Write a Resumé that Travels Across Countries and Cultures

Write a Resumé that Travels Across Countries and Cultures
Edited by 'Kunle Adeniran

As we are now in a global village where you can apply for jobs outside your native country and conduct interview outside the domiciled country of the company (like CareerinAfrica does), you realy need to re-examine much of what you know about putting together a resume. How many pages should it be? What format is best? Do you send it in MS Word or as a PDF?

As a giant generalisation, Greek employers prefer larger resumes, while in Norway resumes should be no longer than two pages. In New Zealand and Italy a senior executive resume of five pages is seen as okay by recruiters.

In South Africa, you are required to include personal information such as ID number and ethnicity, while in Japan you start your resume with name, age & sex. In some sectors of the European public sector, it is not unheard of to follow an anonymous approach where resumes do not even include the candidate's name.

In Nigeria, personal informations are no longer required in most cases. All they care about is your name, address and sometimes age.

But although it is true that all markets have certain nuances, the central purpose of your resume — to "sell" you and your skills to the role in question — does not change as it travels across cultures. Ferrari has one main brochure for its new supercar, and the main "look" of the brochure will pretty much remain the same across all its dealerships throughout the world, even as it's translated into different languages. You need to take the same approach with your resume.

Imagine if the world's best golfer wrote their resume stating:

Occupation:

Golfer

Responsibilities:

Hit ball

Hit ball again

Tap ball lightly

Tap ball into hole

 

This would not sell them to potential employers! It does not demonstrate their value or achievements.

In the same way, your resume must highlight your achievements, not just your responsibilities in your most recent roles. The good news is that defining your achievements is not as difficult as it sounds. Thank about specific instances where you made a difference to your organization. Examples include:

Sales:

• Did you exceed your monthly / annual sales budget? If so, by what $ value or %?
• Were you responsible for managing key clients?
• Did you receive any awards or internal / external recognition of sales success?

 

Project Management:

• What project value / budgets have you been responsible for managing? E.g. If you project managed the construction of a new building worth $100M, this gives an understanding of the trust that was awarded as well as your level of competence.
•  Were you chosen for a particular project outside of your standard role? Why were you chosen and what were the results?

Communication:

       Have you delivered proposals, talks or presentations? If so, to an audience of what size?

 

       Have you had any articles, papers or features published in any magazines, journals or books? If so, what publications and when?

System or Process Improvement

       Were you involved in the development of new systems in a business? If so, what were the processes and how did these positively affect the business?

       Was there a quantifiable difference in the company / business unit between when you first joined and when you finished?

Customer Services:

       Were you successful in reducing customer complaints? If so, how did you achieve this?

       Did you receive any external / customer accolades?

 Human Resources:

       Did you complete any coaching or mentoring of staff members? Were there any specific positive results that came from this?

       Did you increase staff retention due to your management style? If so, by what percentage?

 Added Responsibility

Were you awarded any extra authority in a position? For example, you may have commenced as a Production Manager, then been awarded with full control of quality assurance for the firm after six months.

But a resume is not enough. You also need to develop a professional cover letter with the right keywords.

 When a company advertises a job vacancy, they are effectively saying "we don't have someone to do this role — we have a problem!" What is then vital is for you to achieve in both your resume and cover letter is the impression that you are the solution. And you do need a cover letter.
A recruitment colleague of mine recently completed an analysis of the quality of cover letters sent to his consultancy. Out of every 100 candidates, on average:

       73% of applicants supplied no cover letter or a brief introduction in the email of one to two lines;

        16% supplied poor quality cover letters with spelling mistakes and highlighting no relevance to the specific role being advertised;

        11% provided a professional cover letter highlighting the key aspects from the advertisement and their relevance to the appointment.
Therefore by just creating a professional cover letter, you can immediately position yourself in the top 11% of candidates right from the start.

 This is where "mirroring" the job description is pivotal. In most job advertisements and position descriptions, there is a section highlighting specific characteristics and skills that would be effective in the position. Read through the documentation and summarize what the ideal person would look like. Write your cover letter that shows how your skills, achievements, qualifications and experiences can meet these requirements. Use the keywords in the job description to make sure the parallels are obvious even to someone hurriedly skimming your resume.

To be effective in a world of global recruitment, create a "brochure" that sells your skills and makes it clear to hiring managers that you are the solution to their problem.