Speaking of Recruitment

Economy meltdown
Everyone are trapped in this economy meltdown situation. Because of direct or indirect business links, a vicious chain reaction - “Devil Chain” slowly eats up companies and thus causing close-down of companies after companies.

Question: “You are in a recruitment firm, so you must be earning like hell as there are more applicants now.”
Answer: Not really. Due to the economy, applicants increase, but job’s availability decreases. Applicants only create more depth for a recruitment databases and also give them higher chance of getting a more suitable candidate for the limited job.

What can I as a applicant do now?
My best advice is to study or work harder in your company in areas that produce cash for your company than concentrating on your normal duties.
To study now is the most suitable and best advice I can give. This gives you a chance to slowdown your fast pace life and improve your knowledge and qualifications so that when the economy finally pick itself up and I reckon it will be slow however will be speed up in 3 months after. So I welcome you to take this advice.

I’ve just graduated from a local university, is my chances of getting a job high now?
Nope, it is as low as 10%. But if you have great experience before you went in for a degree or so, you have higher chances of getting a job. If you come to think of it, it definitely make sense to anyone. Like all my friends who ORD-ed, they choose to hurry up and go for NTU, NUS, SMU, SIM, etc. But neither they realize the path they take is a bet. Having a good degree in a local university is important as it will stand out in resumes, however, it is the timing of it.
For my case, I choose to work first to gain the experience, at least a year of working experience to be able to standout among all the degree holders with nothing to show in their resume. So those who are going to ORD, think twice.

I am going to send my resume out, what should I take note?
What I am going to say is just my recommendations, so do not follow if you think it does not make sense to you.
Picture of yourself is better to keep it to yourself than sharing it in the resume. First impressions are the most important and some recruitment firms do mind that as you are the one whom they are going to present you to their clients, so do take note on why!
Fancy resumes are better off without it. The maximum I will go to is .PDF files, other than that, please do not put in background for your resumes. It will lag in most situations depending on their recruitment software used and it will irritates the researcher, and MAYBE, they will turn to delete your application. Keep your resume simple and comfortable.
Content of cover letter? Write everything from examples but include something interesting, something that will spark interest in the interviewer! And if you want to try writing something about your knowledge on the company you are applying for, make sure you write it right!

Many people loves to make their personality known during interviews and make it more transparent for the interviewer to see who they really am, and some are more introvert in that sense. Who will be the winner? I can’t tell. It all depends on the interviewer likes.
What I will recommend is, be cheerful and smiley throughout and prepared to answer questions like “tell us about yourself, other than what is stated in the resume.” SMILE IS IMPORTANT!

Above is all based on my experience till now, even though it’s not a lot, but I’ve read through 3100++ resume in 4 months. So I do have knowledge of how things should be as one of the researchers! So, good luck and hope all friends gets the job!