Hello everyone, in the previous topic we talked about the on-campus and off-campus placement. Now in this topic, we will look at the 4 essential gears for jobs and internships that we must be prepared with us when we sit for placements this can be for on-campus placements as well as for off-campus placements.

These here are your farmers and the first things that a recruiter would see before meeting you in person so you need to make sure you work well on them.

4 Essential Gears for Jobs and Internships

So we will look at four essential gears which we need at the time of submission of our application for a job or internship which are as follow:

• Resume and CV
• Cover letter
• Portfolio
• Social media presence

Difference between Resume and CV

So let’s start with the first one. Now the first thing you must understand is that a Resume and CV are correct and updated and are not the same thing, and in this, we will look at what these documents consist of and the differences between them.

What a Resume Contains?

A resume is a document that contains details about your education, background, your work experience, the projects you have worked on, skills you have, details of your training and workshop, your awards, and achievements, and additional details like your hobbies and the languages you are professionally speaking.

A resume is short and concise it is about one to two pages long and does not contain long detailed descriptions about any of the sections mentioned above in most cases it is advisable to keep this document up to one page only.

Now we look at the function or purpose of a resume. A resume is used mainly for applying for jobs or internships. So it is focused on your professional experiences and achievements also it is customized to the job you are applying for. So if you are applying for a marketing job then you should not include details about a recording career.

What a CV Contains?

A CV or a Curriculum Vitae means ‘the course of life’. It is a document containing a written overview of someone’s life’s work. A CV is more focused on academic experiences and contains a description of your academic performance, publications, research work, e.t.c. It also contains details about your professional experience.

Now let us see the length of a CV unlike a resume, a CV is not a short document but can range from 2 to 8 pages long and it’s depending on the depth and extent of your work.

The function or purpose of a CV is mainly used for academic purposes such as when applying for a research program, a Ph.D., or when applying for a teaching position at a University. It is focused on your academic experiences and achievements also a CV is not customized like a resume it is a universal document and must be updated regularly.

Cover Letter

A cover letter accompanies a resume. It is a letter or an email which states your intent for applying to that particular internship or job in that particular company. A cover letter is customized for every internship or job role. So no two cover letters can be exactly the same.

Now as I told you in the previous article you will need a resume when you apply for both on-campus and off-campus placements but a cover letter is mostly required for applying for off-campus placements and may or may not be required for on-campus placements.

Most companies do not ask for a cover letter in on-campus placements but some of them do. We will learn how to write email cover letters in great detail in the upcoming articles and everything about cover letters will be clear to you.

Portfolio 

Now while a resume and cover letters are mandatory gear and every one of you must have them ready when applying for a job or internship where as a Portfolio is a gear that may not be relevant to all of you. As it is not necessary for every profile so firstly we look at what is a Portfolio and then understand the profiles it can be relevant for.

A Portfolio is a collection of your best work samples. Portfolios can be made on various platforms, depending on your area of work. E.g– so people from a design background can use Behance to make their portfolio, or a coder can use GitHub to show their work. Code insert in projects right can create a document on word containing links to the written samples.

The objective is to present your best work samples to the recruiter so that he/she can assess your practical skills. You can use various formats to show your work some people make a website while others may make a PPT or simply share a link to their drive it all depends on how you want to present your work.

But like we said every person may not make a Portfolio it is most common for creative profiles such as artists, video developers, cake decorators, interior designers, e.t.c. But the trend is changing these days and people from tech profiles also create a Portfolio on GitHub to show the code to the apps or websites.

So it is up to you to decide whether a portfolio for you will help you get hired or not if you think showing your work will give you an edge over others then you should go for it. We will learn more about portfolio use in the upcoming articles.

Social Media Presence

In today’s world, most of us have a smartphone in our hands and it seems like our lives would stop if the smartphones below were taken away from us doesn’t it add to this one of the biggest reasons for us being constantly addicted to a phone is social media platforms.

So social media is so crucial to our life then why should not be important for recruiters as they want to know more about us. Some of the common social media platforms that recruiters used to check on their new recruits are- LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, and Blog writing platforms.

So let it go through each one of these ones by one LinkedIn is the social media for professionals just like you use Facebook for connecting with your friends and family that is to connect with people on a personal level.

LinkedIn is used to connect with people professionally most recruiters while going to your resume and cover letter go on to check your LinkedIn profile is well to get a better picture about you it helps them validate your education and work experience is well and also it helps them see how active or inactive you are on this platform so make sure you have a LinkedIn profile.

The next platform is YouTube and Instagram many people have their own channels on YouTube or pages on Instagram. So, in that case, these are the skills if you have any such pages or channels share their links to them with your recruiter. In the resume recruiters usually check these out to get more knowledge about your work and skills.

Next is blog writing platforms many people also have their own blogs this blog can be on WordPress or on Medium where they write articles. So if you have any such online work samples of your writing share the link to this in your resume.

Now when we say the WordPress blog people associated only with writers but nowadays people from tech marketing products and other such fields also maintain their blogs or write articles regularly to share their knowledge and new ideas with the community.

Such blogs tell the recruiter about the depth of your knowledge and also give the impression that you are active in your field of work and in touch with the community this could add to your benefits while getting hired. 

Again just like portfolios social media presence is not a mandatory gear when you apply for jobs or internships. But to tell you the truth in today’s world it becomes important for one to have an online presence on at least one social media platform relevant to the professional world so think about it.

So, we are seeing all these four gears in brief in this article and we will learn in detail about them in the upcoming articles.

Interesting Fact

Did you know– That the average time spent by recruiters looking at a resume is 5 to 7 seconds. So, make sure your resume is crisp and well organized.

So, that is all for today guys see you in our next blog. If you like our article please don’t forget to share it with others & follow our Instagram page for your daily dose of Motivation, and if you want jobs & internships updates or more articles like this you can follow our Linkedin page too.

Thank You,

Regards

Grooming Urban

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