Tag Archives: Employers perspective

Careers Advice, CV Tips, Job Applications, Project Management, Project management career progression, Project management CV, project management resume

Applying for too many project management jobs – Friday snippet

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When it comes to making job applications, the easiest route would be to apply for anything which remotely fits your skill set – however doing this can have a detrimental affect on your plight to secure a new role. Look at it from the recruiter or hiring managers perspective, by applying for anything with the word “project” in it you are demonstrating that you have not read the job description or that you do not understand where you skill set sits in the project environment. If you are currently at the project coordinator level and are applying for senior project manager or programme manager positions it is pretty clear that you are not quite ready for such roles unless your remit has actually seen you performing these delivery duties at the levels seen in the JD. In which case you will need to clearly demonstrate these skills in your CV, do not change your job title but ensure you cover the delivery experience and types of projects and programmes being managed.

By taking the time to read through job descriptions and match up your skills to the requirements you will yield much more effective applications for the roles and as such will have a greater success rate for securing interviews. Although it may seem like you have to put a bit of effort in to begin with and with recruiters and employers often not responding to applications which can be frustrating – you are demonstrating your professional approach and buy-in to securing a role which is right for you. I have come across a great deal of recruiters, HR staff and line managers who tend to disregard multiple applications for vastly differing roles as they already have a huge list of applications to review and being frustrated they will recognise a name and reject it outright without checking the resume against the requirements because of this kind of practice.

Remember that you are being tested from the minute you apply for a role – first impressions last, be remembered for the right reasons.

Careers Advice, Contractors, CV Tips, CV Writing, Job Applications, PMO, Project Management

Understanding your target audience – CV Tips

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Writing a CV can be daunting at the best of times – some struggle to write a page others write a 10 page document fearing that everything they do needs detailing. To a point it does but it is important to ensure you are getting to the point as I am yet to meet an employer who will gratefully receive a lengthy CV. Put yourself in their shoes – they will have a number of CVs to read and are already very busy.

Understanding your target audience is a good way to making a start with writing your CV – do some research, get a feel for what is attractive to the line manager for the roles you wish to apply for. Once you break down into a few categories, what it is you wish to do next, you will soon be able to start formulating a CV which will gain a greater buy-in from the reviewer.

For example – you may be in a permanent programme manager position and having had good exposure to realigning failing pieces of work, feel that you would like a change and want to go into contracting. OK great so the biggest challenge you will need to overcome is demonstrating that you can “hit the ground running” with your potential employer. Therefore starting to list the types of projects and programmes you have picked up in various states of health and detail what you needed to do to bring them back in-line. By talking through the ability to do this you are clearing the first hurdle in the transition from a permanent employee to a contractor. Next look at the types of work being offered in the contract world at present – a good deal of business transformation and IT systems integration are glowing areas particularly for the financial services. Take a look at your portfolio and pick a handful of relevant programmes and projects to talk about, If you do not have a financial services background you make look to place more emphasis on the IT systems you have integrated or the types of transformations – politics, stakeholders, any regulatory / compliance exposure you make have and document this in the CV.

You may have a good length of service within in the PPM domain so ensure the emphasis is kept to the more recent roles and anything over 10 years ago is kept to a line; stating dates, role title, company name and location. Draw out specific key achievements relevant to the types of change you are looking to continue with and take care to add the benefits.

Do not assume the first person to read your application will understand the role – HR staff are often given a list of competencies to work through when reviewing your CV so make sure you address the job description when writing the CV and any buzz words are also embraced, terminology can differ slightly from methodology to methodology so make sure you are consistent with the definitions used in the JD.

Careers Advice, Interviews, News, Team building

Tackling mental health issues in the workplace

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The Word’s Maddest Job Interview aired on 25th July on Channel 4 which saw 8 candidates tested in a number of scenarios by 3 employers from varying backgrounds, a psychoanalyst and psychiatrist were also observing the testing and behaviours to try and determine who out of the candidates had been previously been diagnosed with mental health issues. According to the program 1 in 5 employees who disclose a mental health issue to their bosses lose their job. The aim of the programme was to determine if having a mental health issue could a. be detected and b. determine if this would be detrimental to their employability.

