What if an organization is looking for a more introverted candidate who prefers to work solo in a quiet environment? This might be a remote job opportunity or an on-site position that is rather isolated. And suppose you are that introvert who would love just such a position? To capture that opportunity, you will need to display your desire to brand yourself as a self-motivated candidate who can succeed in a solo work environment.

The Remotiq template is traditional, comes in quiet colors, and allows you to showcase your preference for “independence” through the prominent section on key skills. You also have ample space to showcase your work experience, provide some insights on past projects and drop some portfolio links. To give away that “salient power” vibe as a candidate, be sure that you sprinkle in some power words in your resume writing.

This professional resume template is free and fully downloadable. Better yet, it can be edited and remodeled as you wish!

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Did you know that according to research, most employers will only spend between 6 to 10 seconds skimming over a CV?

Not just that, they are searching for specific keywords. Should your CV contain none of the keywords they are looking for, it will quickly end up into the reject pile.

Having a killer CV that is designed to catch the eye of the employer is your first step to attract their attention. Without a well-constructed CV, your efforts will fall flat even before you have had a chance to prove yourself.

In a lot of cases, an employer will be more interested in what sort of person you are and what impression you give off when reading your CV.

This is because at the end of the day they will want someone that will be a good fit for their company culture. This is especially true if the recruit needs to fit into an existing team.

Finding a good personality match and someone with the right skills, focus and dedication is just as important – if not more so – than what qualifications you have.

Having a compelling personal statement

Although you may believe that putting all of your focus into recording your qualifications and work experience is the most important element of your CV, in fact, it is your personal statement that can end up making or breaking the success of your job application.

As long as you tick all of the boxes with the required qualifications and work experience to qualify your application for the job, you need to remember that you will be directly competing with numerous other hopeful applicants with the same history as you.

So, make sure that your personal statement isn’t bland and wishy-washy. It needs to grab the attention of the reader and give them a taste of the sort of person you are.

But, Wait, What is it?

Your personal statement is a short and compelling paragraph that tells the employer that you are the most qualified person for the role on offer. It tells the reader who you are and what valuable benefits you will be bringing to their company.

Do I need to include one on my CV?

The short answer to this question is YES! Yes, you must make sure to include a personal statement for the following reasons:

• It gives you a chance to showcase your most valuable key skills in one place
• Not including one will make you look the same as every other job applicant
• It can inspire employers to read your CV in its entirety
• It is an opportunity to provide more background about your experience
• You can get your personality across to show that you are a good cultural fit for the company

In essence, this helps you express why you are the right choice for the role on offer in one condensed paragraph.

How to write a strong personal statement

Just like when writing your CV you need to make sure that your statement is unique to the job that you are applying for. A generic paragraph used on every copy of your CV that you send out simply will not do here!

Writing a strong personal statement means summarizing your skills and experience in a way that is relevant to the job. This makes your statement interesting to the employer and adds extra value to your application.

This is not the place to waffle or to add a lot of fluff or filler. Your statement needs to be short and to the point. Make sure you include the following points:

• Your statement should reinforce your relevant key skills that the employer finds desirable
• Keep your statement short and punchy – it needs to be easy to read
• Highlight the knowledge and experience you have that makes you a good fit for the role
• Mirror the keywords and key phrases that were used in the job advert and description

Choosing what to highlight

You can make it easier for yourself to choose what to highlight in your personal statement paragraph by looking at the information contained in the job advert and the job description supplied by the company.

As you read through this information, try to remember the times in your previous work roles where you accomplished notable achievements that match with required skills and experience for this job.

Note down everything that springs to mind including your years of experience in a similar role, challenges you took on and the positive results achieved, new projects you kick-started – anything that has close relevance to this new position.

You can use your collected notes to formulate your paragraph.

Personal statement examples

Let’s take a look at a few personal statement examples just to give you an idea of how you can formulate your own.

Remember that you need to make your statement unique to you and to the job you are applying for. Simply copying and using these examples may not be the best move because your statement wouldn’t be reflecting the real you.

