Category Archives: Careers Advice

Careers Advice, guest blogger, Recruitment

The Top Ways To Make Yourself More Employable

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If you are currently searching for work, then no doubt you will have discovered just how soul crushing it can be. Rejection letters are one thing, but half the time you’ll probably find you don’t hear anything back at all.

Of course this is nothing personal – in most cases the decision will be made based on factors outside of your control simply pertaining to how you look on paper. Your experience, your grades and even your demographic will all make you viable or not before anyone has even read anything.

If you want to improve your chances of getting employed then, you need to find ways to improve these statistics so that at first glance your CV looks like one that the company could employ. Here we will look at some of the top things you can do to make yourself more employable and make your CV stand out for all the right reasons.

Pack the right caseExperience

Experience is one of the big things that employers are looking for, and grades alone unfortunately are not enough these days in a competitive job market. The problem of course is getting that experience in the first place when no one will give you a chance, so the solution is simply to volunteer or to at least look for very cheap work part time on top of your current job.

Grades

That said, grades and qualifications are important too, so if you can get any new qualifications added then this is worth looking into. It might mean a year out of work and a big investment, but in the long term it will pay off in dividends.

Gaps

Gaps in your CV are something that you should avoid at every cost. While you might feel that certain jobs are below you if you have higher aspirations than working in a supermarket, they are better than nothing as temp jobs if you risk having a gap in your CV otherwise. Take any work you can find, and then look for better jobs while you’re working. If you have a gap, then look for a good way to explain it at least.

Driving

Being able to drive is a huge boon to many employers and a great way to make yourself more employable – even if the jobs you’re looking for aren’t directly related to driving. If you can’t already drive, then make sure you look into learning. And if you can, then make sure that you keep your driving record clean and avoid any incidents.

Languages

If you can speak a foreign language, then this is something else that will benefit a great number of employers. Of course it’s not a requirement for most employers, but if you can speak another language this is sure to count in your favour so it’s worth learning if you have the time and the inclination.

Criminal Record

Likewise, it’s important to try and avoid any potential legal problems that could create a blight on an otherwise bright CV. While it may be too late to undo past misdeeds, certainly make sure that you avoid any future run-ins with the law.

This post was contributed by Samantha Brave from 4SafeDrivers.com. Samatha is a blogger and webmaster and likes writing articles covering various topics like driving, business tips and career advice.

Careers Advice, Interviews, Project Management Interview Questions, Project Management Interviews

Questions you should ask the interviewer

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Interviews can be stressful for some and even enjoyable to others – it just depends on your perception of what you hope to achieve from them. Clearly you are hoping to be offered a job but that is not always the case; the interview should be a two way setting and often the candidate loses sight of this. I have been in interviews where I have known quite quickly that it is not the role for me, and walked away from interviews wondering if I actually would welcome an offer – therefore it is important to make sure you know if this is the one for you.

Notes

Most formal interviews will consist of an introduction from the interviewer followed by a series of questions presented to the candidate to understand how you work and react in situations, towards the end of the interview you will be presented with the opportunity to ask questions back. This is where some good planning comes into play; you need to think outside the box as the interviewer should answer a lot of questions in their introduction. A trap, a lot of candidates fall into is to respond with “I think you have answered everything I was going to ask” – this can come across as a lack of real interest in the business / role and can put interviewers off you.

Here are a few questions you may find useful to note down for future interviews:

  • What does the actual day to day work involve? (bearing in mind Project Management makes for constant change, there will still be core duties required of you)
  • What do you enjoy most about working here?
  • What are the main challenges the team / projects face at the moment?
  • Have you identified any weaknesses in the team; are these something you would like me to address from the start?
  • What do you think it might take to be really successful in this role?
  • Could you talk me through the management style here?
  • Do you have any specific projects in mind that the successful candidate will be working on?
  • Is it likely I will be working as part of a team and are the staff involved in different projects at any one time?
  • Does the business encourage employees to study and gain professional qualifications? What kind of support is in place?
  • What kind of backgrounds personally and professionally do the existing team have?

And to round up:

  • When can I expect to hear from you with a decision and do you usually call or write to let candidates know the outcome?
  • Would it be possible to gain some feedback from you regardless of the outcome?
  • Have I answered everything thoroughly enough for you or is there anything else you would like to ask me?

I recommend writing a list of questions to ask – always write down more than you need in case some are already covered by the interviewer (some interviewers are more thorough than others). Avoid any questions about pay, holidays, benefits, sick leave, hours of work etc as this can give a bad impression – these questions will be answered at the offer stage (if you get that far). Once you have a list of questions, place them in a folder and when you are asked for questions do remember your manners and ask if it is OK to refer to the list you prepared prior to the interview.

