Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
How to search for international jobs online
We’ll also
show you how to post your resume on the Internet so employers can find you.
Employment
Databases
First we’ll
look at employment databases. These are usually sponsored by recruiting firms
and there are hundreds to choose from. Some specialize in certain types of
jobs, for example computer professionals. Others specialize in a geographic
region such as Asia. Others are general. Our Job Sites page has categories for
several major career fields as well as one for various regions of the world.
Within each category you will find links to employment databases which
specialize in that field or region. There is also a category for other types of
jobs which don’t fit into any of the previous categories. You’ll find that some
of the sites we’ve listed contain links to other sites as well.
Usenet Newsgroups
Usenet is
another part of the Internet which can also be a fruitful resource for
international job leads. The Usenet is made up of “newsgroups” which could more
accurately be described as discussion groups or electronic bulletin boards.
They are places where people can post information for others to see and respond
to. There are over 20,000 different newsgroups on the Internet although some
Internet providers may not provide access to all of them.
Many
newsgroups contain lists of job opportunities in various fields or places. To
determine which newsgroups contain the types of job leads you’re interested in,
use one of the major search engines such as Alta Vista, Infoseek, or Deja News.
Each allows you to search Usenet newsgroups by a keyword or a combination of
keywords to find sites of interest.
Search
engines
Search
engines are the “yellow pages” of the Internet. They are electronic directories
that can be searched for documents, pages, or sites. Popular search engines are
Google, Yahoo, Alltheweb.com, Northern Light etc. There are many more.
When using
search engines, you’ll need to experiment to find the right combination of
keywords. If your keywords are too general, for example employment, you good
get list of several thousand sites, some of which are only remotely related to
employment. A better choice would be employment + computers, or better yet
employment + computers + international. Also try using different words. For
example, instead of employment, try jobs. If you are finding too many hits,
narrow your search using specific words like: “esl buddhistan capital” or
“engineer job buddhistan”
Experiment
with different search engines. Just like the telephone yellow pages, different
search engines may contain different lists of sites so its a good idea to check
more than one.
The Internet
has made it relatively easy to gather extensive job and company research. In
fact, the process has become so easy that many people are overwhelmed by the
sheer volume of responses they get to a typical search engine inquiry.
However,
there are a couple of tricks you can use to improve the quality of your search
and zero in on the best information. Try:
Searching
with multiple words, a phrase or a concept in the dialogue entry box and
enclose these words within quotation marks to force the search engine to read
the phrase in a locked context. For example: “employment trends” will force the
search to be contained to the phrase rather than on the individual words
Apply a
conditional or restrictive qualifier to keep the search within a specific
target area. For example, Oracle and programmer NOT java. This search will
return instances where pages contain the words oracle and programmer, but will
automatically eliminate those containing the word java.
These
techniques will reduce the number of hits you will generate and produce more
qualified results. See “The Actual Internet Job Search” below.
Employer Web
Sites
Another
approach to finding jobs is to go directly to the employer’s web site. Most
large employers and many small employers now have their own web sites. These
sites contain a lot of useful information about the company and their products
and services. They often list job vacancies as well. Most of these sites allow
you apply for job openings online through email or by pasting an electronic
version of your resume directly into one of their forms. Submitting your resume
through a company’s web site show that you understand the Internet and may give
you an edge over other applicants.
To find a
company’s web site, use one of the search engines mentioned above.
Resume
Databases
In addition
to being a job hunter, you can become one of the hunted and have employers find
you by uploading an electronic version of your resume to a resume database.
There are many of these now on the Internet and employers and recruiters both
use them regularly to find qualified candidates.
These
searchable databases contain the resumes of individuals seeking employment.
Employers/recruiters can search the database by keyword(s) to collect a list of
potential employees from among the thousands of resumes in the database. Some
of the sites listed are strictly resume databases, but many employment
databases also contain a section for job hunters to upload their resumes.
Submitting
your resume to one of these databases normally requires either emailing it or
pasting it into a form on the web site. Specific instructions for doing this
can be found at each site.
Preparing an Electronic Resume
Before you
can email your resume to a recruiter or employer or paste it into an online
application form, you must first create a version which is suitable for sending
through the Internet. This requires that you first remove all bold type,
underlining, italics, tabs, and other fancy design features. Once this is done
use the “Save As…” command to save the file as a text or ASCII file. Your
resume can now be uploaded to the Internet and read by the employer with any
word processor.
