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CV writing advice

There are many sites offering help and information on the web relating to writing your CV and you can decide what suits your experience best. The word Curriculum Vitae literally translated means career story of your life and is a very important document. It is your next step on the career ladder the key to opening new doors challenges and financial reward.

With so many applicants in the market competition is fierce so your CV must stand out from the rest.

Use a layout that is easy to follow and looks uncluttered
Use a font that lends itself to a technical document
Check and recheck spellings and grammar - there should be no errors

1. Information to include

Full name
Contact personal details
Address telephone numbers
Date of birth
Marital status
Nationality
List qualifications and education, eg:
- BSc (Hons) 2:1 Mathematics
- GCSE English Maths etc.
- School / College dates

Professional qualifications

List any training courses you have attended and qualifications obtained.

If you have a range of technical skills you can list them here. If this is a large list, put them into sub-categories or a table.

Work Experience

Start with the most recent position and work backwards.

Name the company, dates, job, title, your main tasks, responsibilities achievements and skills. Mention anything that is a transferable skill to another employer. Be specific and positive. Remember to include management of staff or budget and any improvement costs and savings that you made.

Major achievements and personal summary

List your major achievements. List things that are relevant to the role you are applying for where possible. List hobbies.
List sports, clubs and organisations that interest you.

2. CV tips

10 points to a brilliant CV

Make your CV clear and interesting, but keep it concise. It isn't your life story. A CV only has one function: to get you an interview.
Don't forget to include an e-mail address.
Sell yourself on the first page, this should be able to stand alone. Start with a profile of who you are, plus your key achievements, followed by a career history in brief.
Your CV should make claims about who you are and what you can do and then provide evidence to back them up.
Translate what you know and can do into terms that will appeal to a recruiter - talk about solving problems, making a difference...
Try to say something interesting about your academic history - relate it to an employer's needs rather than regurgitating the syllabus, e.g. if you led a seminar or gave a talk, write about your facilitation or presentation skills.
It's all very well being the best thing since sliced bread but be specific: make claims and then give evidence. Express achievements in terms of awards, money, time or percentages.
Try to include something under "interests" which is neither bland nor run of the mill. Include interests which make you appear a rounded person and those which have some relevance to the job.
Avoid empty adjectives. Almost everyone is creative, dynamic, enthusiastic…. Focus on what you have achieved.
Remember your CV will be read in about 20 seconds, just to screen you into the "YES" or "NO" pile. Do everything you can to end up in the "YES" pile by making the recruiter's job easier.

What not to do in a CV

Don't provide huge amounts of detail about jobs you did more than 10 years ago.
Don't put anything down under "interests" unless it has some relevance to the job or you can talk inspiringly for hours on the subject.
Make sure your email address is businesslike.
Don't put anything on the front page that strikes a negative note.
Don't include anything that looks incomplete or misleading, e.g. mentioning a degree without mentioning the subject or result.
Don't put "Curriculum Vitae" at the top - put your name and contact details, including e-mail address.
Avoid obscure abbreviations or jargon.
Don't include your age - but do put your date of birth at the end of the CV.
Don't include salaries.
Cut out non essential personal information e.g. height, weight, state of health, children/ their names/ages, religious or political beliefs.
Don't give the names and addresses of referees - you can provide them if they are requested, but you should brief your referees carefully about who they may be talking to, and what the potential job is all about.
Don't include your reasons for leaving jobs.
Don't include details of qualifications that have been made out of date or irrelevant through other qualifications or study you have undertaken.

You can also view the following site for more help and ideas:

www.online-graduate.co.uk/tailorcv.html
www.alec.co.uk/cvtips/index.htm
www.pro-cv.co.uk/cv_facts.htm
www.rec.uk.com/looking-for-work-portal.htm

Interview advice

Interview tips

Plan carefully. Do you know where you are going and how to get there? Who are you seeing?
Make sure you know the names of the people who will be interviewing you. Practice saying them if they are difficult to pronounce.
There's no such thing as enough preparation for an interview. Find out everything you can about the company and what it makes or does. Look for current news - show you are up to date.
Why does this job exist? What problems will it solve? What are the Key Result Areas?
Remember: employers buy experience. Think about what evidence of achievement you can talk about in the interview; rehearse your success stories.
Work out what is appropriate in terms of everything you present, including yourself. Dress as if you are already doing the job.
Second guess the employer's "shopping list" from the job details - what skills / qualities / experience do you have to match?
Be your own worst interview nightmare. What is the most difficult question you might have to face? Practice the answer.
Prepare for rejection. On balance you will be rejected more times than accepted. Even if you don't get the job, you can learn a huge amount about your perceived market value.

Preparation for an interview

Prepare yourself. Interviews are two-way meetings.

Think about your skills, qualifications and experience and ensure that you can talk confidently about what is written on your CV. Particularly ensure that you can talk about those skills that are relevant and valuable to the position you are going for.

