Perception is Reality - How a CV must be a Sales Document - By Ruadhri McGarry - mynewcv.ie

Perception is Reality - How a CV must be a Sales Document - By Ruadhri McGarry - mynewcv.ie

So you've gotten your CV ready, it's two pages, it looks good, but you've not gotten any responses to your applications. How can this be?

You're an expert in your field, with lots of specific achievements and everyone speaks so highly of you!

What you may be missing is the title of this piece. Perception is reality.

You are the one who's created such excellent benefits for your employer. You know and everyone you've worked with knows that you're the "go to" person on a range of issues, the subject matter expert, the one who holds it all together, dependable, professional and a real leader.

Does your CV say this, loud and clear????

If it doesn't, it needs to and you need to do it today!

Your CV is not the place to be modest, above all else, it's a sales document. Think about it this way. If you are writing a tender for your employer, pitching for business, you are going to boast and probably exaggerate (a little bit, that's allowed) to make sure the reader of the document sits up and pays attention!

You are going to say, firstly, you've found what you need. You won't have to waste any more time reading any more tenders because my company will solve your problem, ease your pain, and allow you to sleep at night.

If you're taking it seriously, you will approach your CV in precisely the same way.

This part of the job seeking process is in your control, so you need to take control of it. You have the chance to hold the reader's reality in your hands. He or she will perceive what you give them, so give them your best!

If you're not getting results from the CV, STOP and start again. Give it to someone you trust who has a good business mind and take the following steps.

Ask them for one hour of their time and effort and ensure your friend has a pen and paper ready because they'll be taking notes (whether you tell them or not is your call but this is a "mock interview).

Write down or print the next set of headings and pass them to your friend. (I will refer to you in future as the jobseeker or JS).

1: Ask JS to summarise their career for you in two minutes. When they finish, ask JS why they are a good employee. Write down the answers.

2: Read each line of the CV to JS. When you reach a full stop, ask "what did this achieve?" and write down the answer.

3: Repeat step 2 until you complete the document.

4: Ask JS question one again. Write down any variations on the first answer.

5: Hand your answers to JS.

Now, JS, I feel we're getting a little closer! At this point, you need to take the answers that your friend has given you and amalgamate them back into the CV.

Make sure that every feature has a benefit. Every piece of experience that you've had has a related upside for the employer.

This is precisely how to boast properly in a CV and exactly what hiring managers want to see.

If you don't do this, if you just list a bunch of things that you did, without the impact of them, the perception is that there has been no positive impacts and you're dead in the water.

Make hiring managers perceive the reality of your experience and do it now!

How to Avoid Career Suicide in the Online World by Ruadhri McGarry www.mynewcv.ie

In the business of job hunting and recruiting, both parts of the process are relying on and using the internet, social media and blogosphere more than ever. This of course, is a natural business evolution. No problems there.

However, more and more prospective employers are not only finding candidates and prospects online, but they are also making negative choices based on what any one individual may have posted on certain social media sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and others.

If you are a jobseeker, I implore you to conduct a “vanity search” using your name in a search engine. Find out, if you, or anyone you know, has posted negative comments, or portrayed you in a bad light online. This can be fatal to a job search. Should you find anything negative before a prospective employer does, get it offline as soon as you can, and take steps to ensure nothing like that happens again.

If your CV is online, be it on LinkedIn, Monster or VisualCV.com, have a third party check it for you to make sure there are no glaring errors and that all of the information posted is correct.

Should you use a photograph or image to represent you on whatever media, ensure that it’s “work safe”, that it is not offensive to anyone and that again, a third party has approved it.

In Ireland recently, a candidate for a local council election found less than politically correct pictures of her from Facebook splashed across the national media. These pictures were in fact from a friend’s page, not her own. This is a great example of how not managing your online brand can tarnish a reputation. (As it happens, this particular candidate was elected. Just.)

In the future, tomorrow’s graduates, who are extremely switched on to media such as social networking, may find youthful misadventure coming back to haunt them if they are not made aware of the potential harm to a career that this can have.

In conclusion, it is vital that this element of risk assessment through “vanity searching” be performed regularly to maintain control of your online brand and avoid a potentially disastrous outcome.

To learn more about CV and Jobsearching advice visit www.mynewcv.ie or contact sales@mynewcv.ie

CV Formatting - The Inside Track

How to get the most out of your CV, to make sure it stays out of the trash and to make it easier on the eye.

Many people make the mistake of having a massive CV. This guarantees you two things.

Any information that the reader wants will not be found and therefore it will not be read.

There are various mistakes, but here's the inside track on what to avoid and how to make your CV stand out, without being considered flashy.

