*Editor’s note: As recruiters, you may be contacted from time to time by jobseekers looking for employment. While Recruiting Daily Advisor generally features tips and tricks recruiters can use to help find talent, there are occasions where a recruiter’s insight is needed to help a jobseeker find a job. This guest post provides information to help you help jobseekers looking for careers abroad.
Source: Michele Piacquadio / Hermera / Getty
When it comes to finding a job overseas, no matter how much you want one, it can feel overwhelming just trying to figure out where to start. After all, you aren’t the only person who has this idea. Each year, more and more highly qualified and talented people are hunting for jobs elsewhere so that they can gain knowledge and experience from a different culture while also making a living and furthering their career.
The perks and benefits of working internationally can be significant, which is why it can be so competitive. In order to obtain a position for yourself, you need to be strategic with how you approach the process. There are several steps you should follow to discover and land the top job, but first, you need to ensure that your résumé is serving you—not failing you.
Read on to learn three ways to make your résumé stand out when applying for jobs abroad.
1. Highlight the Skills You Have for the Particular Market.
The most crucial way to make your résumé stand out is to hone in on and highlight the skills that you possess that are necessary for the particular market in which you are applying for jobs. This requires you to brainstorm and research the skills that recruiters are going to be looking for and matching them up with your experience.
Generally, consistent skills that employers want to see are people with strong communication skills, excellent analytical abilities, and the potential to take on leadership roles.
It is essential that you thoroughly read job descriptions and be honest about your strengths, weaknesses, skills, and experience. Take it this way: If you don’t currently possess the majority of the background and credentials required, don’t waste your (and the firm’s) time, and move on to more suitable positions.
Additionally, if you are applying for positions in a country that speaks a different language from your native one, you are going to have to demonstrate your oral and written business language skills. Again, it is imperative that you be honest concerning the level at which you can comfortably communicate.
2. Inject Your International IQ into the Résumé and Cover Letter.
One of the essential characteristics that employers look for in international candidates is an “international IQ,” which includes your ability to adapt to living and working overseas. This is a significant concern that employers have when they consider hiring someone from abroad.
For this reason, you want to ensure that your résumé is demonstrating your cross-cultural skills, as well as a calm temperament, a readiness to take the lead, and the capability to work competently in a team.
3. Keep Your Résumé Uncomplicated, Clean, and Simple to Read.
Perhaps in the past, you enjoyed flexing your creative muscles and creating a résumé that was filled with fonts, colors, and unique designs. But, that time should come to an end (unless you are applying for a thoroughly creative position).
In general, you want to keep your résumé uncomplicated, clean, and simple to read, as this is a fundamental principle that the whole globe can understand. Keep your résumé black and white, with a minimum size 10 sans serif font, and standard 1-inch margins.
Never leave a page half filled with text, so only add an extra page if you can fill it with meaningful content.
When applying for jobs in the United States, you want to keep your résumé to a single page. However, in other places around the world, customarily, two to four pages are accepted. To be safe, keep it to two pages to ensure that it is easy for recruiters to scan it for keywords, individual experiences, and any signs of a personality.
Remember that no matter where you are applying for a job, a résumé intends to help you obtain an interview at a company. Therefore, you don’t need to write a comprehensive synopsis of everything you’ve ever done and tried. Instead, it would be best if you only included experiences and skills that are directly applicable to the position for which you are applying.
Have you ever applied for a job overseas? If yes, what was the process like for you? Any tips or tricks to help someone else make it happen? If no, are you considering taking your skills elsewhere? Let us start a discussion in the comments below!
| Daulet Zhumagulov is the Founder and CEO at WeHoteliers, a specialized online hospitality portal in the Gulf Cooperation Council region where prospective and experienced talents can explore career opportunities and be discovered by the top employers of the industry. The company’s mission is to provide an efficient and modern platform that will focus on the needs and interests of hospitality professionals. |