Writing a CV is the best preparation for an interview

4/12/2016

Traditionally interview preparation happens near to the date of the meeting. However, have you considered preparing for an interview before you’ve even applied for the job? It’s not as illogical as it sounds; the recruitment process is no different to the advantages gained in business through breaking paradigms.

Writing a CV provides a valuable opportunity to stop and ask some introspective questions about your career and professional self. Experience is, of course, only one influencing factor in a hiring decision. Other key aspects include soft skills, potential, cultural fit and mindset. Reflecting on frequently asked interview questions designed to reveal personal attributes, as well as your track record, will help you identify important qualities that should thread through your CV. Instead of viewing your CV in isolation, approaching it as an integral part of interview preparation will pay dividends.

Assist the interviewer
Throughout the interview process and especially in the latter stages, these wider personal qualities are extremely influential on the outcome. By presenting them clearly in your CV, the interviewer will have a more complete first impression firmly planted in their mind, before meeting you. With this foundation in place, you will be in the fortunate position of confirming and reiterating this favorable perception, rather than having to establish it from scratch. The advertising industry has been reaping the rewards of the familiarity principle for years – it’s present in most areas of decision making, so use it to your advantage!

Benefits to you
Most people are naturally modest and are not comfortable with articulating what makes them good at what they do. Talking about their team’s record sales, for example, doesn’t pose the same issue, as it feels more objective. Analysing and committing your key personal strengths and qualities to paper, helps overcome false modesty in a face-to-face situation. Emphasising and adding further details to skills and attributes in an interview is easier to do when your CV has already introduced them. It’s worth remembering though, that just listing character traits with accompanying adjectives is too generic and can be counterproductive; ensure you provide a corresponding context.

Promote your USP
Increased disintermediation in recruitment means that carefully crafted notes from a search firm may not always accompany your CV, so it’s vital that your professional profile and summary sections in your CV are really compelling. Decide what CV format works best for your job search/application objective. Make sure all headings and headline statements in summary sections are backed up with supporting examples. Remember both a CV and interview are opportunities to market yourself, so some subtle self-promotion is expected and even welcomed. This applies to interests too. Any outside work activities that enhance your personal professional brand are worth including. If you have swum the channel, make sure it’s included, don’t merely mention keen swimmer, as one of our overmodest clients did – swimming 21 miles in open water immediately conjures up extraordinary commitment and incredible perseverance, so it is definitely worth mentioning!

External promotions
If you are seeking an external promotion, you will need to convince the interviewer that you are capable of operating at the next level. Your CV can actively assist with this goal. Assess the new aspects of the role and read profiles of professionals already holding similar positions. This will help you highlight the areas of your expertise and approach which demonstrate you have the required aptitude and capability to operate at this level. Mirror the language of this more senior level when describing your experience and achievements. If you head a division and are seeking a directorship, don’t just mention your divisional results, put them in the context of improving company performance. Show that you are already thinking at a company level. Use language that elevates your experience to strongly indicate that this is a natural next step and one which you are equipped to make.

Clients are frequently surprised at the breadth and depth of questions we ask when preparing CVs on their behalf and how helpful this is when preparing for an interview. So when compiling your CV, or just updating it, act as your own career counsellor, invest the time to identify the aspects that will create a strong, rounded professional picture of what you can offer a business. This is one of the best ways to prepare for an interview. View your CV as more than the traditional two-dimensional list of chronological experience and you will give yourself a valuable competitive advantage.

Text from guest blog post for Nicholas Alexander Executive Search

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CV Writing Tips: 11 key points for a good CV

2/9/2016

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There is no escaping it, the CV is still the primary professional self-marketing tool and more often than not an essential part of any job application. Whether you are writing a CV for the first time or are dusting off an existing one, for most people, it feels like a piece of homework they’d rather not do. To help you along the way, here are some CV tips that we have gathered over many years working within the recruitment industry.

Be clear and keep it simple
Anyone should be able to pick up your CV and immediately understand who you are and what you do. Jargon just grates, confuses and gives an impression of someone who is a touch superior and non-inclusive.

Answer the "why you?” question
Put yourself in a potential employer’s shoes and ask the same question. A phrase that’s often used is "what makes you different?” we think a better question to ask is "what makes you better?" – if too different then you may not be a match.

