Facebook and work do seem discordant, but not as much as you might imagine. Ranked just behind Google as the second most popular website by Alexa, Facebook has over 300 million unique active users, and this population can be used to your advantage to get hired. Here are five ways you can get hired using Facebook:

Networking: the Key to Get Hired Using Facebook

It is right there in the description – Facebook is a social networking site. You can take this a step further and use the platform for professional networking. With its large number of users, you can be sure that most prospective employers and recruiters will be on Facebook. Approaching them through the platform could help you stand out and establish a rapport with the person, which can then lead to you get hired on Facebook.

For example, if you find out that a company you are interested in is recruiting, contacting their HR manager through Facebook will work to your advantage.

Status updates

Updating your status with what you are looking for can bring in support and help from unlikely corners. Someone might even be able to direct or reference you to a company or organisation that is looking to hire someone. If that does not work out, it will still help you widen your network.

Use the Facebook marketplace

Going through the different businesses within your area on Facebook will keep you updated on job listings, with accompanying descriptions and the name of the recruiter, is another way to get hired using Facebook. You can then directly apply or contact the individual to take the application further. There may be other, more comprehensive marketplaces out there (Craigslist, Seek, and so on), but this would mean less competition on the Facebook marketplace and higher chances that you get hired using Facebook.

Groups

Join and participate actively in groups that are attuned to your interests within the industry. You can initiate or add to discussions on the group, and this will help you eventually expand your network within the industry.

Ads

You can also post an ad campaign for yourself on Facebook and link this to your profile. The initial investment is minimal, at a rate of $1 per day, and could lead to precisely the job you want.

Using social media as a means of getting hired, although gaining traction, remains reasonably uncommon. As a job-seeker, you can use this to your advantage to get hired.

The post How to Get Hired Using Facebook appeared first on King of CV.

Every day, a hiring manager has to sift through hundreds–if not, thousands–of CVs and cover letters just to come up with a shortlist of potential candidates to call in for an interview. That said, you’ll need to have more in your arsenal than a well-written and professional CV and cover to stand out from the sea of candidates, and impress a hiring manager so that you can make it on the list.

Here are eight simple tips how you can impress a hiring manager even if you haven’t met them personally.

Write up a great social media profile

One great way to impress a hiring manager is by marketing yourself through your social media profiles.

Nowadays, hiring managers don’t just make their decision purely on the information you put in your CV. They head over to LinkedIn and other social media networks so that they can learn a little bit more about you. At the same time, they cross-reference the information that’s in your social profile against the CV you’ve submitted for consistency and accuracy.

That said, it’s important to make sure that you write up your LinkedIn profile and profiles in other social media networks to match with the information in your CV.

Provide a hiring manager with recommendations

Recommendations coming from your co-workers, superiors, and even your friends can help you make a great first impression with a hiring manager.

For starters, recommendations give a hiring manager a holistic picture of your personality, skills, experience, and work ethic. Also, there’s always that possibility that you and a hiring manager share mutual connections. When a hiring manager sees an excellent recommendation coming from someone he or she knows, that can be more than enough to get your name on the shortlist of candidates that get called in for an interview.

Leave a large online footprint

Having a large online footprint by consistently posting on LinkedIn and other social media networks, joining online forums, and even starting a blog all can help you impress hiring managers looking for potential candidates.

First, you show your technical competency. Being technically literate has now become a primary requirement if you want to land a job, regardless of your position and industry.

Second, this will give hiring managers an insight of your level of expertise and knowledge. Hiring managers are more than happy to contact you when they see that you’re exceedingly knowledgeable on different topics in your niche.

As mentioned earlier, weeding through hundreds of CVs is a daunting task hiring managers face. When you’re easily visible online, you’re in effect making it so much easier for them to find you.

Always learn new skills

Hiring managers favour job seekers who are proactively looking for areas of growth. That includes enhancing your skills and experience. You can find a variety of free online courses where you can learn and get certified in skills that would make you an asset, and increase your market value.

