‘Career Builder Forum’, organised by Sharjah Public Libraries, concluded yesterday after delivering insights into ways of expanding one’s career strategy by creating compelling resumes and through focused interview preparation.The interactive forum, which brought together human resource professionals, workshop trainers, life skills coaches and job seekers on a common platform, also emphasised the need to stay focused on the goal and discussed ways to develop skillsets essential for the workplace such as time management, effective communication and analytical or critical thinking, amongst others.The important thing to landing a job is to ensure that you are fully prepared for the interview, said Dr. Reema Bourghol in a session titled, ‘Interview Skills’. “In today’s world of advanced mass communication, there is no excuse for lack of research. Find out as much as you can on both the company and the position you have applied for,” she advised.Stating that the interview may be the clinching factor in landing a job, Dr. Bourghol urged participants to get into the right frame of mind with mock interviews. She said, “Mock interviews will help you learn how to answer difficult questions, improve your communication skills, and reduce your stress. It will prepare you for the unexpected.”Be honest and polite, avoid criticisms of previous employers or companies, and refrain from making boastful statements, advised the trainer while offering helpful hints and tips on preparing for success in an interview. “Before you can convince the interviewer you are right for the job, you have to believe it yourself. Remember that it is your passion for the job that will set you apart from the other candidates,” she concluded.Create an impactful CV It is worth spending time and effort on the content and presentation of a CV as it is the first chance an applicant gets to make a good impression on a potential employer, said trainer Shadiah Bataineh, while addressing a cross section of graduates, undergraduates and job seekers at the session titled, ‘Writing a CV’.“Before you begin to craft the CV, it is important to decide on the format which should have standout features to grab the recruiter’s attention,” she said, adding that a professional CV uses an easy-to-read font, bold headings and basic colours, lists core skills in bullet points, and is simple and easy to navigate.“Share your aims, knowledge, experience and abilities but remember that as different jobs have different skillset requirements, a CV also needs to be adaptive to suit the needs of the position you are applying for,” said the trainer, advising participants to update their CV regularly.Build up on soft skills The workshop on ‘Employment alternatives in the job market’ was led by Dr. Omnia Salem who discussed ways of preparing for the jobs of the future while in a session titled, ‘Effective communication skills’, Dr. Amal Saad underlined the importance of learning to transfer information and ideas in an easy-to-comprehend manner.Dr. Esmat Ghazal, led the ‘Job Search Skills’ session to empower the youth create SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) goals to streamline their efforts while looking for a job. In the session titled, ‘Developing graduates’ skills’, Dr. Ahmed El Sayed underlined the importance of time management, analytical and critical thinking skills and the benefits of working collaboratively with people from different disciplines and cultures.