IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A NEW POSITION

There are several traditional ways of looking for a job, choosing one of which (or better all at once) it is possible to count on success.

The first is the typically “Soviet” approach in which you are allotted the function of passively waiting for a suitable variant. Communicate your intentions to all your friends and acquaintances, using all the connections at your disposal. A more civilized and active means of looking for a job is studying the market of the offered vacancies to get an insight into the level of necessary demands and size up your own chances.

The best way of doing this is to use the help of employment agencies or to independently study the ads of job opportunities being published.

________ Announcements of job opportunities can be read in different

printed publications, heard on the radio, and so on. But which of them is worth reacting to?

Your main task is to understand whether the position being offered is consistent with the levels of your skills, education, and experience in work.

________ The structure of job opportunities ads is usually the same: the name of the vacant position, the list of the candidate’s professional duties, the demands made of the candidate, and the system of compensations and benefits.

________ Quite often the name of the company itself is not indicated. Ads are of ten published by employment agencies on behalf of their clients. The address of the office is usually not given— it is suggested that the resume should be sent to a P.O. box or else faxed. On very rare occasions the phone number is given, where it is possible to get additional information. Publishing an ad, the company usually strives to cut down its expenses on handling the responses being received, which is why preliminary selection is carried out on the basis of resumes, and only finding yourself at the interview will you be able to find out some new details. Having carefully studied the demands and duties being offered, an experienced reader may extract information on the activities of the company and the prospects of its development.

The phrases often used about “successful work over many years in the Russian market," “New missions being opened,” etc., really testify to the company’s dependability, on serious prospects for its growth, and the durability of its stay in Russia.

First, one must pay attention to the name of the position. To grasp unambiguously what lurks behind the position's English name, there is a need to visualize at least in general outline the personnel structure at Western companies. For instance, one may be misled by the incorrect interpretation of the word “Assistant." There is a need to understand that this word does not at all imply secretarial functions. A more exact meaning of this word is: mate, aide, apprentice manager, high-class specialist capable of independently tacking the tasks set to him or her. The not always adequate translation of the position’s name does not make it possible to judge what one will have to do in reality. Therefore, using all possible means, try to learn as much as possible about this position to prepare yourself as good as possible for a meeting with the employer.

_____Carefully read the demands made of the given position. The demand to know a foreign language is very important. In most cases there is a need for free command of the language — Fluent English. Free command implies not only the knowledge of the professional vocabulary, reading and translation with a dictionary, but also an ability, freely to deal with a foreign manager, competently to compile documents, and speak on the phone. This demand may prove to be the most important. Be attentive to expressions like “Willingness to travel” — as a rule, this means two- three weeks of business trips to the remotest parts of the CIS. Quite often the ads do not decipher other demands in detail. For example, the ability to type in Russian/Latin. According to interrelation of standards, an adequate level typewriting is a speed of 60 words per minute. This speed is rarely met even among professional typists, to say nothing of the fact that there is a need to type with a similar high speed: on both keyboards. Therefore, when claiming the given position, you need to check your speed or bring it up to the required level. Besides, a secretary is usually required to be able to work on a personal computer. The question, first and foremost, concerns the professional text editors of Word, Word for Windows and Word Perfect type. The Lexicon and Chi Writer editors which are so popular in Russian structures are practically never used. In general, if the ads meticulously enumerate the software products, systems, languages, etc., which the candidate must necessarily know, remember that these demands have a strictly binding force.