When
employers or recruiters search through resume databases for candidates, they
use keywords related to the position they are seeking to fill. If the keywords
they are searching for are not found in your resume you won’t be found. For
this reason your electronic resume should contain a one or two line section
called “keywords” containing words a prospective employer is likely to search
for. This section is commonly placed either at the end of the resume or just below
your name and email address. List all keywords which describe you, your
experience, and the type of work you are seeking.
Examples of
keywords for some sample occupations would be:
Mechanical
engineer, heat transfer, design, project manager…
Accountant,
controller, MBA, finance, etc…
Nurse,
surgical, RN…
English
teacher, EFL, ESL, TESOL…
Computer
programmer, Visual Basic, C++, Cobol…
Although job
seekers are often advised to use “active” words such as managed, employers
generally search electronic resumes by job title such as manager. Because
searches are most often done on nouns, your electronic resume should be a
noun-intensive document.
Learn to be
creative in your job search. Job seeking has become increasingly more
competitive as the ways of getting your resume into a prospective employer’s
hands has grown from “snail-mail” to fax copies, to e-mail attachments to
Internet posting.
With more
and more people taking a “What have I got to lose” attitude and tossing their resume into the pile, each employment opportunity receives hundreds of
applications from both the right and the wrong candidates.
Look at how
you can make your resume stand out by:
Organizing
the facts so that they can be easily picked out from the body copy.
Providing
summaries of skills and core abilities where appropriate.
Using white
space judiciously so that the layout is pleasing to the eye.
Keeping your resume and cover letter brief and relevant to the job opportunity.
A common
error that people make when writing their resume is that they often confuse
their job “responsibilities” with their “accomplishments.”
It is
important to learn how to describe your experience in terms of transferable
skills that the reader will be able to interpret as being a benefit to his or her
business.
Here are a
couple of tips you can use when writing your next resume to help enhance your
perceived value:
Under your
job title, add a sentence or two that describes your overall job duties in this
past position. A descriptive “responsibility statement” will put your seniority
and level of expertise into perspective, and help the reader see how you might
better fit with the job opportunity.
Use the PAR
formula to help you best define your accomplishments. P stands for the problem
or challenge you faced. A represents the action you took to solve the problem,
and R refers to the results you obtained. Write two to four accomplishments for
each job position you held ensuring that the PAR formula has been satisfied in
each explanation.
Company
recruiters are not impressed with a laundry list of past responsibilities.
Rather, they want to learn about how you think, tackled problems, and what
experience and useful skills you bring to the advertised opportunity.
Give your resume greater impact by following these helpful hints:
Be blatant.
Your resume is no place for you to suddenly be shy about your past
accomplishments
Keep your
points brief. Try to get right to the heart of the matter and re-read your resume over to yourself several times out loud to help you make the very best
word selection
Remove any
information that is a given or is repetitive. Ensure that your resume and cover
letter content reinforce each other
Order your
points with the most relevant first. The correct core skills priority is often
found in the order of job requirements as they have been listed in the ad
Every point
should sell. Look to writing in such a way as to demonstrate a benefit in
hiring you
Your resume should not be your complete autobiography. A good resume can say almost
everything it has to say in two to three pages. Let one of your (past)
co-workers read your resume over and comment on its accuracy and completeness.
The cover
letter which accompanies your resume serves to add value, color and dimension
to what might otherwise be interpreted as just another job application. The
cover letter provides you with the opportunity to stand out from the crowd and
be noted as an individual who can make a difference to a company seeking to
fill a vacancy.
The
following examples illustrate how a well constructed cover letter can
significantly enhance your first impression.
A properly
designed letter fulfills three primary functions:
It
identifies your job objectives. “I was most interested in your advertisement
posted in the Globe this morning seeking a ‘Manager for New Business
Development’. I am currently the Regional Sales Manager of the ACME Industrial
Supply Company in Glasgow, and due to the recent transfer of my spouse to
Gotham city, am seeking a comparable position with a firm such as yours.”
It
emphasizes those transferable skills that you have learned in your past
positions. “My past work experience has included the ability to recruit and
train qualified people, build a functional sales team from the ground up, and
manage a sales force of six against established competition.”
