Category Archives: CV Writing

Careers Advice, CV Tips, CV Writing, PMO, Project Management

CV reviews for Project Management professionals

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When was the last time you had your CV reviewed? Your CV is the key tool to gain interest by hiring managers and recruiters. I have had a fair few enquiries recently from candidates wanting to understand why they had applied to many roles with little or no feedback; often describing their job applications disappearing into a “big black hole”, never hearing anything back. There are a number of reasons for this, one being that you may be one of up to 100 applicants (sometimes more depending on role type, location, salary etc.), as a rule of thumb the recruitment process will filter down the list of applications to a manageable shortlist of candidates to speak to or interview outright. When I asked the candidates if they had chased up their applications, a good percentage said yes but felt fobbed off with standard responses such as “candidates with a closer match to the experience required made the shortlist”. When pushed for further feedback the recruiters and HR staff were reluctant to provide any useful feedback stating the CV was OK. However, if the CV is “OK” and you feel you have a strong synergy to the role requirements, why are you not making shortlist? I always recommend going back to the recruiter for further feedback as it is important when you feel your CV says XYZ – why it doesn’t to the person reviewing it for the role.

As a professional CV writer, specialising in the field of project management I have sat on the recruitment side of applications too – I have spent many an hour discussing candidates CVs with the applicants in order to assist them in getting the right information down on the CV to ensure successful applications for roles in their field. As such one of the services we provide at The CV Righter is to perform a free CV review for candidates where a one to one appointment is made and areas of the CV are discussed. I have found the feedback for such a service to be very positive, after all another person’s perspective is always beneficial but particularly when that other person has actually done the job and recruited for hundreds of roles spanning, PMO, project management, programme management, portfolio management, change management and business analysis to name a few.

If you feel your CV needs that competitive edge and you feel you have gone as far as you can with it but still are not securing interviews – then it may be time to let a professional CV writing service take a look. We offer a competitive value for money service which is tailored to your needs. If the CV does not require a complete rewrite then we talk through areas that do need work and charge accordingly. We also offer an insight into the recruitment aspect of applications and advice on how to move forward with success by taking a detailed account of what you do at the moment and equip you with new approaches to applications and getting noticed in your field.

Get in touch with your CV for a free CV review – be prepared for honest and constructive feedback, we believe you can only add value if you know where you are going wrong. Visit www.thecvrighter.co.uk and make contact through our contact page.

CV Tips, CV Writing, News, PMO, Project Management

Details you should leave out of your CV – Friday snippet

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Your CV is your marketing tool to that next role and as such needs to contain a good deal of information about you and your career experience – but are you giving too much away? I have addressed the necessity to leave out information such as date of birth due to identity fraud previously. But there are other pieces of information you should also ensure you are not putting in your CV such as:

  1. References – most employers want to perform a reference check, however, this should only really be performed once you have begun the interview process and in an ideal world once you have been offered the role. By providing the contact details and names of your referees on your CV you are leaving yourself open to hiring managers contacting your current employer (who may or may not know you are looking to move on) and also leaving your referees open to unsolicited calls from recruiters who are looking for their next lead. Not only are you assisting unprofessional and unscrupulous recruiters in potentially gaining new work, you are also allowing your referees to be pestered. Not ideal when you are wanting them to provide a good reference for you later on down the line. It is perfectly acceptable to state; “references available on request” on your CV – it also frees up space on your CV for you to add more detail about yourself.
  2. Have you ever checked the properties of your document? If you have utilised a CV template or had a professional CV writer work on your CV then it may well have their name in the properties. I have also seen company names in the properties which may not be creating the right impression if you have been updating your CV in your current workplace – a potential employer may not be too impressed to see how you spend your working day looking for another role and utilising their licences, time etc. to do so.

When putting together your CV you should treat it with as much care as you would a report for senior management – after all, at some point it is exactly that level who will be reading your CV. Take care and time to ensure you get it right the first time as first impressions last.

