Tag Archives: CV Tips

A bit of fun, CV Tips, CV Writing, Job Applications, Job Hunting, No, Recruitment

Be my Valentine

Valentines is a long held tradition across many countries in the world as a day to express love for another – one legend is that of a priest in the third century in Rome, who took it upon himself to marry soldiers in secret, who were forbidden to marry under Emperor Claudius II as his belief was that single men made better warriors of war. On discovery, the priest was executed; the Catholic Church recognises three saints Valentines or Valentinus’ all of whom were martyred. Of course there are a fair few legends but this one I think is particularly romantic in that it talks of a religious party striking against what the establishment deem as right in matters of the heart.

Be my valentine

So naturally I wanted to tie the Valentines theme in with CV writing, sitting down to think about what Valentines actually means to others and how it affects our lives I put the question out to my friends – the response was good but one of my favourites was this response; “It’s a bit like Xmas. You can go the hype route, or if you take heed of the underlying message you can enrich your life.” How true, seeing through the commercial aspect it is a time set aside to reflect on what really matters in your life.

I began to write a list of what actually happens on Valentine’s day and the actions we take:

Putting yourself out there – taking a risk for something you really want. For single people valentines provides an opportunity to let that special someone know that you are thinking about them. As is the case with applying for a role, it doesn’t have to be an advertised job, you could make contact speculatively. You have nothing to lose as long as you keep your approach professional. You never know, as up until the point you make contact you are not even on their radar!
Making an effort – getting dressed up to create a good impression doesn’t always mean knocking on doors physically, dress up that LinkedIn profile and CV; make contact and let them do the talking.
Thrill of the chase – now we all love a chase to get something we want so why only extend the exhilaration to romance, use the adrenalin and endorphins to keep you motivated and enjoy the ride.
Rise above the fear of rejection – the time old saying, it’s better to have tried and failed than never tried at all. Performed in the right manner, surely it is worth a go.
Anonymity – traditionally sending a card or flowers to a valentine is supposed to be a secret, a bad CV can have the same effect – to recruiters, bad CVs get put in the recycle bin and it’s like you never existed so heed the warning.
Rock someone’s world – it’s not always the flamboyant and expensive gestures which make an impression, often it’s the well thought out but simple motion.
Dating agency – for those still looking for that special someone, an agency can be just the ticket. Recruitment agencies and job websites are also there to attend to your professional needs. Sign up, make contact, search through profiles, find something which makes you want to make contact and do just that.

Striking a balance of a happy personal life and happy work life is the key to contentment – if you invest as much time and effort into finding a new job as you do to matters of the heart and take the thrill of it rather than see it as a chore you will find yourself on a new exciting journey.

CV Tips, Project management CV, project management resume

That all important first half of your CV

Nicola Caswell-Thorp Leave a comment

The most important part of your CV is the first half – the reason is simple, it’s the first thing hiring managers and recruiters read and it can either whet their appetite to read more or switch them off and make them move on to the next CV without giving you any serious consideration. So what is the winning formula to generating the right kind of attention and will it make the reader actually turn the page with interest?

Let’s take it from the top:

Headings – whaaaaat?? Indeed what! There is absolutely no need to give your CV a heading, it is very obvious that the document is a Curriculum Vitae or Resume so don’t waste precious space. Also bear in mind software for candidate databases tend to take the first line of the CV and process it as the name of the candidate. You do not want to be listed as Curriculum Vitae instead of Bernard Thomson right!
Name – your name should always be at the top of the CV and ideally in a larger font than the rest of the document. For the above database reason, but also because it needs to be in a place which is easily seen by the reader, there is nothing worse for a recruiter than having to search for a name on a CV trust me! Some also choose to add the name alongside page numbers in the footer – this works well for when the document is printed out helping to ensure none of the pages are lost. However a lot of offices do tend to be paperless these days so a footer isn’t a crucial requirement.
Address – again this should be towards the top of the CV and ideally under your name. If applying to recruiters and posting your CV online I recommend you don’t include your entire address, in fact I would suggest maybe stating a City or County. However if you are applying direct to an employer then it is better to include your full address so they can see how far you are from the role location. Some employers will contact you by post (yes this practice is still very common for larger organisations); also offers will generally be posted out. Not getting ahead of ourselves here, but it pays to keep HR on side; they do not want to be chasing up such details.
Phone number – your mobile number will suffice, this is ideal as you can screen calls and take them in appropriate areas rather than in front of the current boss. Don’t give work numbers and if you work in security cleared areas which do not allow mobile devices – make sure you tell the hiring manager / recruitment consultant this in your application and provide an appropriate method for them to contact you.