It links
skills that you have developed in past positions with the requirements of this
opportunity. “In my role as Sales Manager, I have increased my company’s market
share over the past three years from 12% to 18%, trained eight new salespeople,
and have implemented a database control system that has improved our customer
contact ratio by 43%. I feel confident that I am able to achieve similar
results and achievements for you.”
Don’t waste
this golden opportunity to impress a prospective employer by sending a bland
and lifeless cover letter with your resume.
One of the
most difficult obstacles for a job candidate to overcome is to secure
employment in a new locality.
Whether you
are moving across the the country or half-way around the world, it is extremely
difficult to pre-arrange employment before you arrive unless you are very lucky
or have an agent working on your behalf. It is best to plan your relocation
very carefully.
First, make
the assumption that you will not be able to obtain the employment of your
choice when you first arrive. Ensure that you have adequate savings on hand to
help you bridge any employment gap.
While still
at home, you might try to contact prospective employers to introduce yourself
and let them know that you would like to interview with them when you do
arrive. Do the same with appropriate recruiters. Lists of prospective
companies, foreign newspapers, and recruiter directories are available at most
major libraries.
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Breaking Into the Global Job Market
The
Nature of the International Job Market
The
international job market is just that, a market driven by economic forces of
supply and demand. Why do organizations hire Westerners and nations grant work
visas? For our professional skills and products. Westerners are too expensive
to hire as unskilled labor, but worth paying for our technology and our
products. This demand fuels jobs for about 4,000,000 Americans overseas.
All
countries protect jobs for their own people. Also, all countries go outside to
meet real needs, including the US, which increased the number of college
educated/high tech (H1-B) work permits from 65,000 to 115,000 for 1999 and
2000. That quota was filled in six months in 1999 and three months in 2000.
Many are calling for an increase to 200,000. Interestingly, the purpose for these
visas is to obtain high tech workers like computer programmers. Corporations,
institutions, and agencies all over the world go outside their country to find
people they need. If we plan to work overseas we must listen to the market to
discover where world needs intersect our training and skills and to learn how
we can best equip and position ourselves for that market.
1.
Vocational profile of the global job market
The need to
develop is the primary force driving the job market in most developing nations.
Development requires the transfer of technology and especially the training of
any nation’s greatest resource—its people. Consequently, education at all
levels is the single largest vocational field. Because English is crucial for
globalization, English teaching is a huge arena all by itself. Further, as
schools and other organizations overseas learn that they can get teachers who
will work in their limited settings, the demand increases. Recently I have
heard story after story of schools and universities asking tentmakers to help
them find more teachers because they see what the tentmaker is providing.
Especially at the university level, openings exist for almost all fields.
The second
area providing international jobs is business and industry. There is tremendous
demand in computers, communications, engineering, marketing, manufacturing,
health care, and basic development. This is also considerable demand in
banking, accounting, financial services, law, transportation, agriculture,
tourism, and arts and media. Some vocations offer fewer openings like
recreation and social services.
2. The two
markets
There are
essentially two overseas job markets, expatriate and local hire. The expatriate
market pays Western wages in order to obtain qualified Western expertise and
job openings are advertised publicly. The “local hire” expatriate market
consists basically of local agencies which are open to hiring Westerners who
are willing to work for local wages. Jobs in this market are not generally
listed, but are discovered by networking. The President of Kyrgyzstan a few
years ago wanted to hire 7,000 EFL teachers. But there is no way Kyrgyzstan
could pay anything close to Western wages. There is similar interest in
Kazakhstan and other countries. This is why it is not generally wise to go
overseas to look for a job. You will not likely find a competitive Western job,
will not be able to live on the income, and will harm your credibility if you
take such a job and live on almost full support.
In reality,
these two poles are oversimplified. There is a range of job sin between. Market
forces drive this situation. Many organizations want more Westerners, but
cannot afford any or many at Western salaries. So when Westerners are willing
to work for less, they take them. Why do they work for less? Desire for travel,
missions motivation, service motivation. For instance, a person can find
numerous jobs that provide adequate income to live in China, though low by
western standards. In other situations, a person will need supplemental
support. In such settings, it is vital to negotiate hard for other forms of
compensation like housing, in-country transportation rates, health care, etc.
