Tag Archives: recruitment

Cover letters, CV Tips, Job adverts, Job Applications, Job Hunting, PMO CV, Project management CV, project management jobs

Essential Directory to Making PM Job applications

Leave a comment

I have written a number of articles containing tips and advice based on assisting PM professionals in securing that all important next role, job hunting should be a structured approach and does take some planning. Although the job websites make applications easy with one click to apply functionality, however some planning and organisation is required if you want to truly reap a good harvest.

A key starting point is setting out how and what you are applying for, this article provides some great ideas on how to structure an approach to your applications.

Once you have put together an action plan you need to start visiting some of the PM specific job boards and agencies, here is a list of some very useful sites.

Next, once you have a list of roles you wish to apply for you should take some time to match up your relevant experience to the job advert / job description. A cover letter can make the difference between being seriously considered for a role and being placed in a rather hefty pile of rejection CVs.  This article has an example of a cover letter which is written in response to a job description so you can really understand what detail you should be including.

Directory

I have said this before and I will say it again – don’t leave job applications to chance, with the market being flooded by applications it is important to make sure you are doing all you can to ensure your CV is being viewed positively. Taking the pepper gun approach of applying for everything just doesn’t work and can be detrimental to your endeavours – often making recruiters and hiring managers disregard your applications as soon as they see your name in their inbox again and that may well be the role you are well matched to but having seen you apply for lots of other roles which aren’t relevant to you, you have unwittingly given yourself a bad name / reputation.

Taking a targeted approach to applications will have your applications taken seriously and remembered for the right reasons.

guest blogger, Headhunting, Recruitment

Made-To-Measure

Leave a comment

When buying a bespoke or made-to-measure suit or other piece of clothing, time has to be invested by the maker and eventual wearer. Getting something to fit perfectly isn’t about one brief meeting; it is about choosing the cloth, discussing what the wearer wants, the occasion and having measurements taken by the maker. After several fittings hopefully both parties are happy and the wearer takes away a beautiful hand-crafted garment that they are proud to wear and in which they feel really comfortable. The maker will also be proud to be named as the skilled person behind the creation.

Bespoke positions?

Finding the right position especially when you are already at the top of your game is not dissimilar. Or at least it shouldn’t be.

Both the prospective employer and the executive looking for a position first of all need an introduction. In the best case scenarios they are introduced to one another by a headhunter who has already done some of the hard work. If you like, offered advice to choose the cloth, discussed what the bespoke garment is for and taken the measurements for both sides.

The fittings are taken care of by the client and the executive to see if they can make the perfect garment together.

A good headhunter

A good headhunter not only know his clients well and understands their company culture so that they are well equipped to find the right executive but they are ably prepared to read a CV and understand potential. To interview executives and glean any extra information that will mean a good fit.

A personal service

For top jobs you expect top service so hunt down a service provider who will give you just that. You need a headhunter who will make it their business to ensure you are listened to, kept informed and understanding exactly what you are looking for.

From a company point of view the service you are looking for is not very different. You need the headhunter to understand exactly how your company works and the exact calibre of person you are looking for when recruiting.

Both sides need to feel as though the headhunter is working solely for them and kept informed of all dialogue with the third party.

Executive recruitment

At the top end of the scale it is almost more important that the fit between client and executive is perfect. At this level a new executive is expected to start running, know their stuff and understand the company culture. This means a lot of research and feed back of information by the headhunter and of course during interviews.

A headhunter’s reputation is also dependent on giving the best service and showing a good understanding of what is required from both parties. A good headhunter needs to know his clients inside out and to work better than any match-making agency in putting the two together.

Which ever side of this coin you are coming from, when it comes to executive recruitments make sure that the agency you use has the credentials and a good match-making record.

Wendy Lin is a free-lance writer who is enjoying her new countryside living in the peaceful land of England…

Job Applications, Job Hunting, project management recruitment

Project Management Recruitment Agencies

Leave a comment

In previous blog posts I have talked about being proactive with job applications direct to employers as often you can cut out the middle man and harvest greater results from your applications if you put the work in and tailor your applications. However recruitment agencies can also yield results if you use the right agencies and display the right kind of behaviours.

Project Management recruitment agencies can be very useful to you in your search for a new job – so it is important to make sure you work with them to get them working for you.

