In today’s guest post, Kathryn Hayman, from Americanize your Resume talks about one of the most interesting topics in North America: your Résumé.

Many Immigrants face challenges when seeking employment and economic stability in a new country. Such obstacles include having a Résumé that is not formatted to North American standards and requirements. Other barriers include:

• Lack of information and awareness about foreign credential recognition services and resources.
• Unaccustomed to North American style of job search and interviewing.
• Not fully understanding North American legislation, standards and requirements when preparing a Résumé.

Most International Résumés contain private and personal information that goes against Anti-Discrimination laws in both Canada and the United States. If any of the following are included in an existing Résumé, it may be overlooked by the hiring Manager or Human Resource Specialist, losing the opportunity to be selected for an interview.

Examples of what not to include in a Résumé:

• Nationality/Race
• Sex
• Date of Birth
• Passport information

Solutions for newcomer? The first step is to understand what a Résumé means in the North American labour market. The primary purpose of the Résumé is to get an interview. Individuals need to create a marketable portfolio that will help them integrate into the North American labour market. Here are some helpful hints:

• Stay away for internet based Résumé templates! Not only will they make individual
• Résumés look like everyone else in the pile, they typically do not properly highlight key competencies, personal/technical skills, education and transferable skills.
• Create a Résumé that includes CLEAR AND ACCURATE information about credentials and professional designations. Résumés are usually partnered when going through a credential recognition process such as PLAR (Prior Learning Assessment Recognition).
• Have access to Translation Services or computer programs. This ensures individuals are properly communicating their interests, goals and credentials that are most relevant to the desired job/position.
• Use a reputable Résumé Writing Service that is either community based or on the internet.

The following criteria should be kept in mind when selecting this type of service:

1. Résumé Writing Services should completed and deliver a finished Résumé within one week. Be cautious of guaranteed turn around time of less than two days, quite likely they are using a internet based template.
2. They should offer Translation Services.
3. Very important, especially web-based Résumé Writing Services, is that they offer Secure, Safe payment methods such as PayPal or other encrypted processes. This way individuals will be protected against identity theft that is unfortunately rampant on the internet.
4. Select services that are managed by Professional Administrative Specialists or Human Resource Generalists. Such expertise include individuals who have great experience in developing portfolios based on key job specific skills in the labour market.

If you are new to North America, a well written Résumé is your passport to a job in Canada or the United States. It is typically the first item a potential employer encounters regarding the job seeker and sets the tone in recruiting the right fit for their organization or company.

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Are you interested in study in Canada? What about a MBA in Canada? if this is your case, last week I’ve received an e-mail from Canadian Business Online about their 3rd annual MBA expo 2008. You don’t even need to go there in person, you can do it online, too.

The only prerequisite is that you need to register. Once you’re registered, you will receive an e-mail with all the information that you need. I’ve registered myself and as I plan to take my MBA in the near future, this is a good opportunity to know more about MBA’s available in Canada.

Registration is free. I’ve never participated before, and I am looking forward to it. Are you interested? Just follow this link to register.

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How do you save energy at home? I don’t know about you, but since I moved to Canada I started to think about my costs during the year. Maybe because I get more information in Canada than In Brazil? Maybe because I start to realize how much I can save and then use the money towards something else, specially investing?

Either way, here in Ontario we have a program called Every Kilowatt Counts Power Savings. I spoke about this program before when I mentioned that we can save energy at home with programmable thermostats. It really is a good opportunity to buy stuff and get discounts. This time I’ve got my flyer from Canadian Tire and there’s a section dedicated to energy efficient equipments.

As you may know, we have a lot of equipments plugged at home and even if we’re not at home, they’re still using energy. For example, TV, PVR, blu-ray, cable box, computer, monitor and so on. You’re not using my friend because you’re at work. So, what can we do? And what did I do?

At Canadian Tire, they had the Woods Power bar/timer on sale for $19.99 (original price is $24.99) and you can get a $5 dollars coupon. The price is down to $14.99. I went to Canadian Tire and bought 2 of them. Before finding this device, I was planning to buy another one: In the United States, you can have at Amazon the Smart Strip LCG3 Energy Saving Power Strip with Autoswitching Technology. Unfortunately they don’t ship this product to Canada.

Once I got home, I unplugged some of my devices and programmed the power bar. There’s no need to my tv, cable box, satellite box, blu-ray to be plugged if I’m not at home and also during the night, when I’m sleeping right? Now it is time to check the results. This month (September-October period: 1674 kWh) I am going to pay $192.88 dollars. Let’s see the next bill.

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