Month: February 2021

➢ Keep it real: A CV should not be more than two pages, employers spend a little time looking at any CV and a sure way of getting yourself on the no pile is to keep it real. save the petty little details for the interviews.

➢ Include a personal statement: Do not just agree an employer will see how your experience relates to their job. Instead use a short personal statement to explain why you are the best.

➢ Keep your CV current : You should always update your CV whether you are looking for a job or not.

➢ Make it keyword friendly: If you have to upload your CV to a recruiter, keywords are very important, so they can find you. If you are not sure have a research online and see what words are commonly mentioned when you inputs your job tittle.

Set \”SMART\” Goals. Now that you know your career plan, develop an action plan to implement this decision. Identify specific, time-bound goals and steps to accomplish your plan. Set short-term goals (to be achieved in one year or less) and long-term goals (to be achieved in one to five years). 

•​SPECIFIC- Identify your goal clearly and specifically.

•​MEASURABLE – Include clear criteria to determine progress and accomplishment.

•​ATTAINABLE -The goal should have a 50 percent or greater chance of success.

•​RELEVANT – The goal is important and relevant to you.

•​TIME BOUND – Commit to a specific time frame.

Sometimes life happens… Things change so much that we are forced to evolve. Some other times we consciously evolve, amidst tears and pains, we do the required work.

Because, if we don\’t change, repeating patterns from the past will always be an option. We will keep doing the same things everyday and keep wondering why things are the same. 

As you go into the new week, shake things up, don\’t rely on the same ol\’ pattern or way of doing things.

Take a stand for what you truly want in life and work at it. You owe it to yourself to evolve, to make a change, to choose a different path. ONE SIMPLE STEP AT A TIME.

If you are on LinkedIn and you are looking to get a new job, you can let Recruiters know you are job searching without worrying about your current employer or using the \’Open To Work\’ photo frame. The feature also let\’s you select specific positions and locations. ( You are allowed 5 each)

Here\’s how to do it:
1. Click the \’Me\’ icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage and 
click View profile.

2. Click the Add profile section button to the right of your profile photo and Click Intro.

3. Click Looking for job opportunities and provide the requested information in the window that appears.

4. You can choose whether all LinkedIn Members or only Recruiters can see that you’re open to job opportunities. If you choose to share with all LinkedIn members, LinkedIn will add an #OpenToWork photo frame to your profile photo.

If you do not have this feature turned on, are you going to turn it on today? 

Like every other social media platform, hashtags help to group content together.

🔺How should you use Hashtags on your LinkedIn posts?
Unlike Instagram where you can and should add up to 30 hashtags to posts, less is more on LinkedIn, 2-3 is recommenced.

As always with advice on social media marketing, ensure you experiment with the placing of your hashtags to find out what works best for you and your target audience

🔺How can I find the right hashtags on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn does give you a few clues when you begin writing a post by suggesting relevant hashtags based on the content of your post and your history of using them. This is a good place to begin, you can also use the search function to look for your most likely hashtag. 

🔺How can I use hashtags for my job search?
If used in your posts strategically, hashtags can increase the overall visibility.

You can also click on a hashtags and it will send you to job listings, for example searching for career-related hashtags like #SocialMediaManager #Intern #BusinessDevelopmentManager #Hiring #Recruiting or  #Vacancy are a great way to find job openings you can apply for. 

\”Who is my ideal audience?\” is one of the questions to consider when deciding on what head-shot or background image to use on your LinkedIn profile. In the case of job seekers, your target audience is the Recruiter and the people you are going to be networking with for your next job opportunity.

One idea is to include an image geared towards a specific industry or the job function you are aiming towards. For example, if you are looking for a position in Software Engineer, a geeky head-shot an a cover image as shown below may be helpful.

Humans like emotional connections, and pictures help with that. So by showing off your personality with the image you choose, you will be making an instant connection with your ideal audience.

Here are a few simple ideas to help you select a cover image 
* Your workspace
* A picture of the people you serve. e.g. if you are a trainer, you can use an image of yourself training
*A picture depicting your primary tools of trade
*You doing your work

As a Recruiter and Professional CV Writer, I have written and reviewed thousands of CVs in the course of my 13 years career and I have developed a very easy CV format that has worked for over 90% of my CV clients.

I am sharing that template with you in this post, IT\’S FREE.

