How to: Write a CV

A good CV is essential when looking for work, especially when there are high volumes of candidates applying for the same job, but what should it contain?

There is no model template, and each sector may require greater emphasis on certain sections of your CV, such as qualifications or work experience, but in general, your CV should be neat and clear enough for a recruiter to scan and understand it quickly. Additionally, it should be easy to appraise your key skills and work experience to determine whether you're appropriate for the role.

Not sure where to start? Here are some basic rules you should follow when writing a CV.

What information should I include on my CV?

Personal Details: It may sound obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people forget to include their name, email, contact phone number and address. Make sure these are clearly marked at the top of your CV.

Personal Statement: Although optional, many job seekers choose to include a personal statement in their CV as it’s a good opportunity to tell an employer about your suitability for the job. Keep it short and sweet and be sure to demonstrate your enthusiasm and commitment to the role and the company.

Work Experience: This section includes any work experience that you have in the field you are applying for. When listing these work experiences include your job title, time in the post, responsibilities and the name of your organisation. Remember to list your most recent role first.

Achievements: List relevant skills and achievementsfrom previous jobs, giving clear examples of how you would apply these to the new role.

Education: List formal qualifications and any training and development undertaken, either independently or during previous periods of employment.

Hobbies and Interests: Only include if the skills or teamwork concerned are relevant for the job. There is no point listing that you’re sociable or that you enjoy going to the cinema for the sake of it.

Any extra information, such as reasons for a career change or reasons for gaps in career history should be added as required.

How to present your CV

Remember, your CV is a reflection of yourself, so it's important that it's well laid out and looks professional.

• Keep it short enough to read quickly and ideally no more than two sides of A4
• Choose a clear, professional font to ensure that your CV can be easily read
• Be clearly laid out in a logical order, with sufficient spacing and clear section headings (work experience, education)
• Avoid typing mistakes at all costs. A simple spell check is not enough: ask someone else to proof read your finished CV
• Order your experience and education into reverse chronological order to highlight your most recent experience and achievements
  

Once you’re happy with how your CV looks, make sure you’re happy with the content. And highlight that you're the right match for the job by outlining:

• Specific skills you have to offer the employer
• Experience you have in the specific field
• Appropriate personal qualities for the role
• An understanding of the job requirements

12 Most Dynamite Tips for Job Seekers

Employ these powerful pointers and ignite the fuse on your own job search. Or, pass them to a friend, colleague or contact and help them spark promising prospects.

1. Tend

Tend, as in: to look after, watch over and care for. Also as in: to tend a career. It requires redefining the very concept of “job search.” It’s no longer a task with a start and a stop. Because jobs are predominately now discovered through networks, stay alert to possibilities that can pop up, unexpectedly. If you look for professional opportunities only when you’re out of work, you’re going to have the same kind of challenge that a gardener does when he waters or weeds only when it’s time to harvest.

2. Cooperate

When you come across a fabulous opportunity that you’re not suited for, do you just delete the email? Or click on a different link? Next time, if it sounds like a role someone in your network is seeking, consider passing it on to the likely prospect. Such a gesture shouldn’t be offered with conditions or demands of reciprocity. Not necessary. Leads will come back to you, anyway. Promise.

3. Tell

Don’t be shy about telling your friends, professional contacts or others in your network that you are looking…

4. Discern

…but don’t broadcast it in a way that looks desperate. Discriminate how, where and when to let people know you are on the market for a job. This is what I mean: Don’t email your whole contact list with a generic note that you are looking for a new position. Instead, go through your contacts and send a more customized note, targeted to each person, that relays more insight into your search. That is far more likely to spark a response. Plus it’s more professional. When I see a LinkedIn profile headline that says: “Job searching” or “Looking for opportunities,” it seems like a digital version of standing at an intersection with a sign that says: “Hire me.”

5. Present

Treat interviews as if they are presentations. Leave the audience (your interviewer) with three key messages about the presentation topic: you. Make your case through the interview about the three messages. It will distinguish you and give the interviewer strong impressions about your skills.

6. Fulfill

When you get introduced at a conference or professional event to someone you think you want to follow up with, do so! This is particularly crucial if you tell the person you will call or send an email. Plus, this technique can be very effective. You never know from where the next prospect might come.

