All posts by Nicola Caswell-Thorp

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Friday Snippet, News, Observations, Recycling

On the rubbish tip

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I was out walking with the dog recently when I walked past a skip which was crammed with rubbish, I noticed at the top of the pile was a rather sad looking teddy bear, wet through and looking a little worse for wear. It struck a chord with me as I felt sorry for him – I could imagine him in his original glory and wondered how he’d gotten to be in such a sorry state. I took a photo of him (see below) and posted it to facebook and had a fair few comments about how sad it was etc. which got me thinking about other things we once cherished and eventually discarded as rubbish.

One of those things I used to love and then hated was my Blackberry Storm – it started out like a fantastic user friendly and reliable piece of technology and soon became dated, clunky and to be fair – thrown about in frustration. It was soon superseded by an iPhone which was like a dream come true in comparison – which gets discarded as every new model is released. The same goes for laptops and old tablets etc but we can argue that we do not have an affinity to a piece of technology whereas a teddy bear is something we use as soothers for children and sometimes as declarations of love in relationships. However, I know a fair few people out there who almost have a relationship with their Smartphone and feel like their limbs have been severed if they get separated from them.

Taking it back to the workplace – sometimes it is good to revisit systems and processes we have previously used as going back to basics is an effective way to re-evaluate how we work. That trusty old excel spreadsheet which got superseded by a shiny new software package etc. not all old, seemingly outdated things are ready for the rubbish heap yet. After all if it worked once before then there may be something there which could work for a new initiative moving forward. So please don’t throw out your teddy bears – recycle them!

Careers Advice, CV Tips, CV Writing, PMO, Project Management, Project management CV, project management recruitment, project management resume

Recruitment for Project Managers – how to make it work

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I was approached this week by a new client asking me how recruitment works – having been in a permanent role for some years he is looking to go interim and wanted to know what the formula is to make recruiters sit up and take notice of him. There is no hard and fast rule as such – naturally the recruiter has a list of requirements from their client which need addressing in the CV, if your CV does not touch on these requirements then you will be discarded and often forgotten about. So what actually makes a recruiter work for you? For a start you need to really understand your own skill set and how this works in the project environment, clearly contextualising your experience and the project benefits is key to the basis of a good CV. Making sure you apply for roles which meet your abilities will put you in good stead with the recruiter and if you are not quite right for that role you have a better chance of being remembered for the right reasons, as from the start you have demonstrated your understanding of the role itself and are not just applying for anything.

If you have a wealth of experience managing a diverse range of projects then the recruiter needs to see the projects most relevant to the role you apply for, however this does not mean you need to leave out other information. The trick is to present a summary of the types of projects, complexity, budgets and team size / locations / skill sets, then you need to talk about how you deliver, the difficulties you have encountered and your specific aptitude – you may be great with demanding and difficult stakeholders or you may be great at manipulating data or balancing finances. Everyone is different and what the recruiter wants to know is what sets you apart from others. Talk about key achievements, don’t be fooled into thinking that delivering a project on time and to budget is an achievement – you are paid to do this right! Think about how you got there, what hurdles did you overcome, what have you learnt from the project and what measures have you adopted for future delivery?

All of this information needs to be kept to a maximum 3 page but ideally a 2 page CV, it can be difficult to edit and condense this information which is why a second pair of eyes can be extremely effective. We offer a free CV review at The CV Righter where honest and constructive feedback is presented to individuals – there is no obligation to take up the CV writing service however should you decide to take the service up then you will only be charged for a service bespoke to you. If you do not require an entire re-write then you don’t pay for one. The review is performed by a former project management specific recruiter and will be executed as such which will give you a valuable insight into how recruiters actually view your CV.

financial reporting, Negotiation, Project Management, Project Management Communications, Project planning

What could possibly go wrong? Irrational fears

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We’ve all had a nightmare at work at some point and project management in its own right is probably home to more war stories than most professions – but how does this affect our lives and perceptions moving forward? For most of us, we learn from our experiences and carry a great deal of battle scars which tend to make us a little more wary if not more prepared when venturing into a new challenge, however sometimes we can let our thoughts and actions go into overdrive and start having irrational fears.

I will share with you an irrational fear I used to have when I worked for a large blue chip business. On a Monday morning – I was tasked with gathering the weekly financial data for output of all the European manufacturing sites. Once I had all the data I had to produce a report of all the figures for a meeting with the heads of sites, company president and other senior managers’. So as you can imagine – this was a task which could not be put to the back of the “to do” list, in all fairness I found the task a bit of a bore but also knew the importance of having the report ready an hour before the video conferencing. I would contact all of the logistics managers across the manufacturing sites every Monday with a friendly email reminder, followed by a call for those who still hadn’t sent over their reports. Now I don’t want to single out a particular site but there was one which was notoriously late with their reports, in fact they were so bad that I would have called at least 3 times after the initial email which never generated a response. I would be patched through to various departments on each call and basically told that the relevant staff had gone for lunch. Sometimes this was mid morning (even with the time difference), so it became a bit of a joke that this site were basically always eating. This is where my irrational fear came about – as I got it in the neck for my report being late and it was always this site which made me late (despite many meetings /conversations and discussions trying to clarify what the issue was at their end) that I began to believe that they were in fact all sat eating ALL DAY on a Monday.

From then on, I have always been very keen to plan project meetings well ahead of deadlines with the manufacturing site in question – even making up deadlines to be well ahead of the real deadlines in a bid to try and get my projects completed on time; it worked and I did just hit my deadlines on projects but the financial reporting never got in on time from them.

I would love to hear of your irrational fears – whether at work or home, sometimes they can prove to be productive.

Careers Advice, CV Tips, CV Writing, Friday Snippet, Job Applications, Project Management Careers Advice, Project management CV, project management resume

Not needed a CV for 10 years; where do I start? – Friday Snippet

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Been in a role for a long time whether it be self-employed or employed so haven’t needed a CV? What to do? Don’t panic and follow this step by step guide to achieving an attractive, attention seeking and professional resume.

  1. Create a list of your career history, noting dates, role titles, company names and basic remit to start.
  2. List your key achievements to date – keep to examples which demonstrate where you have gone above and beyond the call of duty or made a real difference. Simply noting down projects you have managed to time and budget does not demonstrate an achievement as such (you were paid to deliver the project). However if you have implemented a new programme structure to the business or dealt with particularly difficult stakeholders etc. then talk about it.
  3. Perform a skills audit – start by drawing a line to represent the project timeline, then note down core areas you have exposure to such as writing the business case, planning, Risk & Issues, supplier management etc.
  4. Take a template from the internet to start – fill in the areas you can easily do, such as dates and achievements etc. then refer to the following blog posts which will assist you in filling in the gaps:

Now you should have a good solid document to work on – you’ll need to spend some time tweaking and rewriting, but you will soon find that what seemed a wall too high to climb is merely a hurdle along the way to getting back into finding a new role.