This lowers a person’s need for support and enhances credibility. Another
caution should be added: Live appropriately to your role in the community.
Identifying and connecting with the people is one of the great blessings of
tentmaking. When tentmakers live beyond the means of their job, they undermine
credibility and distance themselves from the people.
3. The four
job providing entities
Basically
four entities provide work to Westerners overseas: 1) international or local
corporations, 2) indigenous national institutions like colleges, universities,
and government agencies, 3) relief and development agencies, and 4) new
start-up businesses. These are the arenas in which to look for jobs. Starting a
business offers some wonderful advantages like ability to stay indefinitely and
greater evangelistic freedom. However, it demands special skills and experience.
More on this later.
4. Structure
of the global job market
The
international job market is very decentralized, fragmented, and unstructured.
This is a natural result of specialization in skills and needs. With
globalization and modern communication, it is easy for a university in
Tajikistan to communicate with a chemical engineer in Idaho who is open to
working there, but how do they find each other. Because of this challenge, the
global job market is really a collection of hundreds or even thousands of
relatively small, vertical job markets, which communicate through specialized
networks, publications, websites, and job agencies. For this reason, it is
vital for job seekers to take initiative and persist in pursuing all these
channels.
5. Relatively
closed nature of the market
The job
market tends to be closed to outsiders for a couple of reasons. First, U.S.
organizations have a strong tendency to promote and transfer from within for
overseas jobs even when the person has little cross-cultural skill or
experience. The reason for this is that organizations need people with intimate
knowledge of the organization, its culture, products, services, and authority
structure. The consequence of this approach is big adjustment problems and a
high turnover rate for workers going overseas. Nevertheless, this pattern is
likely to continue for some time. Some companies are recognizing the problem
and a new industry is developing to provide cross-cultural training for
employees.
The second
reason for the relatively closed market is that there are few entry-level jobs
for Americans. Generally openings require a bachelor’s plus two or more years
experience in one’s field. This applies across the board with English teaching
being the only exception. Almost any native English speaker can find a job
teaching English somewhere, though qualifications are rising and pay is limited
for those without TEFL certification. But going without good skills serves
people poorly and dishonors Christ. In addition to vocational competency,
employers often look for travel, overseas work experience, relational skills,
and even language competency for obvious reasons.
6. Length of
contracts
Overseas
contracts tend to last 1-3 years. After that, a person must renew or find
another job. Corporate jobs tend to last 1-3 years because they expect that
employees will want to return home. Development agency jobs tend to be limited
because they are tied to government grants and specific projects. Another
factor is that national organizations want expatriates to equip their own
people so that they can take over as soon as possible. The result of this trend
is that international jobs and careers tend to evolve unpredictably and require
ongoing changes. Since many jobs actually isolate people from the larger global
job market, it is imperative to develop a broad range of contacts and keep
one’s ears open to impending vacancies. Networking is indispensable.
Furthermore, most job moves tend to be horizontal rather than hierarchical
because most jobs are oriented toward delivering specialized direct services.
Only larger corporations and government agencies provide more vertical job
changes. However, such changes usually move people away from direct work in the
field where many find greater satisfaction and excitement. Again, running a
business is a big contrast to this.
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Increasing the Effectiveness of Multicultural Teamwork
Having a proven workplace strategy for managing multicultural
teamwork can help companies achieve organizational goals and business
competitiveness. As organizations continue to expand operations and
services domestically and internationally, the need to capitalize on recruiting
team members and managers with fully diverse backgrounds and superior cultural
competence has become greater over the past decade. The idea of developing a
strong multicultural team is believed to be more critical due to globalization.
Increasing the effectiveness of multicultural teamwork becomes the next logical
priority.
The process involves major challenges and requires strategic
planning. Teamwork itself is a complex process, and adding the multicultural
component makes it more complex than just accomplishing assigned tasks and
duties to meet deadlines. Each team member brings unique perspectives and
approach to successfully carrying on global projects. With individual
strengths and weaknesses, each member’s background represents a certain culture
or sub-culture and different personality traits.
Managers should be equipped with the tools and competence
necessary to effectively communicate with multicultural teams – a type of
communication that could reinforce the best behavior and practices for each
team member despite the individual or cultural differences. No single approach
is proven to work best for an entire team. The way how managers lead individual
members and the entire team could have a detrimental impact on the overall
effectiveness of the teamwork.
