How to find the ideal job?

           
            Does the ideal job exist? I’m sure the answer to this question will be that ideal is the job where we have a good salary, good manager, good team, good company good office and a good business.

            Perhaps, we often say “Wow” when we hear that our friend started working in a “good company” and has a bigger salary than ours. Some career (position and business) is very attractive – we also want to become managers or directors and manage others (we think that managing others is easier than doing the job), always describe what is the career of our dreams, even when we are already working and have a quite good job. We often dream about how we leave the current one and start the new, good job, where there is a very good manager and we are doing a lot of important things.

            Why are we constantly searching for the ideal job? Why do we that we don’t have it and it must be searched? And why don’t we like the environment or the business that we are doing now?

            In my opinion, the process of searching the “perfect job” is the reason of our imagination. When we are searching for perfect job, we are in the situation of “everything or nothing”, where the manager, business, office, computer and table are “perfect” and in case of at least one discrepancy we don’t want it. The reality is different and we forget that we will have the head everywhere, which will ask about doing activities that we were not dreaming about; we will meet managers everywhere, that won’t be satisfied with the things we made and will give us a note; we will meet the team, where someone is a “strange” person and can say something that is not interesting for us; everywhere we will have to do some things in the limited time and etc. This circumstance is invariable, even when we are working as a head and management is our role.

            There is no job, where our task will not be doing the business in the way our manager wants, the way that team wants, the way that company and its clients want. Proving four level expectations works against ideal job, but this is the kind of reality.

            Finding ideal job is real, in case if we learn to ensure our expectations and reality. Every job is a deal, “economy relationship”, where we know what we are getting instead of our business and the company knows what it should get from us.

            We often think that good job is where returns are high – certainly, high salary is a good thing, but if the business is that we don’t want to make, we are still searching for a new job. What should we give and take in “perfect condition”, is undoubtedly related with our private and individual goal – who we want to be in this life. When we don’t know what we want, it will be difficult to find perfect job.

            In my opinion, ideal is the job where we are doing things that we love. Therefore while searching perfect job we should analyze and observe what kind of job is offered, will it be interesting and do we want to make this business.

            This case is important, because the result of the job creates high motivation. Manager, team and company are just circumstances that will meet us everywhere. It is known that people leave their managers, but not the business, this case works for us, because we know what we want and rightly say how the manager has interfered us, so next time we will be more focused on our search.

            We need to know what we should be, and what we should do to establish our place in society, business or our own home. Unfortunately, many of us didn’t even think that we are responsible for ourselves, family members and society (even friends). If our goal is vague, it is hard to find ideal work and reach the perfect condition, which will become even more unattainable.

How to write a cover letter?

            Cover letter is often asked to send the job application. “Cover letter” is the English name of motivation letter.  The cover letter in confirmation process is as important as the CV. Writing a cover letter seems difficult, but it’s very easy if you observe a few simple rules and enough time for it, we will understand that it is very simple and useful work to do.

            Normally, the cover letter is attached to our resume and that’s why it should include more useful information in order to be a summary and not a duplicate of CV. The goal of cover letter is to add facts about you to resume consisted of dry data.

            A cover letter is often addressed to your potential employer, so you are given a chance to make a first positive impression on him.

            First of all, we should remember that we should write a different cover letter to each job application. If we won’t waste enough time and attention on cover letter, regardless of your experience, you could not reach the list of interview candidates.
 
            What is the difference between cover letter and a resume?
            Summary of facts and answers to the questions – who, what, where, when and how. At this time a cover letter is explaining why you fit into a certain position. Your cover letter is the best way to answer questions and provide information about the person, the employer learns what is your motivation for the proposed work, and how does your experience and skills correspond for the vacancy.
            Cover letter helps you to “sale” your qualifications and it is possible to verify this information in your CV. Both the cover letter and resume have the same goal, to present you as a good candidate for the vacancy.

            What kind of contain does the cover letter include?
            Cover letter consists of several paragraphs, in which you describe your qualifications and tell the employer why you are interested in this position. The letter must convince the employer that your candidacy is interesting and necessary to meet. A successful cover letter usually becomes the basis of the interview.

            The letter begins with a date, your contact information, where you write your name, surname, position and telephone number. If you know, who you are writing to, greeting is very important, if you know the name of those who you are writing to, begin the letter like Mrs. __ , if you don’t know the identity of the recipient, then you can write – To authorized person.
           
