Let AccendoCV help you to understand the job and career market

Additional Reading
The 10 Second CV Test
Producing a targeted covering letter
How to write the perfect covering letter
How to handle most interview questions
Interview preperation tips
At what point does it become lying?
CV Writing - the art of the possible
Outplacement- where do we go from here?
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Active management of your career is a requirement. The job market is now more demanding and competitive than ever and the onus is squarely upon you the individual to manage your career direction.

Success and personal fulfilment at work are rarely achieved by chance, so by recognising that taking a proactive approach to managing your career is a personal requirement, you are more likely to realise your ambitions, do justice to your skills, and stay in full employment.

It is rare to know from your first experience of work where you want to go next in your career. Often people find out what suits them over time, learning from their reactions to different jobs, environments, roles, and responsibilities. Actively managing your career will help you use all your experience effectively, so that you can avoid repeating less successful events and maximise your satisfaction with your working life. You will be better equipped to foresee situations, make sensible, realistic plans, and act upon them. As a result, you will have more confidence and be clearer about your personal priorities.

The most successful career paths have good planning, a sense of direction, and clear milestones along the way. A career path needs to be flexible but it should always be structured. If you have a "map" of your intended route, you can make sure that all the activities in your working life help further your aims and give you a sense of purpose. Managing your career does not mean closing your mind to luck and chance, but involves talking and thinking about your career in a methodical way. This will help you gain further insights and recognise any opportunities as they arise, so that you can make the most of them.

Make the most of all the career choices that face you during your working life, be clear about your goals, alert to opportunities, and quick to make key decisions when necessary. Effective planning will help you be prepared and focused, so that when you need to, you can make the right choices. Nobody wants to look back on their career at retirement and wish they had taken a different path or done things another way.
Actions -

1. View managing your career as an exciting new project.
2. Give planning your career the time and effort it deserves.
3. Concentrate on career opportunities.
4. Be prepared to look back as well as ahead.
5. Ensure you have the best marketing tools at your disposal starting with your CV or resume

Marketing yourself

CVs or resumes are critical and to be noticed a CV has to be powerful. It is your primary marketing tool.

The easy answer is that you need as many versions of your CV or resume as it takes. There are different types of CV for different job-hunting methods -- and if you are using multiple strategies and approaches to search for a job, you'll probably need multiple versions of your CV.

The first decision a job-seeker needs to make is determining the best type of CV or resume. Do you need the traditional chronological resume, or would you be better off with a functional or time based functional CV? For some job-seekers, such as new college grads, the answer may be that you need both types. Employers prefer chronological resumes that clearly show employment history, but for job-seekers with little or varied career history, a chronological CV or resume may be ineffective.

The second decision a job-seeker needs to make involves the number of versions of resumes you’re willing to develop. In reality, job-seekers should tailor their resume to each employer. The core of your resume remains the same, but you might need to tailor certain aspects, such as job objective or professional profile. In today’s computer-driven society, there simply is no excuse for having a one-CV-fits-all situation.

The third decision a job-seeker needs to make involves the number of CV/resume formats you need. All job-seekers need at least two formats: the traditional "print" format and an electronic format. The traditional printed CV is still needed for job interviews, career fairs, networking, and anytime a person actually reviews your CV. However, as more and more of job-hunting is now electronic, whether through online job-hunting or employer-based CV databases, job-seekers must really have one or more electronic formats.

Always remember that your CV is your key marketing tool for gaining that all important interview, and if that means you need to have eight different CVs while job-hunting, then so be it. Your job is to follow each employer’s guidelines in how the company wants a CV submitted, thus increasing your chances for being contacted for an interview.

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