7. Impress

No, this tip doesn’t refer to your interaction with the hiring manager and the human resources person (although it’s important to impress them, of course.) This tip is a reminder to be considerate as well to anyone whose path you cross before, during or after an interview. It’s a seemingly small gesture that people notice and that speaks very well of your approach to people.

8. Supplement

If you’ve identified a weakness that might be holding you back from some of the jobs you didn’t get a call back on, help strengthen those areas or skills through volunteering. It is suitable to reflect on a resume and helps show your skills — even if you didn’t hone them during the hours of 9 to 5 on weekdays.

9. Mentor

This shows leadership and can lead to job tips or referrals. Plus, mentoring is a great example of putting #8 into practice.

10. Blog

Blogging lets you show your expertise and skills to an incredibly broad audience. Depending on how good and regular you are, your posts can lead directly to new clients, new business or other opportunities.

11. Study

Don’t just research the company and know about the industry by the time you head into an interview. Read up on the background of the interviewer on LinkedIn. You’ll very likely find an opportunity to include a comment or reference in the interview to something that had been included or mentioned on the profile, and it is impressive when candidates show that much initiative. Just don’t overdo it. More than one or two references back to something you gleaned about the interviewer’s professional background is not researching, it’s stalking.

12. Close

Ask for the job! Landing a job is like making a sale. You’re selling yourself. So make sure you close the deal.

12 Most Inspiring Rules for Career Success… from Steve Jobs

1. Trust yourself… always

“We think the Mac will sell zillions, but we didn’t build the Mac for anybody else. We built it for ourselves. We were the group of people who were going to judge whether it was great or not.”

Almost anywhere you’ll run into those who will tell you what you’re doing isn’t the right way – because it isn’t the way they would do things. Regarding your career, listen to, acknowledge and consider the advice. In the end, however, make your own decisions. You are the judge of whether what you’re doing is right.

2. A great career is about commitment

“It takes a passionate commitment to really thoroughly understand something, chew it up, not just quickly swallow it. Most people don’t take the time to do that.”

Learn as much about your industry as you can. Go beyond your duties to learn how your job fits within your department… and how your department impacts the company. Take that knowledge and expand it into how your company competes in its industry, and then the future of the industry. A truly committed person can see how they fit in – and can impact – the bigger picture.

3. Don’t follow the status quo

“Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.”

Every company you work for will have its own culture… its own processes that have been settled upon. It’s rare that people, especially those who have worked at the company for an extended period of time, will think to make sweeping changes… or improvements. They just follow “the way it’s always been.”

Always avoid the “the way it’s always been” mentality! You’ll most often meet with resistance because people generally hate change. When you succeed, however, you’ll have established credibility as a leader – and have developed automatic supporters for your next innovations.

4. Interviews aren’t about you

“A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”

In any job interview, realize the interview isn’t about you – it’s not about what you want, and what you hope to get out of the job.

Instead… write yourself into the role of the job. Show the person on the other side of the table, or looking at you via Skype, that you have the skills that will fulfill their needs. You’ve done your homework on their company and matched your abilities to what they’ve described in the online posting. Now… tell the recruiter the story of that job – with you in a key role – and make them see how they need to hire you rather than your job seeking competitors.

5. You’re a future leader – act like one

“I want to put a ding in the universe.”

Decide right now that you can be much more than what you are… right now. Sure, you’re the new kid on the block, and you don’t have as much experience as the executives around you. But you were hired above all the other applicants. You’re not a “rookie” or a coffee “go-fer”… so don’t think or act like one. You’re a future leader… a visionary! Start now.

6. Perfect your message

“The manual for… the most popular word-processing program is 400 pages thick. They’re not going to learn [from that] any more than they’re going to learn Morse code. That is what Macintosh is all about.”

Before you apply to your first, or another, job… perfect your message. Make it simple and effective. Craft, refine and practice presenting your “elevator pitch” until can deliver the message perfectly, every time. Ask your mentor, perhaps a college professor you trust, or even a resume professional to help make sure your resume is perfec. They will find something wrong… even after you think you’re done.

Then… practice, practice, practice.

7. Work to live – not the other way around

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”

Many people start their career with an instant transition from “starving student” to where their paychecks make them feel like they’ve won the lottery every two weeks. But after a while it’s not enough. They want a newer car and a larger apartment. Then it’s a house… and a fancier vacation. So they keep working harder and longer to get the bigger paychecks. Most people, however, end up never satisfied because that financially secure horizon is always just that… on the horizon.

