All right, here’s the situation:
You want to work overseas. To find work, you need to get an interview with people in the position to hire you and if you are offered a position, you will also need a work visa. But employers and consulate workers are busy people. Nobody wants to spend an entire day conducting interviews and most consulates and businesses don’t have the resources do this. As a result, you send an agent that knows how to quickly, accurately and effectively represent you. However, that agent isn’t a person, instead it is a piece of paper called a résumé.
What Does Your Résumé Really Say?
Your résumé is a piece of paper that is used to sell you to prospective employers. If you are planning to work overseas the translated version of your résumé helps sell you to foreign consulates who will decide whether or not to grant you a work visa and entry into their country. But the résumé that you send makes your case as to whether you get the interview and work visa. Although your résumé is simply a collection of words and thoughts, it is really a picture. This is because employers and consulate offices, like you, have imagination. When employers and consulate employees read your résumé those words are converted to thoughts and mental images. Of course, your résumé isn’t a literal picture of you, but it does present your image and casts an impression of you.
How Do the Words Present You?
What you need to determine is how the words on your résumé present you to readers. Do the words convey that you are credible, legitimate, honest, upstanding and qualified? Do they indicate that you are a person who obeys rules, works well with others and is capable of making meaningful contributions?
You also need to determine if the words you chose to include represent you as old, sluggish, short or sloppy. While these descriptions aren’t included on your résumé, the words you choose create an image of you in the minds of employers and consulate workers. Regardless of whether it is ethical or unethical, employers will try to look beyond the words and imagine your qualities. That’s just human nature.
Therefore, when you sit down to compose your résumé think of yourself as an artist. Use words and ideas that will project the perfect picture that puts you in the best light. Ask yourself if you would hire yourself. If the answer is yes, then you should think about hiring a certified translation company that is experienced in translating résumés.