Size

Any more than three pages and you're in trouble, unless you've been asked to submit a CV for a very specific role.

Two pages is best, but be aware of "spillages" from one page into another. Each page should end and begin as separate parts of your career history.

Contact Details

Whatever you do, get yourself a decent and formal email address. There's no easier way of giving the wrong impression with an inappropriate handle.

Content

Don't assume the reader knows all about your employers so best to follow the format below.

Name

Contact details

Career Summary

Career History

Dates

Company (website if appropriate

Your Job Title

Brief overview of company followed by your initial role and your current role.

Bullet your responsibilities but make sure that each one has an outcome or demonstrates a positive impact your work has done.

Repeat for each relevant employment.

Gaps

Don't leave gaps in the CV, but address them if you were away, unemployed, at college, but a gap suggests a lie which gets the document in the bin!

References

Don't mention contact details of your referees, ideal is "Excellent references available on request" but if you're in a small industry this is a chance to name drop whilst still retaining control of the reference check as without contact details, they'll have to go to you.

In future articles I'll address each point in more detail but feel free to get in touch for specific questions that you may have.

How to ace an interview!

A very brief and simple guide to acing an interview.

If you've been provided with a JobSpec you will already have a list of the competencies that are required to be successful in the role. If you don't have a jobspec, write one!

All you need to do now is prepare two examples for every competency and be ready to explain each using before, during and after. Or I prefer;

Situation: What was happening Behaviour: What did you do to change it Outcome: How did your actions positively change the situation

e.g.

Competency = Delegation of tasks

Situation:

Prior to my joining the department each manager was responsible for various projects and was extremely hands on, jack of all trades, master of none

Behaviour:

I ascertained which staff members had specific strengths in certain areas and targeted them specifically with the delivery of these tasks within pre agreed timeframes

Outcome:

Happier staff with more responsibility, more time to drive projects forwards and achieving quicker delivery.

Etc.

Know the competencies required (jobspec provided or that you write) Prepare two examples for each

Situation Behaviour Outcome

Tell the interviewer!

How to deal with Redundancy in the Job Hunting Process

When an employee's position has been made redundant it's natural for confidence to be low and when entering the job market (albeit reluctantly), confidence is important.

Also, before we get into the meat of this discussion, please note, remember and live and breathe the fact that your position within the company has been made redundant, not you!

If this has happened to your position, it happened to your position. You could be the best employee of all time, and if the company folds, it folds. You have not been made redundant, your position has.

Regarding how to bring up the topic of the redundancy of your position, it should be in the cover letter/email or phone call. Not mentioning it will make prospective employers think you've something to hide and it will be the first thing on the interviewer's mind. "Why is this candidate on the market?"

At the interview, it should be mentioned by the interviewer, as in, small talk to address it early on, but there are certain things that you can do to turn it to your advantage.

The interviewer will use past performance (and in particular, longevity) to suggest future performance. If it's a permanent role, they'll be investing heavily in you, so they need to feel comfortable that you're in it for the long haul.

So, the line to take is very sad that the company could not make it through the recession (or for whatever reason) and that you would have been very happy to stay as their product/service offering was exciting, and you yourself had been instrumental in putting the team together and invested a lot of emotional energy into the project. You have many close friends there, and enjoyed the time with your previous employer.

This means to them, that you're a good employee, passionate about the company, a company man, if you will. Rather than, "well, I hated the place anyway!!!"

But also, to try to look on it as a positive, what lessons did you learn from the company in terms of mistakes? Did they go too far too soon? You need to be comfortable (tell them this) that the next company you work for has a strong and robust business plan and is capable of growth even now, this kind line of conversation, which puts the onus of sales back onto the interviewer.

They'll go right off topic selling the company, how wonderful it is. If they don't, if they shrug and say "erm....", you may not want to work there if this is the attitude of the interviewer, who is after all, effectively an ambassador for your prospective employer.

So remember, your position being made redundant is nothing to be ashamed of and not a reflection on you personally, so try not to take it personally. Some of the smartest people you know have been made redundant recently or definitely in the past, so try to accept it and get into a positive frame of mind. Employers want to see how prospective employees deal with negatives and set backs, so use this one as an opportunity to show your strength of character. Don't play the blame game, and attribute your situation to bad management or work practices, even politicians. You are where you are, and you'll get back in the game soon. Just keep the faith.

Learn about MyNewCV.ie and EnigmaSearch.com Learn how Twitter can be used for research And listen to Ruadhri's prediction on the future

Death of Recruitment Agencies?

