Country info Work and study in Britain Work and study in France Work and study in Spain Promote your CV How to build up your strategy for a good CV News Work and study in Britain Country Britain is a large trading nation and globalisation has done wonders for the country. The area of London has the highest concentration of banks worldwide and one of the largest stock exchanges. Generally speaking, there is an upswing economic situation in Britain. Despite The Economist writes in its February special report about Britain that is seems a bit “grumpy right now”. It seems disillusioned and bored with politicians, concerned about social cohesion, frightened by its homegrown bombers and furious about the Iraq war and George Bush. But ignoring the political rumours companies are interested in expanding within Europe and worldwide. So the knowledge of a foreign language is a surplus in the application. Only for foreign students it is not that easy to get an internship in Britain, because the companies have definite conventions with students who work there regularely, within there term break. How to find a job You will find a well structured job market in Britain. Job searching is rather easy thanks to numerous Career Centres at universities and private job agencies. The easiest way to get information is the the Career Service’s website - Central Services Unit www.prospects.csu.man.ac.uk. It is also a good idea, to subscribe the weekly magazine with adverts for students and graduates (Prospects Today Subscription, CSU, Freepost MR5569, Prospect House, Booth St. East, Manchaster M13 1ST). Moreover, it is a good idea, to look at the large newspapers like The Times (www.The-times.co.uk), Sunday Times (www.sunday-times.co.uk), The Guardian (www.Guardian.co.uk) and Financial Times (www.FT.com). CV specifics and presentation Your CV should be a brief but accurate picture of your education and career. Make it clear, well structured and easy to read. The CV is written in a reverse chronological order and should ideally be no longer than two pages. A picture is not necessary. Certificates or letters of reference are not usually sent with your application and can be brought to the interview. You might write in your CV or covering letter: References upon request - to give a company the chance of asking for more information. You should not include your marital status, your affiliation to a religion, information about your parents and siblings. The CV should not be dated or signed. Every CV should be accompanied by a one page covering letter. You start with your own address and the company’s address, followed by the salutation and a headline. You should not summarize the CV in the text. Just point out special skills which the company is looking for. If you are planning an internship, write down the period of time you would like to work in. The letter should be well structured and you should describe your experiences in line with the requirements of the position. If requested in the advertisement, the salary level desired must be included. It is common in the UK to send your application online. Most companies have an online questionnaire on their website. If the company prefers the online application do not send one in the traditional way. In Britain you often find no address or e-mail on the company’s internet career section. In this case they want you make use of the questionnaire. Work and study in France Country You do need good knowledge of the French language. In most companies, French is the working language. Due to this fact, applicants with good language skills have excellent chances. France has an elitist university system. The name of the school counts more than your degree. In an application it is necessary to mention the ranking of your university. In France graduates are extremely young when they finish - around 23 years. So if you are older then 25, French companies might find this difficult to understand. In this case it is important to highlight special skills and work experience. How to find a job You will find a special section for students and graduates in French job centres (ANPE, www.anpe.fr) the APEC (www.apec.asso.fr, Agence pour l’emploi des Cadres, 51 Boulevard Brune, F-75689 Paris Cedex 14). The APEC publishes a magazine called “Courier Cadres” with lots of advertisements, which you can subsribe via the internet. In France some universities organize job fairs for students and graduates. The Forum Trium fair for example, is arranged by three technical schools every December in Paris. You can get more information under www.ensta.fr If you prefer the newspaper, you will find some interesting online offers: Le Figaro with a special job supplement called Figaro Economie si available on mondays (www.cadremploi.fr), Le Monde (special job section on mondays and tuesdays, www.cadresonline.fr) and Les Echos (www.lesechos.fr). Other online job guides are www.monster.fr, www.careermosaic.fr. CV specifics and presentation The CV can be written in chronological or reverse chonological order. Begin with your personal information (name address, phone, e-mail, date and place of birth, nationality, marital status) followed by the educational section in the chronologiacal order and your actual experiences in the reverse chonological order. Remember the importance of the school ranking and add all of your special skills if you are older than the average of a French graduate. You should comment on your language skills in detail, because French companies judge these skills as very important. You need a good picture together with your CV. Never send references, copies of your diploma or records. Your CV should always be accompanied by a covering letter, which should not exceed one page and be