Thursday, April 30, 2009

Develop an international career - Recruiters

Recruiters (a.k.a Head Hunters) play a vital role in the job market. Many big companies use services of recruiters when they need to hire someone (they do not recruit directly). I myself and a lot of my colleagues got a job by a recruiter.
Below is a list of the most well known recruiters
- Robert Half
- Robert Walters
- Hays
- Wall Street
- Hudson
There are many smaller but also very good recruiters, who are constantly looking for a good candidate in all countries over the world. If you are somehow visible and your skill fit a opening position, they will contact you.
I got my first job via placement of a smaller recruiter named Juno located in New York.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Develop an international career - Make yourself visible

No matter how good and skilled you are,it is useless if no one know about it. So make yourself visible, post your resume to professional websites and social networks, create your own blog, subscribe to interested user groups, participate in an online discussion.
Keep in mind that all these techniques only work if you keep your data up to date. When a recruiter doing executive search and find your resume within dozens of others,he/she will easily exclude you if your resume is 2 years old.

Few years back I created my blog. It has only professional content and I decided to keep it in English because my intention is not to have many readers but the right one. Those are recruiters, potential employers and colleagues. I believe, that it helps me to get my first and also second job. Looking at site analytic of the blog, I don't see much traffic but I can identify those coming from area where I received a job offer or where my recruiter is located.

Linked In is great social networking site for professionals, so I would recommend to register and put your career information there.

Again, don't expect anything happened over night, it will take time.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Develop an international career - Resume

This post is created (based on my own experiences) for people who want to work out of their home countries and therefore develop their career internationally. It can be used as an advice.
You have generally only one career, so don't let it goes based on some unexpected events. If you really want to work abroad in developed countries, be prepared that it will take time to get a job. It can be two years or more depending on many factors. During this time, you may need take many actions to move into that direction.

Resume (a.k.a CV) is your ticket for entering job market. Write your resume with care and update it gradually and of course it should be in English. During last few years, I spend many hours to re-write many time my resume as well as to ask friends, colleagues and career's adviser for my resume's correction. I have to admit that I am still not satisfied with my resume as there is a lot of things to improve.

I also spend time to read resume of others, who work in the same industries and/or share a similar knowledge and career path. It help me a lot to get know how others present themselves, so I can adjust my resume to highlight my strength.