Showing posts with label Job Search. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Job Search. Show all posts

Thursday, November 4, 2010

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Tips To Use Twitter To Find A New Job

How to Use Twitter to Land a Job: Are you using Twitter for your job search? If you have yet to see results, don't give up! Using the social-networking tool, you can find real jobs and connect with real people who are hiring.

One of Twitter's most useful aspects is the access it provides you. Recruiters, HR representatives, hiring managers, and executives all use Twitter on a daily basis. Unlike an online job posting where you can only apply via the information provided, Twitter allows you to interact with these people directly by sending them an @ reply or a direct message. Your resume is much more likely to be seen and seriously considered if you've interacted with a company representative rather than applying to a job post along with hundreds of other job seekers.

Tips to get noticed and hired on Twitter:
  • Create a user-friendly profile. Use your real name and keep your Twitter ID professional. Use the biography to tell the world what you do. Your goal is to be found and followed by like-minded people. Make it easy for others to follow your updates or follow you back.
  • Use the website field to link to your online resume. Consider using a service like VisualCV that allows you to post and share your resume online. If you don't have a digital version of your resume, use your LinkedIn profile as your website.
  • Keep your updates public. There's an option to have public or private updates on Twitter. If the purpose of your Twitter account is to meet people and potentially find your next job, keeping your updates private defeats the purpose. You need an open profile so other users can search for your tweets and easily find you. Recruiters use keywords and hashtag searches (which group tweets by topic) through the Twitter search function to find potential candidates for open positions.
  • Find jobs using hastags. Use the integrated Twitter search feature or a third-party applications like TweetDeck to search for keywords or hastags. Hashtags are words with a # prefix. For example, the hashtag #job will yield you the results of every tweet that a user categorized with #job hashtag, but not a tweet that simply says "I'm on my way to my new job."
People use hashtags on Twitter to categorize the subject of the tweet and make it searchable. Research the hashtags people use to categorize job openings or job-search advice, like #jobs or #jobsearch, as well as hashtags for your specific industry, and set up an automatic search for all tweets with those hashtags. You can also use hashtags to join a conversation about certain subjects and interact with other people using that hashtag.
  • Follow people who work in your industry or companies that interest you. Interacting and building relationships with people who are already working at those companies may help you uncover job openings that aren't posted on popular job boards.
  • Use Twitter lists to find new people to follow. This will will help you discover relevant information about your search, as well as more contacts. You can make your own lists to filter information only from people on that list or follow other people's lists to see people and content you wouldn't see in your own stream.
  • Be consistent. Posting regular updates takes time, but not so much that you can't easily post an update or two a day. Also find time to interact with the people you follow and scan your automatic searches.
  • Promote others before promoting yourself. Blatant self-promotion and a Twitter stream full of self-concerned updates is a big turnoff. You want to share information about yourself and use it to help you, but you also need to help others to gain and maintain an active following. Share interesting information and links. Promote others through retweets, or tweeting what they've tweeted, to recognize their efforts, add value to your community and join conversations.
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Wednesday, June 23, 2010

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Most Common Elements Of An Effective Resume

Your resume is a piece of paper (or an electronic document) that serves to introduce you to the people who will eventually hire you. To write a thoughtful resume, you must thoroughly assess your personality, your accomplishments, and the skills you have acquired. The act of composing and submitting a resume also requires you to carefully consider the company or individual that might hire you. What are they looking for, and how can you meet their needs? 

There are a variety of ways to organize and present your information. Distilling your work experience, education, and interests into such a small space requires preparation and thought. It serves as a workbook and a place to write down your experiences, while also including the techniques you’ll need to pull all the necessary elements together.

An effective resume is composed of information that employers are most interested in knowing about a prospective job applicant. This information is conveyed by a few essential elements. The following is a list of elements that are found in most resumes—some essential, some optional.
  • Heading
  • Objective and/or Keyword Section
  • Work Experience
  • Education
  • Honors
  • Activities
  • Certificates and Licenses
  • Publications
  • Professional Memberships
  • Special Skills
  • Personal Information
  • References
The first step in preparing your resume is to gather information about yourself and your past accomplishments. Later you will refine this information, rewrite it using effective language, and organize it into an attractive layout. But first, let’s take a look at each of these important elements individually so you can judge their appropriateness for your resume. Good Luck To Land in Your Dream Job!
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Sunday, August 23, 2009

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Canada Is A Favourite Destination For Higher Studies | Top Universities In Canada

Canadian universities are largely publicly-funded; they enjoy a high degree of academic autonomy.
 