handwritten! Many employers use handwriting analysis as a selection tool. However, typed letters are increaslingly common with the use of the internet and e-mail. The covering letter should indicate your motivation in applying for the position at the company. Succinctly explain how your profile corresponds to the profile sought. Applications send by e-mail are becoming more common. Send your CV together with a covering letter and specific reference to the position you are applying for, when responding to an advertisement. Send everything in an attached file (preferably in Word or PDF). Work and study in Spain Country Even though that the unemployment rate in Spain is on a hight level, engineers, scientist and qualified business managers have good chances to get a job. Without a good knowledge of Spanish you will not have any chance to get your feet on the ground. The economic structure varies a lot within the various regions. The area around Barcelona is the administrational area. You will find an expanding car industry area in the cities of Zaragoza and Pamplona. Apart from the international acting companies, Spain is structured by an economy of small and middle sized companies. Most vacancies are filled by word-of-mouth recommendation. How to find a job The easiest way to find a job is by personal contact. Without networking the national job center INEM Instituto Nacional de Empleo (Area de Gestión de Empleo, c/Condesa de Venadito, 9, 28027 Madrid) help getting a job. INEM has the monopol on job placement in Spain. You will find a special office for graduates at the universities COIE (Centros de Orientación e Información de Empleo). You will also find “bolsas de Trabajo” - job fairs, at the universities. Most of the university’s web sites are written in Spanish language only. A knowledige of the language is necessary, even for the job seeking procedure. If you are interested to look at the newspapers you will find a geat variety for specialregions. El Pais (www.elpais.es), El Mundo (www.elmundo.es) and ABC (www.abc.es) for Madrid and Sevilla. Vanguardia (www.vanguardia.es) for Barcelona and Las Provincias (www.lasprovincias.es) for Valencia. Other jobmarkets are www.todotrabjo.com, www.monster.com, www.jobline.com. CV specifics and presentation The CV has to be easy to read. Mostly done in reverse chronologigcal order. You should start with your current activities. Make a frequent use of headings, underlining and bold letters. Highlight the most important points, so they stand. Make sure that there is not to much information on one page. After the personal information section (name address, phone, e-mail, date and place of birth, nationality, marital status) begin with your educational background. Then add your practical trainings, internships, work experiences and any further skills. Ideally the length of the CV is two pages, but could be more if necessary. In Spain a good picture together with the CV is essential. The CV has to be signed and dated. The CV should always be accompanied by a covering letter. It should be one page, personalized and adapted for each position. A standardized letter has a negative effect. Avoid just listing the facts written in the CV. Just highlight key studies and experiences. This letter also gives you the opportunity to refer to specific requirements stated in the advertisement. Let the reader know why you are interested in joining the team. It is quite modern for employers to state the e-mail address in the advertisement. But the reply on e-mail applications is often very poor. If you want to be on the safe side, send an e-mail and a paper copy as well. How to build up your strategy for a good CV A good CV gives enough information about you to make the decision for inviting you to an interview easy. First of all you need to create your individual strategy. There are hundreds of students studying to become economists, scientists, engineers or information scientists. However, none of them has got the experience you have. Your experience and knowledge is unique. Imagine sitting together with a friend you have not seen in a long time. He or she asks you “what have you been doing since we left school?” Start looking back on your career – select all the “highlights”, but do not worry, if they are not really glamorous. Avoid putting the emphasis on university studies only. Think of the jobs you have done so far and which can be mentioned as work experience. What about your leisure activities: Are you a trainer of a football team? Did you organise last years student party? Do you possibly like travelling and getting in touch with different cultures? All these unique experiences make you a special person, an individual. Put all interesting points in an accurate order and create your very individual strategy this way. This strategy then will open the door of the company you are interested to work for. It is a very good idea, to have a “guideline” that will help you through the conversation with the company of your interest. The perfect guide for the interview is your curriculum vitae. It is the basis, which will be discussed throughout the interview. A good CV puts you in the right position, to find the job you are looking for. It is just as important for the interview on a career fair as it is for an online application or a traditional application sent by post. A smart CV should point out “the course of your life” – with special emphasis on the parts of knowledge and work experience the company is looking for. Describe your achievements, write more than just “I’m studying economics and I have worked for company xy for three months”. Specialization of your studies and the field you worked in during your internship at that company would be of great interest.