How much would you pay for a talk that inspires your life? What would you want to know if you are given a chance to ask experienced people with great achievements?
    In 2009, I was privileged to interview these outstanding friends, top CEOs from American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan, and received personal advices from them. These tips not only apply to finding jobs but also work for lifelong career. As one of the luckiest person in the world, I am obliged to share these masterpieces to all job seekers.
    Taiwan Apprentice is a competition held by ICRT, Oh!Study and American Chamber of Commerce. Contestants answer Task question designed by American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei, ICRT and Oh!Study Group and received votes from all over the world. As candidates, we are required to finish a marketing plan; answering trivia questions within one minute and responding to real life cases on air. I made many friends through this campaign and did something I have never imaged before, like attending a love show on air, making out a marketing plan, and receiving votes from people all over the world!
    There is a saying that goes, “Great minds think alike.” After I had interviews with these achieved people from AmCham, I can’t agree with this saying anymore to specify, their thoughts can be categorized as the following:
On Resume:
    We all know that a good resume is very important, however, there are so many mistakes we might make unconsciously. These are checkpoints for people working on
their resumes:
On English Resume:
Cover letter First: why apply?
    The format of Chinese resume is quite different from that of an English one. One of the most important differences is that a cover letter usually comes before your resume, which is to state the reason why you apply and to brief your experience.
Example of a cover letter:
Dear Sir:

    I have learned from a friend that there is a vacancy for public relation in the International Trade Institution, and I wish to apply for the position. I graduated from University of Southern California 2008. I am current working for ICRT Taiwan Apprentice program as an associate. As I have made up my mind to join the public relation field, I have worked in Cycling-Lifestyle Foundation for one year and have been responsible for communicating with the media.
    I should welcome a personal interview at your convenience and enclosed is a brief personal history.

Sincerely yours Damian Cheng

Not necessary: Autobiography, Picture, No more than 1 page
    Some parts are not necessary in English resume like autobiography and picture, but if you do want to put a picture on it, pick one in formal dress. Also, try to make your resume as short and clear as possible. Even if you are rich in life stories, you
have to select those experiences that are relevant.
Give your objectives
    Stating your objectives in the beginning is vital. For instance, you can put: to gain your entry level marketing position on your objective. Some companies also weigh your ambition highly so you can put:
1. To gain your entry level marketing position and fit into your organization within 3 months
2. To outperform and competing for mid level management position with 5 years.
3. Will apply for MBA overseas and return back to organization then contribute in the future 10 years.
    Remember that this objective doesn’t work for all companies.
In general:
Freshman: Specify act and class achievement
    As we just graduated from school for not a very long time, in-school activities matters. Hence, don’t forget to point out the honors you received, whether in academic, sports or club activities. They might help the interviewers to know your determination, self-discipline and leadership. For a freshman who has no longer than 2 years of working experience, the best proportion on resume between work experience and school activities might be 50% and 50%.
Use time frame and bullet points
    Be sure to put your listed points in time order and use bullet points to specify your specific deeds.
For example:
Work Experience: (accumulated for 1.5 year)
06/09-07/09 Finance Manager in Pactek United Technology Corporation
- Help established Accounting and information system and company Infrastructure
11/08-04/09 TA in International Trade Department, National Taipei College of Business
- Responsible for holding seminars and students’ graduation proposal
Using bullet points will prevent interviewers from wasting time beating around the bush, and this also help shows that you are very task-oriented.
Read all resumes
    Phil Shaw, General Manager, Kraft Foods Taiwan kindly reminded us that we can find lots of resume examples online and if we are really serious about our resume, websites like ladder.com can help revise. Always keep updating your resume every six month even you are employed and do not plan to change since this helps you to locate your competency.
Contact details: e-mail (informal)
    Be sure to leave you formal e-mail with your current company address. If you don’t have any, leave your school one. Don’t use free mailbox like msn or gmail which might look like fake or inappropriate to interviewers.
    The attachment is my revised resume after their kindly guidance, you can refer to it when you are working on yours.
On Interview
Turn your disadvantages into advantages
    You might be asked a very tricky question in one of your future interviews, “We have another competitor who’s more experienced than you, so perhaps you could
give us reasons why we should choose you instead of him.” How would you respond? One of the best strategies is, as Revital Golan, Sales Director Asia, MassiveImpact International Ltd, Taiwan Branch, said, don’t answer it directly. You can say,” I understand that I might be inexperienced than him, I don’t know him and I won’t make comparison with him, all I know is about myself, I am confident that I am the best person for your position according to the following reasons…” This might be a good idea to turn interviewers’ attention to your qualities again. At the same time, packaging your experiences into impressive stories is as important!
Always say “How can I contribute”, don’t say “Learn from it”
    We all want to learn from our current job in order to make ourselves more competitive in the future. However, you should keep in mind that you are paid to contribute, not to learn. Therefore, you should try to stand in the company’s shoes and stress how your ability and experience can benefit the organization.
Practice with different scenarios
    Cindy Lin, General Manager, Taiwan, PepsiCo International offered her magic move of a successful interview: a scenario matrix! In the table in the following is an example of a scenario matrix, you can write your all stories and those qualities you have shown. When asked of different cases, you can quickly refer to them and answer them. This is really awesome, isn’t it? That’s a genius idea indeed!

