Nothing hits harder and more surprising than getting the boot. It starts with a bright and promising day at work. Then your boss calls you into his/her office. Next thing, he/she tells you to pack your things and look for other opportunities. It is like a sucker punch, if sucker punches can drain your bank account and throw you into depression.
If only there were signs, right?
Well actually, there always are. But they are so conventional and familiar that they are easy to ignore. Here, we list the eight signs that says you will be dismissed. However, all hope is not yet lost. Here are our articles on how to write a terrific curriculum vitae and how to nail a great interview to get you out of the unemployment line.
Aha! This is a win. This means you will have more free time to get closer to your crush during water cooler chats or update your Instagram account.
Better update your resume, mate. This means your responsibilities are being redistributed to other people as preparation for the hugehole you will be leaving when you walk out of the door. This is especially true if you are a high-level employee and/or used to juggle multiple tasks at the same time. If you get to log off from work early while your co-workers have to take overtime, do not feel blessed. Danger is coming your way.
We know, you hate meetings. You think it is a waste of time because it burns precious hours staring at slide shows that you could have poured on your tasks. And you would feel happy if you will no longer be part of them anymore. Trust us, you shouldn't. Not getting invited to key meetings and projects means the company is moving forward without you. The signs only get clearer when you try to bring this up to your superiors and all your get is a shrug. That means you will be getting the pink slip.
And speaking of your boss…
So, your supervisor that was always gleeful and supportive towards you suddenly becomes quite cold and overly critical. She now spends less time with you, and even less open with her ideas and prospects. “Alright,” you tell yourself, “She must be going through a lot lately, or having challenges with the work-life balance.” It is OK to clear up the negativity in your head, but if this goes on for weeks or months without any explanations or apologies, you better re-establish your connections and ask for openings.
Like your other, more personal relationships like with your partner, family, and friends, a sudden and huge change in your boss’s behavior spell signs of trouble. Ignoring these is a career death warrant.
The other way around is not good news either. If your boss is monitoring your cases closer than the usual, he might be looking for pitfalls and reasons to show you the door. Initiatives such as constantly asking for progress reports or putting you on a performance review only solidifies this.
And speaking of reports…
If the accounting department suddenly asks for documentations of your time and expenses, be warned. Increased scrutiny like these don’t casually happen, only when your boss and/or the company thinks someone (including you) has misused/bloated the expanses more than the company allows.
This is worse if you are the only one getting combed. That means they zeroed in on the irregularities on your end. And you think that unwarranted drinking and spending during the last business trip won’t haunt you again.
So, you were granted a vacation leave. Another win, right? Come on, nobody gets this privilege other than you.
But before you schedule your next trip to the beach, remember that unsolicited time offs are red flags, especially if it is something you don’t really need. Since your tasks and responsibilities are getting slashed, the company thinks they don’t have to pay you for the days you will never use productively anyway, thus the time off.
Not all signs can be seen from your boss. Sometimes the indication can shows up from the very people who gets the memo first: the HR department.
And contrary to what everybody believe, the Human Recourse office is not peopled with megalomaniacs who wants to see employees get fired. Like you, it breaks their heart to know that some people should go. And that makes them act unusual and bizarre around those they know will get dismissed. If you notice anything out of the ordinary in the way they act around or talk to you, be wary.
Let us preface this by saying that not all mergers are bad. It is a way for the company to continually grow and expand by unifying the two entities’ resources.
But sometimes, when two companies combine, their common departments overlap, and this leads to massive layoffs (You don’t need two administrative departments, do you?). The same effect happens when a new leadership takes over and wants to bring the company to a different direction. This sometimes involve huge overhauls among employees they deemed too unnecessary. So you better make calls if news of a merger starts looming in the horizon.
Each year, hundreds of thousands of hopeful workers from around the world vie to be employed in Australia, have their visa, settle in, and establish a good and stable life. It is every migrant’s dream. However, you need to be noticed and employed first before this aspiration rolls on. And that starts with the curriculum vitae.
As we have mentioned before, your CV is your first chance to get your future employers’ (or the Human Resources', for that matter) attention. Much like in products and services, it is your advertisement. You do it wrong and you forever lose the chance of making a deal.
You only get a singular chance to make an impression. It better count. Follow these tips that everybody seems to neglect when writing a curriculum vitae, and then you can start walking the road to a better life.
Here is what every job hunter’s order of business looks like: Write CV. Print multiple copies. Send them to prospective companies. Scratch head wondering why he/she doesn’t get a call. Believe it or not, there is no mystery there. Once you start thinking that a single CV will be acceptable to all companies, then expect to get ignored.
