National Careers Week – CV Advice
Since it’s National Careers Week, we thought we could share some Tips & Tricks about how to get the most out of your job search and find the next step in your career!
Our very own Matt Ransley has shared his tips on how to improve your CV and catch a recruiter/hiring manager’s attention!
Your CV is a very important tool and one of the first things a recruiter get to see before making contact with the jobseeker – therefore it is essential to know what to include and what no to!
The Good Stuff! ✅
– Tell us who you are and a few sentences about your experience and why you are the best person for the job – sell yourself!
– Use a professional font, please don’t use Comic Sans! Keep the font size regular throughout. Use bullet points to list your duties in each role. Your CV should flow and be easy to read!
– Remember to include dates for your previous employment of when you started and left the role. Try not to leave gaps in employment. Remember to list work history in reverse chronological order. ⬅️
– Tell us what you have learned and what software you can use. What skills are transferrable to the position being applied for?
– Make sure to reference your qualifications, from school, college and university.
– We don’t need to know your address, date of birth or marital status. The only details you need to include are name, email address, phone number and a general location.
The Bad Stuff! ❌
– Keep it simple! Don’t include photos or skills graphs. Also try to avoid big messy paragraphs and break them up into digestible sections. ✍️
– Spell check! There is no excuse for misspelled words in your CV! Make sure to proof read your CV and correct ALL mistakes and grammar.
– Try and keep it short. A two page CV is considered to be but sometimes this isn’t achievable, but don’t be sending us eight pages!
– Cliché, Cliché, Cliché! We have seen them all. Try to be original and think outside the box. A profile containing 10 Clichés is not what we want to read. Get creative.
– Email address. Every part of your CV need to be professional. Avoid email addresses that include a inappropriate nicknames or offensive language.
We hope this helps! Remember – we are always here to help improve your CV and job applications. Give us a call and we can guide you through it
How to disagree with your boss – without getting fired
Believing that your boss is fundamentally wrong, yet being expected to action their commands, is a horribly conflicting situation to be in for any employee.
Whilst the truth is essential and ensuring that your team isn’t wasting valuable time based on false information is hugely important, disagreeing with the boss can be taken badly, and if it isn’t handled with subtlety and discretion, can result in some pretty grave consequences.
Obviously regardless of your boss’ management style or personality type, the last thing you want to do is embarrass them or appear to be insubordinate, as these are big red flags that may well affect your career going forward; as such, the issue should be approached in a very specific manner. The following five rules should serve as guidelines for manoeuvring the issue without causing concern.
1. Ensure that you’re correct
Nothing will lose your credibility in this situation faster than challenging your boss’ information without checking that you’re correct. Blindly trusting your own intuition without researching the data first smacks of arrogance and single-mindedness. You must ensure that you’re correct if you’re going to attempt to correct your boss.
2. Decide if it’s essential
There are some incorrect statements that we can all simply ignore. The very fact that your boss has stated incorrect data in itself does not require your attention. So, before you decide to do anything about it, you must use your own judgement to assess whether it is necessary at all. No, misquoting Shakespeare or using a malaprop in a speech doesn’t require correcting.
If this is a company-wide meeting, do you really want to be the worker that interrupts your boss in front of all of these people? Is the information worth potentially being forever regarded as a ‘nit-picker’ or a contrarian? Again, if the information is being shared in a senior management meeting or in front of your boss’ boss, this probably isn’t the right time to bring this up. However, if the false information is shared in an informal Q&A session or in a more neutral environment, chances are on the spot is indeed the correct time and place to casually bring it up.
4. Consider your approach
As previously mentioned, if the situation is informal, casually recalling that the information was slightly different is probably the best approach, dependent on your boss’ temperament. If, however, the situation is more formal, it may be a good idea to convey the correct data through an email or a discrete phone call.
5. Language is everything
Under no circumstances should you use any condescending or confrontational buzzwords. For example, it’s never a good idea to accuse your boss of being ‘wrong’ or having ‘made a mistake’. Almost regardless of temperament, your boss is virtually guaranteed to be angry if you start accusing them. Instead, try to suggest that the data simply may be slightly different. Your goal should be to offer them a way of accepting the correction, without being backed into a corner. Remember, you’re on the same side – they should feel this too.
Todays NCW post comes from our very own Nicola Carrouche – an insightful and honest bit of advice for any job seeker!
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I am sure everyone seeking a new career is getting tons of sound advice this week – so here are my thoughts – when you are seeking a new role the potential employer is as much on interview as you are!
We match candidates to clients through 3 C’s. Use the same process when choosing your next employer: Competency, Company and Culture.
A wise man told me you should never take a job that you can ‘easily do’ – because no matter our age or ambition, we all still enjoy learning. What support and training is the company going to offer you? Is it structured and well thought out and is their trainer motivating and engaging. Is the training relevant to you?
Does the company have a good reputation as an employer – check their reviews on Glassdoor to see what other employees think.
Finally – how were you treated before, during and after your interview? Were you warmly welcomed by everyone you met? Was the interviewer on time? If on TEAMS, were you supported to relax before the questions began? Did they talk to you about their values and do you share them – could you see those values in the people who interviewed you? Did they give you time to ask your questions and did that ‘care’ extend to when the interview had completed and they walked you to the door?
Did you leave that interview feeling inspired and excited – if the answer is no – the interviewer was ‘unfortunately unsuccessful’ and you will use your talents somewhere else! Being happy in your job is so incredibly important, so look for these things in any company you visit.
Tomorrow’s post will delve deeper into the 3 C’s – helping you to match yourself to your next role! ©️