Writing a resume
One of the most important success factors in an international relocation is the ability to find a job in your new home country. It does not need much clarification that the job market in the USA is significantly different than the job market that we are used to in the Netherlands. What came as a little bit of a surprise to me was, that the job finding process is also not quite comparable to what I was used to.
In the Netherlands, I was used to giving an employer notice of my resignation at least two or three months before I would leave. I would typically start looking for a new a new job at least three to six months before my desired starting date. That is a period of time that is much too long for the USA. A typical job application process takes about 4 weeks: after sending in your resume, you typically hear from the hiring company within a week and you are expected to be available within one or two weeks for a first interview. If necessary, subsequent rounds of interviewing will follow. If that all works out, you pretty much start immediately after that.
When I realized this, I also found out how important a good resume is. Resume writing is something that we are not used to in the Netherlands. A Dutch CV typically contains a lot of information and provides many details about your personal and professional history. CV's of 5 pages or more are nothing out of the ordinary.
In the USA, initial screening is done via an abbreviated CV, known as a resume. Head over to your search engine of choice, and look for terms like 'resume writing', 'resume sample', or any search term that might get you some good results. You will quickly get a feel for what US-employers are looking for.
A good resume will capture the essence of who you are, and what your strengths are, in the first half of the first page. The rest of the at most 2-page document, should concisely list your professional experience and your education, and lend credibility to your personal profile and claimed expertise. Do not include details, such as gender, date of birth, expected salary, city and town of birth, marital status, children, etc. If you already are approved for a work visa, do include that information clearly and from very early on.
Another thing that worked well for me is not to list my NL address and phone number on the resumes that I sent out. Instead I used my address in the USA with the note "currently residing in the Netherlands".
Sign up for a US-based local phone number via Skype, Yahoo!, Callcentric, or any other voice-over-IP (VoIP) provider. For a price of somewhere between $2.50 and $10 per month, you can list a very easy (and cheap) US-domestic phone number, rather than a complicated international one. With most of the VoIP-providers, you will be able to take calls to that phone number on your PC, forward your new phone number to a Dutch phone number, or send it to a voice mail service that you can check-out remotely.
As always when you write something, make sure that you keep your audience in mind. Resumes are generally not initially reviewed by hiring managers who know what they are talking about, but by human resources departments that are looking for certain keywords. Make sure that those keywords are present on your resume, or you will never be found, no matter how good your qualifications are.
Also keep in mind that the USA typically uses a different paper format than we do in the Netherlands; set your text editor to use Letter format paper, rather than A4. It is just a small detail that probably will not even be noticed consciously, but I am convinced that at a subconscious level, it does make a difference.
Make sure that you do not have too much blank space on pages. In the Netherlands, using whitespace is an acceptable way to make a page flow better, but many US-based employers will view it as page filler that is used to masquerade that you do not have enough relevant experience. Use a decent font (I prefer Century Schoolbook over Arial or Times), in a proper size (10.5pt or 11pt) and use paper margins of about 1,5cm on all sides. Try to shy away from using lots of bullet lists; use flowing sentences instead.
When you do send out a resume to a prospective employer, keep track of the date on which you submitted it, and also make sure that you know which version you sent out. Follow up if you have not heard for a week or so.
One last very important and crucial element is that your resume should absolutely and positively not contain any faulty spelling and/or bad grammar! Nothing will get you disqualified faster than the inability to write proper US-English.
When I realized this, I also found out how important a good resume is. Resume writing is something that we are not used to in the Netherlands. A Dutch CV typically contains a lot of information and provides many details about your personal and professional history. CV's of 5 pages or more are nothing out of the ordinary.
In the USA, initial screening is done via an abbreviated CV, known as a resume. Head over to your search engine of choice, and look for terms like 'resume writing', 'resume sample', or any search term that might get you some good results. You will quickly get a feel for what US-employers are looking for.
A good resume will capture the essence of who you are, and what your strengths are, in the first half of the first page. The rest of the at most 2-page document, should concisely list your professional experience and your education, and lend credibility to your personal profile and claimed expertise. Do not include details, such as gender, date of birth, expected salary, city and town of birth, marital status, children, etc. If you already are approved for a work visa, do include that information clearly and from very early on.
Another thing that worked well for me is not to list my NL address and phone number on the resumes that I sent out. Instead I used my address in the USA with the note "currently residing in the Netherlands".
Sign up for a US-based local phone number via Skype, Yahoo!, Callcentric, or any other voice-over-IP (VoIP) provider. For a price of somewhere between $2.50 and $10 per month, you can list a very easy (and cheap) US-domestic phone number, rather than a complicated international one. With most of the VoIP-providers, you will be able to take calls to that phone number on your PC, forward your new phone number to a Dutch phone number, or send it to a voice mail service that you can check-out remotely.
As always when you write something, make sure that you keep your audience in mind. Resumes are generally not initially reviewed by hiring managers who know what they are talking about, but by human resources departments that are looking for certain keywords. Make sure that those keywords are present on your resume, or you will never be found, no matter how good your qualifications are.
Also keep in mind that the USA typically uses a different paper format than we do in the Netherlands; set your text editor to use Letter format paper, rather than A4. It is just a small detail that probably will not even be noticed consciously, but I am convinced that at a subconscious level, it does make a difference.
Make sure that you do not have too much blank space on pages. In the Netherlands, using whitespace is an acceptable way to make a page flow better, but many US-based employers will view it as page filler that is used to masquerade that you do not have enough relevant experience. Use a decent font (I prefer Century Schoolbook over Arial or Times), in a proper size (10.5pt or 11pt) and use paper margins of about 1,5cm on all sides. Try to shy away from using lots of bullet lists; use flowing sentences instead.
When you do send out a resume to a prospective employer, keep track of the date on which you submitted it, and also make sure that you know which version you sent out. Follow up if you have not heard for a week or so.
One last very important and crucial element is that your resume should absolutely and positively not contain any faulty spelling and/or bad grammar! Nothing will get you disqualified faster than the inability to write proper US-English.
