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With the penetration of broadband to every corner of the world, Internet has brought the world to your home. If you have a problem, a solution must be lying somewhere in the wild world of cyberspace. All you require is the skills to find the exact location of the solution to your problem.

Similarly, finding a job on the Internet is not a tough ask. But you must be knowledgeable about basics of Internet, especially the Search Engine. The next few paragraphs will try to educate you on how to find a job on the Internet.

Start out with a search engine such as Google or MSN. The keywords you use for your job search are paramount. For instance, if you are looking for a job title of “web designer”, in addition to searching for the term “web designer job”, also try related searches, like “website designer job”, “web designer vacancy”, website designing vacancy”, etc. If you are looking for job in a specific location, you may add that location to your search query. For instance, “web designer job Cardiff”, etc. There is no set rule for keyword search. The only thing you must keep in mind is that the popular synonyms of the keywords should also be given a try.

The other indispensable places to search for a job online include the job search engines or Job boards. There are thousands of Job Boards to choose from: Generalist ones like Fish4jobs.co.uk or careerbuilder.com, specialist ones such as Careerengineer.co.uk and simplymarketingjobs.co.uk or regional sites such as Jobstoday.co.uk. Hundreds and thousands of prospective employers and recruitment agencies post their requirements on these sites. Our general advise is to choose a few job board sites from a selection of generalist, niche and regional, ensuring that they have a good selection of the vacancies you are looking for.

The best thing about job search engines is that they’ll throw up job results, unlike Google or MSN, which make it virtually impossible to scan through all the results. Job Search engines offer you two kinds of searches:

1. The common keyword/keyphrase search and
2. The option to refine your search (Advanced Search) by job location, job profile, experience, annual salary, company type, and job freshness. There is another option to search for job in a career field, like marketing, finance, IT, Sales, etc. Direct links provided for location search should always be explored if the city/region is a constraint.

The results thrown up by a job search engine will take you to a job description page containing all the particulars concerning that particular opening including how to apply.

Some job search engines also allow you to set up alerts so that whenever a job matching your skills is posted on the site, you get an immediate email alert about it. For this facility, you need to register on the job search engine (mostly free!) and make your profile indicating your skills and type of job you are looking for. Usually when you do this, you also “allow” your profile to be seen by recruiters. Employers and Recruitment Agencies can pro-actively search most of the job board sites for CV’s, by using the keyword search facility, they will be able to find your CV and contact you direct. Although recruiters are experienced at using a variety of job titles to search as keywords, you can make it further foolproof by ensuring that all the keywords relevant to the role you are looking for and contact details are included when you create your personal profile.

There has been an upsurge in the use of social networking sites to find employment within the last 12 months. Many employers and recruitment agencies now have their own jobs pages on networking sites such as facebook.com and linkedin.com. Recruiters are also pro-actively searching and asking for referrals for specific vacancies they currently have both on networking and forum sites. As social networking becomes ever more popular, it is always a good idea to ensure that any information you put on your personal networking account is information you would not mind a potential employer knowing about you.

Finally, there is of course, the official websites of the companies and organizations, over 70% of companies now have Jobs/Careers sections. If you have specific companies or organizations in mind for which you would love to work for, try visiting their official websites direct and follow their online recruitment process.

The importance of a CV (Curriculum Vitae) in your job search can never be overemphasized. In fact, your CV can play a decisive role in landing you a dream job. For this reason, writing a CV should not be regarded as a mere formality. Rather, it’s a specialized job that every job seeker should have perfection on. There are numerous resources all over the Internet to guide you on how to write a professional CV. However, if you still don’t get it right, it’s better to seek the help of a professional resume writer than coming up with an unprofessional CV. The next few paragraphs will try to avoid the professional CV writer for you and aims at educating you on how to write an appropriate and a professional CV.

Firstly let’s understand what a professional CV looks like. To put it simply, a professional CV is the one that will fetch you an interview call! However, that would be an over-simplification of a complex process. The first thing you should keep in mind is length; do not to make your CV too long as to make reading task a Herculean effort on the part of prospective employer, nor it should be too short to convey your skills effectively. An ideal CV should not be more than 3 pages and ideally 2 pages long, excluding the certificates and testimonials.

The next thing of note is the readability of your CV. The language of the CV should not contain the words that are ordinarily not used in day-to-day functioning. Absolutely avoid use of stylish fonts, colours, images, and layouts. The best approach is to use a standard Word-processor document with a white background and legible font, like Times New Roman or Arial.

Next comes the content on the pages.

The first page

This should ideally contain your name (bold, top, centre), your contact details, objective, and your qualifications (both educational and technical).