Be consistent with your personal branding

This is critical for selling yourself to hiring managers. By building your personal brand, you’ll be able to establish yourself as a respectable and reputable expert in your niche. It will also help you showcase what you can offer to a company.

You don’t need to set up a blog to start building a personal brand. Some social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn that allow you to publish articles so you can start there. The key here is consistency. Try to post an impressive article once a week. This way, you’ll be more likely to get the attention of hiring managers and other people in your niche.

The post Tips to Impress a Hiring Manager Without Meeting Them appeared first on King of CV.

Include an Executive Summary

An executive summary is your CV in a nutshell when you’re applying for executive level positions. It is not an outline of your career goals. It’s not about what kind of job you want to end up in. It’s about showcasing the reasons why you’re the natural candidate for the position. For example, if you’re applying for a position in a company that’s having some struggles, your executive summary should position you as a turn around specialist. It’s a chance to highlight the skills, experience, and qualifications that make you the ideal candidate.

Make a Good Impression Quickly

Executive level positions are all about producing results. If you want to make an impact, include a ‘Key Accomplishments’ section where you can outline the results you’ve already achieved. Give them the statistics, numbers, and data. Let the recruiter see that you are a person who can deliver the output that’s required from the position.

Core Proficiencies

You want to highlight the skills that make you an obvious choice for an executive level position. At this level things like being experienced in Excel are an expected minimum. You need to highlight more pertinent skills such as change management, employee development, mergers and acquisitions. Listing these skills in a ‘Core Proficiencies’ section gives your CV the executive level clout that you need to land an upper management position.

Target Your Executive CV

CVs are important tools in securing the right job, but you have to know how to use them effectively. You should always tweak your CV so that you target towards the specific job you’re applying for. Every job is different, and each firm will have specific needs and requirements. Aligning your CV with the specific needs within the job profile will make you stand out among all the other candidates for the position.

The post Tips for Preparing an Executive CV appeared first on King of CV.

Don’t Point Out Flaws

It’s important to present yourself in a positive light, but you also have to present your prospective employers in a positive light as well. Avoid pointing out what you see as the flaws in the company’s current strategies and how you would fix them. Pointing out your potential employer’s weaknesses isn’t necessarily the best way to make a good first impression. Highlight what you bring to the company, what strengths you possess without focusing on why potential employers need you.

Don’t Complicate Your Cover Letter

Many people feel the need to make their cover letters sound impressive by using words they’re unlikely to ever use in day-to-day conversation. Use natural every day words in a respectful way. If you use too much jargon, too many clichés, or too many complicated words it sounds like you’re trying too hard.

Don’t Bad Mouth Your Current Employer

Never go negative in a cover letter. It doesn’t matter how bad your current employer is, reading your negative review of your current employer will make a bad impression on recruiters, because even if you’re in the right you still run the risk of appearing like you have a bad attitude.

Keep It Short And Sweet

Cover letters should never be longer than a page. Remember, this is your introduction to the hiring manager, where you hope to make a good first impression before they read your CV. They don’t need too much detail, because they’ll expect that in your CV. Keep it short, respectful, and to the point.

Proofread, Proofread, Proofread

Typos and spelling mistakes in cover letters and CVs make a horrible impression on recruiters. Make sure your cover letter is error free!

The post Things to Avoid in Your Cover Letter appeared first on King of CV.

It’s a Great Way to Establish Your Personal Brand

Having a personal brand is an important career strategy. It lets you market your particular blend of qualities and qualifications that make you unique in the job market. Having a personal website is an ideal way to present your personal brand. It gives you the chance to present yourself as a industry leader and influencer by marketing your skills effectively and strategically.

It’s a Perfect Venue for a Blog

Most website providers give you the option of adding a blog to your website. Having a blog gives you the opportunity to offer commentary and opinions on issues of relevance within your chosen field. It gets your ideas out there for potential employers to see. It establishes you as someone who needs to be read, whose ideas are important. It gives you your own unique voice within the industry.

