer base. Although you can get a normal dot-com name ranked and included in country-specific search engines, you will likely not get the kind of results that you expect. This is because country-specific search engines give greater priority to those websites that use the two-letter top-level domain extension specific to their country, which will produce friendlier search listings for internet users in that country.

Of course, as with any search engine (no matter what language it serves), the higher your website ranks, the more “hits” you are likely to receive. This raises the percentage of interested buyers who will land on your page, which will result in more sales and a higher ROI; all equaling a larger profit for your business. It is also the first step to international brand awareness for your company.

Inclusion in Exclusive Country-Specific Web Directories

Having a country-specific top-level domain extension also gives you the eligibility to be part of exclusive country-specific web directories, where one of the main requirements for inclusion is that you use the two-letter top-level domain name extension specific to that country. Many people in foreign countries choose to use these web directories in place of English-language directories for the same reason they choose to use search engines that are specific to their country: because it results in friendlier search listings for internet users in that country.

Inclusion in these directories is a great way to be discovered by customers from around the world who use these directories to find what they are looking for and to again rank even higher with search engines, since they place greater value on websites that have been accepted into their web directory. It may also help get your websites indexed by these search engines more quickly. All the additional benefits of English-based website directories still apply, including the SEO benefits that come from these one-way links and customized anchor text, as well as the marketing and budget benefits of free, targeted website traffic.

Failure to use a country-specific top-level domain extension for your translated websites may result in slower international growth for your business. The practice of giving your translated websites a country-specific top-level domain extension should be as important to your business as any other SEO strategy. Then, and only then, will you be able to target and receive the type of international attention that your company needs to flourish in a global market place.

Tags: seo, tld, top-level domain extension, translation