Effective multicultural teamwork requires a strategic plan. Each
member of the team should be able to identify oneself with the strategic
mission, vision, values, and objectives of the organization. If human capital
is the comparative advantage in the organization, then each member is believed
to play a key role in pursuing the organizational strategy in the context of
teamwork.
Strategic planning for multicultural teamwork involves an
assessment of the current teamwork situation, internal strategic factors,
situational analyses, key business analyses techniques, and cultural
factors. The plan should be both executable and measurable, focusing on
the end goals and outcomes. Since the focus is on multicultural teamwork, the
voice of team members should be heard, thus allowing room for considering
cultural differences when identifying best practices and formulating the
teamwork strategy. The plan should empower and motivate managers and other
members, resulting in performance effectiveness.
Whether doing business domestically or internationally,
organizations are staffed with employees from diverse cultural backgrounds to
best address the increasing demands for products and services in diverse
cultural communities. Leading multicultural teams, managing the teamwork
challenges, and increasing the overall effectiveness of multicultural teamwork,
therefore, requires exceptional cultural competence and an executable strategic
plan.
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Friday, January 16, 2015
How can women live an enjoyable expatriation?
In general, women tend to be associated with personal skills which are considered conventionally “feminine”, such as flexibility, sensitivity, and empathy. Some potential expat women may have rejected an assignment because their partners were not willing to change their own career path rather drastically. On the other hand, those women who do in fact accept expat assignments are confronted with a “man’s world” among international employees. For those and many other reasons expat women face more challenges than their counterparts. To make living internationally more enjoyable, and to allow better assimilation into the community, women need to understand some of the potential differences trying to overcome them.
One major factor that leaves a person vulnerable in any situation is unfamiliarity. Learning such details as which streets and which neighborhoods are safest is one aspect of safety. The most common piece of advice given to expat women is to study the history, culture, and more importantly, the local language. It facilitates engagement in the community, makes taking care of tasks less frustrating, and helps to alleviate the feelings of isolation. On the other hand, networking with other expats as well as locals in the community is invaluable for feeling safe and secure in a foreign country. Networking is not just about adding friends to a list or finding fellow English speakers to talk to. Rather, it is about finding helpful and positive connections that help to gain some sense of control in a foreign culture.
As stated above, finding connections is a great need for expat women. Keeping a diary, or writing about one’s experiences in any way is always connective, and helps to sort out their feelings, while blogging is one of the best ways to establish friendly connections. Blogs are an excellent way for expat women to gain a valuable insight into the expat experience. An important effect that often results is becoming connected with others – expat bloggers, expats, potential expats, people who are interested in this interesting lifestyle choice, and many other pleasant surprises.
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Client Relationship Management Tips
Client relationship management involves major challenges in our competitive marketplace. Too much emphasis is often placed on the immediate profit to meet the short-term organizational goals; however – little emphasis on relationship building and return on investment in the long run.From the organizational perspective, this process should encompass not simply immediate transactions but especially service quality through pipeline relationship building and client-centric practices based on analysis and forecasting of client trends and behaviors. The idea is to follow the type of principles and guidelines which enhance the client’s experience with the product or service and build client loyalty.
Projects often fall behind schedule, program costs exceed approved budgets, client retention rate drops, and the return on investment diminishes. Such problems can occur on regular bases. Relationships with clients can be easily damaged when the interactions do not serve the best interest of the clients. The field of global mobility requires a stronger client relationship management process to ensure improved levels of client satisfaction, retention, and overall outcomes.
Assignment managers should set realistic expectations and break those down into actionable steps to exceed project goals and enhance client experience. If unexpected problems occur, managers should promptly communicate with the client to discuss the situation and offer alternative solutions that would still meet the timelines and exceed all expectations. Keeping the clients informed and having alternative solution strategies in place would ease the process and increase the client’s confidence. It is better to set realistic timelines and budgets and deliver all promises to ensure future business from the same client.
Problems are resolved more effectively when relationships are built and set up in a way that would make each party comfortable with discussing alternative solutions and moving the business forward. A strong client relationship management process can minimize conflict, add value, retain clients, and build mutual loyalty.
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