Tag Archives: Employers perspective

Careers Advice, CV Tips, CV Writing, project management resume

Why a strong Project Manager CV is so important

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I have been approached by a great deal of seasoned Project Manager’s over the past few months telling me how they would always secure new work whether it be contract or permanent, without a CV. Using their contacts from various areas such as previous clients, other Project Professionals in their field or acquaintances. Most stating that they received recommendations from contacts to hiring managers which would harvest interviews leading to successful placements. But as the market has evolved over the past few years and particularly more recently, they are finding this approach is becoming less than fruitful, often when recommended they are then asked to ping over their CV and are not hearing anything back. Unfortunately, although this type of job hunting is still one of the most successful routes, hiring managers are now pressured to only invite candidates in for interviews when their CV is good – despite the personal recommendation. There are a number of reasons a strong CV is now required; here are a few:

  • As there are less roles available recruiters are taking other steps to make placements such as a proactive speculative approach, identifying matches of candidates for a company / programme and sending over CVs stating “I came across this candidate and thought they would be a good fit in the team, I know you might not be hiring at the moment…” This approach will sometimes work – if you hit the hiring manager right at a point where they may be thinking of expanding the team but it also demonstrates to the employer the calibre of candidate available on the market. The standard of CV is usually exceptional (as it is a speculative attempt by the recruiter, the CV has to be good), this whets the appetite of the employer and also consciously and/or subconsciously sets a bar for what they will accept as a CV.Clarity
  • There also tends to be more presence from those in senior positions to analyse talent coming into the company – “we can’t afford to be taking on dead wood” – therefore those in a position to hire new personnel will be in a situation where they have to present a business case to their management team for new resources. Part of this will be presenting your CV – as much as the hiring manager may be keen to bring you on board thanks to your contacts super recommendation, the senior management team aren’t bought-in. To get them on-board they need to be able to see a good CV which says all the right things before they will consider allowing meetings/interviews to go ahead.
  • HR plays a large part in recruitment within a business and as such; don’t like to be left out of the loop. Hiring managers are reminded that all recruitment activities need to be run past them and CVs also get the full review process, again if your CV isn’t strong you will not get beyond the recycle bin.

Just because it worked before – doesn’t mean it will continue to work – as project professionals implementing change, you know this to be only too true. Although it is an alien concept, you must adapt to the change and present the employers with what they expect to see. After all, the CV demonstrates more than just your skills and experience – it shows others how you present important pieces of information, very significant in Project Management don’t you think!?

Careers Advice, IT Project Management, Project Management, Project Management Software, Recruitment, Starting out in Project Management

Sales Manager with Project Management Skills, help? Q&A

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Hi Nicola, I have a long career of software sales experience and I am looking to make my next career move. My question is that I have a great deal of project management experience having delivered a number of software implementations to clients but I am always seen as “just a sales manager” – is there any advice you can give me on how I can be taken seriously as a Project Manager. Simon; Key Account Manager, West Midlands.

 

Hi Simon, many thanks for getting in touch – what a great question! I can see from your CV that you talk a great deal about the sales you have made and your track record is impressive. You place a lot of focus on the sales aspect which I suspect is why you are not being taken seriously for the roles which lean more towards the PM skill set. One piece of advice I will offer is that you need to be sure that your desire to focus on the PM aspect is realistic – at the end of the day there is a great deal of competition for PM roles out there and you will come up against out and out Project Managers. Should you reach interview with such stiff competition you will need a convincing reason why you wish to transition. However there are a lot of Software Project Manager roles available and most of them are strongly focussed on presales, these types of roles tend to require a good sales person to interface between the client and the development team and will do similar project management to your background – delivering integration of the product.

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Therefore I would suggest you balance your CV with information which demonstrates your strong sales track record but also talks through how you deliver projects, think about the project lifecycle and address the various aspects. Add in details on teams, stakeholders, budgets, project details and change management – let the reviewer of the CV really understand what your current and previous roles involved. Place some emphasis on key achievements which really talk about how you add value – this can be dealing with tricky customers, overcoming change and identifying/remedying bottle necks. You will put yourself in a strong position against the perceived strong competition as you have three or more core areas of competence versus the straight forward PM. I have always believed you need to have some good sales skills to be successful in Project Management, dealing with such a mixed bag of stakeholders and gaining buy-in, to be able to combine with a structured approach to managing projects you are in a strong position if you market yourself well.

