Careers Advice, Internet Recruitment Sites, Job Applications, Job Hunting, project management recruitment, Recruitment

Internet Recruitment Sites

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Often the first port of call for most looking for a new job – internet recruitment sites can be effective but need to be tackled in the right way to ensure you are harvesting good results. It is easy to apply online for roles and using the job boards provides very easy access to hundreds of recruitment agency job adverts. However if you are merely applying for anything and everything which broadly covers your skill-set you could be off to a non-starter – look at it from the recruiters perspective, if you apply for roles which vary significantly in salary and seniority then you are wasting their time. You will get noticed but for all the wrong reasons, quickly being labelled as a “apply for all” candidate who does not A. Read the job advert or B. Does not understand their own skill-set

Take time to really understand which roles are relevant for you and make sure you don’t assume that the recruiter knows what it is like to work at xxx ltd. When I say this I mean I have seen CVs which are rather limited in information and often do not have enough of the skills covered which are required for a role, therefore the application is rejected and it is not uncommon to have a call from the candidate asking why they were rejected. When explaining the key areas for the role the candidate will say they have done this and my response was – it is not in your CV. No matter how good a recruiter is at their job if the CV is not including the key skills asked for in their client wish list then the CV will be rejected from the client and it is important for the recruiter to maintain a good relationship with their client.  Sending in CVs lacking vital information looks bad on them so they won’t do it.

Your CV also needs to be compatible for the recruiter databases – often there are some guidance notes on the recruiter sites as to what works best with their systems, make sure you follow these but a good rule of thumb is to keep the CV to a basic formatting and avoiding tables and text boxes. Otherwise you may find that your CV is not displaying correctly on the recruiters screen and could be missing large chunks of information. As the recruiter will be dealing with hundreds of CVs on a daily basis you will easily be discarded for a CV which is correctly formatted and states all the key requirements for a role.

Keyword searching by recruiters is also very popular these days due to the volumes of candidates in databases so it is important to make sure you weave relevant keywords within your CV – do not just list a mass of keywords! This is not helpful to the recruiter who requires some context of how you have used skills, software etc. Take a look at roles being advertised and check that the terminology is similar to that used in your CV, make sure you really work at placing some effective statements about when you have had exposure to certain aspects such as the project lifecycle including how, when, why.

guest blogger, management advice, Project Management, Project Management Careers Advice, Project planning

How to Handle Stress When Coming Up On a Deadline

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Deadlines are a key component of project management. One might argue that deadlines are the reason that project management exists as a career. The ability to manage deadlines is a crucial project management skill, but unfortunately even in those that are fantastic at deadline management, coming upon a due date can be a time of immense stress and anxiety.

That’s because all deadlines are naturally stressful, and in some cases this stress can cause severe anxiety if it continues too often. Project managers experience something very similar to lawyers (a group notorious for intense anxiety and depression) – their ability to handle a project is too black and white. Either you meet the deadline or you don’t. Either you succeed or you fail. As a result, even the best project managers tend to experience this degree of intense anxiety when coming upon a due date.

Getting over that deadline

Tips for Controlling That Stress

Due dates are ongoing, and there are usually many of them. That’s too much stress for one person to handle. So to combat that stress, consider the following tips:

  • Create Sub Goals and Sub Deadlines Well in Advance

You already likely do this in some form, and it may seem unlikely that more deadlines helps with anxiety, but so much of the stress and anxiety that comes from coming upon a deadline is the result of not knowing what’s done and waiting on things that need to be completed, etc. If everything for the project has a short deadline, and every little bit is mapped out, you’ll have a better idea of what you need at every given moment. Essentially there will be no deadlines, because every day you know what’s getting done.

  • Start By Exercising On the Day of the Deadline

There is a tendency to want to get started at work right away, but the best thing you can do is immediately tire out your muscles and fight some of your anxiety symptoms. One of the best ways to do this is with exercise. Exercise releases calming neurotransmitters and tires muscles so your physical symptoms will be less severe throughout the day. Anxiety builds upon itself, so if you’re more physically relaxed with fewer symptoms, the day will not get to you as much.

  • Time Yourself With Breaks

You also need to take breaks. It’s not always something that comes easily, but if you spend time only focusing on the deadline, you’re going to suffer. One dual method that appears to be effective is giving yourself short timely deadlines throughout the day. Set an alarm for 1 hour, for example, and work as hard as you can for that hour. Once that hour is over, force yourself to take a 15 minute break. Do something fun, call someone on the phone – take your mind off what’s going on. Then set the alarm again and doing it again.

  • Don’t Clock Watch

Watching the clock has never helped anyone when coming across a deadline. You’re not going to work faster just because it’s 3:01 instead of 3:00, and time spent checking the clock is time wasted. Find any way you can to turn the clock off, unless a specific time is necessary for your work.

Planning, Living, and Being Happy

It’s not the way you do your job that needs to change when you have stress leading up to a deadline. Chances are you’re great at your job, and the stress still gets to you. What matters is how you spend all of the other time. If you can manage how you handle the issues that cause you stress and reduce the likelihood of experiencing anxiety, you’ll find a greater chance of relief from your anxiety symptoms.

About the Author: Ryan Rivera suffered from intense anxiety and panic attack symptoms at his work. He writes about overcoming anxiety at www.calmclinic.com.

guest blogger, Project Management Software, Project planning

Why Project Management Software is Important for Your Business

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The goal of project management software is to support your organizational team with collaboration, achieving milestones, keeping the work budget within given limits and effectively completing the work on schedule. A project management software system can help you to manage complicated projects and avoid the common pitfalls of doubtful roles, communication gaps, complex tasks and insufficient responsibility.

