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Job Applications, Project Management Careers Advice, project management jobs

Organising your Project Management job search

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Project management is all about being organised and disciplined – it makes us more efficient, however as prepared as we are in the office / about our projects, some of us are less organised outside office hours. Now that is not to say in everything we do as we still need structure to function, getting the kids ready for school, walking the dog and making sure we all eat at the right times etc. but when it comes to applying for jobs. It can be a case of go online, find a few project management jobs, adjust CV accordingly, apply and then forget all about them until you (hopefully) receive a call.

Creating a good impression with HR and recruiters is a must – they are the gate keepers, if you mess up with them, then your application goes no further and all the work you put in to writing a cover letter or reshaping your CV has gone to waste. Therefore it is important to make sure you keep a note of what you are applying for, a simply excel spreadsheet will suffice. Create a few headers for the columns such as job title, salary or day rate, location, reference number, agency/business applied to, date applied, version of CV sent (make sure you name your CVs so you can track what went where), where you found the advert/role (this may be a particular search term or website) and date to follow up application.

Once you have this document you can print it off or email to your phone (screen shot it for Apple products) and then you are ready to take calls from recruiters and employers on the go – when you receive a call, ask who is calling and the job title they are calling about. Ask them to hold the line (say you are taking a private room) and scan through your document for the role. You will sound far more organised and professional as you talk through the job and are more likely to gain success with the “gatekeeper” to actually get your CV put forward to the hiring manager for the position.

You can use the spreadsheet to collate details about where you are finding relevant jobs from which will assist you moving forward in deciding which websites you should be spending more time / less time on, noting dates for applications and setting follow up dates to call employers / recruiters is great practice. All the good project management people are always following up actions!

I cannot emphasise enough, the need for a professional approach to job applications – remember first impressions. Don’t blow it with an agency by answering the phone unprepared and sounding disinterested, there are plenty of other great candidates out there who are happy to take your place and will do so if you fall at the first hurdle – excuse the Olympic themed idiom!

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, CV Tips, Project Management, Project management CV, project management resume, Q&A, Sector Advice

Career change – questions answered

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This week we have another great question about entering into project management from the armed forces.

Hi Nicola, I am due to leave the army soon and I am planning ahead my career – on discussing courses with my commanding officer it was suggested that I move in to project management as a lot of my skills match up closely with core PM requirements according to a skills checker used by careers advisors in the MoD. My background is within the officer ranking where I manage large teams in rolling out technology in global locations – as such I have been working to MoD structures and I feel these are transferable outside of the forces.
Keith; Germany

Hi Keith, thank you for getting in touch – glad to hear you are thinking ahead of moving back to civilian life, you have taken the right steps to speak with your CO and I assume you are taking advantage of all the courses and training which is provided to you when you have been given notice of leaving the forces.
Your experience lends itself well to a number of projects across industries – it saddens me that advice for our troops moving back to civilian life is grim at best, especially for project management. Having a brother who currently serves with the army I believe we need to be encouraging the transition of MoD personnel. Personally I have come across a great deal of ex forces personnel who have settled very well into project management roles for sectors such as defence, engineering, construction and manufacturing. Keys areas to focus on would those which you can offer something in return – think about the technologies you have rolled out, global delivery / exposure to cultural change, managing large teams and direct line management. All these skills are sought-after with large global organisations and businesses who adopt a “policing” approach to project management may also express an interest in your background.

What you need to focus on now is your CV – take time to make sure you research the roles you are interested in and check the core areas of interest, now make sure you focus on those aspects in your CV. Such as planning, reporting, risk management, stakeholder management etc. keep the focus on the technologies implemented and use terminology from project management (which you should be picking up from your courses and training) to ensure that the resume reviewer can match up your experience with the role. As with all writing their resume – it is important to make sure you are not using internal language from your current employer in the CV, a common language needs to be used as the hiring manager probably hasn’t worked at your places of employment.

Careers Advice, Interviews, Job Applications, Project management career progression

Making time for interviews

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Whilst working full time and having a life outside of work job applications are sometimes a little hit and miss – however once you are attracting interest from hiring managers and have secured interviews you really do need to set aside some time to prepare. I have addressed how to prepare for interviews in a previous blog but the reality of actually putting the work in to ensure you reach success is crucial. Hopefully you will be given some notice ahead of your allotted interview date and as such you should plan ahead how you can spend some time to really work at your technique.

Using the job description you should be able to gain a good idea of the questions you will be asked from the list of required skills. Work through the list and think about some good strong responses, by giving actual examples of when you have used these skills rather than what you would do – the hiring manager will be able to form a good picture of you and how you work. This will no doubt prompt further questions about how you dealt with issues that arose etc and will help the interview flow. It is a good idea to formulate some questions and give them to your partner / colleague or relative to ask you. Answer the questions as you would at interview and be sure to allow your personality to shine through to (not forgetting to smile also), after each question ask your mock interviewer to repeat back to you in their own words what you have told them. By performing this scenario you will get practice at talking out loud about your experiences but also gain a good understanding of how clear you come across. If the responses back to you are unclear – then you need to look at how you are articulating yourself, are you using jargon and terminology which isn’t being understood?

Remember that practice makes perfect so the more you can run through your examples, the better you will be at articulating yourself. Try to keep to a structured format when supplying your responses, set the scene (briefly but concisely) then talk about your actions (remember the interview is about you not your team so “I did..” not “we did..” should be used and then talk through the outcome, what was it you achieved (the benefits).