People in PMOs – PMO CV Tips

People in PMOs – well that’s what a successful PMO is all about surely? It’s all well and good having frameworks, templates and processes but without the right people behind them driving, nurturing, coaching, selling, and adding value to the business change will not happen. So, are you talking about this aspect in your CV? I didn’t think so! I’ve touched on this on a number of occasions, as your teams are also a big part of the role. As a successfully PMO professional you will be dealing with and educating a wide range of people, from senior management teams, sponsors, delivery staff, users and technical teams to name a few. Your influence can mean the difference between an inclusive and responsive experience or poor comms, delivering out of scope and no buy-in to the value of what is trying to be achieved. Therefore it is important to think about what involvement you have had, and positive changes you have made to businesses – capture this information and make sure you demonstrate good examples of this on your CV.People in PMO

PMOs are often challenged by senior management for their effectiveness and ability to add value so don’t just focus on process, you are an interface and as such you will provide a range of services whether it be consultative, supporting, mentoring & training or policing… Every business is different and if you have a range of exposure to PMOs then you should exhibit your portfolio to really enhance your chances or securing that next role and improve your rate/salary.

Project Management CV Writing Services

Writing your CV doesn’t come naturally to a lot of people and Project Professionals particularly find it difficult to strike a balance between getting the project information versus the core competencies. This is understandable as there is often a great deal of detail you wish to include and in doing so, key criteria is missed out completely. Knowing what the hiring managers want to see has changed over the years and with the volume of job applications increasing for roles you are unlikely to be called in for an interview to discuss the missing parts when there are those who have clear and concise documents which do have the correct balance of information.

Print74880_CV_Righter_logo_trans

I was talking with a recent client who had previously had her CV professionally written and one of the bullet points stated Change Management – I probed what this involved in that role and she said she hadn’t actually done any CM in that role but had been advised to state it anyway. I pointed out that should she secure an interview with the CV that she would inevitably be asked to expand, as there was no detail and it is a point of interest for a Project Manager job. She became very concerned that her CV was not saying the right things and began to question the advice she had received from the service she had invested time, money and faith into. I have come across a number of CVs which have been professionally written, which either don’t make sense or are limited in content – the problem with not using a CV writing service which is specialist in your field. At the CV Righter we work with you to understand where your skill-set lies and help you achieve a CV which will draw attention for the right reasons, we look to add that extra information about your style and where you go above and beyond the role. Setting you apart from your competitors is crucial to getting you on that shortlist for interview.

Do not make assumptions about the reviewer of your CV – they can come from all sorts of backgrounds and may not necessarily understand Project Management, you need to be hitting the right keywords but also adding in context to make the information understandable to all.

Identifying a CV service which is right for you and your skill-set is important – just because it is cheap or very expensive, doesn’t mean you will be getting value for money. Ask for a review of your CV before engaging services and see what their understanding of your experience is, it is all well and good pointing out grammatical errors and formatting – but what will they do with the content and how will they work with you to achieve a good, strong, honest document which will harvest results?

 

Get in touch today to receive a free review of your CV and constructive advice on how to improve it.

 

Making the right impression when applying for jobs – PM CV Tips

I had a call the other day from a male asking me if I had any jobs – I pointed out that I am not a recruitment agency and ended the call, but after hanging up I realised that the person who had called really came across as quite rude and a bit of a mumbling mess. Putting myself back into my recruiter shoes I thought to myself how I wouldn’t have gone out of my way to help this person if I had roles available. This got me thinking about the hundreds of speculative calls I received as a recruiter back in the day and how people would come across on the phone. Phone meSome days I would be delighted with callers, those who really thought about what they wanted to discuss and could talk through their career/experience without taking too much precious time and were clear on the roles they wanted to go into next. Other days I would have people calling who would take a good couple of minutes to even properly engage in a conversation, they couldn’t summarise their experience and certainly didn’t know where their skill-set fit in future roles. I would remember all of my callers – for better or worse, and would often make a note stating the good and bad points. This greatly assisted me when I was qualifying new roles, I would usually already have a shortlist of candidates I wanted to speak to about it before I had written and advertised the job advert. As recruitment is so very competitive it is important to make sure you get your shortlist to the client ASAP, this way you had a better chance of getting ahead of the other agencies.

Help with writing a PMO CV – PMO CV Tips

Over these past few weeks I have written a series of blog articles aimed to give you some ideas about putting together a strong PMO CV, as a definitive guide to cores areas which you should look to address when tackling your CV here is a list of all the articles related to the series with links:

 

Bible of PMO CV Tips

The key thing to remember when putting together your CV is to ensure you add in some context, do not fall into the trap of writing a job description (or copying and pasting one), this will lead to a flat piece of writing which demonstrates you are either lazy, not adept at presenting pieces of information or do not really understand what or why you have been doing things. Your CV is the first thing an employer will see about you, how it is written speaks volumes about you, your intelligence, professionalism, and how you feel about your roles. As a PMO professional, you will be required to write reports, presentations and guidance notes, therefore if you cannot be clear and engaging in your own CV then it doesn’t look too good for the documents you will be producing at work. It goes without saying that spelling and grammar are always checked and do not get me started on formatting – how many of you state “advanced or intermediate user of MS Word” yet you cannot get your font right or bullets aligned?? That screams less than basic user to those reviewing your CV.

Making Your CV Project You