Show ambition and your preparation
    No one would hire an interviewee who doesn’t know anything about his company and industry. Do some homework about the company and be sure to answer any questions related to the company, position and the industry. If you are unsure about the answer, be frank to say you will learn about it. Show your ambition to fit into the organization and seek for promotion with your performance.
Be able to answer tough questions
    Interviewing people has become a technical and systemized art. As will be emphasized in the following part, honesty is always the best policy. A little sense of humor will add up to your points. Interviewers are humans, so they would have their own preferences as well. I used to be asked a case to show my leadership and I answered it with my experience in my mandatory military service, it turned out to be a very pleasant talk since we found we shared the same brotherhood in the army.
Most frequently asked questions
During interviews, some of the most frequently asked questions are:
“What is your career plan?”
“What is the reason that you left your previous job?”
“Tell me something about yourself.”
“What is the biggest challenge/obstacle/failure/success that you have ever had?”
“How can you contribute to our company/organization?”
    These questions are to test the interviewees if they are well-prepared or not. Doing research about the company you are applying for is also important. Interviewees should be aware of the company’s products, visions and recent development. Some international companies even value experiences of failure more than experiences of success since they are interested in how interviewees can learn
from failure, which is a necessary quality to triumph. The only tip for these questions is being honest. Be frank to answer why you left your former job, statements like “I cannot fit into the company culture” or “I want to work in an environment where I can use my language ability every day” are both appropriate. David Pacey, General Manager of Hyatt Taiwan, pointed out that there is a specific term for introducing yourself called “Elevator Speech”, which means explaining your idea within a very short time as if you are taking an elevator; interviewees are expected to introduce themselves in a few minutes. So go practice before you go to an interview!
Qualities they care
     What are the qualities that international firms value most? After a series of interviews, these are priorities when valuing an employee: 

    These are just basic requirements of a productive and positive player of the organization. People equipped with these qualities are doomed to success. You may use these indicators as a measurement to see if you are ready to embrace the situation people spent most time with--work.
On Career
    As work has become the ultimate pursuit of us, top CEOs do have some advices for our whole career:
Don’t let it happen, make it happen! :
    Great jobs won’t come to you; you go for them! Revital gives a very aggressive suggestion that job seekers can write a list of ten companies they want to work in and call HR of those companies. You can still send your resume to them even they are not currently hiring for positions you are interested in. This rule did work for me since I got my current job when they were not hiring for anyone.
Go for passionate, not smart:
    Passion is one of the qualities of success that cannot be agreed more. When making a decision, that “smart” decision often means stable, highly-paid and of high social status. However, it is passion that drives you. Choose the firm or industry you like most and go for it!
Don’t be shy, believe! :
    Many CEOs said they think Taiwanese young men are too shy to express their feelings during work. Humbleness is always a good virtue except when job hunting.
Show consistency:
    Once you have gained offer from the company you want to work for, try to spend 1-2 years to see how things go, for there will be a learning curve for you and you need time to prove your ability. In other words, changing your job continually
might cause doubts from your new employer.
Don’t compromise and never be disappointed:
    Job hunting is not an easy thing, especially under this economic recession. Therefore, keeping a positive mind is a must. Take myself for example, I spent six months finding my first job after I finished my master degree, having the idea that taking a master degree is a failure. Not until I finished my post master marketing classes did I get ten offers. It feels so good to reject them all.
Open to work environment and welfare:
    Asking about welfare is okay, however, salary should not be your first consideration, for that the salary gap between entry level positions and management positions is usually huge and that your economic situation will be improved once you get promoted. If you really like the company’s culture and is positive about the company’s future development, then be open to locations, welfare and all kinds of assigned tasks.
First job experience matters:
    William Farrell, Managing Director of Boyden Global Executive Search, wants to remind all freshmen that you are what you did. Past achievements will always speak for you when you are pursuing for new chances. Therefore, your first job will definitely help shape your whole career. So select carefully and fit yourself into the industry.
Conclusion
    To conclude, we can get some basic ideas from above:

 


   I summarized all of the points mentioned into a table so you can quickly check if there are mistakes you might make in your job hunting.
    This is not an article about how to get you a better job but real life stories from elites with extraordinary achievements. From these words of wisdom, not only do I see their secrets of success but I also find various possibilities of life. Being a participant of 2009 Taiwan Apprentice, it is my responsibility to record everything I’ve learned during the process. However, the organizations holding this event and these courteous gentlemen are to be appreciated for their generosity.
    I would also like to point the importance of lifelong learning. Some programs like International Trade Institution’s Post Master Marketing Program will help you learn advanced and hands on business wits from various lecturers. It is really tiring working and attending classes at the same time, not to mention our numerous assignments. However, every effort you spent will pay off eventually.
    Thanks to the Apprentice campaign and words from top CEOs, I would treat these tips as my career guidelines hope these tips also work for you as well. Good luck and happy job hunting!