Depending on where you are in life and your career, you will need a personal statement that matches your goals for your next steps forward. Here are the most common career stages that most people will fit into, accompanied by a fitting personal statement:

A personal statement for a school leaver

Entering the workforce for your very first time is a big step. Your statement should focus on the following points:

• Why you want to work in your chosen industry
• What you can bring to the role (remember to search the job description for desired skills)
• What you hope to achieve by working with the company

Remember that you are bringing your energy, dedication, enthusiasm and willingness to learn to the table. As you will not have any employment history, you need to make sure to get your personality and your soft skills over in your statement.

A personal statement for a graduate

This personal statement will be quite similar to the school leaver’s statement, but will have more of an emphasis placed on your higher educational attainments and experiences.

The focus of your personal statement will be why you are applying for the job and what your hopes are for your future career. Remember to highlight what special knowledge you can bring to the role.

If you are applying before you have had your degree results, it is fine to give a projected grade. You can also mention any specific modules you have studied that are relevant to the job on offer and how much you enjoyed working on them.

A personal statement for a jobseeker

If you have been made redundant or are currently unemployed, then finding your next job can be very stressful. Learning how to cover gaps in your CV can be very helpful here.

Always appreciate your worth. Stay positive with your statement and never mention anything negative that could be seen as a sticking point.

You should never come off sounding desperate. Never apologize and don’t turn it into a begging letter! Remember that you can bring a lot of valuable skills to their company that they need.

If you want to explain the break in your employment record then explain this in your cover letter rather than on your CV. When you have already explained your career break once, there is no need to repeat it again.

A personal statement for a career change

When you are changing from one work sector to another completely different industry, you need to draw on your transferable interpersonal skills to highlight upon.

Remember that your transferable skills and soft skills are quite universal no matter what industry sector you work in. There is any number of different jobs that need the same set of skills that you have developed, so always try to lead with these and use real-life examples of your experience.

Conclusion

As you can see, your personal statement can be the key between your CV making the ‘yes’ pile or the reject bin.

Take some time to get your statement right and always write a new one for each job you apply for using the same language as the employer.

Whether you are fresh out of education or are looking for a change after many years in employment, you may be a bit rusty or inexperienced when it comes to creating your CV.

You can find a lot of helpful advice and guidance in our Resources section to get you started.

So far so good! Your interview is going well. The conversation is flowing at a nice pace between you and your interviewer and you seem to be connecting positively on so many levels.

That is until the interviewer pauses, takes a breath and ask that one question that you have been dreading this whole time. The one question that you hoped wouldn’t be brought up and had so far been avoided.

“Can you tell me why you left your last job?”

What is the best way to respond to this question that still leaves you in a positive light? What is the right (or wrong) thing to say here? Do I give up now and admit defeat?

Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can answer this awkward question without it negatively affecting your interview.

Be honest with the interviewer

Firstly, there will be no point in lying about why you left your last job, especially if you were fired and left under a cloud.

Most employers will check your resume and references with your previous employer before an interview is arranged. Your previous employer may have disclosed why you were cut from the company, so it is important here to be honest with your interviewer.

If you were terminated from your previous post, it will be good for you to check with your ex-employer to find out what reasons they are giving for the termination.

This will help you to match up your response to be the same. The last thing you want is to give a completely different reason for why you left to that of your previous employer. It can create confusion, suspicion and doubt about your truthfulness and trustworthiness.

Decide how you will answer this question before your interview

By far the best way to handle this question is to be prepared for it. Simply going along for the interview and hoping the question will not be brought up isn’t going to cut it.

Not being able to respond in a professional and controlled manner will make you look flustered and unprepared. Not a good first impression to give to a potential employer!

Depending on the circumstances of how you left your last job, you may want to decide on taking any of the following approaches:

1: Answer quickly and move on:

If you find it painful to talk about leaving your last job, then often the best thing to do is to rip off the band-aid and get it over with as quickly as possible.

2: Keep your answer simple:

Keep your answer short, sweet and to the point. There is no need to elaborate on the details or draw out your answer. Just state the facts behind the termination and don’t let your emotions rule your response.

Cutting your answer down as short as possible will give you more time to focus on other questions and leave a better impression at the end of the interview.

