Let’s talk about dreams. Or about dream jobs, to be more precise. What makes a certain job so special to a person? Here are possible options: Perfect working conditions Big salary or generous bonuses Friendly and supportive coworkers Comfortable location or flexible schedule A well-known company or a promising startup These are just some of the influencing factors. It can be one of them, or all of them, or even none. The idea of a perfect job may have roots in your childhood when you were fascinated by a specific profession and thought of having it in the future. But…
Author: CareerExperts
While it’s no secret that teaching is an incredibly rewarding profession, there’s no denying that it takes a lot of dedication and hard work. Of course, we’d have no hesitation encouraging anyone who wants to inspire children to begin a teaching career. However, for those who think it’s just a means to a long summer holiday, our advice is to think again. Despite popular belief, teachers don’t arrive at work at 9am and leave at 3pm. In fact, from the 200 teachers surveyed by Simply Education, it was found that 77% of them don’t think twice about regularly spending extra…
How is your week going? Some weeks we get to Friday and think we’ve totally aced it. You’ve been super-productive, you’ve beaten your long to-do list and you’ve seen some fantastic results. However, we also have those weeks that we’re just glad to see the back of… Whichever way your week has gone, one thing that we often neglect is looking back at and assessing our performance for the week. Professionals should be taking a leaf out of athletes’ books in this instance. Athletes will always review their weekly performance, assessing what went well, what could be improved on and…
Have you got the skills that employers are looking for? If you’re on the hunt for a job, there are certain skills and competencies that you’ll want to highlight in your job applications and demonstrate at interviews. While the industry and roles you are considering will require their own specialist skills and knowledge, there are a number of general capabilities that are essential for career success and extremely desirable for employers. Whether you’ve only just graduated or have years of expertise and experience to bring to the table, employers want to see these top 10 key skills. 1. Communications skills…
We’re all guilty of making grammar mistakes from time to time. This is especially true when you’re in a rush, are writing in an informal style or simply aren’t giving your full attention to what you’re writing. You may not give grammar a lot of thought when you’re zapping out emails every day. However, if you are making small mistakes this is likely to affect how others view you. For starters, you won’t sound very professional in an email that is riddled with errors. To help keep your professional reputation intact, we’ve put together this list of nine common grammar…
Employers and recruiters are increasingly checking the LinkedIn profiles of candidates prior to hiring. Even if your CV shows you as the perfect candidate for the position, if your LinkedIn Profile isn’t up to scratch, you are harming your chances of getting invited to interview. Here are 5 tips you can adopt to improve your LinkedIn profile and help you attract employers and recruiters. 1. Write a compelling headline Craft your headline so that it instantly attracts employers’ and recruiters’ attention. Your headline should be a short sentence giving an overview of who you are and what your areas of…
There are plenty of things to consider when you’re searching for a new job: What kind of role are you looking for? What location would you like to work in? What salary would you like to receive? Are there any particular benefits that are important to you? If you’re currently job hunting, you have probably already asked yourself questions along these lines. However, one important factor that often slips the minds of job seekers is: What size company should you be working for? Company size shouldn’t be an after-thought for job hunters because it can actually have a profound effect…
A strong CV will set you apart from the competition and give you a huge head start when looking to land a new role. So, StandOut CV have created this helpful infographic detailing the 6 elements you need to include in your CV, if you want to get shortlisted for roles. Every good CV should be headed up with a punchy profile that sells your most important talents and reels readers in. Roles should be well structured with plenty of bullet points to break the information up, and quantifiable achievements to prove your impact. Formatting is crucial to make the…
Toxic people defy logic. Some are blissfully unaware of the negative impact that they have on those around them, and others seem to derive satisfaction from creating chaos and pushing other people’s buttons. Either way, they create unnecessary complexity, strife, and worst of all stress. Studies have long shown that stress can have a lasting, negative impact on the brain. Exposure to even a few days of stress compromises the effectiveness of neurons in the hippocampus—an important brain area responsible for reasoning and memory. Weeks of stress cause reversible damage to neuronal dendrites (the small “arms” that brain cells use…
We can sometimes feel like all we do in life is go to work. However, there is so much more to life than your job. If your boundaries between work and life start to blur, then you could be in a bit of trouble. Wanting to build a fantastic career where we can excel and progress is something that many of us strive for. That’s great! However, sometimes on our career journeys we start to give up different aspects of our lives. Working late may prevent you from going to that evening class you had planned. Work calls may start…
