Getting The Best US Citizen Jobs In The United States

Congrats on becoming a US citizen after holding a green card. You can now apply for even government jobs all over the US and can also get jobs anywhere without any visa constraints. Phew! That was such a relief. After such a long wait you have now become a citizen and can also move round the US as you wish. But sometimes your dream of getting the best job is hampered by doing one common mistake that is not Americanizing your resume enough for the employers. Now you can also demand more salaries compared to your other counterparts who are all working on other VISA’s.

You being an international person on US soil may include so many things that the American recruiters don’t want to see and may be even off-putting. It’s very much important to customize your resume to meet the requirements and the style must be what is expected by the American recruiter. Like for example they don’t expect too much of personal details which a typical Indian resume has. Adding information like your marital status, religion, father’s profession may all seem to be very superfluous and so self assuming. Instead it will make the resume look very dense and will also look uncomfortable for the person who is reviewing it. Its better if we just stick to the basics such as name, contact details and about experience.

The main focus must be on the accomplishments. The achievements must be more in detail and in numbers. You can specify that you were the best resource in the team, you lead the team of 10 members or something similar to it. While most of the Indian recruiters would first look up whether you are academically qualified or possess the correct academic qualifications before looking into the experience. American recruiters give more importance to the work experience, and how much of interest you are having towards the US citizen jobs that you are applying for.

So, for an American resume, mention your educational qualifications at the end, says Pujya Jennifer Pascal, a career counselor at O.P. Jindal Global University, in the north Indian state of Haryana.

Start instead with your area of interest or expertise, followed with the skills you have for the job, and then list your work experience at http://www.benchfolks.com/us-citizen-jobs.html

If you have worked for many years in one particular field, you can start with your work experience.

Use numbers to show what you’ve accomplished in your previous jobs, says Ashley Chiampo, founder of New Global Mind, an executive coaching firm based in Gurgaon.

For instance, if you designed 10 products at your last firm, which helped increase the company’s revenue by 10%, be sure to include that, says Ms. Chiampo.

Use words that convey action like “created” and “negotiated,” she adds.

If you have just graduated, and don’t have much work experience, highlight your skills and extra-curricular activities such as leading a group project or being the captain of the college cricket team. It can help to highlight life beyond your work and show you are a rounded individual.

If you are applying for an engineering job and mention that you are interested in fashion and design clothes in your free time, it helps show your personality, says Ms. Chiampo.

Mind your language: All resumes should be grammatically correct and free of spelling errors, but for an American resume, be sure to use American English. If you use British grammar and spellings — which Indians follow — the person going through the resume at the American company might consider it an error.

Be job-specific: American companies expect resumes to be crisp and very specific to the job you are applying for, says Sunil Goel, chief executive of Delhi recruitment firm GlobalHunt India Pvt.

If you send a generic resume to a company it shows that you haven’t spent enough time finding out about them. Check out how to market your resume.

Read up about the company and the job you are applying for, and use your resume to show why you are the best fit for that job.

If, for instance, you want to join an information technology company in United States as a software engineer, check the segments in which the company does most of its software development. When you write your resume, mention the skills that are most relevant to that segment first, and then list other skills.

Test your resume: Experts suggest giving your resume to a person who doesn’t know you very well. Give this person 10 seconds to look at your resume — the time a recruiter will give your resume — and ask what they remember.