Qualities of am ideal candidate

Job skills: Employers want to hire people who have the skills required for the job.

Problem solving skills: Employees at all levels need to solve problems.

Communication skills: These include the ability to speak and write clearly, read, and listen.

Teamwork: Teamwork means the ability to get along well with coworkers, to put your team's needs above your own, and to take direction and work-related criticism from your supervisors.

Dedication: Employers want employees who are willing to respond to emergencies, put in the extra effort it takes to satisfy an important customer, or get the training necessary to achieve their goals.

Positive work attitude: According to employers, promising employees are those who are enthusiastic, friendly, motivated, and willing to accept assigned tasks.

Professional attitude: Employers love workers who know what needs to be done and go ahead and do it on their own.

Employability skills:

• Adapt to changing demands of a job
  
• Be accurate
  
• Be creative and innovative
  
• Be flexible
  
• Be precise and exacting
  
• Complete work on time
  
• Concentrate on several parts of a job at a time
  
• Follow oral, visual, written, and multi-step directions
  
• Improve their own performance constantly
  
• Not disturb others or deter others from their tasks
  
• Plan and organize work
  
• Reason and make objective judgments
  
• Stick with a task and keep busy
  
• Work neatly

People skills: Employers look for applicants who will get along well with supervisors, other employees, and customers.

Self-management skills: Employers expect employees to take care of problem situations (for example: finances, marital relations, childcare, drug or alcohol problems, and other personal problems) before they affect work performance.

Tips on imroving your CV

Improve your CV If your CV looks a bit thin and sad, try some of our quick tips to make it stand out in that pile. Make the most of it Start by making the most of whatever you've already done. If you keep your CV stored on a disc or computer, you'll have the flexibility to tailor it slightly to each job you're applying for. There's only so much room you can use on a page, so if you're after a job in a sector where you have relevant experience, it makes sense to add more detail to your work experience section, and cut text from less relevant sections elsewhere. Try not to undervalue the things you've done before. So what if you were just working part-time in a crappy restaurant making pizzas all summer? You actually learned about teamwork, customer service, punctuality, and health and safety while you were there. That sounds better than, "oh, I was just making fast food". Use strong language It isn't just what you say, it's how you say it too. Make yourself sound dynamic, even if you aren't feeling particularly lively at the moment. Use phrases that make you sound active rather than passive, don't say: "I attended training", say "I took part in extra training." Words and phrases that stand out on CVs are ones such as 'organised', 'responsible for', 'planned', and so on. Do something new If your resume is still looking a bit thin and weedy, and the interviews aren't due for a while, you could get out there and gain some more experience to bulk it out a bit. Try signing up for some volunteer work nearby (try www.do-it.org.uk) and get cracking. You might not be able to sort out a classy internship in a short period of time, but you could arrange a day or two of work-shadowing with a local employer. Failing that, you could sign up for a little extra training and learn some new tricks. For example, certain software packages can often be learned in two-day courses, and won't necessarily break the bank. Don't be too bland If you're relatively young, employers don't expect you to have a jam-packed CV, so yours will probably look like many others. Don't try to look too corporate, and be completely bland. Let a couple of interesting facts about yourself go onto the pages and let your personality show through a little. If you're right for the job, or your words just catch the selector's eye, you'll be in with a better chance. But don't think that gives you the right to use ridiculous fonts or brightly-coloured paper. And don't tell them that you spend every waking moment watching TV or playing fighting-fantasy roleplays - even if you do.

how to get organized

When it comes to getting organized, we're our own worst enemies. We keep things because we persuade ourselves we'll need them—even if we haven't used them in five years and don't quite know where we've put them. There seems to be a security factor in just knowing they're around... somewhere.

But that turns out to be misplaced; it's our inner-hoarder talking. What most of us really need is a personal push to get organized, an experienced personal organizer to separate us emotionally from the possessions we no longer need and that clutter our minds as well as our space.

To get some tips on overcoming our worst string-saving instincts, I turned to a top professional organizer, Mia Lotringer, who runs C'est Fini! in Los Angeles (www.cestfini.com). What follows are her suggestions.

• Open your mail every day. Or make a weekly appointment with yourself—and don't break it!—to open all your mail and pay all your bills.
• Set up a weekly appointment with yourself to do the food shopping—and create a meal plan for the week with all the necessary groceries—so that you won't need to go to the grocery store all the time.
• When you pick up your mail, always throw the junk mail out immediately. That leaves a smaller pile to contend with.
• Shred everything with your name, address, and any personal information, especially credit card offers and anything with your social security number.
• Once you have looked at a paper, take whatever action is needed right away.
• Always put the ball in other people's court. The overall goal is to have no papers on your desk at all. In order to do that, act on all your open files; do your part and you won't have to think about the project, task or question—until the others get back to you. Put the papers you have acted on in a Pending File with a note as to the action taken, when and with whom. Then input a date in your calendar with an alert so that you can follow-up if necessary.
• Get virtual: anything that you can keep as a document on your computer, do! Do not print out anything—unless you will need it outside your home or office. Always back up important information from your computer onto discs or a backup drive!
• Organize your computer. Try to get files off the desktop—they are visual clutter. Reserve your desktop for the files you access every day. Create folders in your Documents folder to encompass a range of files: Recipes, Events, etcetera. Create categories and subcategories that make sense to you.
• The biggest obstacle between you and your organized self is your fear of throwing things out. If you are a business, throw out all tax papers older than 11 years; individuals can safely throw out all financial papers older than seven years. Do keep birth and marriage certificates, social security cards, driver's licenses and passports, along with the deed/title to your home, homeowner's insurance in a safety deposit box or in a fireproof lock box and/or with copies with the family lawyer/financial advisor.
• Get over the emotional roadblock to getting organized. You must be willing to throw things out! As a veteran organizer, I can honestly say that there is no one's home where something can't be thrown out—including mine! If there's an item you haven't used in six months, chances are you won't ever use it; it's only taking up space.
• Go through your items quickly and make snap judgments—that first inclination is generally a good one. Then repeat the process. Often, you will find more items that you can live without. If you are holding onto something in case you "might" need it in the far off future, get rid of it! You can always buy whatever it is when you actually need it.
• If you really can't throw things out, I suggest staging those items out of your life. Put the items in a box with a destroy date written onto it—generally about six months from now. If you find yourself needing to go into it to find something—and you end up actually using that item, not just taking it out of the box—put it with the items to keep. Anything left in the box at the end of the time should be thrown out.
• If you are a frequent traveler, have a travel bag all ready to go, with toothbrush and miniature toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, body cream, liquid body soap, sunscreen; razor; brush/comb. Carry on extra socks for use on the plane, an extra layer, extra medication and prescription, hand cleaner, water mist and a bottle of water. Pack anything liquid, creamy or potentially messy in a Glad bag.
• Create a To Do or task list, if possible on your PDA. Prioritize items and assign all a due date. If a task needs following up, set a date to take further action.
• Get a PDA. If you back it up at least once week and back up your computer at least once a month, you will always have a copy of your address book, your calendar, your task list. It is a brain source—once you put it in there you don't have to think about it until it tells you to!
• Do not get overwhelmed. Pick one thing that needs to get organized—the smaller the better—papers, computer files, clothes, linen closet, kitchen, mail, children's room, and work on that one thing until you are content that it is sufficiently organized. Then move onto the next item. Never attack the whole house at one time.