3: Raise the subject before the interviewer does

Bringing up the fact that your previous job was terminated before being asked is a way for you to take control of the question and deliver your reasons for your departure on your terms.

4: Use positive reinforcement

Try to avoid answers that will make you look less qualified to take on this job. You don’t want to imply that you left your last job because you were not qualified or lacked the skills or experience to do it.

Instead, focus on using more positive phraseology. Don’t mention the word ‘fired’, but instead say that you were ‘let-go’ because the job wasn’t the best fit for you and your future career plans.

Don’t play the blame-game

While it can be very tempting to shift any blame from your shoulders on to your previous employer to make you look better, pointing blame is never a good idea.

An interviewer never likes to see job candidates disparage their former employers. It is not professional or respectful. In a lot of cases, the interviewer may well know and be on friendly terms with your previous employer, especially if they have a B2B relationship with them.

By blaming an ex-employer for your job termination and trying to make yourself look completely blameless, they will wonder what negative things you may say about their company should your employment not go well with them.

Blame is a negative no matter where it is pointed. However, you shouldn’t blame yourself either. Blaming yourself will make the interviewer doubt that you would be a good employee.

Simply say that the job wasn’t a good fit and it was mutually beneficial for both you and your previous employer for you to move on.

Turn a negative into a positive

Answering this question in a way that paints you in a good light is what you need to do here.

Try to avoid mentioning any shortcomings that would cast doubt in the mind of your interviewer. Stick to referencing the good parts of your previous job that you did well with and achieved positive results.

Even though you left your previous position for valid reasons, not every single aspect of the job was difficult for you. Talk up the positive aspects of the previous job and what you enjoyed about it can be an effective way to answer the question and leave a positive impression with the interviewer.

If you feel like things are not going your way, it can be wise to learn how to reverse a bad job interview beforehand so you can turn the interview back in your favor.

What are good reasons for leaving a job?

Let’s take a look at some working examples and scenarios where you can put the above tips into action:

Example 1:

You were let go in your previous job in sales for failing to consistently meet with your set sales targets.

However, part of your job was to help resolve customer issues by using their product. This you excelled at and you were recognised for your ability to talk to unhappy customers and explain how to use the product properly.

Your strengths would enable you to thrive in a technical support role, so you should demonstrate to the interviewer that you have valuable skills to bring to the company sales team despite your previous job termination.

Example 2:

You were terminated from your employment because you lacked essential skills that negatively affected your performance.

The company didn’t offer any in-house or external skills training courses, so you felt compelled to seek training at a local college to brush up your skills.

You can explain in your interview how you have since addressed this issue by yourself and would now be able to meet with all competency tests in the same job.

Example 3:

Your previous company went through a period of restructuring that resulted in your job becoming obsolete.

A lot of jobs are lost through downsizing and restructuring and often it can be no-one’s fault when they are let go.

Going for a job at one of your previous employer’s main competitors can be a good move here. You would be working in the same sort of environment that you were used to and you will be bringing valuable industry skills with you that the company wants.

Make a positive pitch to reinforce this and the fact that you would need zero training or input from the company to train you up for the role (if you were working the same job in your previous position).

From the interviewer’s point of view, your appointment would be swift, smooth, create minimal upheaval and have zero integration cost to the company.

Remember to finish your interview on a positive note and try to close your job interview to make it memorable so that you stand out in the interviewer’s mind.

Use your termination as a learning experience

Being fired for a reason can be one of the hardest issues to overcome during your interview.

Always remember that you should take this experience as a learning step. You can use this opportunity to reassess your qualification, skills training or work experience.

Assess your strengths and weaknesses. Maybe you had your heart set on a role in sales where you could earn a healthy commission and enjoy competing with your colleagues over smashing sales targets.

However, in the real world of hard sales, you found your strengths were actually better in sales support and resolving customer complaints.  Realizing this can make you choose to move in a different career direction. One that is better suited for your talents.

Changing career direction doesn’t mean you need to swap your industry sector. Remember that you will have gained a lot of insider industry knowledge of your chosen sector.

This can be a very valuable experience to take with you to another employer, even though it may not be in the same role as you had previously. Remember this and recognize that you do have great value to offer despite being let go from your last position.