Canada is a great country with a relatively low population and large size. There are six time zones, and both English and French are the official languages. There are over 90 universities, and most of them maintain a fine quality. The tuition fees are in general less than those in the U.S.

There are several other educational institutions operating at different levels in diverse areas. Facilities exist for work experience through part-time jobs. No wonder, thousands of international students choose Canada as their destination. The atmosphere is multicultural, offering excellent opportunity for developing a truly global outlook. The quality of life is good.

Many universities offer the option to live on-campus in residences. You have to apply for on-campus housing. The student adviser would normally provide information on off-campus housing as well.
Fig: Time Zones In Canada

You would be allowed to work on campus as in a library without a formal work permit and earn money. Universities permit off-campus work up to 20 hours a week during the school year and full-time during study breaks.

This helps you not only to earn income but to gain quality work experience. For this facility, you should have a work permit. Such permits have validity during the tenure of your study permit. You have to get your Social Insurance Number (SIN) if you need to work in Canada or to have access to government programmes and benefits. You have to submit an application for the number, in the prescribed form downloadable from the web site www.servicecanada.gc.ca, along with a nominal processing fee.

Canadian universities are largely publicly-funded; they enjoy a high degree of academic autonomy. The academic year is usually from September to May. There would be semester or trimester systems. Each university has its own norms for entry qualifications to different programmes of study.

The attainments of each student would be assessed individually for the purpose of admission. The Canadian educational institutions are familiar with the qualifications in most other countries including India. 

For Indians, who have passed the 12th standard examination would get admission to the undergraduate programmes. Our Bachelor’s degree and scores in GRE would normally enable you to enter a ‘graduate’ programme in Canada. Final decisions in the matter are taken by individual universities or other institutions. Normally, undergraduate applications will have to be submitted by January-March in the year of admission.
You will have to see whether a university offers programmes in English or French and make an appropriate choice. You may be asked to sit in a French language test by the university, if you choose the French medium.

The universities offer a wide range of courses and award undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degrees, professional degrees and certificates. The assessment of a student’s performance is not pivoted on a single annual examination. It is based on the results in assignments, classroom presentations, projects, periodical tests, and term papers.

AUCC (The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, 350 Albert Street, suite 600, Ottawa, Ontario K1R 1B1, Ph: 613-563-1236; Site: www.aucc.ca; e-mail: info@aucc.ca) ensures research-enriched quality in the university education system, interaction with industry, information sharing, facilitation of scholarships, and recognition of the qualifications at the global level. The provincial authorities also have measures for quality assurance. This dual system guarantees quality of your university education in Canada.

You can reach a directory of Canadian universities and colleges through the web site www.cicic.ca. You can know whether a university stands authorised to grant degrees of diplomas by going through the listing in the directory. Detailed information on the programmes in any university or college can be drawn from the concerned web site or from the university or college calendar, which will be sent to you on request to the admission office.

The calendars usually highlight not only the programmes, but the entrance qualifications, facilities for accommodation, tuition fees, scholarships, and matters of interest to prospective students.

Clarification of any point of doubt may be obtained from the following addresses also.

Canadian Education Center-India – Bangalore, No.105, First Floor, The Presidency, 1 St. Mark’s Road, Bangalore -56 00 01; Ph: 080-4112 0183; e-mail: cecbangalore@studycanada.ca

Canadian Education Center-India – New Delhi; Ph: 011 4151 5560; e-mail: cecindia@studycanada.ca

Canadian High Commission, 7/8, Shanti Path, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi – 110021; Ph: 011 5178 2000; e-mail: delhi@international.gc.ca 

Which are the top universities?
There is no official ranking of the Canadian universities. There is a group of leading research-intensive universities in Canada, known as the Group of Thirteen. These universities in the group are held in high esteem. They often offer joint research programmes.

University of Alberta, Edmonton; University of British Columbia, Vancouver; University of Calgary, Dalhousie University; Halifax Université Laval, Quebec City; McGill University; Montreal McMaster University; Hamilton; Université de Montréal; University of Ottawa; Queen’s University; Kingston;University of Toronto; University of Waterloo; University of Western Ontario; Simon Fraser, Acadia, and York are some of the other universities rated high.
It may be remembered that certain universities may have excellent facilities for certain disciplines. But they may not be equally good in other areas.
So there is not much sense in being carried away by the rankings published by interested organisations.

