Tag Archives: Careers Advice

Careers Advice, CV Tips, CV Writing, Friday Snippet, Graduates, Transferable Skills

Graduates- what you can be doing now for the future!

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Following on from our guest blog on Wednesday which addresses managing your workload at Uni – today I wanted to delve into some areas university students will find useful once you have graduated, as securing that all important first role is more difficult than you think.

When I was at Uni, I was promised that once I graduated with a good degree that I could practically walk into any job – in fact they also fed me with other unrealistic expectations such as large salary levels for starting out and going straight into middle management etc. Having spoken to a number of recent graduates and students recently it would seem that the same expectation levels are still being set by the universities – I can see from their perspective that they need to “sell” the places but it is also unfair to set people up for a big disappointment. Taking positive steps forward I would like to address some things you could be doing now to enhance your chances of securing your first role post graduation:

  1. Take on a part time role – this can be done during holiday times but also as easily done during term time too, I seem to remember a great deal of courses only actually requiring you in the classroom for a few hours a week. Therefore you could structure your timetable to complete your Uni work in the day time and take an evening / weekend / late afternoon job – not only will you enhance your student loan for the all important socials, you will be gaining work experience which you can later rely on for references and to put on your CV. Even jobs you don’t think will be any use to secure a professional role usually are, think about customer facing, time management, cash handling, problem solving, dealing with complaints / conflicts – all good stuff to demonstrate to your potential boss that you haven’t just fallen out of bed and into their office hoping for a professional job.
  2. Voluntary work – Ask your tutors if they know any organisations or have any contacts who would be willing to let you volunteer your services to, ideally you will then gain some experience specific to the role you wish to pursue when you graduate and you may make an impression which could lead on to being offered a contract post-uni.
  3. Use your contacts – ask your parents to put the feelers out within their offices and with their friends to see if they can secure you some work experience they always say; “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know”

It is important to start working on your CV now – start adding pieces of information as it comes to you or as you experience it and ask your tutors to review it for you, make sure you ask for honest feedback and listen to those who can help you most.

CV Tips, CV Writing, Job Applications, Project management CV, project management resume

Off the shelf CV advice

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Having spoken with a great deal of job seekers both over my recruitment years and more recently as a careers adviser, I have been both surprised and concerned about the type of help out there for those wanting to improve their CV in the hope of achieving better prospects moving forward. One client I spoke to recently had previously engaged in a professional CV writing service with a large name in the industry – he sent his CV in with a payment and received a document which just didn’t make sense. The leading CV writer had reshaped each of the bullets with very poor English and clearly had never dealt with a project management CV before. Having sent back his CV 4 times for changes to be made, he was met with a response that the leading CV writer had worked on it this time so it should be perfect. I saw the CV after it had been reworked and I am still in shock, he did receive a full refund and was very cautious about seeking assistance moving forward.

Another client of mine had sought assistance through downloadable advice documents from PM specific websites and found that the documents were useful to a point but really missed what she needed in terms of information specific to her. I sympathised, and also have documents which are a guide but cannot address everything / everybody as it would have to be a very long document – maybe there’s a book in it!

The fact of the matter is that as much help and guidance there is available online and in published pieces of work on professional CV writing; there isn’t something which is specific to you. This is one of the key drivers for The CV Righter – we work with you every step of the way to ensure we keep your CV reading like you but relevant to what employers want to see. No off the shelf work is undertaken as this takes away the value of the service, we have clients who prefer to write their own CV and have scheduled feedback / consultancy meetings to ensure they are keeping on track and keeping to the point etc. And we have clients who use us in a more traditional sense and have us write their CV and we have regular meetings to discuss progress and ensure the CV is true to them. We are flexible because we are not off the shelf! For a free CV review, send over your CV today – let’s talk about what can work for you.