Second page

Your employment history and achievements are covered in the next one or two page(s) with your most recent position first. Try to highlight your skills and experiences as factual as possible, your current job role is usually the most relevant and what most employers are interested in, so make sure you include all the skills and very importantly your achievements such as; increased company turnover by 10%, achieved personal sales targets of £250k, won employee of the year 2007. Also, if you have any gaps in your employment, make sure you explain why and what you did, the employer does not like to guess.

At the end

An oft-abused section is the hobbies, interests, and extra-curricular activities paragraph. Mention your hobbies and interests only if they are somehow related to the job in question. Don’t just write for the heck of it. If, at all required, you should include this section at the end of your CV

Miscellaneous Tips

• Limit the number of headings in your CV
• Use only plain A4 white paper or easy to read program package such as Word
• Try to maximize the usage of white space in order to keep your CV short
• Only a very rough draft of CV should be used as a template for different jobs. As far as possible, customize the template CV for the job in question before applying
• Be objective! Don’t proceed on a fantasy trip. Just state the facts and highlight your accomplishments, wherever needed
• Proofread twice both with spell-check tool as well as manually
• Read it yourself at least 3 times in order to make it sound professional

Modern job seekers never had it so good! With Internet offering an instant job application form for submission by the prospective candidates, the requirement of requesting an application form by post and then completing and posting it through ordinary mail has paved way for a more advanced technology. However, filling out an online job application form is not a routine exercise and should be undertaken after thorough preparation. In the next few paragraphs, you will learn some of the tips and guidelines that should be employed while completing an online job application form.

Foremost, you should go through the website of the company thoroughly before completing the application form. Try to familiarize yourself about the company and some of the important facts. ‘About Us’ section carries some useful information about the companies, like history, mission statement, goals, achievements, ratings, etc. This small bit of information, if tactfully used while completing the job application form, for instance, under ‘Your Long Term Objectives’ or some related section, can easily tilt the scales in your favour.

Observation tell us that people are still more comfortable filling out offline application forms than online ones. The mental make-up of most of us is bent towards offline forms because of ‘familiarity’ factor that helps in easily pointing out mistakes in the job application form. Therefore, take a few printouts of the application form and perform a dry run once or twice (or as many times) until you get what you are looking for. After finalizing, it’s just a matter of inputting the info in the online form. Before finalizing, however, double-check all the facts, like dates, address, contact details, references, qualifications, etc., to ensure accuracy in the application form. An inaccurate job application form could spell trouble for you at any stage during the interview or during your employment, if you are hired.

Always make sure that the application form is complete in all regards. No space should be left blank. If something does not apply to you, write “Not Applicable” or “NA”, instead of leaving it blank because a blank entry could imply that perhaps, you were in a hurry and forgot to write, or you are trying to hide something.

While dealing with the Work Experience or Employment History section, make sure to write it in a descending order, i.e., the most recent job first followed by the previous job and so on. If you have extensive work experience, stress on the most relevant experience that are most relevant for your chances of landing this job.

Additional documents, or CV, or testimonials should not be sent along with the application form unless specifically asked for by the prospective employer.

Some job applications may require you to quote job reference number available on the website of the company. Make sure you quote the correct reference number and note it down with you for ready reference in future eventuality.

And finally, don’t forget to retain a hard copy of the online job application form before submitting.

Attaching a cover letter, in either physical or electronic format, is a general rule for almost all CV’s. Most job applicants fail to either follow simple basic rules governing the text of a cover letter or omit the cover letter altogether. In both the cases, one thing is certain – REJECTION!

Writing a cover letter is not such a big ask and requires just simple rules to follow. But most applicants are at a loss when they are quizzed about what to include in a cover letter. Here are some pointers that’ll help you in finding out what you should be including in the next cover letter you send along with your CV:

1. The salutation should be personal. If possible, try to find out the name of the personal that will be reading the cover letter. If not, then the designation of that person should suffice, like Director of Operations
2. The first paragraph simply states you are applying for position X advertised in newspaper/website Y (include Reference No. if required in the original advertisement)
3. The next paragraph should ooze confidence in your application and must pronounce that you are the ideal candidate for the job on offer. Back the confidence with requisite skills, education, experience, and achievements. Never use the word ‘because’ as it reflects un-professionalism and naiveté on your part. Your skill, qualifications, work experience, and achievements should be sufficient to generate ample interest in the prospective employer to shortlist your candidature
4. A personality trait, like ‘persuasive’ in marketing and sales job, should also be thrown in since it’s not just your qualifications and experience that matters. The personal characteristics required for the job are equally important. So, only mention relevant personality trait(s) instead of proceeding on a self-eulogizing trip
5. Finally, the third paragraph emphasizes that you desire an interview call based on the aforementioned skills and qualification. Also mention the hours when you are available to receive the call from the employer
6. Include date of writing the cover letter and employer’s address at the top, and your name, address, and contact details at the end of the cover letter. And don’t forget to personalize the cover letter by signing it just above your name at the end
7. The entire length of the cover letter should be no more than 10-15 sentences spanning 3/4th of A4 size plain white paper (for both online and offline applications)
8. The cover letter should be free of any typos, grammatical errors, or factual mistakes. Common spelling mistakes, like ‘there’ or ‘their’, ‘its’ or ‘it’s’, etc., should be avoided. These mistakes even mean rejection of your application even before having a look at your CV

Preparation is Key to ensuring you have a successful interview. This document aims to give you some tips on how to prepare successfully.