The experiment was a really interesting insight into behaviours displayed by the candidates when placed into a number of tests – the first test being an interview setting where the 3 employers sat behind a desk and welcomed each candidate with one question. “What do you think about the Olympics?” The reasoning for one question to be asked was because common theories on interviewing candidates tends to indicate that interviewers make a decision within the first few minutes of an interview whether or not they like a candidate or not. This is an interesting theory as I believe this is not always the case – I have conducted a large volume of interviews and can honestly say that on occasions I have made a decision about the candidate in the initial first question or two but often once a candidate has relaxed a little and settled into an interview my perception of them has changed. But in the interest of the experiment I recognise that to give a fair and controlled decision; this format worked. I was also intrigued by the employers’ versus candidates’ perception of how the interview went. One candidate felt he came across confident and strong where as the general feedback from the 3 interviewers was that he came across nervous and dishevelled – clearly promoting that feedback from interviews, whether positive or negative is instrumental for candidates to understand how they appear to others in this type of setting to be able to hone their technique for future interviews.

As the candidates moved through various circumstances such as a lateral thinking task, memory and recall, group task, risk taking, socialising and a real life work challenge; the employers’ changed their views on employability for each candidate. The aim was to place 3 candidates in their “top 3” shortlist through observation and discussion but they were also issued with anonymous statements about each of the candidates who had been diagnosed with mental health issues. Some of the statements were describing the effects the illness had on individuals such as suicide attempts, being sectioned and being unable to leave the house for months at a time. When discussing the statements one of the employers said he would have to think long and hard about employing someone with a mental health issue and having it stated on their CV would make him likely to not employ that candidate.

The interesting part about the experiment came when the final top 3 candidates were informed of their short-listing and all of them had been diagnosed with varying degrees of mental health issues – a surprise to the employers’ who agreed that their perceptions had been changed and that due to spending time with each candidate over a 5 day period had really assisted with changing their initial choices and also opened their eyes to the fact that the candidates ability to demonstrate the right traits for a work environment such as leadership, demonstrating independent thinking and team work was very strong hence being chosen.

The tasks set were nothing new to testing I have come across for interviews and also internal management candidature testing – the only difference being that they were all set on a 5 day period which leads to the next question; are the interviews being held currently enough? Should there be more than a couple of one hour staged meetings? Some organisations stipulate an assessment day which is gruelling to say the least having been on a few in my past but maybe spreading the testing out over a number of days may be a more successful route to identifying the best person for the job, not just on first impressions.

The program provided an interesting insight into interviews and perceptions generally, not just for those diagnosed with mental health issues and as such I recommend watching it to hiring managers and candidates alike to gain an understanding of how behaviours are observed by employers for interviews.

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Careers Advice, Interviews, PMO, Project Management, Q&A

Contacting employers post interview – Questions answered

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Nicola, quick question – in your opinion is it good practice to send a LinkedIn message to people who have interviewed you to thank them for their time etc?

Angela – Programme Manager; South East.

 

Fantastic question Angela – Thank you. It all comes down to how you applied for the role; if you made a direct application to the employer then yes by all means drop them a quick line thanking them for their time. Do not expect a direct response as most organisations have a policy in place where HR will be the go-between. Also check they are still active on LinkedIn as I have known a fair few people set up these accounts and rarely check into them, they change email address and forget to update LinkedIn so miss out on any messages being sent. Do not ask further questions such as when can I expect to hear from you as this should be covered by HR. You can add in something along the lines of, “If you have any further questions” or similar so they know you are open to a discussion or a further meeting.

 

If you have made an application through a recruiter then I am afraid you need to leave it to the recruiter to make contact with the employer. When organisations instruct recruiters to manage their recruitment needs it is usually because they do not want direct contact with a candidate and part of the recruitment etiquette is to not be contacting employers direct. It is often frowned upon by recruiters and employers alike. I have seen this happen on a couple of occasions and had emails / calls from employers telling me they have received correspondence direct and asking for me to contact the candidate to ask them not to. In some cases it has broken down the relationship with the employer for the candidate and rightly or wrongly they have chosen a different candidate to take forward.

If the application is through a recruiter you could contact them after the interview and ask them to pass some feedback to the interviewer – it is good practice to call the recruiter after an interview to let them know how you think the interview went and let them know if you are keen to pursue the role or have decided it is not for you. At this point if you are happy to proceed you can ask the recruiter to thank the interviewers on your behalf and explain any areas which may have been highlighted that have increased your interest. Ask the recruiter to keep you updated with any feedback provided and also set out a communication plan so you are kept to the top of the recruiters list of priorities.

Employers do not like to give away too much initially, in most cases, so asking for some initial feedback is OK. Any feedback is good feedback – taking anything critical should be a key to understanding how you come across to others in an interview scenario and assist you in honing your communication skills further for second round interviews or interviews in other organisations.