Category Archives: Project management CV

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

Making your CV as good as food

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Just making my lunch I stood away to admire what I was about to eat and it made me think about CVs – before you ask, I don’t eat, sleep and live CVs but I am always thinking about new ways to bring a professional document to the forefront of a recruiter/employers mind.

So, my comparison comes down to how you draw-in a potential employer. Often hiring managers have little time to review CVs and lunchtime proves to be a good time to run through a short-list, it will have to be good to gain uninterrupted attention!

Your CV is next to be reviewed, have you thought about what your USP (unique selling point) is? Have you made a sandwich of all your skills and experience which would spur a hunger to want to try it? Your CV can work just like this, looking attractive from a distance and containing all the ingredients to satisfy the palette requirement that day. The sandwich looks so good, anyone being shown it would want to take a closer look.

Life is about choice and some jobs require more or different meat, some require a great deal of salad with the right amount of mayo whereas mustard is key for other roles (or rolls). This is why it is important to make sure that you have a truthful CV which showcases your actual skills and abilities in an attractive and easy to identify way. By producing a well written piece which clearly contextualises your skills rather than a dull list which tells the reader nothing, you are starting to make the document interesting.

Put yourself in the hiring managers’ shoes – busy and needs to create a shortlist for interviews. Is he/she going to pick a CV which out of hundreds looks the same and doesn’t tell him how you work or what your true skills are or will he/she pick a CV which shines above the rest because it intrigues him/her by ticking the boxes of requirements AND says so much more? Do not be fooled that a lengthy CV will do this either – no one wants to be over-faced by a large meal right! Keep it to a size which will say all the right things in a clear and concise way.

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.

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.

Careers Advice, CV Tips, Job Applications, PMO, Project Management, Project management CV, project management resume, Starting out in Project Management, Transferable Skills

Let’s talk about transferable skills – starting out in Project Management

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There’s always a lot of talk about skill-sets and particularly transferable skills; however if you want to transfer your career into the project management field then it is important to highlight the right skills which will be of greatest benefit to you and your potential employer. Now we all know there are differing types of project management roles from support through to managing and there are also more technical PM roles too – not just IT, they may be construction / engineering etc where you need to have a good knowledge of the field as well as PM methods to be successful in delivering benefits. So I am going to cover some key transferable skills for the PM aspect not any specific industry based element, here are a few to consider:

  • Investigating – Researching and questioning why? Key components to any good PM professional, being able to push back with quantifiable evidence is required even more now that funding is tight and projects benefits really do need to be explored thoroughly before starting off another project.
  • Planning – Planning / scheduling projects, predicting outcomes / scenarios, organising events and preparing for tasks – it’s a must!
  • Leadership – Core requirement for any good Project Manager and comes in very handy for Programme Support professionals too.
  • Influencing – The ability to gain buy-in is a big requirement for PM professionals, whether it’s from senior management, external (or internal stakeholders), sponsors or suppliers – you need to be able to persuade and encourage others.
  • Teamwork – Proving you can bond with others and build a strong force which produces results is key to successful project delivery.
  • Problem solving – Taking different viewpoints and exploring solutions is a big part of PM, from understanding workstream leads other commitments to supplier issues.
  • Budgeting – At some point you with be either managing your own budget or monitoring budgets on projects in a support element.
  • Decision making – The ability to look at your options and actually pick a way forward is crucial especially in a critical situation.
  • Training – Working with others either as a manager (PM) to mentor and train people in the project team or as a support person (PMO) to train others in various aspects of the project lifecycle such as risk management etc through workshops and 1 2 1 engagement.
  • Organising – From coordinating teams and individuals, arranging meetings and resources to scheduling.
  • Time management – Meeting deadlines and setting priorities are the core factors of project management and being on time is a given.
  • Creating – Not always highlighted as a core skill for PMs but in my experience of delivering projects, inventing, originating, designing or composing play a big part to success.

Now you can use this as a starting guide to performing a skills audit – once you have a list of transferable skills, you then need to provide some good examples of each skill (where you have used them / how / outcomes etc). These will help you form a basis for applications to project management jobs.