Tag Archives: Employers perspective

Careers Advice, CV Tips, Networking, News, PMO, Project Management

Sing about your projects

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As a project management professional – whether a deliverer or a support person, you are often quite used to being in the spot light with your stakeholders and within the business; usually when things aren’t going to plan and occasionally receiving recognition for success too. But beyond the realms of a close knit environment, how can you get noticed?

I have worked with a number of organisations who actively promote the use of social networking to talk about their project achievements albeit more heavily with the not for profit businesses but slowly the larger private sector organisations are starting to realise the benefits of external promotion for their project management endeavours. Using the likes of twitter and LinkedIn can really help raise the profile of your projects and of your efforts. Utilising these free tools you can not only spread the good word but also impress your sponsors too – as news is picked up and interest is drawn into the piece of work the organisation naturally will have some good, free marketing and I have yet to find an organisation who doesn’t like good news being spread about them. Of course if you are working on sensitive projects or programmes – you are unlikely to be able to spread the word but even for the smaller change initiatives it could be well worth commanding some attention.

Through marketing out your successes and working progress you are likely to gain interest from your peers who may be looking for another perspective to consider or apply to their practices and you will start to form networks of PM professionals who will value your opinion and may be able to offer advice and exchange war stories about their experiences.

You will soon become noticed for the right reasons and may even open up opportunities for yourself in your career. Once you enter into the realms of sharing information you are likely to be invited to PM conferences and into organisations to talk about how you work and what strategies you apply to your projects. Again this is easily sold into the senior management team through the reminder that promoting your organisations best practice approach and how other organisations will learn and benefit from this is a fantastic advert for the project management team and company name.

 

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

Stating achievements on your CV

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Your CV is a professional document which details your work history and skills – as a project professional you should look to ensure you are demonstrating your ability to add value and administer change. The nature of project management is to achieve a change and as such you should be addressing your achievements in your CV. If you are a seasoned project professional either deliverer or supporter of projects you will have a list of completed and ongoing projects which could fulfil a thesis word count requirement. Therefore it is important to describe the types of projects in your remit and save a dedicated section on the CV to bullet point a few of your key achievements. Personally I would look to create a good long list of key achievements and interchange them on your CV for a more tailored application – ensuring you are highlighting projects which are particularly relevant to the role you are applying for.

The key to writing key achievements is to be clear and concise; consider these points when constructing your bullets:

  1. What is the project / task in hand – give a brief description.
  2. What was your input – remember the aim of a CV is to talk about you not your team, if you formed part of a team delivering XXX it is OK to state this but ensure you state your actual involvement.
  3. What was the outcome – what did you actually achieve from the project / task, talk about the benefits. Increasing productivity or reducing waste, can you add £’s or %’s here?

A CV should look to address 4 to 6 bullet points of key achievements – the aim is to give the hiring manager a flavour of what you can do and there will be ample opportunity to discuss other achievements at interview.

Adding the key achievements towards the top of the CV will assist the hiring manager in understanding your strengths from the outset and lends a nice flow to the document to follow into your most recent role. Try to avoid using achievements which are too old, using more recent examples is especially important for IT roles as technology moves along so quickly – the current work is likely to be of interest to the hiring manager.

If you were a product and wanting to sell well to the consumer the key elements of sales are what you can do – market yourself in the best light possible by highlighting your best attributes to the target audience. Your CV is your own marketing document – if you were to sit in the hiring managers’ shoes, what would you expect to see?

At The CV Righter we work with you to understand your best marketing skills and ensure you are selling yourself in the best light by taking your portfolio and hand picking the parts which are relevant to your target employers. For a free CV review visit: www.thecvrighter.co.uk

CV Tips, CV Writing, PMO, Project Management, Q&A

Should I state my hobbies on my CV? – Questions answered.

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Each week I am addressing questions asked during my consultations with project professionals, via the blog – this week we have an interesting question from a PMO professional who was concerned that stating hobbies may go against him.

“I have been considering whether to add detail about my hobbies in my CV as I do not want to put employers off – some of my hobbies are extreme sports and I have read that such hobbies may be off-putting due to the perceived danger aspect and employers worry about time off due to accidents.” – Simon, PMO Lead; Southampton.

Hi Simon, many thanks for the question – hobbies are an interesting aspect of a CV in that there have always been questions around whether they are actually required. However I have worked with a number of employers who have asked to see CVs of candidates with interesting hobbies – this is because their current teams are varied in backgrounds and interests which they have found works very well for the business. Having hobbies is important to everyone as this demonstrates that our down time is being used productively but also that we have a way of channelling our energy and stresses of everyday by escapism.

Some choose to take a safer approach to hobbies and may develop websites etc where as others as more active and choose to climb rocks at the weekend. Personally I think there are a smaller number of employers which will have an issue with a dangerous sport over no hobbies at all. We can suffer accidents merely walking to the shops so in controlled environments you are less likely to have a detrimental outcome as you are aware.

Hobbies add another dimension to a CV – when choosing potential employees it is important for hiring managers to get a good fit to the team and as such they may look to attract similar to their current team or think outside the box and consider candidates with a more varied background. To make a team we do need to consider varying elements so having colleagues who are very different from each other can address any skills gaps too.

Work does take a large proportion of our time and although it is necessary to ensure you are covering all aspects of the role you perform – adding that personal element is a good idea. We are not robots and it is better to be discarded for a role from the outset if the employer truly has an issue with your hobbies than after interviewing. Save yourself the disappointment and time – be true to yourself as the right role is only around the corner and the hobbies may be the deal breaker or deal maker!

If you have a burning question you would like answering – please feel free to drop us a line at: www.thecvrighter.co.uk

 

 

Careers Advice, Cover letters, CV Tips, CV Writing, News, PMO, Project Management

Professional CV writing service – what can I expect?

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There is a stigma attached to professional CV writing services – candidates being charged extortionate fees for a CV which isn’t true to them, I have seen the result of such work over the years as a recruiter which is one of the key reasons I started this business. It is important that your CV is personal to you, not just a list of skills which reads more like a job description. Having spent a number of years working in project management delivering projects and setting up support systems for project teams and then specialising in recruiting project management staff across all sectors and industries in permanent, contract and temporary roles I have decided to dedicate my knowledge and experience to assisting project people in achieving their career goals. As a consultant in this field and having provided careers advice for 5 years to project professionals and those entering the field I am in a good position to be able to really understand you and translate your background into terminology and information which is sought after in the project management field.

When engaging in our services you will work closely with me to understand the “whys” and together we will create a CV which not only markets you exceptionally in the field – it is true to you and will assist you in gaining interviews for roles which are right for you. I think we’ve all been sent to an interview by a recruiter and wondered why we are there as the role is not relevant to our skills!! By having a clear CV which tells the reader about your abilities in a professional format you will avoid such inconveniences and more importantly – will gain you the interviews for the roles you really want.

At The CV Righter we do not believe one size fits all for CVs which is why all the sessions and the final product served to you is tailored to you and your circumstances. You will never sit in an interview and be asked about something on your CV which you do not understand or have little exposure to. We don’t look to make up information but to take the experience you have and ensure it is understood by the reader. We will go through the finished CV with you (once you are happy with it) to ensure you understand all the terminology and are comfortable with it. In addition to this, based on your circumstances, we will offer you addition advice about taking that next step into securing a new role.

For a professionally written CV which is true to you – not just a template and a list of skills, make contact today to see how we can assist you. We perform a free CV review to get the ball rolling and discuss your circumstances to understand how we can support you. www.thecvrigther.co.uk