Prepare some questions to ask at the interview. At the first interview it would be wise to restrict your questions to the details of the job and the organisation. Salary and benefit discussions are best left until a second interview or a job offer is made.

Do your homework

Find out as much as possible about the company prior to the interview. A good starting point is to look up their website and find out about the products and services they offer, the location of the office/s, and the number of employees. Ask your consultant if they have any extra information on them. You could also phone the company and ask them to send you an annual report.

Dress code and appearance

Ask your consultancy what the client's dress code is. For office work, smart business dress is a must.

Ensure you are well groomed with tidy hair, clean shoes and clothing. Do not wear too much perfume or aftershave and keep make-up, jewellery and nail polish simple.

Travel and timing

Plan your journey beforehand to ensure you arrive a few minutes early. Allow for possible travel delays. Just in case of a major hold up, make sure you have your contact's telephone number so that you can call if you suspect you may be late.

The Interview

What to expect

Interviews come in many forms - panel interviews, one to one interviews, group interviews etc. Ask your consultant what form of interview it will be beforehand. You may be asked to take a test before the interview, depending on the type of organisation. These might consist of psychometric or aptitude tests.

There are many different interview styles and each interviewer will have their own personal style. Some interviewers will fire questions at you while others will start off with an open question such as "tell me about yourself" leaving you to do most of the talking. The majority of interviews will be somewhere between the two. Be prepared for any style of interview.

Two-way communication

Make sure the employer knows the benefits of employing you. It is important to sell yourself by telling the employer details of your relevant skills and experience that you have to contribute to the organisation.
Try not to monopolise the meeting - let your interviewer talk.
Find out what the key parts of the candidate specification are so you can show how you meet them.
Ask how the job contributes to the success, efficiency and profitability of the organisation.
Show that you have done some research.
Don't give negative information or bad news if you are not asked for it and don't criticise previous employers or jobs. The key is to turn negative information into positive information.

The next steps

Agree exactly what the next steps will be, such as who will contact you to let you know if you have been successful and by when. You should also find out whether there will be second interviews and who will conduct them. If you are really interested in the position make sure you tell the interviewer.

After the Interview

Tell your consultant how the interview went and get feedback from them.

Negotiation

Everything is negotiable. If the final offer is not what you had hoped for, ask your consultant to talk to the client. Say that you like the job but the package is not up to your expectations and ask if the company can be at all flexible.

Question examples

You can't prepare for every question that will come up at interview, but you can anticipate most of them. Here are some of the deadliest questions, and ways of handling them:

"Tell us about yourself". Prepare for the worst - a classic opener that can really throw you. Plan ahead by having presentation statement to cover this.
"Where do you see yourself in 5 years' time?" - if your answer doesn't ring true for you, it won't for anyone else. Talk about career plans, and what you want to learn and achieve in the future.
"Why do you want this job?" Have a clear answer to this (even if, privately, you're not sure - you only have to decide when the job offer is in your hand).
"What kind of person are you?" Handle questions about personality carefully. Rather than say "I'm an ideas person", talk about a time when you changed things with a good idea.
"Why did you leave…….?" Employers will probe for reasons for job change. If you are currently out of work, they will probe this, too. Rehearse short, simple, positive "stories" to cover these points. This is not telling lies, just a simple, positive summary.
"How will you cope in a crisis?" Have a couple of good examples of past triumphs up your sleeve.
"How will you..." questions are beginning to create a future which includes you - so welcome them. Describe what you would do within the organisation as if you are there already. Create the right picture, and the employer won't be able to imagine a future without you…
"What would you do if ….?" Some interviewers ask fantasy questions not related to reality, but watch out for questions that are like verbal in-tray exercises. You might be asked to "sell me this pencil sharpener/ paper clip/ biro" - prepare to think on your feet.
"What do you need to earn?". Wrong question. Focus on the value you can add to the employer, not your basic needs. Find out what the company is willing to pay, or work out what similar employers pay for good people. Always throw pay questions back to the other side of the net.
"What are your weaknesses?" Remember that the recruiter gives far more weight to negative information. Talk about weaknesses that are also strengths, e.g. being demanding of your team, being a perfectionist, pushing hard to get things done…

Where to look for a job

When you are looking for a job it is always worth searching for vacancies on various recruitment websites. These sites advertise jobs, on behalf of individual companies or recruitment agencies. Most sites will allow you to post your CV on the site and apply for the vacancies online. In addition, they will have direct links to the companies’ websites, which enables you to find out more about the job, and the philosophy of the company. This will help you when you come to the interview stage or simply if you need to write a cover letter.

As a recruitment agency we work with a few of them and these are the ones that we think are useful to job seekers.

The first 3 sites are good to upload your CV onto:

The following 5 sites are useful to find out about the availabilities and about the companies that are recruiting:

This list is not exhaustive you will find a large number of recruitment sites on the World Wide Web.