Careers Advice, guest blogger, Recruitment

The Top Ways To Make Yourself More Employable

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If you are currently searching for work, then no doubt you will have discovered just how soul crushing it can be. Rejection letters are one thing, but half the time you’ll probably find you don’t hear anything back at all.

Of course this is nothing personal – in most cases the decision will be made based on factors outside of your control simply pertaining to how you look on paper. Your experience, your grades and even your demographic will all make you viable or not before anyone has even read anything.

If you want to improve your chances of getting employed then, you need to find ways to improve these statistics so that at first glance your CV looks like one that the company could employ. Here we will look at some of the top things you can do to make yourself more employable and make your CV stand out for all the right reasons.

Pack the right caseExperience

Experience is one of the big things that employers are looking for, and grades alone unfortunately are not enough these days in a competitive job market. The problem of course is getting that experience in the first place when no one will give you a chance, so the solution is simply to volunteer or to at least look for very cheap work part time on top of your current job.

Grades

That said, grades and qualifications are important too, so if you can get any new qualifications added then this is worth looking into. It might mean a year out of work and a big investment, but in the long term it will pay off in dividends.

Gaps

Gaps in your CV are something that you should avoid at every cost. While you might feel that certain jobs are below you if you have higher aspirations than working in a supermarket, they are better than nothing as temp jobs if you risk having a gap in your CV otherwise. Take any work you can find, and then look for better jobs while you’re working. If you have a gap, then look for a good way to explain it at least.

Driving

Being able to drive is a huge boon to many employers and a great way to make yourself more employable – even if the jobs you’re looking for aren’t directly related to driving. If you can’t already drive, then make sure you look into learning. And if you can, then make sure that you keep your driving record clean and avoid any incidents.

Languages

If you can speak a foreign language, then this is something else that will benefit a great number of employers. Of course it’s not a requirement for most employers, but if you can speak another language this is sure to count in your favour so it’s worth learning if you have the time and the inclination.

Criminal Record

Likewise, it’s important to try and avoid any potential legal problems that could create a blight on an otherwise bright CV. While it may be too late to undo past misdeeds, certainly make sure that you avoid any future run-ins with the law.

This post was contributed by Samantha Brave from 4SafeDrivers.com. Samatha is a blogger and webmaster and likes writing articles covering various topics like driving, business tips and career advice.

Careers Advice, Internet Recruitment Sites, Job Applications, Job Hunting, project management recruitment, Recruitment

Internet Recruitment Sites

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Often the first port of call for most looking for a new job – internet recruitment sites can be effective but need to be tackled in the right way to ensure you are harvesting good results. It is easy to apply online for roles and using the job boards provides very easy access to hundreds of recruitment agency job adverts. However if you are merely applying for anything and everything which broadly covers your skill-set you could be off to a non-starter – look at it from the recruiters perspective, if you apply for roles which vary significantly in salary and seniority then you are wasting their time. You will get noticed but for all the wrong reasons, quickly being labelled as a “apply for all” candidate who does not A. Read the job advert or B. Does not understand their own skill-set

Take time to really understand which roles are relevant for you and make sure you don’t assume that the recruiter knows what it is like to work at xxx ltd. When I say this I mean I have seen CVs which are rather limited in information and often do not have enough of the skills covered which are required for a role, therefore the application is rejected and it is not uncommon to have a call from the candidate asking why they were rejected. When explaining the key areas for the role the candidate will say they have done this and my response was – it is not in your CV. No matter how good a recruiter is at their job if the CV is not including the key skills asked for in their client wish list then the CV will be rejected from the client and it is important for the recruiter to maintain a good relationship with their client.  Sending in CVs lacking vital information looks bad on them so they won’t do it.

Your CV also needs to be compatible for the recruiter databases – often there are some guidance notes on the recruiter sites as to what works best with their systems, make sure you follow these but a good rule of thumb is to keep the CV to a basic formatting and avoiding tables and text boxes. Otherwise you may find that your CV is not displaying correctly on the recruiters screen and could be missing large chunks of information. As the recruiter will be dealing with hundreds of CVs on a daily basis you will easily be discarded for a CV which is correctly formatted and states all the key requirements for a role.

Keyword searching by recruiters is also very popular these days due to the volumes of candidates in databases so it is important to make sure you weave relevant keywords within your CV – do not just list a mass of keywords! This is not helpful to the recruiter who requires some context of how you have used skills, software etc. Take a look at roles being advertised and check that the terminology is similar to that used in your CV, make sure you really work at placing some effective statements about when you have had exposure to certain aspects such as the project lifecycle including how, when, why.