Best Resumes and CVs for International Jobs

Description

ISBN: 1-57023-183-4

Click here to view the back cover.

By Ronald L. Krannich and Wendy S. Enelow

Landing an international job is all about communicating your qualifications to employers through the most efficient and effective method possible – the resume or curriculum vitae (CV). But what should an international resume or CV look like? How culturally sensitive should it be? How long should it be? Is it proper to include personal information? What type of language best represents your qualifications?

Here’s the book that answers these and many other important questions on how to write an outstanding international resume or CV. Jam-packed with 86 sample resumes, the book represents a rich tapestry of nationalities, professional fields, and global experiences.

Written by 55 professional resume writers who work with a fascinating mix of international clients, the sample resumes represent the principles of effective writing, production, distribution, and follow-up which are identified by the authors:

• defining the process
  
• using a resume or CV
  
• American-style resumes
  
• cross-cultural issues
  
• global professional values
  
• international job-finding resources
  
• websites with international content
  
• resume myths and realities
  
• 25 resume-writing mistakes
  
• 20 production, distribution, and follow-up errors
  
• 43 principles of outstanding resumes
  
• 43 keywords for international resumes
  
• 4 key resume database forms

• Global Resumes for International Jobs
  
• Myths and Mistakes You Must Avoid
  
• Principles of Outstanding Resumes
  
• Resume Examples by Geographic Regions
  
• Resume Examples by Special Populations
  
• Appendix A: KeyWords for International Resumes
  
• Appendix B: Resume Preparation Forms
  
• Appendix C: Resume Experts and Contributors

“…Packed with a wealth of practical and effective tips, tricks, techniques to securing a position overseas. Completely ‘user friendly’….Highly recommended for anyone in serious pursuit of an international career. Best Resumes and CVs for International Jobs is a strongly recommended addition to any personal or professional job counseling reference collection.”
—Wisconsin Bookwatch

EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER 1: Is Your Resume Culturally Insensitive?

There is some truth to the old cross-cultural rule of When in Rome, do as the Romans when writing a resume. While understanding culture is important in many situations, it also tends to be over-emphasized and unnecessarily constraining when looking for a job.

In fact, many people do the silliest things in the name of cross-cultural communication. Yes, you should be sensitive to other peoples greeting, meeting, and eating habits, but you may want to be less sensitive to their hiring and firing cultures.

Indeed, you can go too native or bush and thereby lose your professional focus and values by succumbing to cultural peculiarities.

Not surprisingly, culture is often a double-edged sword. Take, for example, the fact that some European employers prefer handwritten resumes and letters. Why? Because they subject such communication to handwriting analysts who look for personality traits.

While this is serious business for many European employers who truly believe in such analysis – professional handwriting analysts may be functionally equivalent to fortune tellers or shaman in other countries – for many Americans this is an example of cultural hocus-pocus, equivalent to doing a rain dance to improve the bottom line of a company!

In some countries employers want you to include your photo, age, weight, and marital status on your resume. But do you really want to work for an employer who hired you based on your handwriting, photo, age, weight, and marital status rather than evidence of your performance?

You might wonder what else lies ahead for you on the job, especially if and when you will be subjected to a performance appraisal. Will it be based on an analysis of your spouses behavior or some other bizarre cultural approach?

We assume you are interested in getting a good quality international job that reflects your professional values. In fact, in most international circles, Americans are well known for their organization, management, and technical capabilities, especially in business and government – less so in the non-profit sector.

And one of the first problems many Americans encounter when working abroad is the lack of basic organization and management skills and technical expertise. Local performance problems are often excused on cross-cultural grounds – That’s the way they do it in China, Italy, or Mexico.

Many local employers hire for all the wrong reasons – friends, relatives, college degrees, politeness, and handwriting – and few can fire incompetent employees because of local labor laws, byzantine politics, organizational ineptness, and a culture of acceptance and retribution.

Many often face difficulties in hiring and retaining competent staff.

If you’re looking for a good quality international job, you need to go beyond cultural nuances and look at employers from a professional global perspective.

You have to ask hard questions about the employer, such as does he or she run a well-managed organization that values competent employees and rewards performance? Are you being hired for your special expertise or just as another employee who happens to come from abroad?

We assume you probably want to work for someone who values your skills and abilities and rewards you for your performance. That’s an important professional value that has universal application with many organizations around the globe.

Such organizations welcome these values because they are trying to improve their position and profits in a highly competitive international economy.

If you are an American applying for a job abroad, you will most likely be held to a higher standard than others in the organization. Indeed, many international employers, even though based abroad, have high expectations for American applicants precisely because of their different educational backgrounds and organizational experiences.

They hire Americans because they want them to behave like the best of business-oriented Americans in their organization. The last thing they want such an employee to do is to go bush in the name of cross-cultural sensitivity.

In fact, why else would they want to hire you? They know you come from a culture that values technology, skills, performance, and effectiveness – values which may be difficult to acquire from local hires.

They expect American applicants to bring to the job special strengths associated with American business culture. Ironically, they want to hire your American skills and perspectives – not to shed them in the name of cross-cultural adjustment!

If you conform too much to the local employment culture, you lose the value such employers are looking for.

Therefore, don’t be afraid to write a resume that clearly expresses your global values and professional goals. To do less is to seriously misunderstand the role culture plays in the international employment process.

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