I know through years of working in specialist PM recruitment that some clients do not advertise their roles other than through a handful of agencies, others will advertise and use every agency available. However the ones who have struck up a good relationship with their clients and have repeat business built up over the years can be a real asset to candidates serious about getting a new role. These types of recruitment agencies tend to work hard at client retention and as such will be keen to make sure that every candidate they submit to their client is a very close match to the client’s needs. Common sense you say, well yes but a great deal of recruiters out there work on volume and have a necessity to submit as many candidates as possible in the hope of hitting the nail on the head so to speak. The specialist recruiters are different in that volume isn’t necessarily the right route.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Working with specialist agencies by making contact and actually speaking with the recruiters is very important, if you can arrange a discussion to talk through your experience and your aspirations to really gain some buy-in from them could be the difference between being called as soon as a new role which meets your needs and skill-set and being left in the database of thousands of candidates. Listen to what the recruiters are saying to you – ask for feedback on your CV and applications, learn to understand their perspective and you will soon be placed in their favourite’s folder awaiting new roles as they hit the recruiters’ desk.

Don’t be afraid to call when you see new roles advertised, talk through expectations of their clients and ask if you need to make any tweaks to your CV. Once you have submitted your application you should look to track its progress – do not hound the recruiter, strike a balance of keeping in touch and if necessary, agree a communications plan.

All good project management professionals follow up actions and by demonstrating your keenness and being professional in your approach you will soon be remembered for all the right reasons. At a time when agencies have reduced portfolios of work and large databases of candidates you need to make sure you stand out above the rest.

Job adverts, management advice, project management recruitment

Writing a job advert

Leave a comment

How many times as a hiring manager have you engaged in to recruiting a new employee – most organisations have some form of HR process which you must adhere to and typically this means liaising with HR to draw up a job description and a job advert to advertise externally. As you are busy you arrange a meeting to talk through the role with a HR representative and leave them to write the JD and an advert. Often this is a mistake, after all you are the one who knows what you need and leaving your description open to interpretation from the HR person can lead to old job descriptions being reworded (sometimes not even that) or a JD being written by someone who is unsure what the role really is.

Writing a job description is good practice for you to really prioritise your wish list and give a little background to the team and department the new employee will be working in. Once you have written the document you need to think about how to take the core competencies and write them into an advert which will attract applications. No matter how difficult the role may be to fill due to constraints such as budgets you can still attract good strong candidates with the right kind of information.

In project management recruitment it can be the case that a well experienced project professional is required to join a project or programme at a crucial point, the salary offering is below market rate for someone with so much experience but none the less your needs are just that. So making the advert as attractive as possible is key to drawing in interest.

Not all project professionals are gunning after the big ££’s – in fact in my experience most are after a gripping challenge and looking to expand their experience. Therefore giving information about the challenges and why you need the more experienced candidate is not off-putting (if it is to some, then you don’t want them on board anyway), it can be the reason for applications. Something experienced project professionals gain from joining a challenging environment is further experience but also they just love to rise to the challenge and are not fazed by failing projects – they take pride in bringing projects back into scope.

A big mistake when writing job adverts is to not give any real detail about the projects to be worked on – now I know some pieces of work are sensitive and so you cannot name them but giving an idea of the type of project in context will help you gain applications from candidates with the right backgrounds.

For example here is a small piece which can introduce the role in a nutshell:

An experienced project support professional with a background in PMO and exposure to supporting circa 10 concurrent projects with interdependencies and good knowledge of manufacturing required to join a small established team to deliver a variety of business change projects ranging from new system roll outs to cultural change initiatives.

This can then lead into a little about the business and the challenges it currently faces such as; globally dispersed teams, cultural challenges, adversity to change etc. Then lead into the core competencies required such as; risk & issue management, planning, reporting, workshops, coaching etc. Finally talk through the advantages of joining such a team, talk through the maturity level of the PMO and how you envisage this person to help drive forward practices and really be a part of the organisation.

By writing a generic but informative advert you will not only hit keywords for those searching online for new roles, but also avoid dozens (if not hundreds) of applications from those who are not suitable for the role. Of course you will always get a few applications from unsuitable candidates (unfortunately I have yet to find a way to stop this completely) but on the whole you will be attracting the right calibre of candidate.