October 27, 2011

Curriculum Vitae (C.V) Writing Tips

Do you have problems landing jobs or getting interviews? it's most likely your C.V.

In the past few years, I've received a lot of C.Vs. And out of curiosity, even if the C.V was not meant for me to read, I take a look at it.

I've been trough almost a thousand C.Vs, and I've always had a note or two about each one. So I've decided to make those points into a list of tips for future reference.  I really hope this list helps you land a job.

 

  1. Your C.V file should be named after you. e.g. “2182011204343384.doc” it not a good filename unless this is how you were called in your planet.
  2. Use PDF. It's much faster to render, and much stabler across computers, screens... whatever. Don't use Doc, Docx or Rtf. Many people don't use Microsoft Office.
  3. Pick good fonts. There are thousands of fonts you can use. Most of the you shouldn't use, so choose carefully, and if you can find a template stick to it.
  4. Pick good colors. If your C.V is unreadable on screen or on paper, change the color you're using. And don't use too many colors, it'll make your C.V. Look childish.
  5. Your photo. Unless your job requires good looks, there is no need to add your photo to your C.V.
  6. Make sure the page is not crowded. Most resume templates use tables, stick to the design it's usually easier to read. Otherwise make sure you keep your paragraphs organized.
  7. Start with the important. Don't place your contact information in the end of the document, keep them on top. This way, after reading all resumes. Finding your contact information wouldn't take a long time.
  8. Your professional experience is the most important. So keep it visible, organized and detailed. I want to know where have you worked, and if you've been unemployed for a period of your career. I also want to know what exactly did you do at that job.
  9. Keep your information organized. The sections “Skills”, “Computer Skills”, “Professional Skills” are multiple names for the same information, keep them together.
  10. Make sure the information you state is accurate. Incorrect information (Email address, Phone number, or website) are annoying and they decrease your credibility.
  11. List all your skills but sort them. All your skills – especially professional skills – are important, but again what do you think matters the most? Put it on top.
  12. DO NOT list useless information. I really don't care if a web designer owns a 1998 Honda Civic. And FYI, almost every software engineer knows how to use Windows XP, Excel and MS word.
  13. List only good things. We all have someone we hate back at the office, but mentioning that in your C.V is like holding a cardboard with their name all over it. Don't mention bad things about a previous employer. We might be friends after all.
  14. Have someone review your C.V. Unless you don't have any friends you can find someone to discuss your C.V. Also try to make sure you don't have spelling mistakes or grammar mistakes, personally I hate that.
  15. If you have professional references, list them. After all, I might know one of your references. This might help you land and interview.
  16. What position are you seeking? When I open a C.V I received a while ago, I don't want to search for the position you applied for, keep it visible in the first page.
  17. Look professional. I really can't send a job offer with a straight face to “sexy_lulu_1983@yahoo.com”. Please use a professional email address.
  18. DO NOT lie. Believe it or not, anything you lie about might come up during the interview, and if you lie now, what will you do after you're hired!
  19. DO NOT put your salary in your resume. If you're asking for too much you wouldn't be called for an interview. But if during the interview you prove to be extraordinary you might get the number you're looking for.
  20. Leave no gaps. Did you spend that time in jail? If not, tell me what did you do during all periods since the beginning of your professional career.
  21. Keep your information up-to-date. A phone number you stopped using years ago won't help your chances finding a job.

 

How many of these issues does your C.V have? Believe it or not, mine has 5

I'll keep you updated if I find something else

September 6, 2011

Intro to SEO

Everyone nowadays seems to be interested in SEO (Search Engine Optimization). On most of the interviews I went to recently I was asked... 'Do you know SEO?'

On many occasions I ended up asking myself, Does that person know SEO? You see, the web works in a pretty simple way... There are 2 types of websites:

  1. Applications (Services): A website that provides some sort of a unique service or product (Like Facebook, Twitter, Google, MySpace, YouTube... etc).
  2. Content websites: A website that provides, Articles, Discussion Threads, and information in general (Forums, Blogs, Online Magazines... etc).
Some websites (Those who have products they want to promote or want to control the information you have about their products use a mix of both and the best example would be Microsoft.
Their websites (Or website's they sponsor) are usually on top of the search results when you're looking for a specific problem in one of their products... And that ladies and gentlemen is brilliant.
So the first type of websites (Apps) usually depend on the hype they've created to get people to know them. And their unique service to get people to comeback.
In some cases the fact that the hype never ends (as in twitter) gets people to come back.
So what does the second category do to get people to know about them?
Well... They pick a specific topic. And they create a lot of pages about that topic (In cases like forums, they depend on the users to do the writing).
If you don't have hundreds of pages on your website, you will need some specific techniques to get people to find you. And the best way to get people to find you is appearing in their search results for the topic of your focus.

How do you do that?

