ukmancoll

Hey guys,

I am going to be moving to the States in June to get married, and I believe I should be quite employable. I have a very good history in Sales & Marketing, with good experience and great references.

The current job market aside (where I am going to be living, etc) I am trying to figure out how to turn my British CV into an American resume. I have always thought I was good at writing a CV, but I am fast realising that a resume is completly different.

Does anyone have any ideas on this? Specific experiences?

I have done some searches on this site, and read up a bit about it. Just wondered if anyone else had anything to add.

Thanks a lot.

Matt

NC Penguin

Did you read threads about writing resumes/CVs that I have contributed to? I mention specific suggestions and also recommend a particular book on resume writing that is most appropriate for candidates with a foreign education, foreign work history and other non-typical resume type details.

Also, I would strongly advise you working on your resume now and not attempting to pin down employment before you reach the US. Employers are most unlikely to hold open a job for you until you move to the US.

In addition, it sounds as if you're coming over on a K-1 and if that's the case,the time in which it takes for you to have the correct paperwork to allow you to work is highly variable.

Best of luck in any case,

NC Penguin

Did you read threads about writing resumes/CVs that I have contributed to? I mention specific suggestions and also recommend a particular book on resume writing that is most appropriate for candidates with a foreign education, foreign work history and other non-typical resume type details.

Also, I would strongly advise you working on your resume now and not attempting to pin down employment before you reach the US. Employers are most unlikely to hold open a job for you until you move to the US.

In addition, it sounds as if you're coming over on a K-1 and if that's the case,the time in which it takes for you to have the correct paperwork to allow you to work is highly variable.

Best of luck in any case,

BritishInOhio

You are in for a shock! Good luck anyhow.

ukmancoll

Why am I in for a shock?

Franklin

I think BritishInOhio is referring to the tight job market. Sure there are some openings and if you have particularly sought after skills you might even apply for and land a job before settling here. But chances are you will find it a challenge to land a decent job - there are lots of job seekers, many with degrees and MBAs etc. looking for a job. But good luck.

BritishInOhio

Comming here on K1 sucks finding a job wise. Very few employers have any idea about this visa be ready for questions such as ....... are you a US citizen? You have to be a citizen to work here? all that shit, none of which they can ask legally but do anyhow, apart form government jobs I think. It sucks I got lucky, very lucky, but I know of plenty of expats who had great jobs at home, degrees, experience etc. etc. and it counts for shit over here and they are doing crappy jobs just to make ends meet. You have any UK qualifications? Well you can use the transcripts to wipe your ass with now 'cos that's all they are good for. I'm serious. I had one interviewer say....."I did'nt know they had universities in England" other classics are "American qualifications are far superior to the ones in Englend that is why we get so may forign students here"
I really should get over it, I have a great job now, well paid, shit vacation but what can you do, but that first year over here was hell I have never felt so worthless in all my life and there is **** all you can do about it.

Good luck.

Where are you moving to? The bigger the city the better chances you have I feel from my experience.

USBound

wow - maybe its just my area.. but jobs here are plentiful and people here definitely take UK qualifications seriously... there are 75 people in my current office, 15 of them are from the UK on various VISA's and wotnot...

so.. it depends entirely upon your location.

re: CV to Resume - I'd suggest employing a professional, there are LOTS of websites that offer such services and for a reasonable fee. Personally, I sent my fully UK format CV around and got 3 job offers within 2 days... more since I took this job .... its all relative

NC Penguin

Just my 5 cents on the matter.

To the OP. If you do take up USBound's suggestion about getting your CV/resume done by a "professional", vet them thoroughly on their experience of working on candidates like you from overseas. Anyone can set themselves up in business rewriting resumes so you want to find an experienced and successful company/individual, not necessarily the cheapest.




NC Penguin

BritishInOhio

Hey, just noticed your heading to the Chicago Burbs, that is a good thing. My wife works just up the road from you, do you have any pets? Trying to drum up some buisiness for her!!!! Let me know your field and you can even post me your CV if you want I can see if I can help you I have some contacts here in Chicagoland now I live about 10 miles away from Schaumberg, nice town by the way.

Franklin

It's fact dependent. Some areas are indeed hot, but overall the job market has been in a depressed state since around 2002, maybe as far back as 2001. I was lucky, got a job offer in Chicago with very good pay and benefits that I accepted before migrating to the USA (I did a round of interviews before applying for a green card back in blightie). I got the paperwork done within 3 weeks and was on my way a couple of weeks or so after that. But my qualifications were in hot demand, a law firm had a billion dollar case involving pretty intense biotech issues; funny thing was they put me on another case, I ended up in charge of discovery, tracking down expert witnesses, pre-screening/interviewing said witnesses, and acting in a support role at depositions. I also wrote three biotech applications for a mega-huge biotech client. (All done under the supervision of at least one attorney). I had more job offers than I knew what to do with; I was turning away head hunters who kept ringing me up and asked the receptionist to screen all my calls to weed out the head hunters, the firm bent over backwards to keep me and gave me a lot of help and money to stay.

"But that was then, and this is now." (Line from some advert that I can't identify, still in recovery from my stay at the Bellagio in Las Vegas).

Right now the job market remains depressed (yes, it is improving, but not fast enough to make a noticeable difference given the massive layoffs and job cuts), but for some there are immediate openings; it seems you fall into that category. Lucky u!

USBound

ahh.. I had my fair share of crap... twice redundant in 12 months, second time with ZERO pay from the previous month and no cash whatsoever in the bank due to the previous redundancy resulting in relocating london side... as soon as I put my CV stateside tho.. the offers came in.... I guess there's a big demand for experienced low level console programmers that americans just can't fill these days :-P

Franklin

Yeah, most of us (me included) have had rough times. But lap it up while the going is so good for you! Good luck to ya!

Lion in Winter

The book "What Color is Your Parachute" by Richard Bolles (2005 edition) has a lot of useful information on how to sell yourself in the American market, and provides some useful websites for resume samples. There's some strange stuff in there about flower petals and God, but you can skip that. I found the rest quite useful in terms of how to tackle the job hunt here. I don't know if there is such as thing as a British edition, but you don't want that, so order it from Amazon in the U.S.

In the meantime, here he is, in all his glory.

http://www.jobhuntersbible.com/index.php

Big Vern

Just some really simple things -

If you're emailing your resume out, don't forget to make it Letter paper, not A4..if you don't when they print it out it'll be all over the place.

Americanize the spelling - e.g. defense not defence

Most american companies wouldn't know what an O or A level is - I just put GCE (High School) Examinations inc. English Language, Maths etc and that seems to be explanation enough.

Don't underestimate putting your resume on Monster.com and Dice, you can get a lot of good leads from them even if you don't get a specific job. Interested recruiters call up, and then once you've got a contact keep pestering them...

Most of all, don't give up....