Classes

27 September, 2011

CV (Updated) & Job Interview Questions

Sorry about the delay on this post. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Name - Most important, with your contact and personal information being secondary. Should be the first thing on your CV.
Photo - Is optional, and in the US, it is mandatory that you DO NOT include a photo. Make sure it is an appropriate photo, and of a standard size.
Phone - If applying outside the country, include country code, in France +33, and do not include the zero at the front of your French cell phone number.
Address - Can be formatted differently in each country. In English, we normally capitalize the first letter of the name of the town or city.(49100 Angers, France)
e-mail (should look like this, all lowercase, optional to have this before your mail since '@' makes it apparent its your e-mail address): can be presented in blue, but is not necessary. If you do not already have a professional e-mail address, now is the time to get one.

An objective is an optional thing. Normally, an objective consists of one short sentence stating the type of job or work you are looking for. This type of information can be included in you letter of motivation, also known as a cover letter. Note: when stating numbers within sentences, if it is under ten, write the word out (ten, nine, eight, etc.) , instead of using the numeral (10,9,8..).

Degrees or Diplomas -
Year started – Present.
ex: 2009 – Present First, the University or School you are currently "enrolled in/ attending" : you have not finished.
Next, the degrees you have completed / finished :
2009 Bachelor's of Tourism, University of Angers,
2006 Lycée Baccalauréat (High School Diploma), specialty (if any), with honors (high standing)
Any training with education courses and certification you may have completed.

Format / Style : Consistency
Try to keep each type of information looking the same, ie. dates, years or months, Job Titles, Companies. Each item should look the same so that your prospective employer can easily find it.
Fonts - Use only one, can be as small as 9pt, and even 7/8 pt in most cases, and still easily read. This will help you keep everything to one page. Use a professional font. Do not use fonts like Comic Sans and Papyrus.
Different types of treatments: Title Case, Sentence case. CAPS, CAPS LOCK. (Capital letters)

Full Time, Part Time, Internships & Short Term
Full Time (abbv. FT) in the US, Full Time work means 40 hours a week, each day a one hour lunch break, and two weeks paid vacation. Each job offers various types of health insurance coverage, normally, that you pay a portion of out of your salary.
Part Time (abbv. PT) in the US, Part Time means anything under 35 hours a week. This sometimes and sometimes doesn't included health care or paid time off.
Internships - are lumped into three categories, paid, unpaid, and work stipend. Paid would be an internship in which you receive hourly wage or a salary, as a normal employee. Unpaid - you earn no money. And a work stipend is a weekly or monthly sum that goes towards transportation or other expenses you may have.

Helpful Terms
CEO - Chief Executive Officer
VP - Vice President
HR - Human Resources
PR - Public Relations
EU - European Union
401 K - American Retirement Account, K = thousands, 1000s


Not Necessary to Include with main Employment -
Short Term - seasonal work, temporary employment
You don't have to explain how much you worked. (For example, how many days a week, or how many hours a week) If you were employed for 2 years, you should say that. You can explain how much work you did at the interview.
This is the same for being paid. Sometimes a job will ask for your salary requirements, and you can include this is your letter of motivation/cover letter. It should be based on previous salaries or an entry salary.

Programs / Computer Skills
A basic way of noting general computer use without being specific would be to say. This only states you know how to turn a computer on and use it. This skill alone will not help you get a job in today's market.
Proficient in PC Environment & File Management.

Levels of Computer or Software use: Expert, Proficient, Intermediate, Beginner.
Daily use is also acceptable.

ex: Expert in Microsoft Office in a PC & Mac environment. Microsoft Office includes all the software in that package, including Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc.
Proficient in HTML, CSS, and Content Management Systems. If you know any modern internet computer programming or languages, even if you just have a blog or a twitter, you may want to include that. Having strong connectivity on the internet can only help you get jobs these days. Creating a LinkedIn page and including the address on your resume could also be helpful.
Beginner in Adobe Flash and iMovie. It's also important to show you have interest in other software. This shows you encourage yourself to learn new things as well. You never know if this interest could be helpful in a job that you would like to have.

DO NOT list surfing the internet as a skill. Anyone can do it. Same goes for e-mail.

Languages
The levels are native (refrain from using your mother tongue), bilingual/fluent (you can speak the language fluently and without hesitation), conversational, and then levels of good, moderate/intermediate, basic/beginner/novice. Written and Spoken can have two different levels, specify if so.

Recommendations / References
Due to privacy concerns, most references would prefer that you keep their information confidential. In order to do this, I place on my CV "Available Upon Request". This means that if an employer really needs my references, they can ask me, and I would be more than happy to notify my reference that someone would be calling them or e-mailing them, and then passing the contact information on to my prospective employer.

If your job listing asks for references, I would list it as follows

Name, Title, Company, Location (optional), Phone, e-mail

Top 10 Job Interview Questions
Most people in charge of hiring tend to ask the same questions. The best way to prepare yourself for an interview, besides dressing well, is to make sure that you practice responding to the questions they are likely to ask. Then, you won't hesitate during the interview and you will seem more confident.

The link to this list of interview questions can be found here, and there are many more lists of questions like this on the internet.

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