Much like your suit/dress is tailored to your size and shape, your curriculum vitae must also be adjusted to each company you are gunning for. Sit down and read the company’s values, mission, and vision statements, take a look at the words they use, and customize your paper according to those. Each employer is looking for a person who will fit to its established goals and culture, and you need to sell yourself as that person.
But no, do not copy statements directly off their Mission and Vision declaration. You will sound pretentious and insincere. And that’s a turn off.
It is a wonder that people still bother including objectives. That much is very clear the moment you send your CV. You need a job. Period. What companies want to know, however, is what you can do. That is where your executive summary will come in.
An executive summary is your elevator pitch printed on paper. It contains a gist of what you are good at and what value it can provide to the company, all listed in three to five sentences. If your curriculum vitae is a TV show, this is the opening scene. If the audience (your prospects) don’t like it, they will switch to another channel (the next applicant).
Do not litter your summary with vague and cliché descriptions like “Self-motivated, organized, and excellent in multi-tasking,” they have seen that on the previous fifty resumes before yours. Instead, be specific. “Account Manager with a degree in Business Management and experience in sales and marketing” is a better description. It tells something about yourself and what worth you can give to the employer. Throw in your most substantial work-related achievements and work ethics and you have got the big bosses hooked.
It is easy to spot the first time applicants by the way they refer to themselves. They use pronouns. And nothing turns a good curriculum vitae sour than pronouns. You need to be streamlined and unambiguous in your descriptions, so you better take it off.
Logically, using third person pronouns are out of the question (it sounds weird and you are not the Rock), but you shouldn’t use “I” either. Your descriptions, whether it is about your qualifications, trainings, and values, should begin with a verb or (rarely) an adjective for them to be firm and straight to the point:
Has a degree in Psychology…
Develops computer programs for entrepreneurs…
Responsible for arranging financial reports…
Notice also that they come in singular form and in present tense, unless of course the description stated refers to a specific accomplishment in the past that has a profound positive effect to the company, then you use the past tense.
And speaking of accomplishments…
Say what you will, but accomplishments are the most prized part of your curriculum vitae. This part proves that you are not just an item on the company’s payroll, but someone who actually turns the lever and moves the wheels. So you better write them correctly or you are wasting a good opportunity.
You use the Result by Action format. It simply means you list the achievement (result) followed by the method(s) you used.
Generated 150% increase in sales quota (result) by targeting more densely populated territories (action).
Lead the acquisition of related business entities (result) by developing policies that mutually adhere to the companies’ interests (action).
Structured a teaching curriculum (result) by conducting an intensive academic study on freshman students (action).
It shows that you are the employee that provides solution to the company’s challenges and you are producing results.
You know why Facebook’s Timeline design is successful and engaging? Because it focuses on the current things you do, what you are into, what you have for lunch… etc. Then it threads on the past and less important occurrences as you scroll down.
Its structure follows a reverse chronological order, where the latest period comes first followed by the older ones. Your curriculum vitae should be written in the same manner, too. It lets the employer take a look on what you’ve been up to recently. Are you currently working? Attending school? Starting a business? Remember when it comes to employment, time is relevancy. What you are doing in the previous month impacts more what you can offer to the company than, say, your status a year ago.
Also, this format provides a clue of what your future boss thinks is next for you. Are you up for a higher position? Do you need to expand your specialization? The possibilities are endless. And unless you are a fresh graduate, you also need to place your educational background at the bottom. We understand you are proud of dear alma mater, but it won’t make much bearing on your application.
This we cannot stress enough. You have gone out of High School (or College) and now ready to face the professional world. Your days of getting immersed in the World of Warcraft twelve hours a day has ended. Competing with thousands upon thousands of other applicants and/or clients is the real game now. That being said, there’s no reason for your email address to be soulcutter_megablade_1177@hotmail.com (or worse, something laden with sexual innuendos).
Look, your email address is a means of contact. The Human Resource will take note of that. Be sure it is appropriate and emanates professionalism. Leave the silly, suggestive, innuendo-filled names to your Counter Strike: Go account.
Create an email address solely for job applications. Use your first and last name. Avoid using underscores (_) and limit the use of numbers. If you can’t obtain an address with your name, experiment by including your middle initial and/or your job title, like in JohnSReedWriter@gmail.com.
You email address is your brand. It’s something people will associate with you. Be the person that should be taken seriously. Start with your email address.