This CV template is suitable for all experienced hires, and suitable for all industries. Its simplicity makes it perfect for the ATS, and it is created with Microsoft Word, which makes it easy for you to edit.

The CV format will help you condense your skill set, years of knowledge and experience and your achievements, into 1 or 2 pages.

Download the CV Template here

A few things to note:

The CV template does not have a place for pictures: Do not include a photo of yourself with your CV if you are job searching in Africa. In places like the EU, Latin America, UAE, etc. a picture is a requirement.

Personal details are omitted: Personal details like your religion, political party, local government area, state or origin, marital status, date of birth, etc. are not required unless you are applying for a government job .

Referees are not included: Unless you are applying for a government job, there is no reason to list your job references or add the phrase \’References available upon request\’

While the template will help you figure out how to create a CV that will land you the job, we also recommend sending your CV to us via this email address for a FREE CV REVIEW .

Download the CV Template here

We hope you find the template helpful.

Self-promotion refers to the practice of purposefully trying to present oneself as highly competent to other people or educating the relevant people about skills and value that you possess. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Self-promotion feels unnatural for most people, probably because of cultural conditioning, or because they do not want to come off as pompous or bragging, and truthfully if done wrong, you run the risk of coming off as arrogant but if you do not self-promote then you could be missing out on valuable opportunities that could further your career.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

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If you are looking to change jobs, change careers, preparing to go for an interview, looking to get promoted etc., you NEED to learn to self-promote. Learn to comfortably talk about your qualifications, your skills, your accomplishments in the workplace etc. Self-promotion is about recognising your personal achievements and what makes you amazing. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Your CV/ Resume, your Cover Letter, your Interview sessions, your performance appraisals sessions, are places or documents where you really need to master the art. Learn to gracefully talk about what you\’re doing, the success you\’re having, the obstacles you\’ve overcome, the projects you\’re completing, learn how to talk about yourself without sounding boring, pompous or self-obsessed. Learn to sell yourself, own your achievements, learn to tell the world about how good you are!⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

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There is a short FREE Google course on self-promotion, you should take it, it will really helped you write down some of your achievements. 
Check https://learndigital.withgoogle.com/digitalskills. It will take you about 1 hour or less.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

In 1860, as much as 80% of the workforce were self-employed, according to historian Steven Gillon. From then on, things started changing, and quite dramatically. By 1900, the number of self-employed had fallen to 50%; by 1977, it fell to 7%- weforum.org

Between 2014-2018, 3.7Milllion people in the US started freelancing, I don\’t have the figures for Nigeria, but I know freelancing has been on the increase as well-the IT hubs, work-spaces, coffee shops turned work-spaces are evidence of that.

There are predictions that in a few years 50% of the workforce will be freelancers. Do you think so? 

What does this mean for you as a Job Seeker?

It means: You have the option of considering freelancing instead of the traditional 9-5. If you have sent your CVs without any success, may be you can consider freelancing. There are lots of websites, angel.co and remote.co are some the websites you can get remote jobs.

There have been various articles on the death of the CV/ Resume, it\’s 2021 the CV is still here. Yes it has evolved but it is still very relevant in any hiring process.⠀⠀⠀⠀
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The CV is not going anywhere for now but there are a few myths we\’d like to talk about. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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YOUR CV SHOULD BE 1-PAGED: Know this, a poorly written CV whether 1, 2 or 3 pages won\’t do much. We believe that as long as you have good depth, and your CV is well written you should not restrict yourself to a 1 paged CV.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Just Because Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos or Marissa Mayer\’s CVs are 1-paged doesn’t mean you or I should have 1 paged CVs too. Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk or Marissa Mayer do not need CVs—their reputations precede them,  but WE still need our CVs to sell us so please if a 2 paged CV sells you better, then 2 page it is, and if a 1-Paged CV does the job, then a 1-Paged CV it is!

Congratulations! It took a lot of work and preparation, but you landed the interview, now the game begins because Job interview is a critical part of a recruitment process. It\’s where where you win or lose the offer.

We write the best CVs but even the world’s best CV won’t save you or win this for you. 

The way to win an interview is by taking just a few extra steps before it even starts so you can craft the perfect answers, display high levels of competence, and get the job every time.

Winning that job interview comes down to one thing – PREPARATION.