Job search internationally: practice tips

This post was reborn from the answer to the question "How to look for work abroad?", Set on the Toaster. When the answer, fueled by the interest of readers, reached the size of a full-fledged publication, I decided to edit the format of the answer and move it here.



Disclaimer

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- The following are my personal experiences with no claim to ultimate truth.

- It is important to understand that there is always a coefficient of luck, which can multiply the return on your efforts, as well as multiply them by zero.

- In any case, it is better than sitting on the priest exactly and do nothing.



Search technique



Passive search:

- Create a beautiful resume for sites of prof. dating

- There are numerous recommendations on the net how to make such a resume. Do not be lazy to constantly improve it. This is not a great effort.

- Be sure to indicate that you are in search of work and agree to move to another country.

- In addition to LinkedIn, the XING website is very popular in Europe, so it will not be superfluous to duplicate your beautiful profile in both sites.

- Wait until you come out.



Active search:

- Described in p. "Passive search" can wait forever and not wait.

- In LinkedIn subscribe to profile groups. Search for recruitment ads. Send summaries where you can and where you can not. Arrange an interview, even if it obviously does not fire. Be bold and assertive, but without fanaticism.

- There is another site like JobServe. There you can create a search filter for keywords, countries, etc. You can also subscribe to the newsletter and receive search results by email. mail.

- Beautiful resume to convert to Word and PDF. Make a beautiful cover letter. It is desirable that the latter be written in such a way that it can be as simple as possible adapted to different realities, since It is sent together with the resume and must be individualized for each vacancy. In addition, it does not hurt to write a beautiful sample letter with an appeal to recruitment agencies and an explanation of what you actually want from them. Next, we are looking for the same recruitment agencies operating in the geographic regions of interest to you. The bigger, the better. By fan, you send them a beautiful letter about them that you know a lot and know how and are ready to sell your homeland at a reasonable price. Out of dozens of units to respond, continue negotiations with them. Somewhere it will probably reach the interview, and there it will be within reach of the coveted employment. The rest will put you in their databases, which you will have to update every few months by re-sending polite reminders about yourself.



What is a beautiful profile and how to cook it correctly?

1. Profile in professional soc. networks should be an absolute copy of all items on your resume. That which you send in Word / PDF formats. I have seen a lot of cases when these two sources were different, and significantly. This is alarming to a potential employer, and as a result, it can push him away.



2. You need to try to use all the features of profiles in social networks, ie:

- Illustrate the profile with a beautiful photo. With all the degree of contradiction to stereotypes of everyday logic, it works. Moreover, there are a number of studies on this topic that confirm this. My recommendation: go to the photographer in the studio and order yourself some good portrait shots of a business orientation.

- Do not make mistakes (spelling / grammar / etc.) in the compilation. It is not difficult.

- Ask colleagues and bosses from previous / current jobs to write you beautiful recommendations.

- Adequately and whenever possible clearly describe your professional activity. No need to go to fiction, equally try to refrain from excessive brevity.

- Do not write a novel in three volumes. The resume should not occupy more than two pages: one page for professional information and one more for general.

- If you are a programmer and you have personal projects for which you are not ashamed, for example, on Github or Bitbucket, then without fail indicate this fact. A five-minute reading of your beautiful code that solves super complex tasks will help a potential employer to hire you in absentia and an invitation to an interview will be a mere formality.



3. You need to understand what a resume is and how it works.

a) Summary - this is a data package that allows you to pass the primary screening at recruiters, personnel departments and automatic filters.

In many, mostly large, companies use personnel management systems. One of the modules of such systems is a heuristic filter of incoming resumes. This filter works on the basis of the search keywords in the sent resume. The summary skips the filter if the percentage of keywords is higher or equal to the specified threshold. Frankly speaking, there is not a lot of heuristic in these filters. As far as I know, they know how to understand all sorts of synonyms and some very advanced ones know how to search for your profiles in other sources (social networks, internal data banks of the company) and analyze them. By the way, with the advent of cloud services for personnel management, similar technologies have come to smaller companies.

Why so much attention to automatic filters? Because autofilters fully reflect the algorithm of the entire system as a whole. Employees of personnel departments are also automatic systems for filtering incoming content, with the only difference that their algorithms are written in the heads of young girls, and not in the memory of a piece of iron buzzing in the server rack. Recruiters, as a rule, do not have an adequate set of technological knowledge and, therefore, are compelled, when reading a sent resume, to be guided by a similar sound and a roughly similar set of characters in terms.



b) The summary is also a partial source for interview questions.



