Archive for May, 2010

Does Your Cruise Ship Resume Need a Makeover?

Cruise Job Tips, Cruise Jobs Resumes and Cover Letters | Posted by Renee Ruggero
May 24 2010

What does your cruise ship resume say about you?  Are you sending out applications and not getting any responses?  Your resume should get you a job interview.  If it’s not, then it is not an effective career tool.

The main purpose of the resume is to make someone notice you.  You want to stand out from the crowd of other applicants.  It doesn’t matter how qualified you are, how great of a personality you have, or that you think you are the best person for the job.  If you can’t promote yourself on paper, you won’t get an interview.

For starters, does your resume fully represent your past experience? This doesn’t mean listing every single job that you’ve had since you were old enough to work, that’s just boring!  Instead, you want to expand heavily on jobs that have relevance to the cruise job that you are applying for.

Make sure you list the skills that benefit the employer rather than just regurgitating a list of job descriptions.  Identifying your accomplishments with specifics is important in capturing the attention of the hiring manager.  You want to explain your on-the-job-performances and how they relate to your future cruise job.

The reader should have a clear idea of who you are and why you are the best person for the job. Apart from being easy on the eyes with appropriate fonts, bullets, white space and nothing too distracting, your resume should read well, too.

This means your cruise ship resume should flow well, not be boring or repetitive, and offer exciting info about you.  Your personality and energy needs to shine through the resume enough for the hiring manager to want to call you.

The bottom line is that your resume should prompt the hiring manager into calling you.  If you haven’t been offered an interview yet, chances are it’s your resume and not you.

Applying for a Cruise Job is Not a One Shot Deal

Cruise Job Tips | Posted by Renee Ruggero
May 17 2010

One of the biggest mistakes that cruise applicants make is that they apply for a cruise job and then they sit back and wait for the cruise line or agency to get back to them.  This will not work.  Although it pays to be patient, you must also be proactive.

First of all, if you’ve emailed your resume, you should also send a physical copy by traditional mail (courier is even better).  Then, keep a log of the dates, positions you’ve applied, and who you sent your application package to.

After about 2 or 3 weeks, if you haven’t heard anything, follow up with an email to inquire about the status of your application.  At this point you can re-attach your resume again.

If there is still no response, then apply again and again.  The job application process is not a one shot deal.  Cruise lines are extremely busy and those that have only applied one time have little chance of standing out among those that continually follow up on their resumes.

Neil Maxwell-Keys

Skills and Training for Cruise Jobs

Cruise Job Tips | Posted by Renee Ruggero
May 11 2010

Making your resume stand out over everyone else’s is the key to landing the job interview. One area to shine is with your cruise ship training and job skills – skills you may have overlooked.

You achieve your skills through academic, work, and life experiences and it’s up to you to highlight the relevant skills in your resume and cover letter.

Understanding the job you are applying for will help you unbury those skills and list them as important points on your resume.

You can read, Training You Need to Get Cruise Ship Jobs.  This article examines how to develop your skills as well as highlighting important skills that the cruise lines are looking for.

Skills such as customer service as evidenced by effective listening skills and the ability to focus on guest problem resolution.

Computer skills will also give cruise applicants an edge especially those with a working knowledge of Word and Excel.  Positions such as Future Cruise Sales and the Port and Shopping Guide should also know how to use PowerPoint.

Public speaking training is an asset for many positions on board and not only for those that need to give presentations as part of their position. Public speaking skills boost confidence for when you have to talk to guests.

And one of the most important skills that almost everyone should list on their resume is sales ability. Cruise lines are in the business of making as much money as possible, and even cruise jobs such as Photographers, Hair stylists, Shore Excursion staff and Port and Shopping Guides can benefit from listing your sales experience on a resume.

Neil Maxwell-Keys

Most Important Element of Cruise Ship Resumes

Cruise Job Tips, Cruise Jobs Resumes and Cover Letters | Posted by Renee Ruggero
May 02 2010

Job applicants spend hours and maybe days tweaking their cruise ship resumes, looking for grammatical errors, and adjusting the content.

But employers may not read the whole resume because of one shortfall, The Career Objective.

This is one of the most important elements of the resume, because if it interests the reader, they’ll read further.

If it doesn’t, they won’t…simple as that.

But, how do you make a Career Objective grab the attention of the hiring manager, prompting him/her to contact you for an interview?

1. State the actual position that you are applying for BE SPECIFIC.

If you are applying for a job as a Junior Assistant Purser, say so.

If you are applying as a Port and Shopping Guide, say it.

Don’t just say that you want to get a job within the industry.

2. Name the company you are applying to within the objective AGAIN, be specific and say Princess Cruises or Disney Cruise Line, depending who you are applying to.

Change this section of the Objective with the cruise ship resumes you send out.

3. State the amount of experience that you have – how much experience do you have that relates specifically to the job you are applying for?

State it.

For example, Career Objective: To be hired as a Junior Assistant Purser with Princess Cruises using my 12 years of combined banking and customer service experience.

Neil Maxwell-Keys