Your Personal Website Doubles Up as Your Portfolio

Having a personal website allows you to showcase your achievements. Together with your CV, a personal blog gives you the opportunity to go into greater depth about the bullet points in your CV. You can feature examples of you work, provide visual representations, graphics, pictures. It gives you a chance to give a full presentation of your talents and experience.

It’s a Great Way for Recruiters to Find You

When recruiters receive CVs for a job opening, it’s now pretty much standard practice to Google prospective candidates for a job to see what information is available on them. If you have a personal website, you’re giving the recruiter access to your career showcase. It lets recruiters see in detail why you’re perfect for the job, by giving them all the information they need on your skills, experience, and qualifications.

Photo credits: zsoolt via Flickr

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1. Out-of-the-Box Thinker

Saying that you think outside the box, or that you’re an out-of-the-box thinker is a very common thing in CVs these days. However, for a lot of employers, this phrase comes across as just a handy way to beef up a CV without really meaning anything significant. It sounds good, but to make it meaningful you have to add detail. If you’re an actual out-of-the-box thinker, then you need to give examples of what that has meant in previous jobs. Use this phrase as a way of showcasing your talent for finding solutions that no one else would ever think of. Detail makes the difference!

2. Inspirational Leader

Whenever you see someone writing a CV on TV or in a film, it’s a sort of cliché that they exaggerate about their abilities to make themselves sound more impressive to potential employers. The problem with that is that at an interview, it can become pretty apparent that the details in the CV weren’t exactly conveying the whole truth. One of the phrases that people can use to make themselves sound impressive is to say that they are an inspirational leader. Unfortunately, when it comes to a CV, the old saying that self-praise is no praise is very true. If you have been an inspirational leader, make sure you include details of someone who can verify that. Otherwise, avoid the phrase.

3. Innovative

People often describe themselves as innovative when they write their CVs. Again, it’s a handy phrase that people use to describe themselves in CVs, but what does it mean. Many potential employers can look at the word ‘innovative’ in a CV and dismiss it if it’s not put into context. So, if you have been innovative in your previous jobs, provide examples in your CV. Use phrases like “Created…” “Instituted…” and “Developed…” to give examples of your innovations.

The post Overused Words and Phrases in CVs appeared first on King of CV.

Highlight Key Words

Make sure you have a skills section or summary statement in the top third of your CV’s first page. This gives the recruiter the information they’re looking for in their first glance at your CV. When you apply for a job make sure to read the job description carefully and pick out the desired skills or qualifications within it. Then go through your CV and ensure that all your skills and qualifications that match those of the job description are visible and easy to see on your CV.

Recruiters Love Section Headings

Section headings are very important in a CV, especially when the recruiter doesn’t spend too long reading it. Section headings can be a way of grabbing the recruiters attention to make sure they pay more attention to your CV. For example, if you’re applying for a teaching job, don’t have a section heading that says “Experience.” Instead, have one that says “Teaching Experience.” Use your section headings to draw the recruiter’s attention to your suitability for the position.

Use Your Work History To Work For You

If you’ve worked for established leaders in your industry, well known brands, or companies that have instant name recognition, use that to your advantage in your CV. Lots of people highlight the position they’ve held by making it bold or italicised in their CVs. However, if you’ve worked for a top company, try highlighting the company’s name. The power of your work history can be used to impress recruiters. Use the companies you’ve worked for to land you a new job!

The post Make the Right Impression with Recruiters appeared first on King of CV.

Here are a few simple suggestions to help make sure your CV stands out for all the right reasons.

Graphics and photos in your CV

Studies have shown that HR managers don’t particularly like having pictures or other visuals in a CV. They often find them distracting and make it harder to find the information theyre looking for. So if you have a photo or other graphics in your CV, consider losing them before you send your CV off.

Large chunks of texts

Recruiters often receive multiple CVs for any job opening. When they’re making their initial selection of who to call for interviews, they want to have relevant information readily available on your CV.