4. Now, based on what is written in paragraph 3, you can begin to prepare a summary.



Task: create a summary containing as many keywords as possible relevant to the desired specialization.



I practice the following approach:

- I open 2-3 large sites on which vacancies are published.

- I choose a few dozen liked.

- Scan them for keywords.

- I am writing a resume.



Naturally, you should be ready to “answer for the market”, i.e. you should have an idea at least at the level of general knowledge for each item given in the summary. For individual items, especially related to the last position held, you should know both in depth and in breadth.



An example of my resume .



How to jump the language barrier



Since we are talking about finding a job on an international scale, then the question of the English language naturally arises. Naturally, it is assumed that you own it at some level, sufficient to go beyond the Russian-speaking cultural environment.

In my time, the next problem arose before me, by the way, common for most people for whom English is non-native and they are not in an English-speaking environment. The problem lies in the inability to assess your level of language, because There is no feedback from native speakers of this language. This, in turn, leads to the emergence of the notorious "language barrier" in a single head.

I found the next hack for myself. I prepared and passed the IELTS exam. This is extremely instructive and gives a real impetus to the level of language. Next, I will share my training methodology. This is a separate interesting topic.



My work in preparation for IELTS



A common part:

The above voiced disclaimer is equally relevant to the IELTS preparation system. This is my personal experience. The following may not suit you in whole or in part due to the characteristics of your personality, mindset or life circumstances.



Anyway, my personal experience can be summarized with the following theses:



1. You need to prepare only with the teacher.



2. The teacher should be a native speaker and ideally do not know Russian.



3. The period of preparation should not be long. Not more than 3-4 months.



4. Classes in the training period should be intensive. I tried to take 4-5 lessons a week, sometimes I took doubles.



5. I studied remotely, i.e. I was in Israel, and the teacher was a native of Foggy Albion, she lived in Spain. I liked such a system of classes so much that today, even if the teacher lives in the next house, I will study in the same way. Actually scheme:

- The teacher has a public Google Calendar, in which the student finds a convenient time for himself and assigns a lesson. I, as a rule, scored lessons for a week or two ahead.

- After the teacher confirmed the proposed time, I paid for the lessons for the week ahead by transfer via PayPal to the teacher.

- The very lesson goes on Skype. The first time we did a video conference, then I insisted on leaving only the sound, because on the exam you will not have the help in the form of pictures and the ability to read facial expressions or lips. The exam requires the ability to perceive by ear. Among other things, I recorded the audio of all the lessons. This makes it possible to work out difficult moments on your own, and so on.

- There are four parts to the IELTS exam, i.e. In addition to listening and speaking skills, you need reading skills, as well as writing essays. For training the last two, my teacher gave me a bunch of written assignments to, so to speak, fill my hand. Tasks were loaded by it in Google Doks and shared with me. After doing the latter, the teacher can check the assignments and make his notes, which are visible in the Docks, because There is a version history and you can see the initial and final versions.



6. It is necessary to finish the intensive course not on the last day before the exam, but at least a week before. Better in two.



Technical part:

1. Here is a link to the site connecting teachers with students - Buddyschool . It is likely there are similar platforms, I was not looking.



2. The teacher search algorithm is as follows:

- You look at the rating of teachers and reviews from former students.

- Seeing the price. In my case, the lesson (60 min) cost 8.5 euros. It was 4 times cheaper than at that time the local teachers wanted within 45 minutes of the lesson.

- Writing off with the teacher / s and starting to negotiate.

- Take a trial lesson (required!).

- If all the stars came together, you begin to engage.



3. I once made such a feint ears. I selected 10 ± pieces of suitable teachers and sent them a message with the following message:

Subject: Intensive IELTS preparation training required.



Hello,



I have registered for the closest IELTS test in my area. It's on May 16.

I reside at GMT + 2 time zone. A little bit more flexible on weekends.

What I already have. I’m evaluate it. May be I mistake.

What i need IELTS need to be able to complete the IELTS parts:

- A bit less focus on Listening and Reading parts. There are several practical tasks.

- It is tailored for them.

So, my questions are:

- Do you have enough familiarity with IELTS test format and preparation methods?

- Do you need more than this?



Regards,

% username%

Then, from the respondents, I chose the most suitable, there were 3 of them. With them, I conducted a trial lesson with all of them, by the results of which I eliminated two more.



Something like this. I hope it will be useful.

Good luck.