Create a powerful personal profile
A succinct, impactful, opening paragraph that instantly grabs the reader’s interest will help you stand out. However, if it appears as a few generic lines, written with little thought, it will be glossed over or worse still, be counter-productive – especially if you have stated 'excellent written communication skills' in your profile. Remember this is a personal brand statement.

Highlight what makes you a strong candidate
Prioritise and emphasise your most relevant experience, skills and achievements. If you are applying for a particular role or company, use their language and terminology; help them quickly spot your strong potential ‘fit’.

Content over design
Traditional doesn’t mean boring - trust us. Recruiters and decision-makers won’t admire the carefully chosen colour scheme or fancy typeface, they will just find your efforts to make your CV ‘stand out’ distracting and attention seeking. Quite simply, your experience and achievements should be enough the gain the right attention.

Honesty is always the best policy
Bridge gaps or short periods of self-employment in a positive way. Keep it matter-of-fact and simple. This is an area where people feel apologetic and can be tempted to make the odd embellishment – don’t. If you are concerned about questions that may arise from any aspect of your CV, you may find the assistance of an interview coach invaluable.

Choose the best CV format for the purpose
Whilst there is no definitive best CV format, the two most common styles are:

A performance CV, this is the most common and popular CV format in which work history is listed by job role and company in reverse chronological order. Responsibilities and achievements are then listed by each role; be selective with duties though, so it doesn’t read like a job description.

A skills-based or functional CV is ideal if you are looking to change career or industry, as this CV format focuses on transferable skills and helps a prospective employer understand the relevance of your expertise. Choose up to six skills and highlight how you have used these effectively and what you have achieved.

Education, first or last?
Education should be first if you are a graduate, followed by volunteer and work experience. A level subjects (if relevant) and grades should be listed, along with degree classification. Unless you have top GCSE grades, just list your total number of passes, however, do state ‘including Maths and English’ (if they are included). After starting your career though, education and professional qualifications should be after work history. At the point when career achievements supersede school exam results, A level results should be condensed too.

“There, their, they’re”
No, these won’t be the comforting words you’ll here from a prospective boss when typos are spotted. You are more likely not to hear anything from them at all. Poor spelling and grammar are at the top of the list of employer and recruiter complaints. If you are planning to write your own CV, getting it at least proofread might be money well spent.

Hobbies and interests
First, the word hobbies should never be on a CV, as it conjures up all sorts of idiosyncratic pursuits. Interests is a better heading, but only add those that help sell ‘your brand’; for example marathon running shows commitment and focus.

Never make it too personal
A CV is a professional document, so keep that thought consistently in mind throughout. Your CV is one of the first impressions a prospective employer will have of you, so a personal email, based on a nickname from your university days, may dilute your impact! In addition, listing age/date of birth, marital status and dependents is not required in a twenty-first century CV.

Finally, a statistic to leave you with – the average time a recruiter spends to skim read a CV is a mere 30 seconds – not long on which to base a decision.

We offer a free CV review service. If you would like feedback on your CV and some additional CV tips, please contact us.

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Curriculum Vitae vs Résumé and their origins

9/7/2015

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In the rising global job market the two are now largely regarded as one and the same. Whilst comparable, a résumé is officially a shorter document than a curriculum vitae in some countries. It focuses purely on the skills and experience relevant for a specific role, rather than a compilation of a full career history to date. The name says it all, derived from the French word résumé, meaning summarised. Resume and résumé, are commonly used alternatives, but if in any doubt which to use, we would recommend the original form - résumé. You never know, the recipient may be an etymologist. Curriculum Vitae is Latin, the translation is ’course of life’. The accepted abbreviated form in the digital age is CV, rather than C.V. or cv.

Whichever is your preferred choice of title, both are fundamentally a written ‘course of education and career’ and still seen as the primary, professional, self-marketing document. Leonardo da Vinci, the great artist and inventor himself, is credited with writing the first résumé. In 1482, aged 32 years old, he wrote a strong persuasive, speculative letter to Ludovico Sforza, the then Duke of Milan, for employment. It starts with a solid objective (as any good CV should). He then highlights his breadth of capabilities (backed up with the benefits that hiring him would bring). It’s a self-marketing masterpiece. Most importantly, it’s tailored to his prospective employer, as all CVs and résumés should be. In an age of conflicts and alliances across European courts, Da Vinci positioned his curriculum vitae perfectly, by emphasising his military engineering skills over his artistic ones, resulting in gainful employment.