Which brings us to No. 8…

8. Pursue the right career for you

“People with passion can change the world for the better.”

To some, passion is easily identified. Others struggle to find their passions and then turn them into a career direction. Experiment… walk new paths… challenge yourself! That’s why most people have more than one career path in their life … to gain exposure to different environments and a variety of positions – to learn where your passions may take you. The key is… never settle. Keep experimenting until you find what truly gets you fired up to accomplish greatness.

9. “No” is your friend

“(Innovation) comes from saying no to 1,000 things… We’re always thinking about new markets we could enter, but it’s only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important.”

It’s so easy to reach too far… to feel like you have to say “Yes” and then get stretched too thin. Learn to say no to projects that may cause you to under-perform. Also learn to say no to friends who may need your “help” – over and over again. Say no to drama queens (and kings). And, when you know there is work or networking to do – just say no to Halo 18 and Angry Birds.

Stay focused on what will drive you, your career and your passions. Everything else gets a “No, thank you.”

10. Customers should be the focus of everything you do

“This is what customers pay us for–to sweat all these details so it’s easy and pleasant for them to use our computers.”

Develop a customer-focused, user-experience mindset. This important skill will carry over into every position – every passion – throughout your career. Not just the “real” customers who buy product; but also your “internal” customers – supervisors, mentors and colleagues are counting on your contribution. Say it out loud to yourself if it helps: “Your job is to create solutions to problems – for both internal and external customers”.

11. Always over deliver

“We made the buttons on the screen look so good you’ll want to lick them.”

Sometimes as you work on a project or a report, because you are so close to the data, some of the details are easy to over look. The recipients of your work – your boss, executives, partners or customers – will most definitely recognize the level of effort you (high or low) put into your work – and they will react accordingly. Take extra time to make sure that even the smallest details are as perfect as you can make them.

12. No matter your title, be humble

“You’re missing it. This is not a one-man show.”

That was the beginning of Jobs’s answer to a question in an interview with Businessweek when he returned to Apple in the late ‘90s: “There’s a lot of symbolism to your return. Is that going to be enough to reinvigorate the company with a sense of magic?”

In any position, in any size company, your work depends on others. This becomes ever truer the more established your career. A real leader always remembers that she is supported by others.

At the end of Gallo’s article that inspired this post, he closed with an anecdote. He said that Jobs was once approached by a Disney executive for advice on how to re-make the Disney store chain. Jobs’ answer is something I think he’d tell any young careerist who asked for advice on how to succeed in their career:

He said: “Dream bigger”.

12 Most Valuable Listening Skills

Listening is a vital management and leadership activity. Of all the skills we use when we lead our people, it’s vital that we communicate effectively and that is always two way.

What we hear is vital as we work to create rapport with others, as well as clearly understanding the information they want to share with us.

Here are some skills you can use today, right away!

1. Pay full attention

Whenever you are listening to anyone (team members, customers and clients, friends and family — anyone!), it’s vital to always pay full attention to them. This builds rapport, makes them feel valued in whatever role they have in your life, whilst creating trust along the way. So, put down what you are doing, face them and show them that you are listening.

2. Ask another question

When you listen and hear fully what others say to you, you can then ask more about what they’ve just told you. This helps you find out more, it helps them feel heard and to appreciate that what they have said is valuable enough for you to want to know more.

3. Seek clarification if you aren’t sure

If you aren’t sure what someone means when they are talking to you, simply ask for clarification. Even by truly listening, you will not always “get” what you hear, so it’s far better to ask to give them the chance to explain better, which helps their processing and understanding too.

4. Make eye contact with them

Good listening starts with making — and maintaining — eye contact with whoever is speaking. When you look at people as they speak, you are building a relationship, quickly creating the rapport you need to make the most of the interaction. Eye to eye contact can sometimes be too intense for some people, so eye to mouth works perfectly!

5. Summarize what you hear

Summarizing what you hear when someone else is talking to you, shows that you are listening (“So, what you are saying is…”). It also gives them the opportunity to reconsider and, if necessary, rephrase to get their point across.