The Basics

Make sure you have all the details of the interview - correct location, interviewer/s names and contact details, date and time. If possible try to do a trial run to the location so you know how long it will take you to get there and you so you don't get yourself in a "fluster" before the interview. Aim to arrive about 30 minutes before the interview to allow for traffic or transport delays. Plan what you are wearing and make sure your outfit is washed and ironed the day before and if necessary get a hair cut and polish your shoes!

The Company

Make sure you do your research thoroughly. The company’s website is always a good place to start; this should give you an overview to their products or services, corporate visions and goals. You can also expand your research and review the market and their competitors. Other useful references include; press releases, employees and hard copy company literature. Make some key notes so that you create an opportunity to discuss something positive you know about them.

The Job

Make sure you are clear on the job role and that it is something you are definitely interested in. Try to obtain a job description or person specification. In some cases you will also be able to get a list of competencies they will be testing on. Try to practice matching your skills to the competencies or key skills they are wanting from their new employee.

Yourself

Re-read your CV, make sure you know how to discuss in greater detail all the points you have mentioned. Research how the job role fits into your career plans, create solid reasons why you want the position and why they should employ you. It is very important to know your strengths and weakness and have some examples to back up your answers. This is especially important if you have problem areas in your background – have explanations ready for gaps in employment or poor exam results.

Practice your handshake this should be firm, friendly and maintained with eye contact. Put together a “brag file”. Include a copy of your CV, exam certificates, and any references or testimonials from previous employers or clients. Make sure you have some spare paper for taking notes in the interview.

Preparing Answers

Writing questions down and practicing them with someone will certainly make it easier to remember when asked similar questions in the interview. There are some very standard questions that are asked such as “why you left your last job?” and “why should we employ you?” Practice thorough and positive answers to these questions. The interviewer is trying to assess your skills and competence to the job in hand, so there will be some very specific areas he/she may wish to question you on. The Job Description or Person Specification usually gives you some idea of these. When preparing answers think of some good examples; include dates and times when you were in a certain situation, think about the situation, the action and the outcome in a logical sequence so that it demonstrates your skills and strengths.

Preparing Questions

It’s always a good idea to make a list of questions you want to ask at the interview. A good idea is to include these questions in your “brag file”. It is impossible to remember everything and having them as a prompt will show the employer that you have prepared and given thought to the job role and company. There really aren’t any taboo questions in an interview, but there are good and bad ways to ask a question and timing is very important. An interview is an opportunity where two parties get together to establish if they are right for each other; this is your opportunity to decipher whether the company or job is right for you. Questions can include; salary and package, training, what are the best and worst things about the company, what aspects of the job do they think will be the toughest, what are they hoping to find in the person they employ and do they think your suitable?

On the day

Keep your concentration on the interview in hand; don’t arrange anything that may break your focus. Make sure that you are clean and well groomed, calm and relaxed. Finally, don’t forget to be yourself!

Do

• be prepared
• be on time, if you are going to be late ring the company to let them know • smile, dress professionally, give a firm handshake and maintain eye contact without glaring • sit comfortably and upright in an open posture • develop a confident rapport • listen carefully to the questions, asking for clarification if you are unsure • take time to think about the question before answering, make sure you know what you are going to say before you say it • be enthusiastic and positive (even in negative situations) • speak clearly and talk about specific achievements and examples in a logical manner • expect the unexpected and try to remain calm and controlled (a recent survey states that 90% of employers ask “killer” questions) • ask the interviewer for permission to continue if you find you are still in full flow after 2-3 minutes • ask if you can take notes and make notes where appropriate

Don't

• Talk too much, waffle or interrupt
• Don't avoid questions
• Spend the whole time talking about yourself
• Smoke, chew gum etc
• Lie and make up answers - you will get found out
• Pretend to be someone else - you will have to spend a long time at work and this pretence can't be sustained for long
• Don't presume you have the position
• Use "ums" "ya know" "obviously" etc

At the end of the interview

Keep all your questions brief, to the point and relevant, and don't forget your manners - ask if there is anything else he/she would like to know about you, try to establish when you will hear if you have been successful and thank them for their time. Tell the interviewer why you are interested in the job and ask for a business card so that you can follow up the interview with a thank you letter or email. (This is also a great opportunity for you to highlight the key benefits you would bring to the role).