You will have to study each university in your mind taking into account factors such as the reputation built through years of proven work, infrastructural facilities, quality of faculty, noted alumni and the positions reached by them.

Particular emphasis should be laid in going into the details of the department you intend to join.

The web sites of the universities or colleges would normally give you the basic information you need.
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Tuesday, July 28, 2009

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10 Points To Consider Before Searching For Programming Job

Before starting your job search, there are some preliminary tasks to perform. There’s no point applying for jobs without knowing what you like, for example. 
Related Links:

Just being a good coder isn’t enough - you have to understand what the market wants and how you can adapt your own skills to find the right job for yourself.

Stereotypes to the contrary, all programmers are not alike. Knowing what kind of programmer you are is crucial to finding the right kind of job. While you can probably do many different kinds of programming tasks, they won’t all turn your crank in the same manner. 
Here Is 10 Points To Consider About Yourself Before Searching For Programming Job:
Doing something you don’t really enjoy is fine on a short-term basis, but you need to be interested in and excited by what you’re doing to sustain you over the long term. The best programmers are passionate about their work, and you can’t truly be passionate about something that’s only moderately interesting to you.

If you’re not sure what you like or dislike, ask yourself some questions:

1. Are you a systems programmer or an application developer? Systems programmers work on the code that keeps computer systems running: frameworks, tools, compilers, drivers, servers, and so on. Other programmers are their primary audience, and there’s little interaction with nonprogrammers. Application developers, on the other hand, work on the pieces that those nonprogrammers use to do their own work, and there’s often more interaction with nontechnical people. 

2. Do you like coding user interfaces? If so, and if you’re skilled at it, consider yourself lucky. User interface design is finicky work, easy to criticize, and hard to do well, especially when internationalization and accessibility issues are taken into account. Also Read - Nine Steps To Improve Your Programming Skills

3. Are you a good debugger? If you think finding problems in your own code is bad enough, imagine what it’s like to fix problems with someone else’s code. It requires strong analytical and problem-solving skills. Finding and fixing bugs can be extremely rewarding in its own right, but it’s definitely not for everyone. 

4. Do you like testing? Testing - also referred to as quality assurance, or QA for short - is often maligned by inexperienced programmers, but those who’ve been around the block once or twice value independent testing. Skilled testers are hard to find, and programming skills are usually required to write tools and automated test cases. 

5. Are you an architect or a coder? Every coding job includes some kind of design aspect, but certain jobs lean more one way than the other. If you enjoy the designing more than the coding, a position as a software architect might be more appealing. That said, architecture positions can involve a lot of interaction with others and little or no coding, though you need a good understanding of how to code in order to be an effective architect. Unless you take formal training in software architecture, the usual route to becoming an architect is to code first and then display an aptitude for designing and fitting together different pieces of a project.

While the preceding questions deal with the different kinds of programming that might interest you, there are also nonprogramming questions to consider: 

6. Does management interest you? Some coders have a long-term goal of becoming a manager, but others shiver at the very thought. If management is your goal, however, you’ll need to develop leadership skills and demonstrate that you can manage the human parts of the software development equation as well as the technical pieces. If management is not your goal, look for companies with good technical career paths so you’re not forced to manage people in order to be promoted. 

7. Do you want to work for a big company? There are advantages and disadvantages to working at big companies. For example, a large company usually offers more job stability and some kind of career path. It may also have a name brand that nontechies recognize. On the other hand, you may feel stifled by the bureaucracy, rigidness, and intercompany rivalry that is often found within bigger companies. 

8. Do you want to work for a small company? The pay may be less, but getting in on the ground floor at a new company can ensure future advancement (and possibly substantial remuneration) as the company grows and succeeds. The downside, of course, is that most new ventures fail and you may be out of a job within a year or two. 

9. Are open-source projects preferable? The vast majority of programming jobs have usually involved proprietary, closed-source projects, which some programmers find objectionable. There’s been a small shift in favor of more open software development, which provides more opportunities for people like yourself to participate in open-source projects and still be paid for that participation. 

10. Do you want long-term or short-term projects? Some programmers crave change, spending a few months at most on each project. If you like short-term projects and don’t mind traveling, a gig with a consulting company might make more sense than a more conventional corporate job.

It’s important to realize that there are no universal answers to these questions, no right or wrong way to answer them. The more truthful you can be with yourself in answering them, however, the more likely you’ll be able to find the kind of programming job you truly enjoy.
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