We'll these are the basic steps you need to do.
  1. You pick a keyword or a bunch of them that you want people to find with.
  2. You analyze and filter your keywords. Google AdWords to do that.
  3. Incorporate keywords into your website.
  4. Fix your website.
  5. Sometimes people actually forget to submit their websites to search engines. You can either do that yourself, or have a tool do it for you.

Details?

Pick a keyword or a bunch of them that you want people to find with.
Well, this depends on you, the editor or the person managing the website. For example in my blog I focus on Software, SEO and Entertainment (It's my personal blog so I choose those topics).
But if you're in printing business you might want to focus on Books, Magazines, Articles, Papers... etc.

What's next?

Filtering those keywords.

Best way to do this is the Google AdWords keyword analyzer. for example, I tried analyzing the keyword 'entertainment', opened the 'Advanced Options and Filters' and selected United States as a target country and got this:

adwords-tool

which means, the keyword entertainment is searched for 16 million times across the world and 6 million times in the US, the competition is low. So this keyword is a good choice.

More related keywords are available below in case my website was just about entertainment, I’d be interested in those specific keywords.

Using those keywords

Now that you have your keywords, you need to put them into a good use. First of all you should select the most important ones and try placing them in the title and description of your home page.

Search engines are smart, really smart… So placing those keywords in pages with heading tags (h1, h2, h3… etc) means they’re very important to this page thus giving this page a higher rank for those keywords. Also, the more the keyword appears in your page the better. So try a page in my website titled entertainment gains a good rank for this keyword, and if the text heading had the keyword entertainment the page would gain a better rank. Next if the page had a lot of entertainment word count or entertainment related keywords, the rank will improve.

Simple, right?

Fixing your website

If you’re not a web developer or designer you’ll need help doing this. A good website with minimum html errors is a great website for search engines. You can use The W3 Validator to check your website for html errors.

You also need to make sure all your pictures and images have their ‘alt’ attribute set. This helps image search engines find your photos, which also increases the rank of your website.

One more thing is to check that your page headings use the h1 tag and that your pages have the meta description set.

You have to make sure that each page’s title is less than 70 chars and that its meta description is less than 140 characters.

What’s Next?

Make sure everything is actually working. Go to Google Webmaster Tools, add your site following Google's instructions and wait for a couple of days.

Remember that Google has to follow up on billions of websites so it might take a while until they recheck your website. And it will take about 3 months until your website rank is changed.

After you see some activity on your Webmaster Tools account, be sure to check the “Diagnostics=>HTML suggestions” to see if any of your pages needs a fix.

What about other search engines?

Most search engines follow the same steps and checks as Google so if you work your website for Google other search engines will also index your website but keep in mind that Google is the search giant so what takes Google 2 or 3 weeks takes other search engines months.

Need more help?

You can use some service such as Attracta to help you submit your website and follow up on your site evaluation.

August 13, 2011

Samsung bringing AMOLED displays to tablet market

South Korean electronics giant Samsung might be launching the world`s first tablet to feature an AMOLED screen, according to recent reports.

Samsung has been a pioneer of AMOLED display technology, which eliminates the need for a separate backlight and drastically improves contrast ratios and colour fidelity. Smartphones like the Galaxy S2 have paved the way for AMOLED technology to enter the mainstream market, but up until now anything larger than around four inches has been too expensive for consumer gadgets.

It now looks like Samsung might be introducing a new model to its Galaxy Tab range of tablet computers which will come with a seven inch Super AMOLED screen. The display will apparently have a native resolution of 1024x600 and will be competing with other seven inch tablets such as the HTC Flyer and BlackBerry Playbook. The Android 3.0 operating system is likely to be onboard and of course the real draw will be its display, which should be the best in its class.

Earlier in the year there were rumours that Samsung was working with Apple to produce AMOLED screens for the next iPad. Although it seems unlikely that a 10 inch AMOLED screen will be found on the iPad 3 given the expense that this might add, the news of Samsung`s own work on an in-house tablet with similar technology might give more credence to this industry murmuring.

The bad news is that Samsung and Apple are not on the best of terms at the moment, what with the US firm managing to get sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 halted in Europe as a result of a lawsuit over patent infringements. While existing stocks are being sold off by retailers there are no new orders being delivered and so those who want to buy Samsung`s iPad-beating Galaxy Tab 10.1 will have to rush to do so, unless they want to be stuck with the entry level edition with no 3G connectivity and only 16GB of storage.

Virtually every large tech manufacturer is embroiled in at least one court battle at any given time and so Samsung and Apple will probably sort out a licensing deal at some point. This would be particularly beneficial since their relationship is valuable to each company and while Apple may claim that Samsung ripped of the iPad 2 with its Galaxy Tab, in turn it will be relying on Samsung for components in the future.

Tablet devices already have a whole host of useful features, from compatibility with wireless speaker systems to top notch web browsing and powerful CPUs. However, there is no doubt that introducing AMOLED displays will be a positive step towards the future and either Samsung or Apple could be the first to make that move.