Remember, although vitae translates as life, keep the content strictly to your work life and any professional skills and qualities relevant to the role. Also as the name suggests, summarise - documents beyond two pages will work against you. Finally take a leaf out of Leonardo’s book, always ensure your curriculum vitae targets a particular role and company, never submit a generic or previously used one.

If you would like our own masterly touch on your CV, call us 01252 725 509, we’d be delighted to assist.

A full translation of Leonardo da Vinci’s letter can be read on the fascinating Letters of Note website

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Why use a professional CV writing service?

9/4/2015

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We all know that objectivity can be somewhat elusive when we are personally close to something. This is never truer than when it comes to describing ourselves. Our circumstances, career stage, recent experience and ambitions (the list goes on), can all influence our self-image and views of our experience, skills and personal qualities. Strengths, perceived as important to a role can be over accentuated, or worse, some personal qualities may not be recognised as strengths at all. A professional CV writing service will provide you with a fresh, impartial review of your career history and personal skill set, and assess what information to include. You may still feel very proud of a particular early achievement, but if it doesn’t add value to your application, astute CV writers will tactfully, but firmly, advise you to lose irrelevant history.

Words need to be chosen carefully. If you open your profile with “Charismatic leader…”, it could be construed as a touch egocentric rather than conveying the engaging leadership style you had intended. The difference in interpretation has a significant impact on first impressions. A CV writer will ensure ambiguous and clichéd phrases are avoided and will deliver your desired message effectively. They will also use the power of phraseology to emphasise your suitability and tailor the bias of the content to match the particular job description as closely as possible. For example it could prove costly if you highlighted tactical results (however impressive) over any strategic achievements, if you wanted to make the short-list for a strategy consultant job. A common mistake in an early career CV is overplaying a personal contribution in a company level result, that said, companies want high flyers. If you did personally deliver the highest value sale in 10 years, it’s clearly a stand out career highlight that must be included. Achievements just need to be well-written and in context - a professional writer will do this. Another obvious advantage of working with a CV writer is having a suitably qualified linguist guarantee good grammar, spelling and punctuation. They will also be able to identify unintentional, evaluative language. Whist the debate over the apostrophe rages on, your CV may end up in the hands of a stickler for punctuation, so an errant semi-colon will not win you any favours.

How are we able to ‘sell’ you, better than yourself? By knowing the questions to ask and having in-depth experience of the recruitment and executive search industry (and of course possessing great CV writing skills). This is what some of our happy clients have said about us in our professional CV writing service reviews .

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First impressions count, what does your CV font say about you?

8/7/2015

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When tasked with writing a CV, more often than not, many will turn to Google for help. The sheer amount of information and tips an online search throws out is overwhelming (yes, ours are there too). Various and conflicting opinions are offered, however, the good news is that there isn’t one definitive correct CV format or presentation style (albeit there are several best practices). One of the more personal decisions to make is CV font size and the choice of font. With a myriad of fonts now available, it could arguably be a prime opportunity to differentiate your application and help get you noticed. Anything that makes a CV more human and less like a job description is usually a good thing, however showing your fun personality through comic sans is ill advised. Your CV acts as a first impression to a prospective employer. The effect of font is subliminal, whole studies have been conducted on the psychology of typeface. Font is the sartorial correctness of the alphabet, just as dress code for an interview, font should be appropriate and convey the right image.

Font falls into two main categories, serif and sans serif. The first being a more traditional decorative style, the second is simpler version. The most well known serif is Times New Roman and whilst traditionally considered safe, it now feels antiquated. Garamond and Georgia are good alternatives as they are still classic, but not overused. Cambria, a Microsoft ClearType, is a newer traditional type also worth considering. For a far more modern professional statement, choose a sans serif. The most popular (some would say banal) font in this family is Arial. Calibri has a similar, yet less ubiquitous feel, Gill Sans says ‘classic British’, or you could opt for Helvetica, the designers’ choice.

Having chosen your font, keep your CV presentation simple, consistent and avoid colour. Be selective with bold type, keep the body text to a font size 10 or 11, sub headings work well in a size 14 and size 22 is a good choice for your full name. CV font size is important, as it helps the reader review your details with ease.

Just remember though, however sharp your CV looks, it’s the content that really matters.

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Writing a CV is the best preparation for an interview

CV Writing Tips: 11 key points for a good CV

Curriculum Vitae vs Résumé and their origins

Why use a professional CV writing service?

First impressions count, what does your CV font say about you?

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