Careers Advice, CV Tips, CV Writing

Writing a CV from scratch

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One thing we’ve all been guilty of doing is putting off writing a CV – sometimes it makes sense to start from scratch and build it up, this sounds even more daunting than reworking what you already have, even though it is very dated and surely only needs a little more work. But I beg to differ; taking a fresh look at what you should include in the CV is a great way to really get down the right kind of detail to attract employers.

Getting started:

  • Write a list of all your jobs, note dates, company names and job titles – then place them in chronological order with most recent at the top.
  • Source a professional looking template from online to help you get started and add in the jobs as above.
  • Include some information about what your main tasks were – think about why you were brought into the business and what you set about to achieve.
  • Make notesThen start to list what you actually did, how did you achieve getting from A to B. Include areas specific to your role and make sure you talk through things that set you apart from others such as working globally you may have dealt with cultural differences etc.
  • Read back through the role and make sure it is clear and concise – look at roles you may be looking to apply for which are asking for your skill-set, are you speaking the same language (terminology) and covering what they ask for?
  • Move down each role taking the above structured approach to adding in detail as you move further down the CV to older roles you should reduce the detail. Anything over 10 years old should be a line stating dates, company name, and role title as a list.
  • Add in your education and any additional training towards the end of the CV (unless you are a recent graduate, in which case this should be included at the top of the CV).
  • State some hobbies – think about what you really enjoy doing, group activities, sports, etc.
  • Now it is time to go back to the top of the CV and write a short profile about yourself; make sure it gives an overview of your skills and experience. This should be much easier to write now you have run through all your skills and experience in the role remit, all you are doing is summarising the information.
  • Place some key achievements beneath the profile and above the employment history, consider adding in where you have really added value. Employers like to see where you have gone beyond the specified role and actively reaped results.

Now you have a CV – wasn’t so hard was it? However, this new CV needs to be checked by someone else for some honest feedback. Ask them to read it and then ask them, what is it I do? If they can tell you and are correct then you are on the right track – remember when you apply for a job you will have your CV reviewed by people who may have no exposure to your job so it is imperative that you are communicating to all levels. So we’ve covered the basics, now is time to really work on terminology, target audiences, and tweaking to ensure you are keeping the emphasis on the right skills for that job (remember priorities are different for each hiring manager).

Careers Advice, Job Applications, Job Hunting, Recruitment

Understanding who reviews your CV

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When applying for jobs it can often feel like your CV disappears into the abyss – rarely receiving any replies, occasionally receiving the automatically generated response, and you are often left wondering whether your application was read. Chasing after feedback can be just as frustrating, if you can actually get through to the relevant party to discuss your application – often being fobbed off with generic responses such as “we have over XXX applications for this role so we cannot provide individual feedback” or worst still, a response telling you that your CV is fine (because they are too busy to bother spending 5 minutes to talk through details.

So understanding where your CV might end up when you apply for a job is a good starting point to enable you to make more informed decisions about structuring your CV and about where you might concentrate your applications.

  • CV sifters – this is becoming a popular and cost effective way for organisations to manage applications, taking out the recruitment element and fees. Companies specialise in taking bulk loads of CVs and sorting through to produce a shortlist of applications. Some are specialised in particular career fields but a lot are generalists and will work to a guide provided by the hiring manager. This works in respect of a popular job in that it sorts out all the relevant CVs (believe me, no matter how good the job advert, you will always get random applications from completely irrelevant job seekers), however if the sifters are not specialised and your CV reads in a technical or role specific terminology then you may find your application being put in the recycle bin.
  • Who reviews your CVRecruiters – often generalist recruiters tend to work on a pepper gun approach, taking a group of CVs which “appear” to match the job and sending them all to the employers. Similar to the sifters, this can generate a misleading hope (if they tell you they are sending your CV to the client) as you will probably be in a batch of 20/30 CVs. If the recruiter is working on dozens of jobs then it is fair to say they may not have spent a great deal of time reviewing and matching up CVs specific to the role. Not always the case but worth bearing in mind if you are wondering why you haven’t heard back or if you have been rejected post submission to the employer.
  • Specialist recruiters – these are the people you put a lot of faith in, they should know their game and in an ideal world have actually performed the roles prior to specialising in recruiting for them. As fees tend to be higher for these agencies, the employer expects to see a condensed shortlist of CVs which bear a close match to the position. This can mean a greater chance of interview should you be chosen for the shortlist but can also mean it is much more difficult to get into the shortlist in the first place.
  • HR staff – instructed by hiring managers to run a recruitment drive for a role, some HR staff are fantastic and really ask the right questions of the hiring manager and research the role, others take a less formal approach and create a list of “must haves” and use these to tick off when reviewing CVs. Remember that this tick list is most probably used by most reviewers to a point so it is important that your CV states are the things you have done which are relevant to the role.

The lesson to be learned from all the above is to ensure your CV is clear, do not assume because you have a job title of XYZ that you automatically have experience of ABC. Making assumptions and not spelling it out is the first step to failing to get past the reviewer on your job search journey.