How to Write a Personal Statement for Your CV

Careers

An important aspect of an effective CV is about including a personal statement. This is sometimes also called a profile or career summary. This allows the recruiter to quickly identify strategic benefits that candidates would be able to add to their organization. The CV in itself is a self-marketing document which aims to persuade recruiters to contact and interview the candidate. The personal statement is conducive to making this happen.

Candidates often struggle with this aspect of their resumes and by following a few simple guidelines, this can be made easier. Generally, a well-written statement should be between 50 and 200 words. However, the candidate should focus on keeping it concise. The cover letter would provide all the scope to elaborate further and bring in more engaging information. In order to write a target personal statement, the job specification would also need to be carefully considered. This would ensure that the skills and experience reflect the job requirements. In order to render the statement more personable, the first-person style is preferred. The idea would be to target transferable skills in the statement.

An ideal personal statement should provide brief descriptions of past achievements and skills acquired and how these can be transposable to future organizations. The candidate should also mention his/her career aim in order to guide recruiters in determining whether the candidate’s expectation and their offering would be matching. For instance, candidate would be mentioning skills acquired in working for a particular sector and industry and that they would aim to continue their career within the same industry but with more responsibilities and tasks.

How to Declutter a Resume In 3 Steps

Careers

When preparing for any job search, candidates would be dusting off their previous resume and adding their most recent job along with new skills and training. If the resume is not often uncluttered, it might end up looking like a list of outdated achievements and information. The steps below can be followed to effectively unclutter a resume.

Step 1: Narrow Your Career Goal

The first step is applying for a job is to determine the career goal sought. Recruiters are often frustrated by resumes which do not seem to go in line with what the company has advertised. A solution to this would be to create alternative resume each targeting a particular industry or a particular job type in order to ensure relevance with the job applied for.

Step 2: Condense Your Opening Summary

Every resume needs a summary in order to provide a general idea on the career level and achievements of the candidate. However, this summary would need to be short and to the point. The content featured on top would need to be compelling enough to make the recruiter want to continue reading the resume.

Step 3: Edit Work Experience

For professionals having over 10 to 15 years of experience, it might be more appealing to summarize the most outdated experiences rather than elaborating on them. Early career, though being important, becomes quite redundant after a decade. Young professionals who are just starting out might also consider leaving out details pertaining to experiences in retail stores or during holidays where these are not relevant to the post applied for.

Preparing to Secure a Job Before Graduation

Careers

As per a poll carried out by Accenture in 2013, only 39% of students of the classes of 2011 and 2012 had managed to secure a job by the time that they had graduated. For the year 2013, only 16% of students had job offers a month before they reached commencement. If you are about to graduate, the following tips might come handy in securing a job.

  1. Focus on Building a Career

Most students believe that they would be landing their dream job right after the moment of graduation. While lucky situations do happen, it might be more realistic to set aside aspirations of landing the ideal job and focusing on building a career to get there. Students might be faced with the fear of taking up just about any job. However, a first job would enable you to build a network and gain skills that would be transferable to your dream job.

  1. Make a Plan

Before the end of the semester, you might consider mapping out each remaining week and setting out tasks to perform in order to be ready to apply for jobs. For instance, your tasks might consist of the creation of a LinkedIn profile, seeing a career consultant and building a new resume.

  1. Keep an Open Mind

A career consultant might advise you to keep an open mind when it comes to applying for first jobs. Limiting oneself to a particular company, job or industry might narrow down the response rate. After graduation, there are less chances of landing “wrong jobs”. Moreover, any relevant experience would be seen as a plus for future applications.

Choosing a College Major

Education

Even though college might be expensive, in most cases this would constitute of a wise lifetime investment in forging a high-earning career. There are several factors to consider before reaching to this crucial decision. Some college students who have not given much thought to their selected majors might later have found that they were not able to make a career out of it. The tips below might be helpful if you are at a crossroad of choosing a major.