Perhaps I'm totally upside down on this whole thing, but it seems to me, from my nosebleed inducing Ivory Tower in Dublin, that Recruitment Agencies are in a world of pain. Various boards and forums (fora?) seem to point towards on the one hand, very few responses to ads, and on the other a definite move away, deliberately, from Recruitment Agencies. That is to say, fewer companies are using their services, and sure weren't they a necessary evil anyway? Makes me think of scores being settled during wars, you know. So is the industry paying the price for allowing quality of service die in a race to the bottom scenario? From what I can gather, this race is happening now, but more from the point of view of % rates falling rapidly. A job that would be filled at 25% of basic salary, or an across the board exclusive agreement of 22% don't exist and an agreement for 15% of basic is considered very good, whereas once upon a time, that was absolute bottom dollar and would have to have been paid up front! Or is it a case of the industry reaping what they sow, or an evolution, a cull if you will so that when the Recruitment market picks up and demand rises, last men standing will be the talented ones? But, what's a definition of a talented recruiter? One who can hold onto their job is one, bring in money. There are some genuinely brilliant, caring and passionate recruiters out there, but there are some more, perceived as the majority, who are evil dirt. But of course, this is based on the perception of the jobseeker, who, if not right for a role, is seen by a recruiter as a "time burglar" and not worthy of a response. To paraphrase Cool Hand Luke, what we have here is a failure to communicate. A strong representative body for Recruiters should address this failure and use this recession as an opportunity to improve their public relations. I fear it may be too late... The future Recruitment is an important industry, and hiring companies save time and money by being smart about it. Partnering with Agencies, the right ones that is. But, if a company throws a jobspec to the four winds at a low rate, it should then waive the right to be annoyed if their message is diluted and eventually employees get a bad impression of them. So, it will be back but it will never be the same again. Hirers, agents and candidates all need to learn new rules for this game. Hopefully % rates will remain reasonable in the future so this perception spiral does not repeat itself. (but it will!).

The new rules to IT JobHunting

The new rules to IT JobHunting – Ruadhri McGarry – www.mynewcv.ie You’ve finally decided that you are moving jobs. Whether you have just had enough, you have hit a ceiling or for reasons beyond your control, you are back on the market. How can you make sure that you secure the best IT role that you can? Firstly, make sure you know what you want. Is it a contract or a permanent role, do you know the sector and physical location? Once you have these choices made, how will you go about it? If you are sending your CV to an IT Recruiter, or to a busy Human Resources Department, or indeed you’re posting your CV to a jobsite or even uploading to your own site, you need to make sure that you’ll be found. You cannot guarantee that the person viewing your CV will recognise what’s second nature to you, sometimes your CV will be in front of someone who’s empowered but not qualified to say yes or no. Keywords To get around this you must be aware of keywords, in the same way that search engines rate webpages, you must play this game to win. Ensure you have all keywords on your CV. The best way around this is to have a skills matrix at the end of your CV, including all training you’ve done in any technology. Irrespective of whether the searcher is an experienced Recruiter, a junior Human Resources Administrator, or a Managing Director of a small company searching online, applying keyword techniques to your document will get it found. Value Adds If you can think like the hiring manager, you’ll have to ensure that once your CV is found, it stands out. Can you demonstrate all “value adds” that you’ve brought to all of your positions? If you just list facts of what you have done and where, it can be boring. If you can say that your work enabled a quicker time to launch for a given product etc., that’s value and ultimately a cost saving. Also recommended is that you use a Word document rather than an Adobe PDF. PDFs print better but it’s an image and tricky to search. Most recruitment machinery is based on keyword searching using Word. Also use Rich Text Formatting as this will help with keeping any formatting you’ve done. Potential Negatives Spellcheck is good to an extent, however, I recommend that you type “IT Manger” into a search engine, and you’ll be amazed how often this typo escapes conventional spellchecking technology. Read your CV and better still have a third party read it for you! Don’t use photographs of yourself, don’t use logos of companies you’ve worked for or courses you’ve done. It takes up processing space and can lead to formatting nightmares. Finally, as social networking takes off more and more, I strongly suggest you run a “vanity search” online. Type your name into a search engine and ensure that nothing embarrassing comes up on a networking site. Almost every candidate being offered a role will be “googled” so make sure that there’s no reason online for you not to be hired. In conclusion;

• Use a skills matrix with keywords
• Demonstrate Value
• CVs should be in Word (Rich Text Formats)
• Don’t use Logos/Photos
• Register with online databases (let employers find you)
• If possible, create your own website and upload your
• CVHave someone else read your CV, don’t just press F7
• Vanity Search

To learn more about CV and Jobsearching advice visit www.mynewcv.ie or contact sales@mynewcv.ie.