Your cover letter is most likely what your prospective employer will read first. So, make sure you don’t use the exact same cover letter script for every single job that you apply for.

If you don’t want your job application to end up in the reject pile even before an employer has read your resume, then be mindful of what you write!

How to write a cover letter that works

Your cover letter should start in a strong manner that captures the attention and curiosity of the person reading it.

Although your goal is to keep your letter short and sweet, it needs to be informative enough to deliver the information that the employer is looking for.

To increase your chances of getting shortlisted for an interview, you need to deliver the facts that are needed while creating a level of curiosity in the employer to find out more about you.

By using these top ten tips, you can plan out and build yourself a cover letter that will grab the attention of the employer and encourage them to read your resume.

1. Don’t be impersonal

Remember that your cover letter is a professional introduction. Whenever possible, address your letter to an actual person. This is usually the person in charge of hiring at a company such as the Human Resources Manager.

In most cases, the job advert will give a name for you to address your application to. Make sure that you use it! If there is no addressee mentioned, reach out to the company and ask for a name.

This is better than being vague and impersonal by addressing your cover letter to: The hiring manager, or: To whom it may concern. This is too impersonal and creates the wrong impression.

2. Introduce yourself

Your cover letter is a tool to break the ice and to introduce yourself to the employer. So do just that!

• Give them your name
• What position you are applying for
• What skills, experience and knowledge you can bring to the company

3. Customize your cover letter

This is probably THE most important tip that we can pass on to you. Customization is the key to a successful cover letter.

Always take the time to customize your cover letter for each job application that you make. Make sure you detail the specific skill-set that you possess that the company is looking for.

Use phraseology that mirrors the company language – mimics how they speak. Describe your skills and knowledge in a way that the company would describe them.

Try to avoid many of the commonly repeated phrases that people use in generic cover letters. Remember that an employer can spend many long hours sorting through cover letters and resumes.

Their minds will quickly switch off and your application will be lost to the reject pile.

4. Do your research

If you want to work for a company, it helps to know them inside and out. Many businesses will have a lot of free information for you to search and read up on via their company website.

Read their back history, the company ethos and their beliefs. If they meet and align with your own then this makes it easier for you to speak with genuine passion about why you want to work for the company in your cover letter.

Always remember that the company will be swamped with perfectly qualified job candidates with the exact same skill-set and work history as you. What makes a candidate stand out is someone that is very well-informed about their company and has shared beliefs and goals.

5. Look at the job requirements

While doing your company research, check the job advert and the job description. Note down what skills are required to do the job.

Also, look at who the company mainly deals with. Do they focus on B2C or B2B? This will give you an idea about how to phrase your language in your cover letter.

If this is a B2B company you can highlight and reinforce your B2B experience. This will help you to stand out more than a similar candidate with only B2C experience and vice versa.

6. Use a resume cover letter format

Make sure to format your cover letter to perfectly match your resume. Your cover letter is not only a tool of introduction, but it also helps to back up your resume.

Formatting is important here to show that you pay attention to detail. Make sure that you use the same font size and style as you use for your resume.

Also, make sure to use the same margin sizes and spaces that are reflected in your resume. You want it to match so that it doesn’t break the eye-line of the reader and their attention isn’t broken by an inconsistent layout.

You can make it a lot easier on yourself if you chose to use a resume template with a matching cover letter. By doing this you will be sure that both of these important documents will match perfectly.

7. Remain humble

The last thing you want to do is to put off your potential new employer by coming across as a big-headed know-it-all in your cover letter.

While it is fine to talk positively about yourself and your achievements that are relative to the job in hand, it never sounds good to brag.  Instead, stay professional and courteous in your address.

The employer will be looking for a candidate that will fit in well with others in their company. They will be looking for someone that has the knowledge and experience they need, but will also be open-minded and willing to learn from their peers.

8. Check, edit, check, edit, then check and edit again

You will be amazed at how many resumes and cover letters get rejected because of reasons such as poor grammar, spelling mistakes, repeated information and obvious typos.

While you may be tempted to shoehorn a lot of information into your cover letter, remember that it needs to be kept short.