Personal Interest in the Field

Without a personal interest in the field that you would be going for, you might not succeed so well. Moreover, if you are interested in working in a particular field such as marketing, human resources or medical, you might consider a relevant major to help in your career.

Your Ability to Succeed

The decision of enrolling in a particular course should be guided by your confidence that you would be able to successfully earn the degree. For instance, if you already have prior notions in marketing or business studies and have always earned good grades in similar subjects, it would be worthwhile to enrol in such a course. On the other hand, courses that seem difficult might be risky to enrol in.

Preparation for a Career

Students who already feel that they have an aptitude or a naturally talented for a particular field would need to pursue a career in it. A factor to consider, however, is that not all careers require a major. For instance, a talented sales person might not necessarily require a major in sales and marketing, however that would constitute of a plus.

Skills Every Student Should Learn

Schools

Educational debates across the U.S. and all around the world often focus on what students should learn in school. Educational technology specialists have for several years been touting about the need for students to acquire relevant 21st century skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving and media literacy to effectively prepare themselves for the new digitally-focus and global economy. The list below breaks down some of the skills that would be crucial for students.

Reading

The ability to read and comprehend comes at the forefront of the skills listed for a student to be successful both academically and in their lives. It is even required to be successful in mathematics. Reading has also proven to be a confidence booster. The ability to read enhances a student’s overall ability to understand any subject.

Typing and Writing

Interaction with the computer is one of the most effective ways of guaranteeing success at school, especially in secondary and postsecondary education. Students who type quickly are able to gain more time. When working with educational software applications, a good typing speed enhances confidence in effectively using the software to acquire knowledge. Writing skills enable students to effectively convey their thoughts and understanding of a particular subject. It helps them to learn to sequence ideas and to use logical thinking.

Effective Communication

Students who demonstrate abilities to communicate effectively are able to use simple words, expressions and gestures and expand them into complex thought processes. Effective communication is thus, the key to learning and to ensuring compatible interactions with teachers and fellow classmates

How A Work Experience Degree Can Help Get You A New Job

Education

We have to face the facts, everyone wants a better job.  No matter what you do, unless you are the CEO of the most profitable company in the world such as Apple, you are probably striving to better yourself in some way.  The grass always seems greener on the other side and you always want to try and better yourself and your family in terms of where you stand financially.  When you look at a work experience degree you can quickly see that it can really help you in a big way to get a new job that you desperately want.

The first way that a degree such as this can help you get a job is that the degree is really going to give your resume a major boost.  Your resume can always get an improvement and any type of added degree shows that you have been recognized for advancement or other major accomplishments in your lifetime.

Beyond the resume, the degree is also going to allow you to have a great talking point during the interview process with the potential new employer.  You can talk about the degree how you earned it and what type of experience you needed to have in order to obtain it.

A Life Experience Degree is a great addition to any resume and is far superior to fake degree offers found online.  Companies such as www.speedydegrees.com can quickly analyze your information and see if you qualify for any type of degree based on your past work and life experiences.

Pre-K Students Learn Better with Positive Interactions

Education

Article by Phin Upham

More and more studies are coming out on the importance of preschool, including a new study that focuses on the environment of the classroom and the teacher’s behavior. While learning the alphabet is very important for a 4-year-old, having a positive interaction in the classroom might be just as vital to his or her future development, Science Daily reports.

According to a new study, classrooms where teachers display “approving behavior with a positive emotional tone” help children improve self-regulation skills. Dale Farran, senior associate director of the Peabody Research Institute at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College for education and human development, told Science Daily that the research revealed two main points. First, they found a direct link between what happens in the classroom and whether children can improve self-regulation measures. The second point to take away from the study is the different experiences that affect the development of those skills. Farran told the paper that children usually lack self-regulation skills, such as the ability to control their effort or stay on task. However, pre-kindergarten children in classrooms with more positive behaviors made improvements in self-regulation skills and academically. The research also found that behavior disapproval inhibited the child’s growth of self-regulation skills.

Read the entire article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130909130944.htm

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About the Author: Phin Upham is an investor from NYC and SF. For more info visit Phin Uphan Linkedin Page.