6. Avoid being disturbed

While you can be great at listening, if you don’t get the respect of the individual speaking, much can be lost in the interaction. It’s important to make sure that you create an environment where you can’t be disturbed. By creating clear boundaries about when you can be disturbed, you will mostly be freed when others need you to focus on them.

7. Say less and make it about them

The mantra is “Two ears, one mouth. Use them in that proportion.” Listening is about that, listening. If you are so full of what you want to say, there’s not much room for the skills you need to listen effectively. By focusing fully on the other person and what they are saying, you will be a much better listener. Say less.

8. Follow through with what you say you will

Although it might not sound like it’s a listening skill, this is. By ensuring that you hear properly and reflect on when action is expected of you, you will show you are a good listener and build trust and respect for being so. Do what you say you will when you’ve been in conversation with someone (well, all the time actually), is a good habit.

9. Body language counts

A smile. A frown. Even a wriggle of discomfort. They mean so much when you are listening to others (as, of course, what you see on their face means to you). By being expressive in alignment with what you are thinking as you hear what they say, your expressions show you are listening closely. Be the reflection of what they say, because it encourages their thinking to progress too.

10. Switch stuff off and focus

In the ever busier world we inhabit, there seems to be less and less time to get things done. So it can be hard to switch off and make sure we listen closely when others are with us. It is made easier by turning computer screens and phones off so they don’t get in the way of conversations. And when on the phone — well, this is often more of a challenge, so it’s vital to be even more careful then.

11. Say it again for effect

Sometimes when we listen, we can get confused by what’s being said and the message is unclear. After all, what people say is passed through their outgoing filter and in through our incoming one. It’s hardly surprising that confusion arises. So it’s a good listening step to ask them to say it again; to rephrase; to put it into one sentence maybe. It show you are listening; that you care enough to ask for clarity and ultimately, this builds even stronger bonds between you.

12. Prepare for action

Create relationships to build trust, in advance of when it’s critical. By informally building rapport all the time, when you really need their collaboration, both sides will listen better when there is a good foundation at you foster by making the effort.

Listening is an easy skill to acquire. When you set out with the mindset to 100% commit to what others are saying and focus on them, it will bring rewards to your leadership that you can use to everyone’s advantage in the results you achieve more effectively — and much more easily.

12 Most Indispensable Things to do on Social Media Before Your Job Interview

Social media is part of the job search process. You should use social media to help you find job openings and target specific companies. Once you score that interview, you shouldn’t forget the power of social media.

1. Check the business’s social media profiles

Do your research: it’s important to walk into a job interview informed. Start with their website and move to their social media sites. It’s easiest to find their social media sites through their official webpage.

2. Do a search on Twitter

Check to see what other people are saying about the company. See how the company uses Twitter. Do they have a sense of humor, are they active or have they failed to tweet for over two months.

3. Look up the individual(s) interviewing you

Check out the interviewer’s personal and professional social media sites to get a better understanding of who they are and what they are looking for. Learn about how they use social media and their specific role at the company.

4. Look at their Pinterest boards

Pinterest often gives a unique window into a company. It can display company culture in photos. The fact that they have Pinterest boards in the first place says a lot about the company.

5. Get social

Consider retweeting or liking individual posts on the company’s social media sites. This shows that you have done your homework. This is a fine line, so use your previous research to help you decide what’s a good fit.

6. Be on top your game

Search social media for general industry terms to be on top of what is happening. Nothing is worse than walking into an interview without the latest information in your field.

7. Focus on your social media profiles

Make sure to update your profiles to show them that you’re on the cutting edge of your field and on top of social media. Post industry news on your social sites.

8. Check out other employees

See who works at the company. Check out what they do and who they are. This can help you understand the company culture better and give you an idea of whom the company hires.

9. Look at the company profile on LinkedIn

Take a look at the company overview, careers and employee insights. See how big the company is and if any of your connections connect you to the company. If this is one of your target companies be sure to follow them on LinkedIn.

10. Beef up security

Clean up your social media. You know the photo of you dancing on the bar last weekend? Take it down. If you can’t guarantee that everything on your Facebook is appropriate for an employer and your grandma make it private.

11. Google yourself

Know what is going to come up when your name is typed into Google. It’s best to be aware of this because most, if not all employers will Google you.

12. Read the company blog

Be aware of what the company is currently working on and talking about. Take it a step further and formulate an opinion on the topic. Craft questions to ask during the interview related to the current happenings at the company and how your potential role will fit into the scheme of things.