By reviewing and editing your cover letter you can cut out on excessive words or long explanations that can be said in fewer words.

9. Get someone else to review your cover letter

It is always worth having a fresh pair of eyes to scan over your cover letter. Having someone else check your letter may draw your attention to something you missed, such as poor grammar or phraseology, a spelling mistake or a feeling that the letter is too long/too short etc.

While it may be handy to simply get one of your family members to check over your cover letter for you, it helps to remember that they will be biased because they love you.

What you need is an objective pair of eyes to cast a look over your letter, so choose someone that you know will give you an honest opinion and isn’t afraid to appraise it with a critical eye.

Choose a trusted work colleague or a friend that has your best interests at heart. This way you will get an honest opinion rather than flattery or praise for your efforts.

10 .Finish in a strong manner

You need to close your cover letter as positively as you started it off.

It is better to have a strong finish that tells the employer what to do next. Tell them that you are happy to go into more detail about your experience and are willing to discuss this further in an interview.

Don’t forget to include your contact details – you will be surprised to hear that so many people forget to include this information, especially when they are busy focussing on the content of the cover letter rather than the basics.

Conclusion

Hopefully, these top tips will give you the tools to help write a very strong and compelling cover letter. Check out our list of cover letter examples by profession for laser targeted tips.

Do remember that your cover letter gives you a chance to get your foot in the door for an interview. Try to stick to the points above and avoid any negative language that will be a turn off to a potential new employer.

Don’t include information that is already listed in your resume. Never repeat your resume in your cover letter. The employer will not appreciate reading the same information twice.

One final tip – NEVER use your cover letter to speak badly of your former employer. This not only looks very unprofessional, but it bears absolutely no relevance to the job that you are applying for. Stay on point!

Good luck with your next job interview!

The only constant in IT is that it is evolving faster than any other niche. Just several years ago, for example, who could have guessed that AR/VR technology would move from gaming to mainstream marketing strategies? Who predicted that chatbots would take over customer service? Or that IoT would be incorporated into so many industrial and consumer niches? 

And yet, the basics remain. Design, development, and programming are still the building blocks of any new technology that may come along. The key for job seekers in IT fields is continuing professional development – staying on top of the newest technologies and getting the training (much of it is online), to be as attractive and versatile a candidate as possible.

There are critical skills that IT job seekers must have for this increasingly competitive field in 2019 and beyond, such as:

• DevOps
• Blockchain
• Big Data
• Hadoop
• Data Science
• Machine Learning
• AI
• AWS

If you already specialize in one of those technologies, there’s just one other thing you need to do to secure a top job. That is package your expertise into a compelling resume. Below are some essential tips that will help you do just that, followed by a detailed IT resume example.

Be Selective

As you look at IT position postings, the first thing you need to do is match your skills, training, and experience with those that are key in the posting. Narrow your search by these, and you will be going after the jobs that you actually have an opportunity to land despite tough competition.

Update Your Online Portfolio

Specific hard skills are what most tech employers are after. So have a demonstration of your talents readily available. Add some new open-source projects to your GitHub profile, gather up some references and highlight those on your LinkedIn profile. Or you can publish a blog post explaining the nuts and bolts of a recent project you have worked on.

New to The Job Market? Consider Career Schemes for Recent Tech Graduates

As IT talent is in high demand, a lot of big name companies are now trying to capture the brightest minds straight out of college, and nurture them in top professionals in-house. Participating in such schemes means that apart from a paycheck, you’ll also receive several years of training and mentorship – a major plus for your future career.

Some of the employers offering such programs in the US and the UK include:

Free Resume Sample for IT position (Word version)

Download resume example (.docx)

IT Resume Example (text version)

Conclusions

This is only one sample, obviously. But it should give you an idea about how you can engage a reader by pulling their eyes to the important skills you have developed and then how you have utilized those skills in your work experience.

Note: for IT resumes, it’s best to have a separate section for your skills summary. This allows the potential employer to see that you have the talents they need. You may want to change the order in which you list them, based on each specific position you apply for, so that the key ones come first.

Finally, as you craft your IT resume, there is a number of resume templates you can find and use to make your job application more coherent and memorable.