Email address – often recruiters will email you to arrange a time to talk and employers may wish to send you further information / testing etc via this method. Make sure you have a sensible email address and it is spent correctly. I have lost count of the amount of emails I receive on behalf of another Nicola with a dot missing from her email address!
Profile – who are you / what can you do (in a professional capacity)
Achievements – the all important evidence of where you have added value.
Career history – starting just about half way down the page, starting with most recent role first.

This takes us to half way down the CV – the crucial point! Do read through the above links to blog posts which drill down in to more detail and give examples etc.

A bit of fun, CV Tips, Job Applications, Observations

Amusing grammatical errors found in CVs

Nicola Caswell-Thorp Leave a comment

Over the years of working in recruitment I have seen all manner of CVs from students to Directors – one common mistake made on CVs is an inability to proof read the CV before making applications for jobs. Now it is hilariously funny seeing some of the mistakes but is catastrophic for the applicant as you are clearly demonstrating your lack of attention to detail, good writing skills and sometimes it just looks like you don’t care.

I didn't did I?

Here are some examples of where spellchecker is not your friend as it won’t pick up the wrong use of language:

Dealing with customer queries and multi-tasting

Uh oh, you may enjoy tasting from the biscuit tin but that is not addressing the task in hand!

Ruining corporate level strategy meetings

Ha ha well there may have been times where the meetings didn’t go to plan but running away from this gaff will leave you out in the cold with recruiters.

Accruing anal reports for senior management

We’ve all had to work on very detailed reports however year end reporting is not to be picked at.

Managing work odours

There may be a few nasty niffs in the office, I find that buying a plug-in air freshener usually puts things back in order 😉

Career break – maturity leave

After writing this article I feel some maturity leave may well be in order – it has certainly given me some belly laughs.

Responsible for coping, editing and print

A good coping mechanism can be to copy others maybe?

Demonstrable track record of poof-reading

This one just needs to disappear in a poof and some serious proof reading is required.

Pubic relations officer

Not to be made public I fear.

The lesson to be learned from this story is not to solely rely on spell/grammar checker when writing your CV. It is easy to make a mistake when you are trying to get down all your information and not re-reading the document several times before sending it out to employers and recruiters will be your biggest mistake of all.

12 days of Christmas, CV Tips, No, Project management CV, Seasons Greetings

On the 10th day of Christmas my true love gave to me…

Nicola Caswell-Thorp Leave a comment

On the 10^th day of Christmas my true love gave to me…

….10 Lords A-leaping! In our case: On the 10^th day of Christmas The CV Righter said to me 10 years in detail, 9 pages too long, 8 mistakes of applications, 7 deadly sins of job hunting, 6 Key Achievements, 5 Golden Rules, 4 calling cards, 3 networks, 2 referees and a killer CV.

The golden rule for writing a CV is to keep the detail within the last 10 years of work experience – you should also cover work experience prior to the 10 years but you can keep this down to 1 line per role stating dates, names of company, job title and location. There are a couple of reasons for this, the first being that actually the most recent work experience is what the employer wants to see – anything over 10 years is deemed as a long time ago and not really relevant to them. This is hard for some as I know you are proud of some of the amazing projects you have been involved in delivering but it is where you are now and what you are doing now (or within the last few years) which matters. This is particularly important with technology as we are in a fast changing world so something which may have been huge back in the day has been superseded over and over.

If there is something which you do deem relevant that is past the 10 year mark then you may wish to talk about this in your cover letter, therefore you are still presenting your most recent work on your CV but also pointing out that you have had exposure to XXX when working at XXX in the past. This also gives a fresh perspective to your application as it says something different in the cover letter than the CV – a lot of candidates feel the need to copy and paste parts of their CV into a cover letter which is a waste of everyone’s time and gives the impression of lazy behaviour.

The other reason it is good to keep with 10 years of work experience is that it helps to reduce the size / length of your CV – helping you keep to the ideal 2/3 pages and encouraging you to keep focussed on the important bits.

On the 1^st day of Christmas The CV Righter gave to me a Killer CV

On the 2^nd day of Christmas The CV Righter said to me Two Referees

On the 3^rd day of Christmas The CV Righter gave to me Three Networks

On the 4^th day of Christmas The CV Righter said to me 4 calling cards

On the 5^th day of Christmas The CV Righter gave to me 5 golden rules

On the 6^th day of Christmas The CV Righter said to me 6 Key achievements

On the 7th day of Christmas The CV Righter said to me the 7 deadly sins of job hunting

On the 8th day of Christmas The CV righter gave to me 8 mistakes of applications

On the 9^th day of Christmas The CV Righter gave to me 9 pages too long

On the 10^th day of Christmas The CV Righter said to me 10 years in detail