            The first paragraph of the letter should contain information about why you are writing this letter. Definitely mention the position you are applying to. The second paragraph should describe what you offer an employer.  Connect your job experience and requirements. Tell about your experience and specific skills, which corresponds to the vacancy. Use the list format, which will allow the reader to quickly look at the letter and get the necessary information. The last paragraph of your cover letter is the final part, where you will thank an employer for your consideration, and mention your wish to meet and get a firsthand look. We fulfill the letter with traditional respect, your first and last name.
 
            HR managers are introducing to more than 100 resumes and cover letters per day. Easy to imagine how little time is given to each of them. Attention is paying only at those documents, which are fully drawn and conveys the necessary information. It is not accepted to send the documentation with grammatical and spelling errors. Most employers are not considering the candidates whose records are not interesting for them at first sight. The first impression of your cover letter is often the basis for later stage, so don’t put in time and prepare the suitable cover later for your qualifications.

Smile, today is Monday!

     Today is Monday – the first day of the working week. The days off are over and we’re back to our jobs. “Monday is a hard day!”, “we will start from Monday”, “on Monday we will fix”. We relate the first day of the week to the big changes, but mostly it is associated to the stress and unpleasant emotions. If coming Monday is not motivating you and does not fill you with fun, it means that there are specific reasons for it.

Insource suggests some tips to make Monday less stressful and more likely:

Identify issues.
If Monday always raises bad associations, it is not a joke, it means that you are not happy with your job and you need to make some changes on your current place or find the other job. First of all, ask yourself what irritates you most about your job. “Bad workplace, unwanted relations, Monday’s meeting with your boss, or even not interesting job”. If you will find a particular cause and will try to neutralize it, then your opinion about Mondays will become more positive.

Get ready for Monday on Friday.
Try to complete doing all the unpleasant tasks on Friday afternoon, to start the week with new, interesting work.


Compile the list of the most interesting and enjoyable works for you.
On the Sunday evening write down 3tasks which you would like to do next week. If it will be hard to come up with such kind of tasks, better look for another job.

Stop everything that is connected with work on the weekends.
Try not to think about work on the weekend. Don’t check your e-mail or other messages. Leave all your problems at work while leaving the office on Friday and try to concentrate on leisure and entertainment.

Sleep normally and get up earlier than always.
Try to go to bed earlier on Sunday evening, to get up more relaxed on Monday morning. Set the alarm clock for 15minutes or half an hour earlier. Try to spend more time on yourself, have a good breakfast, train or maybe walk with your dog. The fast pace of the cases will make even more tensions on the first morning of the week.

Dress up beautifully on Monday.
Put on your favorite, new clothes on Monday. This will help you to be more confident, and the compliments, received in office will improve your mood.
They say that when you look good, you feel better.

Be positive.
Start Monday thinking about positive themes related to your job. Listen to your favorite music on your way to work, which will give you more energy. You can also make a special morning compositions list. When you arrive at work, try to complain less and also don’t pay attention to others’ remarks about heavy Monday. It is known that making anyone else feel good, makes you feel good too, so, try to compliment your colleagues, make something useful for your client, because people’s good mood will have a positive impact on you.

Make a light work list for Monday.
Just because Monday is often a busy day at the office, try not to fill it with variety of other activities. For example, when you are planning a meeting for the next week, plan it on Tuesday or Wednesday, this will help you to move easily the day after weekend.
Don’t start the Monday with the hardest and biggest business, first of all, try to do the easily activities and quickly-doing tasks, this will give you more energy for the further work.

Have fun at work.
Do the things that will give you pleasure. For example, invite your colleagues to donuts and share the weekend news to each other. The planed lunch or coffee break with your friend on Monday will prove expectations and set the positive mood for next week.

Plan to go somewhere after work.
Plan something interesting after work next Monday, go to the cinema to watch the new film, meet a friend, visit the new exhibition, so, create additional expectations for Monday and it will not be only the beginning of the week for you.
If you will consider these councils, you will begin the week highly motivated, you will see bigger results of your work at the end of the week, and it will be the basis of development and prosperity of your further career.