To make sure you end up in the pile of CVs being called for an interview, don’t have large chunks of text in your CV. Keep the information short, to the point, and in bullet points.

Stick to one font

Using too many fonts in a CV can make a bad impression. It can convey an amateur and unprofessional feeling. It’s best to have one font for your entire CV.

Your Address

If your applying for jobs well outside your local area it’s best not to include your home address in your CV as the distance you live away from the advertised job may rule you out in the hiring manager’s mind.

Your Email Address

You should absolutely include an email address, but you should make sure it’s the right email address. Don’t include your current work address, as this can make a bad impression. Use Gmail or a similar free email service to come up with an email address that won’t make a bad impression. Just make sure that the username is your full name and not something that you may think sounds cute or funny.

Universal Skills

Don’t include skills in your CV that everyone in the 21st century should have, such as internet, Microsoft Word, or email. These are minimum skills that anyone applying for a job should know how to do. Listing them comes across as unprofessional.

The post Give Your CV An Audit appeared first on King of CV.

Have A Global View

Executives have to see the big picture. Their position requires them to see how all the different elements of a business interact with each other. They have to see where the strengths and weaknesses lie. Communicating at an executive level, then, requires that you don’t get bogged down in minutiae. Executives deal in the key points, the broad perspective. They don’t need to know if a specific shipment was on time or delayed, but they do want to know how shipments are affecting the profit margin. Start thinking in terms of the bigger picture.

Get to the Point

Chit-chat and small talk are part of polite society, the currency of living in a civilized world. Executives, however, live on accurate, up-to-date information. They don’t need the polite niceties, they want the information they need. In other words, they want you to get to the point. If you’re giving a presentation to executives, give them the information that’s pertinent, accurate, and up-to-date. Make sure you know everything about the information you’re supplying.

Don’t Deliver Uncertainties

Executives want information they can trust and depend on. They need you to be certain about what you’re saying, and they want to know you convinced about the validity and relevance of the information you’re supplying. If you’re suggesting solution to a company problem, they want to know that you’re absolutely convinced this is the right solution. Never deliver a ‘maybe.’

Executive Level People Hate BS

Executives need solutions, projects, and information that works, that’s useful, that’s valuable. They hate information or presentations couched in jargon and meaningless clichés. Don’t try to make your presentation or plans sound better by using a lot of jargon. Get to the point, explain why it’s a good idea, why it’s important, why it should be done. Give them solid reasons for trusting you.

The post Executive Level Communication appeared first on King of CV.

Here are some tips to help you improve your professional networking efforts:

Nametag Placement

This may seem like the ultimate in nitpicking, but there is a science in where you place your nametag during conferences and other networking events. Most people will automatically place a nametag on the left side of their chest. However, when you think things through it makes more sense to wear it on the right side instead. The reason is incredibly simple. When you shake hands with someone your right side is more prominent and seen more by the person you’re shaking hands with rather than your left. If your nametag is on the right side it will be easy to read, and make your name easier to remember.

Hit the Right Conversational Tone

Making a good impression means that your first conversation with someone needs to hit the right kind of tone. You want to avoid two extremes–lack of confidence and overconfidence. Doing simple things like maintaining eye contact, keeping a relaxed posture and using the other person’s name during the conversation all help to make a good impression. Don’t let your ego have a field day by talking about yourself too much as this can come off as arrogance.

Follow Up after the Networking Event

After the event is over a good way to develop your network is to reach out with people you connected with via email. One good way to do this is through email.

Another way to do this is through LinkedIn. When you send an invitation to connect, make sure that you include details like which networking conference or event you met and some of the things that the person shared with you. These would help them recall who you are.

If you’ve given a really good first impression during the networking event, they would be more than happy to continue communicating with you.

Getting Additional Help

If after reading this you realise that you need more help and coaching, websites like King of CV can be a really good place to find this. These kinds of websites offer networking advice and strategies for professionals looking to develop their network and utilise it to its maximum potential.

The post 3 Top Networking Tips appeared first on King of CV.