The Monday blues are real; that sinking feeling of dread at the thought of going into work after a great weekend with family and friends. However, a couple of hours into the workday, you usually get back into the swing of things. When the Monday blues last all week, that’s when something needs to change. If I hate my job has become your daily mantra, here’s what you can do about it. Do I HATE my job? There is a huge difference between not wanting to get up and start working in the morning and genuinely despising your job. If…
Establishing a healthy working atmosphere and creating a team that actually loves coming to work isn’t an easy task. With so many different, strong personalities out there, most of which are incredible experts in their fields, it can get pretty challenging to form a team that will be willing to play together, chase the same cause and leave their differences aside. Apart from the already known elements that make a healthy working atmosphere, such as a nice office, good salary, benefits and the opportunity to progress, there’s one other crucial element that has the potential to either make or break…
Completing a personality test is a useful tool for you and also prospective employers. Those sceptics amongst you may feel that personality tests belong in the playground, but the right tests could give you unprecedented insights into your career, strengths and weaknesses. After all, a little change can lead to big success! How a personality test can help job hunters Often, you can feel like you’ve hit a dead end with your job search. Maybe you’re just not hearing back from employers at all, or perhaps you have no idea what jobs to apply for. That’s where personality tests can…
It is common thinking amongst candidates that it is acceptable to use the same CV for multiple positions. However, this isn’t true. Employers and recruiters expect you to be tailoring your CV to different jobs instead of adopting a mass blanket approach for all jobs. Here are 3 tips to help tailor your CV. 1. Ensure you are using the correct CV format so your experience is effectively showcased There are many types of CV formats and depending on the jobs you are applying for and your experience, it may make sense to have more than one CV. There are…
We are just getting started with 2018 and it’s as good a time as ever to think about where your career has been and where it’s going. You probably vowed to make this the year where you’ll finally get that promotion, acquire new credentials or see a radical change in your career. That’s all good on paper but translating these dreams to reality is a whole new ball game. Worry not though. There’s plenty of time to get moving in the right direction. You’ll have to ask some hard questions and follow through on what you need to do. Here…
As of today, LinkedIn has become one of the most popular social media platforms. It has been recorded to have 467 million members. The fascinating thing is that this number continues to grow by at least 2 members every second. Its popularity can only be compared to Facebook, but their objectives are quite different making them have different market targets. You can have a LinkedIn account but a key point to remember is that you need a complete and excellently designed profile for it to be of any help to you career-wise. It is essential to understand that LinkedIn is…
At the start of a new year many people get their CV out of cold storage, get rid of the dust, and start sending it out into the world again applying for new positions. However, it might be an idea to give your CV a bit of a freshen up. This could make all the difference in getting selected for an interview so we have listed 5 tips to help get your CV into shape! 1. Grammar and Spelling A fantastic looking CV with great content can be ruined if it has grammatical errors or spelling mistakes. If a recruiter…
There are so many things that can kill the careers of good, hard-working people. Honest mistakes often carry hard-hitting consequences. We usually only hear about the more egregious examples, such as when Yelp employee Talia Jane became an Internet sensation last month for writing a blistering post criticizing the company’s low pay and its CEO. To no one’s surprise, she quickly found herself out of a job. Most people don’t go down in a blaze of glory like Talia Jane; they kill their careers in subtle, decidedly undramatic ways. And it’s a shame because it happens all the time. A…
Every employer knows that finding the right candidate for the job is no easy task. The amount of time and effort involved in recruiting for one position is significant. So, it needs to be worth it. Often, your first chance to impress an employer or hiring manager will lie within your covering letter. If you’re job hunting, you need to remember that whoever is in charge will have seen plenty of job applications before they even get round to looking at yours. Take a look at these cover letter examples and tips to ensure that yours makes the right impression.…
So, you’ve just come out of university, and you’re looking to secure an interview for the next step in your career journey. However, one of the most essential things you’ll need to consider is your CV and how effective it is in securing those all-important interviews. To make sure you get it right and don’t miss any chances, here are the ten most common CV mistakes graduates make and how you can avoid them yourself. 1. Formatting Your CV Properly One of the biggest mistakes and downfalls that graduates make in their CVs is the fact that they are not…