Careers Advice, guest blogger, News, Transferable Skills, Voluntary work

How to Volunteer for Charities

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Charities run on peoples’ goodwill and time. They are funded by peoples’ generosity and receive no government funding. They are staffed by a few managers and other key staff who are paid but a major part of their workforce is made up of volunteers.

Volunteering for a charity is worthwhile and very rewarding, but it is important to find a role that really suits you and makes the most of the time you have to offer. You may have important skills or certain personality traits that would make you perfect for a particular role.

There is a huge range of volunteering positions within charities. You could do anything from working in a charity shop to helping out at fundraising events to walking dogs for a dog shelter or fostering animals until they are adopted.

Charities are all organisations and although they do not seek to make a profit they do have to be run like a business, with people helping with budgets, marketing, fundraising and IT. If you have office-based skills, these can easily be translated into volunteer work for charities.

Many people volunteer as a way to get back into the working world after a career break or long period of ill-health. Volunteering builds confidence and gets you back into the routine of work. It is important that you are clear about what times and hours you are able to offer and how long you will be available for so that the charity can find a suitable role for you.

Volunteering can also look very good on your C.V. if you are searching for employment, as it shows a willingness to work, compassion and trustworthiness. Some volunteers go on to get paid positions within the charities that they have worked for, by showing their dedication, commitment and a ‘can-do’ attitude, but others are more than happy to just give their time knowing that they are helping a worthwhile cause.

If you are more interested in volunteering in a ‘hands-on’ way, the best sort of charities to work for are animal charities, which need a lot of help to care for the animals they look after. If you have always wanted pets but cannot afford one or cannot commit the time needed to care for one, then volunteering for an animal charity such as the RSPCA will be a great way for you to get to spend time with the animals you love.

If you are interested in volunteering, contact charities of your choice and ask if they have any positions available. Talk to them about what you would like and what you can offer and see where it leads you!

This is a guest post by Claire Chat a new Londoner, travel passionate and animal lover. She blogs about Pets and Travelling in Europe. If you want Claire to write you specific content, you can find email her here or contact her on Twitter (Claire_Chat).

guest blogger, News, Observations, project teams

Does Working in a Team Have to Cause You This Much Grief?

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Working in a team is something which can make any job more interesting but it can also cause you a bit of grief if difficult situations aren’t handled in the right way. I decided to have a look back at some of the worst team situations I have been in to see whether they could have been fairly easily avoided or fixed.

Jealousy and Pickles

Isn’t it strange how even the most mild-mannered colleague can get overcome by rage at some point in their career? I used to work with a chap whose only notable personality trait was that he ate cheese and pickle sandwiches at his desk at the same time every single day during 4 years.  One day he discovered that he had been overlooked for promotion and went ballistic. For a second I thought that I was going to end up with cheese and pickle all over my new suit. This is one of the most difficult subjects to handle but with a bit of proper team building and better communication I am sure that he would have appreciated the efforts of his colleagues more and not got so annoyed at the news of someone else’s promotion.

Everyone Doing the Same Thing Differently

I once got involved in a fairly big project which had people working on it in different parts of the country. The only bad part of it was that we all ended up doing similar tasks in different ways because we didn’t speak to one another. When we finally all got together for a meeting and a bit of team building no one knew what was going on any more. In this case the communication had to come earlier on, as it was obviously that a geographically dispersed team was going to have problems in this respect.

Longer Working Hours But No Pizza?

I remember another job in which we needed to deliver a report at very short notice. The boss took the wrong approach and tried to force us into staying till late to get it done. The whole office rebelled and by a minute past 5 the place was deserted. For about a month afterwards the office was filled with a hostile and frosty atmosphere due to this problem. What our boss should have done was explain the situation and try to persuade us to stay by offering us overtime pay or even just offering to order in a pizza or something.  Staying late and pulling together to achieve a difficult target is actually a good way of fostering a team spirit through team building, provided it is done the right way and pizza is involved of course.

If you want to stop your team members having a hard time at work then you should look to get some team building done as soon as you can.