The role of LinkedIn in a career

     LinkedIn is very important for our career life, maybe it is the best social network (if it’s possible to call it social network), but LinkedIn helps us to get the information about vacancies, to introduce ourselves to a potential employer, to find interesting candidates, establish business relationships, find new contacts and etc. We can become the followers of interesting companies and receive the news from them. LinkedIn allows us to become a lot of professional’s followers ( if the person is interesting to you, for example, Guy Kawasaki) and figure out what news are they offering, as well as will receive information about their new books and articles.

     Today, when a lot of things are carried out electronically, the profile on LinkedIn is the most significant way to find the job. LinkedIn allows us to introduce our experience and professional skills to the employers of Georgian and foreign companies, headhunters and people who may have a lot of business propositions for us.

     In this article we will speak about LinkedIn, as one of the best ways of employment.

Why should we have the fulfilled profile on LinkedIn?

1. LinkedIn is the best professional network, to introduce our skills rightly.

2. It stays the best way of finding a job in the world.

3. Allows us to get information such kind of jobs, which couldn’t be searched on Web pages.

4. Gives us the opportunity to contact with potential employers.

5. We can come together to exchange news and information in professional groups.

What should we consider while creating a LinkedIn account:

1. Our profile (as well as first and last names) is preferable to be in English, as any person (Georgian and non-Georgian) will have the opportunity to read information about us.

2. We should mention our name and surname fully (the name shouldn’t be “pet name”)

3. Preferably to write general information about us in some sentences (summary), what is our strong point, what are our professional skills and our interests.

4. Information about our work experience we should sort from the latest till the first sequence.

5. It will be better to mention our duties and what we were doing while working for any company. List should not be very long, maximum 3-5 sentences.

6. We should mention information about education. In the list of trainings there should be only the most important ones.

7. If you decided to upload a photo, it must be an official and serious image, such as we have on our ID cards. The photo taken in informal situation would make the wrong impression about us.

8. In the contact information we should mention the kind of data, which we would like to contact us. This will be the e-mail address, Skype ID or mobile number. Don’t worry, the unexpected calls or messages won’t bother you. Our contact information will be shown to only those whose friend request we will accept.

9. We can come together in interesting groups and become the followers of interesting companies.

10. We can download LinkedIn mobile app, to have constantly updated information, see the messages on time and hear the interesting information.

       

      Since we will create the profile, it is desirable to find yourself and see how our names and surnames are searching and how the information about us appears to others. LinkedIn is one of the first pages, which displays the search results in Google, if someone will try to find us by our full names. If we would full our profile information, it would be one of the first results of the research that raises our chances because our potential employer will first of all connect us and then the other candidates.

      Just creating an account is not enough. We should add our colleagues, former colleagues and interesting people for us from the professional side in our contacts. The more wide account we have, the more actively it will appear in the results of the research. It is necessary not to forget to update the information. If you will attend the new interesting training, or you will have a change in career, you should promptly update the information on your profile. Definitely need to pay attention on the contact adding requests, so we could never overlook the interesting information.

Wish you a good luck!

How to send your CV to the employer?

        When sending CV-'s position, at least one unknown person, and our potential employer is getting certain impression about us. Whereas, CV is a reflect of our career and achievements, it is important to think about, how we can deliver it to a potential employer.

  Today the majority of employers are asking to send the CV on the e-mail address. It seems to be the simplest process. However, there are some rules that will help us make a positive first impression on the recipients, and allow us to fully introduce our achievements and create a convincing impression of ourselves.

         When sending the CV, the best thing is to consider:

1. The e-mail address, from which you are sending your CV, should not be created with diminutive name. Today the most business e-mail is Gmail. If you don’t have the post with your name and surname, definitely create it. It’s preferably for your post address to contain the full name and surname.

2. Pay attention to how your name will appear in e-mail, your letter and CV will receive the HR Manager. Indicate full name in Latin.

3.  The file that we attach to the letter should be called our full name in Latin letters. The CV can not be called “CV” or “John 1984” or something like this. There is no need to include the version, date of birth, language (CV is often called “CV in Georgian”) and other references. The file shouldn’t include the grammar and spelling mistakes, it is desirable to be in English and if you will decide to convey the photo, it must be official and 3X4.

4. Enter the contact information and the last place of work in the beginning of CV. This is the kind of information that HR Manager will quickly need to call or e-mail us.

5. Pay attention to what the vacancy announcement is asking for. If there’s mentioned to indicate the job title in the title (subject), invariably copy and paste it from the text to subject line; don’t write in the subject something like “My CV”, “seeking employment” or “looking for a job”.