For advice on creating a professional CV get in touch: www.thecvrighter.co.uk

Careers Advice, CV Tips, CV Writing, Graduates, News

Professions being open to all backgrounds – we need to do more!

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Interesting news article on the BBC news website this morning headlined; “Professions must be open to all backgrounds, Alan Milburn will say”. Reading through the article explaining that those from less privileged backgrounds are missing out on professions such as law, journalism and medicine – it states education plays a big part in who will succeed but mainly an issue surrounding the actual schools and universities the current professionals attended being exclusive to the wider audience. It makes an interesting read and food for thought when making decisions about your career path.

I was very interested to read that internships are a key area for job seekers to be able to enter their chosen fields in such areas and how you would present yourself in an attractive way to potential sponsors. In my experience as a recruiter I have seen many a good candidate discarded due to their poorly written CVs – so maybe it doesn’t just come down to where you studied but also how you sell yourself?

I have spoken to a lot of recent graduates who have sort advice through their education establishments to write CVs – the results; some good, some not so good. Being a graduate myself and having been in the same position as others I found the assistance I received to be rather poor – basically I was pointed in the direction of a rather small area in the library with a few outdated books and told to “get on with it”. I am sure, not all, education establishments are the same and times have changed with the internet but I would hardly call this support. Could it be said that the government are missing a major point here – with the rise of recent graduates and fall of graduate level jobs and internships, surely a major starting point would be to address the overall guidance graduates and school leavers are presented with?

Workshops for graduates and school leavers would be a great start to ensuring everyone has a fair chance at securing work experience – such as professional 1 to 1 CV writing guidance and feedback, leads to follow in sourcing potential employers, effective researching skills for making a tailored approach for roles, interview techniques and basics on presentation skills would be ideal. As we now have to pay substantial tuition fees, part of the selling point from Universities could be the dedicated career service and for those who choose not to take degrees, a more robust system in school. As the government is urged to tackle the issue of opening up opportunities, they could put pressure on establishments and even offer funding to ensure targets are set and met.

At The CV Righter we offer a graduate package which addresses areas such as CV writing, effective job searching and interview techniques. Get in touch with your CV and have a free CV review:www.thecvrighter.co.uk

CV Tips, CV Writing, PMO, Project Management

CV format

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As it is Friday and the sun has blessed us all week I wanted to share a few insights into CV formatting from a recruiter’s perspective with our Friday snippet.

Here are a few things to consider when creating a CV:

1. Make sure you format your CV properly, using different fonts and inconsistent spacing, not to mention bullets that do not align throughout the document says a great deal about your MS Word skills. I have lost count of the CVs I’ve reviewed in a recruiter capacity which state advanced user of MS Word – and this is clearly not demonstrated. smiley

2. Placing a photo of yourself on your CV may be the recognised format across the EU, it isn’t popular in the UK especially if you are using a holiday snap or one from a wedding – it’s quite endearing I know but honestly, do you expect to be taken seriously? Why not have a pic on your Linkedin account and a link to your profile on your CV.

3. Using tables may make formatting easier for the document but please do remember that a great deal of software used by recruiters cannot read such formatting therefore you could lose a great deal of information in the system and thus not have your CV viewed as your keywords are not searchable in their databases. This also goes for a good deal of the online job boards, I have come across one major well known job board which loses all formatting of CVs and sends block text in an email for job applications. If you have the opportunity to send a MS Word attachment – do so.

4. Font style should be kept to something readable – back in the day, Times New Roman was the font of choice, however this is dated and with much reader friendly fonts such as Verdana and Tahoma available – use them. Avoid creating a rainbow on your CV utilising different colours, black is fine – remember this is a professional document, you want it to stand out for the right reasons and colours tend to detract away from the content.

Make sure you regularly check over your CV and ask someone else to do so for you – working on your own document over and over can start to restrict your objective observations.

Have a fantastic weekend and keep checking in to our blog for tips and advice in creating that all important CV.

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