With the recovering economy, the job search can be a tough place to be. Using these tips on social media combined with normal interview preparation can propel you to the top of the candidate pile and even land you the job.

12 Most Creative Interview Techniques

With high unemployment levels and a paucity of jobs, employers often have to pick among a large number of talented applicants when trying to fill a position. Increasingly, in order to differentiate between numerous qualified candidates, these employers are putting added emphasis on the interview component and using that interview time to assess a person’s personality as well as their experiences.

Specifically, they are more and more often putting interviewees through unconventional questions or activities that seek to test how someone thinks, socializes, and acts on their feet. Here are the 12 most innovative, unconventional, and creative interview techniques:

1. Take all applicants out for a meal at a restaurant

An employer will often tell candidates to meet him at a restaurant instead of in a conference room. Sometimes this meal will quickly devolve into a standard interview; other times, however, this unconventional approach puts a considerable emphasis on courtesy and table manners.

2. Ask questions with no solutions

One of the oldest unconventional tricks in the book, employers often ask questions that have no concrete answer. Such a question may be: “If World War II had never happened, would the Vending Business be selling more or less licorice today?” The goal here is to test a candidate’s creativity and quick-thinking.

3. Ask to be entertained for 5 minutes

This approach is as simple as it sounds, at least as far as the interviewer is concerned. The candidate, on the other hands, needs to come up with an appropriate and engaging story right on the spot.

4. Use social media (ie Twitter)

to force short, quick, and concise answers out of applicants Some tech-savvy companies have turned in recent months to a Twitter-based interview: applicants are asked questions via Twitter and must then respond via the same medium. This approach forces concise responses and makes it easy for employers to compare answers from a range of candidates.

5. Give a case assignment

The case assignment approach has been used for years by finance and consulting firms, but it has now gained more widespread use across a variety of industries. This method involves giving candidates a real-world business problem — often including documents and related memos — and asking them to assess the information, resolve the issues, and arrive at a conclusion.

6. Go on an outing

Golf has long been a sport of choice in the business world, but it is usually played by people who are co-workers or peers — not by those who are looking to get hired. But since the way a person plays golf can say a good deal about his personality, some hiring managers have taken their interviews to the links in recent years.

7. Turn the interview around and have the applicant ask all the questions

A traditional interview establishes clear-cut roles for both parties involved. The employer asks the questions. The applicant answers them. But sometimes, a hiring manger will test a candidate’s flexibility by turning the interview around and asking the candidate to act as the employer. A person’s interests and confidence levels can surface quickly as a result.

8. Ask basic math questions to see how well an applicant can think under pressure

The incorporation of math can make for a stressful interview, even if you have a strong mathematical background. An employer who doesn’t want to hire easily-flustered employees may turn to numbers as a way to quickly and tellingly induce some extra stress in the interview.

9. Ask basic observational questions to see how well an applicant can notice detail

This method entails asking candidates basic observational questions that, one would think, they should be able to answer. For example, recruiters who interview at colleges often ask applicants to describe their school’s seal or logo. Many interviewers are surprised to see how difficult this question can be.

10. Take a psychiatric approach What was your childhood like? Describe your ambitions growing up?

How close is your family? While these questions may seem more appropriate for the therapist’s office than for the interview room, employers who want to get a complete perception of a candidate — and aren’t afraid to brush up against a line of acceptability — will sometimes turn to open-ended questions of such magnitude.

11. Ask for analysis

All candidates will likely enter an interview with some knowledge of the company and some talking points for why they want to work there. But some employers take this a step further by asking the candidate to analyze the company and its operations — replete with pros and cons. Such a test can reveal whether an applicant has done his research and is willing to be honest about perceived faults.

12. Concoct a test of empathy

Assessing whether a candidate is empathic can be a difficult undertaking, but some employers have found a way to make the process more clear-cut: they take an applicant out to lunch, for example, and instruct the waiter beforehand to spill water or mess up the order. The way the applicant responds can be very telling.

While a job applicant these days can still expect a heavy dose of standard interview questions, the more competitive a position the more likely an employer will look to switch things up, assess a person’s personality, and make use of an unconventional approach.

Have you experienced any of these things on interviews? What do you think about these newer approaches to finding the “right” employee?

LSA TRAINING LTD