6. Don’t forget the text of the letter. The letter should be drafted in official format, there should not be any jokes or emoticons, it is preferably to express the interest and readiness for the meeting, to include your motivation (not something like “I’m already looking for a job for 3 years”, or “I’m seeker of a job”) and be thankful.  Don’t ask for the confirming of receipt the CV and don’t forget to mention contact information in the text.

7. There’s no need to send the certificates, copies of diplomas, motivation letters or other documents if the company which has a vacancy is not asking for it.

8. Sending CV several times doesn’t mean that they will definitely phone us. This method works against you. If you are not sure if the addressee received your CV, you can just call and check it.

9. Don’t ask your relatives or friends to send the CV, if they find the interesting vacancy. The potential employer could remember us in wrong way in such case and we can make a bad impression.

10. Don’t send your CV with other person’s one, because the recipient may not pay attention that it is the resume of different people and consider only one of them. In addition, the other person’s motivation is not seem and he will get less attention.

11. Also important is the format of document. Pay attention what structure has your CV (for more information check the article “What makes a good CV”) and try not to include there extra information.

12. It will be good if you send your CV in PDF version and not as a Word file, because the format is more protected and there are less technical faults.

  These rules are created according to the most frequently observed defects and we think, it could slightly help you to take another step towards the likely job.

Good luck!

Who are you? A few things about personal branding

       What do they say about you when you are not in the room? What is your name associated with? Who are you? How do others see you? What can you offer?

        In the lively competition of 21st century this questions couldn’t be ignored. “Let the business introduce you” is still relevant, but the appearance also needs some knowledge. So, start thinking about who we are, who we want to be and what we should do for it, this means we should develop our personal branding plan.

         If you at least once have called and said – “hello, we are starting a new, interesting project and you are the one who we definitely need, so can we meet” it doesn’t matter how will the meeting be finished, the main thing is already clear, you made the basis of creation your personal branding and one can say, first floor is already built.

         Everything is path as in case of branding product. Some years ago I have heard very interesting example on the training about branding, which is always on the top of my mind. The director of one of the international advertising company in America received a call from London and was said that they will cancel the contract with him. This was so important that the director of company boarded a plane and flew to London himself. The only questions he asked to co-workers were: why they were canceling the contract? They answered that they don’t like the plan of showing advertisements on TV. And here the most interesting is started. The director asked who was the most professional specialist in this field? The answer of this question is the most important one. Are you a well-known professional of your field? The history has ended the director personally called the recommended manager and suggested that kind of conditions after which he took all his table items and moved to his company. As a result, they retained both the best manager and the order. However, until we will be remembered to the question of who is the best, we should make our personal brand.


           Unlike the last century, today it is much more easily. We live in the era of modern technology. We can attract the attention even by social networks, can meet people that we didn’t ever meet and nothing connected us. In short, the task is simplified, but at the same time it is not so easy as it seems at first sight. Social networks and other advanced technologies are available to everyone, so it is necessary to act correctly, to introduce ourselves properly in our business circle and attract the needed attention, and as it can be said in marketing language, to inform the needed recipient about our brand.

           To manage public opinion about us, it is necessary to carry out a few rules:

Rule 1. Define your goal. Specify what you want to achieve. For example – I want to become the best project manager in the energy sector or the best advertising creative director.

Rule 2: Who is your concurrent? Think about who are the most famous and influential in your area. Analyze what are they gone through and what you can learn from them.

Rule 3: Define your field. Who are the people who can take part in your success? Who should know you and who is your target audience. What is also important for them to know about us.

Rule 4: All the details are important. Styles of dress, behavior, even the hairstyle creates a certain association about us. Form, which adjective you want to be associated with. What should be said about you – smart, serious, purposeful, or just funny and good person. Also become interested how people accept you today. How big is the difference between you and the person you want to become? What should you change and why?

Rule 5: Manage your own image. Be proactive and try your every message that is running to become special and to make a personal branding strengthening. Pay attention to how you use social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc). Don’t full the wall with Oscar’s or other similar information containing links, when your goal is to become a well-known manager of strategic projects. Do not confuse the public.

              And finally, follow the golden mean when you succeed. This time is started the most difficult period in which we should try to keep the public’s interest to us for as much longer as we can. But that’s the statement of another article, which we’ll discuss later.