If you are like most of us, you probably ditched the idea of going from office to office to hand out your CV and instead send virtual copies of applications online. If that's so, you are probably are among the thousands who carelessly just named their CV file name resume.doc. Big mistake.
You see, much like your executive summary and email address, your CV’s final name can also make or break your chance of getting noticed. If you simply named your curriculum vitae, well, curriculumvitae.doc, you are among the one-third of applicant who do that, and there’s a big chance your application will be lost among the similarly and generically named ones.
Use your name on your file name so you can be indexed and found easily among huge batch of files. Or better yet, include your title or the position you are vying for like in RachelLee_CV_OperationsManager.doc (you may use underscores and dashes). For someone who sorts through gazillions of applications each day, your file name will provide a relief since it already tells them who you are.
Also, avoid using version numbers on your CV, like in MelissaCruz11.doc. Your boss will think there are ten more which probably went to the ten other companies in the building. You are not giving a good impression with that.
We have covered the benefits of considering a permanent residency in the Land Down Under, and the reasons why you should pursue Australian citizenship while you’re at it. We even showed you why studying here is the best idea ever. But we never discussed why you should even be working here in the first place. There are many reasons. Australia has a friendly climate, a stable government, and a well-structured health care, among others.
Also, there are these work-related perks and benefits that make the country the go-to place for employment-related migration.
Living in Australia might be one of the most expensive when it comes to the cost of living, but the very high minimum wage offsets that by a great degree. In fact, it is the sixth highest in the world when it comes to average wage, and the fourth lowest in terms of salary deduction, as provided by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s numbers.
That means you will get a lion’s share of your gross earnings even with all the deductibles taken out. And if you’re a professional or on a white collar job, you’ll have a bigger chance of getting a better payoff.
Australia‘s economy relies on its robust sectors and industries such mining, agriculture, finance, tourism, media, education, and service; the last being the largest contributor to the country’s growth. Other huge employers include manufacturing, logistics, and information technology industry.
Because of this, the country is always on a lookout for skilled employees to support its still thriving economy. While some countries have job shortages, the country is working on its worker deficit. That means at any given time, some company is in need of your expertise and services.
Australia’s very low unemployment rate is a proof of that. At 5.8% as of March of 2016, it is one of the lowest in the world.
At an average of 1,664 hours annually (or approximately thirty-two hours a week), Australia has one of the lowest working hours in the world. It’s way lower compared to other top migration destinations such as Japan, New Zealand, and United Sates. That means you don’t usually stay two to three hours more just because your boss says so.
The country follows the 40-hour workweek. And they should. Australia is the first country to fight for such rule to give its employees more susceptible working conditions. Here, you can enjoy a good work-life balance, because you work to live, rather than the other way around.
Australia occupies the 4th spot in the US News’ list of countries with highest quality of life and the 6th spot on places to live in the world. It scores very high on life expectancy on both males and females and has a high rate of participation in sporting and fitness activities. It also ranks number five when it comes to purchasing power (see good compensation above), safety of the citizens, property price-to-income ratio, cost of living, commuting time, and pollution index.
Also, it is one of the happiest and least stressed countries in the world in terms of generosity, social support, freedom, and lack of corruption. While Adelaide, Perth, Sydney, and Melbourne were among the top ten most livable cities in the world.
If you are a sociable person who appreciates good chats (friendly banters optional), freedom, and democracy in the workplace, then Australia is for you. Aussies are inherently friendly, grateful, and polite with a knack for a sense of humor. Sternness has no place here. And everybody is welcomed with a cheerful attitude and utmost respect, from the company CEO to the office custodian.
And this extends well beyond after work, what with their after-office drinks that can go five days a week (this is not mandatory, though). Or even to weekends, where barbecues and pot lucks are a norm. Just don’t talk about anything work or business-related, though. Those are a no-no.
Close to one-third of Australia’s population are immigrants, according to a report by the United Nations. Also, one in every four Aussies were born overseas, with half of them with a parent born outside the country. The nation was basically built by immigrants (just check their history) and their economy continues to rely on skilled workers who come to their shores.
Diversity is the rule here. There are no high walls or huge barriers to keep you as an outsider. You will be treated not according to your race, color, gender, background, or religion, but based on your character. That’s how the spirit of mateship goes. A strong tradition that dictates everybody should be treated equally, and should treat everybody equally in return.
If these do not pique your curiosity yet, here are ten reasons why living in the country is one of the best decisions ever.