High Quality Traffic with High Quality Design

Education

Online technology has come a long way since the advent of the Internet.  The plethora of websites floating in cyberspace has created an entirely new industry that aims to direct high quality traffic from one website to another.  Archaic models of online marketing through keyword stuffing and superfluous have been replaced with the need for quality content and strategic marketing.

As the cliché goes, “Content is King”.  Having great content on a website that is relevant its target industry will give that site a step above the competition.  Search engine robots are hungry for new material and having fresh content on a website will keep them coming back for more which in turn will bring up its page rank and increase the flow of traffic.  Being strategic in when new content is posted and where will take a website even further.  Knowing the quirks, habits, likes and dislikes of the audience and being able to take advantage of that marketing knowledge can further improve the standing of a website.

However, these tactics only focus on serving the insatiable search engine robots and does not address the human factor.  A website should also be easy to navigate and be aesthetically pleasing.  Robots may not care about the aesthetics of a website, but a potentially new customer visiting the site will.  There are a host of companies that hopped on the cyber train very early and created websites for their businesses hoping to benefit from the additional online traffic.  Perhaps in the antiquated days of the Internet these old websites were successful, but the game has changed drastically since then.  Some of these sites were created with old content management systems that did very little if anything for search engine optimization.  For these relics, a new facelift may be just the nudge it needs to compete for better traffic generation.

In the redesign process, the developers ought to consider new web standards and navigation structures.  Friendly and marketable URLs should be used on all pages.  Use optimization tools that keep a website from having duplicate titles, tags, and content.  For blogs, fix canonicalization issues.  Name and tag website images for even better optimization.  Another thing to consider that can be easily overlooked is to properly redirect URLs from the old website that had gained good traction in ranking to the new site.

These are just a few quick tips that can improve a website’s online presence.

Adults Going Back To College – Get Single Mother Scholarships

Education

The story is all too common in neighborhoods and suburbs all across the country; parents wanting to go back to school but finding the funds and time just simply are not sufficient. Especially in situations where spouses are separated or divorced, being able to gather the money necessary to pay tuition costs in order to get a degree that will help earn a higher wage can seem like a perfect example of a ‘Catch-22’. Therefore, many businesses, companies, and non-profit organizations have established single mother scholarships specifically for those people who fit this profile. By providing the financial aid needed for going back to school for nursing, a master’s degree, or even a two year certificate, the options are plentiful and available for those who are willing to seek it out.

To be perfectly honest, the amount of jobs that can be enhanced or made better in terms of wages by going back to school lies in the 90-95 percent range. Just about any salary can change when one is more educated; something that high schools preach to young students that applies equally to adults as well! With adults going back to school, the social perception may be different, but the end game is the same; if not even better. By already having a job or having past experience in a field, being able to expand one’s resume with additional schooling can truly separate an application with real and tangible ambition and drive to succeed. So make a call to a community college or place of higher learning today and get on the path to success!

The Advantages of a Military Education

Education

One of the ways to get a quality education is by serving in the military. In fact, a growing number of men and women throughout the country are selecting the military as the gateway to higher education because of the many programs available that can improve their lives, careers, and future income.

There are many advantages to going through the military for an education instead of the traditional schooling system. One of the best advantages is the wide range of subjects to choose from, including both military and civilian career paths. The military offers students the opportunity to select from a wide range of subjects, including engineering, science, art, math, language, nursing, teaching, medical, accounting, and business. For those who are interested in job security and good pay, they might want to look into the hot jobs, such as registered nurse, physical therapist, and law enforcement.

Another advantage is the GI Bills, or receiving money for education. The GI Bill provides people enrolled in the military up to $80,000 a year toward education. This is a great choice for people who might not want to take out student loans or who don’t have the funds. In addition to the GI Bill, the military offers addition tuition assistance benefits that are worth looking into.

Finally, going through the military for higher education almost always guarantees job placement. Today’s job market is competitive, and the military might be the best way to stay ahead of the curve.