Project management software is becoming an essential part of the present day business world. It manages the action of planning and acquiring the required people and resources, keeping costs within budget and scheduling limits. In any kind of industry (and some of the most common include construction, IT, architecture, software development and banking) you can use it to manage projects effectively and efficiently. The global project manager, along with other team leaders, uses this software to evaluate, plan, schedule, and manage the projects. However the project management software can also enhance the productivity of the entire project team.

Project management software includes programs that companies use to plan tasks in corporate programs (rather than ‘projects’). The software enables the manager to monitor the results of team members, restrict cost issues and ensure effective completion of corporate initiatives. Indeed it is often quoted as one of the easiest ways to enhance the process of efficiently allocating talent.

 

What makes for good project management software? Firstly using it will make your working existence more organized and structured and, ultimately, simpler. Secondly, everybody in your organization should be able to use and understand the application within a couple of days, with hardly any training needed.

Project management software is a good way to control four of the key project factors: work, time, budget and personnel. With the aid of relevant software, viewing the progress of a project should be simple. What’s more, viewing the length of time a specific project needs means that you can plan tasks accordingly. Project management software that includes time monitoring tools will also allow you to look into the performance and achievement records of personnel.

Organizing people and projects can be a frustrating and tiresome task, but if you understand the proper application of project management software, you’ll be able to easily handle all tasks, projects and team people. This can help in staying up-to-date with the marketplace changes, and you’ll be able to plan your moves accordingly.

Project Management Software and collaboration software provide many services. Let’s talk about a few of them:

  • Team collaboration: Forget office conference rooms and late evening conferences. No need to travel to different locations for discussions and demos. Your team and clients can collaborate online. It will save energy and keeps your team and clients up to date with the latest information.
  • Versatility: Web project management software provides versatility in company projects. Online project software typically provides up-to-date dashboards for rapidly reviewing the latest events in a project. When combined with online collaboration, these tools can keep everybody in your team on ‘the same page’ and helps to ensure each group or resource knows what others are doing. This then allows project managers to assign tasks and to-do lists, monitor progress, schedule due dates, accomplish key events, and much more.
  • Accountability: When used well, the software increases personal and financial accountability. The majority of the online project controlling system provides graphs, feedback, time sheets, key events and task assignment. The more sophisticated or specialized ones also monitor project costs, checks expenses, adjust assets and provide estimations about future project expenditure.
  • Organization: Effective resource management is flexible. The project controlling system handles all assets-employees, free-lance talents, budget and time. Often knowing your teams’ potential and effectively applying their abilities can mean the difference between failure and success. The right resource management enables you to build a thriving team.

Your company is important, and so is your ‘bottom line’. If there is a means to increase your productivity and improve your profits, why not take advantage of it?

Whether opting for online or stand-alone software, do try to make use of the many reviews available. They honestly do assist you in find the solution that best matches your needs, and (most of the time) are genuinely written by people who have used the program.

Author Bio:

UntitledSeamus Collins has 18 years of experience in the Project Management industry, and has completed assignments with leading global companies in China, Argentina, Israel, Malaysia, the UK and the USA. He is also the founder and owner of Velopi, – a PMI Registered Education provider that has helped hundreds of people obtain their PMP certification

CV Tips, CV Writing, PMO, PMO CV

What a PMO CV should say

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What should your PMO CV say – it’s all well and good telling us you support / manage / set up PMOs in your CV but do you give the recruiter or hiring manager enough information for them to get a feel for your exposure? Often I am sent CVs from PMO professionals asking for feedback and although basically it is well written, there are huge gaps leaving me wanting more detail. Recruiters and hiring managers are unlikely to pick up the phone to ask you questions when they already have an inbox full of applications, they simply move on to the next CV.

What do we want to know? Here are a few points to consider:

  • The PMO itself – what kind of PMO is it? Is it corporate level, satellite (department based, permanent for say IT), or temporary (set up for a specific programme and disbanded once the programme has delivered)
  • How big is it? Some PMOs are just one person, others run into 20’s to much larger
  • How mature is the PMO, are we talking rather new and currently creating & embedding structures, enterprise level or somewhere in between
  • How many programmes and / or projects feed into the PMO
  • What are the programmes / projects which are being supported
  • What level of support is offered – purely admin or as intended, consultants to the project management team
  • Who does the PMO report into – is it an interface between project management and the senior management team

As a PMO manager or consultant have you addressed these points?

  • What type of PMO manager are you – do you set up PMOs and move on to new assignments once you have implemented structures and handed over to someone else to manage
  • Do you have a PMO tool kit of templates which you can adapt for business needs
  • Are you all about process or pragmatic in your approach to implementing structures
  • Do you pick up existing PMOs and mange going forward as opposed to setting them up
  • What is your key specialism – do you look to address overarching business needs and work on communications
  • Are you a coach / trainer to project managers

These are few areas which require consideration when putting together a CV; too many times I have seen CVs which list a lot of bullets such as:

  • Risk & Issue Management
  • Stakeholder Mapping
  • Change Management
  • Planning

Put like this – it doesn’t tell the reviewer a great deal and does tend to read like a job description not a CV, think about adding in some context and really adding some meat to the bones. It is easy to assume that others will know all about your role at XXX plc but the reality is that we don’t, by taking time to think about how you may describe to others what you do and your environment you can really make a difference to your CV.

Making Your CV Project You