This topic is very close to all my dearest readers who are either progressing towards their graduation or are under a professional life umbrella. Here are a few words before actually diving into the core of the subject. This article has some beautiful fun facts that discuss career-oriented behavior, the importance of recognition amongst peers and associates, sustainability in the professional career, and ethical norms of professional life. But relax; there is no need to be perplexed because the blog you are going to read is fairly promising and useful.
Without further delay, let us conquer the world of tips and tricks to be acknowledged and eminent.
Enticing CV/Resume to get yourself in an organization before your real entry
You all are certainly aware that your academic documentation (CV/resume, cover letter, and related educational stuff) steps into the organization before you make a physical appearance there. So, do not you think it must be well-dressed, properly managed just like you like to dress up formally before the interview panel? If your answer is “no” you are an extreme slacker and are non-serious towards organizational norms and ethics.
Below listed are some sites which can assist you in creating a professional and eye-catching CV/Resume. Notably, some of these sites require payment to build CVs. Maybe you do not want to pay for a resume but trust me; it can still help you to get to the nitty-gritty of making your resume in Microsoft Word. These sites ask you even minute details regarding personal and educational stuff and display you a preview and final look of your CV. By viewing your final CV, you can screenshot it by using the freely available snipping tool on Windows. Later, you can use this screenshot to create a similar CV on Microsoft word. It seems tiring, but doing this will save you effort in CV building.
Let us list down the famous and promising resume builder sites. Discover each site maybe you will find a completely free website that will enable you to download your CV in high resolution. So, dive and find untold mysteries.
1. Zety Resume Builder
2. Resumonk (needs to be explored)
3. Resume dot com
4. VisualCV
5. Cvmaker
6. ResumUP
7. Resume Genius
8. Resumebuilder
9. Resume Baking
10. Enhancy
Email cover letter
You are aware of the conventional cover letter, which is also covered in the institutional syllabus more particularly in university. This is a one-page format where you first tell the HR from where you came to know about the job, then in the second paragraph, you inculcate your education, expertise, achievements, and related information that may help to make you a perfect candidate for the position you are applying for. The third paragraph illustrates your interest and thirst for working in a challenging and progressive environment. Your cover letter then folds with a hopeful note of further collaboration with hiring personnel with mentioning of attachment of CV. But nowadays it is a trend of pasting cover letter in the email directly. In this case, you can have the option of directly converting the elements of a PDF cover letter into an email cover letter. This will require you to lessen the material of the formal cover letter to fit in the email so that it will not bother the HR and will tell them precisely who you are and why are you interested in their organization. This is a more promising way unless you are instructed by HR to attach a cover letter in the form of a file.
Here are some links that will direct you to some helpful sites. These sites will give you an idea of an email cover letter.
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/email-cover-letter-samples-2060246
https://www.examples.com/business/address-email-cover-letter.html
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/tips-for-sending-email-cover-letters-2058491
Tweak CV as per job requirement
Yes, you read it right. This is surely going to drive you nuts, but you cannot escape from tweaking. Since, now individuals are excelling in diversified domains all at once, a single CV title and supporting details cannot help you withstand amongst the sea of aspirants. Different organizations have varied titles for the same job; you have to change the subject of your email and CV title too. In the process of skimming the CV, the misguided title can make your CV reside in the trash without the recruiter further investigating it.
So it is recommended for all professional geeks to restructure their CVs according to the job for which they are applying.
Never leave the subject blank
Mentioning nothing inappropriate subject line can leave you stranded in the desert of disappointment and rejection. Be precise; don’t drag the subject to occupy more than 1 sentence. The best practice is to use the title for which you are applying. For example, if you want to apply for a software engineering position, you will be writing “Software Engineering: Your Name” in the subject line. Do not worry, now job posts already have job title mentioned.
Do not uplift or beg, be professional in writing
To support this norm, I would like to share my experience here. Some days ago, I received a call back from one of the organizations where I applied. In my Zoom interview, the interviewer clearly stated that he rejected all those emails where aspirants seemed to beg for a job. For I was professional and was not demanding the job at any cost through my words, he considered me for an interview. So, my readers if you do not want to lose your job just by some mere unprofessional words, be considerate and show some ethics.
Start with greetings
Don’t start directly mentioning the purpose, start with some greetings. The greeting should not be imformal like you talk with your closed ones but rather a pure professional greet. For example, your sentence could be:
Hi,
Hope this message finds you well/With hope of your safe and sound health, I humbly want to state … /I hope you must be in your best health.
Note: This is a formal conversation, not a type of start you will make while submitting your CV. This may be when you and some high status occupied person is conversing with you related to any stuff that requires you to be professional yet active participant.
Open to new connection on LinkedIn
First and foremost, I would like to make it crystal clear that LinkedIn is not like Instagram or Facebook where your trust and digital asset can be breached in no minutes. Till today, more than 80% of users over LinkedIn are legitimate and rightful owners. Here, I want to share my experience to make this conversation weigh more. I was a user who was always reluctant to accept requests on LinkedIn because of my fair fear regarding the falsity of wanderers’ over social sites. Over six months, I did not get any benefit from LinkedIn, and I thought it will also not benefit me even in the future. I perceived this site only as an exhibitor of skills and certificates. Then one of my university mates advised me to build connections without any fear of bogus accounts. When I started searching for people who were working in the same field that I wanted a position in, I noticed my feed started changing, and posts relevant to my interest began to pop up. Boom! A change I brought into my life by a slight change in preference.
Clear and even emails
Run a Grammarly check before sending your email because inadvertent mistakes cause a bad impact on the readers. If for any reason you do not have Grammarly, then read twice or thrice by verbal pronunciation and you will surely start noticing mistakes that were invisible before.
Sensible email ID
Use sensible email such that the email address must not be a provoker of an ironic smile or must not portray the user as a highly uneducated person. For example, the email address should not read as loverboy@gmail.com, dady_sprincess@yahoo.com, or something that reflects your personal affairs.
It is suggested to use your name with some numerals which will highlight you as different for two persons can have the same name and surname so numerals will help you to be unique. Thus, the email community will permit your unique combination of name and numerals to be authenticated.
Installing LinkedIn app
I know, people are facing storage issues so much nowadays and if I tell them to install LinkedIn, they will start complaining about less capacity. But to relax your concerns, I have some suggestions for you. Install LinkedIn and move it to memory card storage. By default, apps are installed on device memory. Moreover, there is a LinkedIn lite version available for both Android and iOS that occupies less than 1Mb.
Default email: your professional Gmail
Make your professional Gmail account your by default mail inbox in your cell phone so that you do not miss any updates and email notifications. Stick to at least one Gmail so that you can easily use that anywhere related to your educational submissions and professional applications.
I am summing this up with all the best wishes that these tips and tricks will help you out in making you a more professional and sound candidate.
Last but not the least; here I am presenting you with a worth-reading quote by none other than Helen Keller, who is an epitome of immense bravery and passion despite severe illness.
“I cannot do everything, but I can do something. I must not fail to do the something that I can do.” —Helen Keller
Written by: Anum Fatima
A Systems Engineer by compulsion and proficient author by passion with being adept at poetry composition. A wanderer to seek the purpose of birth while struggling with uncertainties bestowed by nature.
