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Tailor your CV to get more interviews

If you were going for an interview at a big City law firm, it is unlikely you would turn up wearing sandals, swimming trunks and a tee shirt. Likewise, if you were going for an interview to be a Lifesaver for the RNLI, it may come across as slightly odd if you turned up for your interview in a pinstriped suit and bowler hat. If it’s important to tailor your approach to interviews, it is equally important when it comes to your CV.

It is a common mistake to rely on just one generic version of your CV for every application. How much the CV needs changing depends very much on your circumstances. A professional looking to further their career within a similar role and industry may need to tweak the CV for different applications. If you are a graduate or changing career, then you will need to refocus completely the information in your CV to demonstrate the right skills and qualities for different career paths.

Recruiters are often time strung and under pressure. It is therefore up to you the job seeker to make sure the information in your CV immediately connects. The first thing the recruiter wants to see is that your CV is relevant to the role applied for, this is where a Professional Profile comes into its own as this acts as your introduction and enables you to clearly position yourself in line with the job you are applying for.

 

Read More – www.jobs.telegraph.co.uk

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CV Key Skills

Everyone knows you never get a second chance to make a first impression. But what some job seekers do not realise is that a CV is the first impression you leave on a prospective employer so it is no exaggeration to say that a bad CV can ruin your chances of being hired.

It is also important to have a CV because of the following 3 reasons:

  1. It is a Record: Keeping a CV and updating it regularly will help you keep track of all of your minor accolades, many of which you might forget if you don’t organise them all in one place.
  2. It Demonstrates Professionalism: Skills aren’t everything when you are on the job market. Often it isn’t about what you can do so much as how you can do it. Companies want employees who present themselves as polished professionals.
  3. It is a Reference: For employers, a CV is helpful simply for keeping track of candidates. Your CV is the point of reference that keeps you visible to employers during the hiring process.

What Do Recruiters Look For in a CV?

Successful CVs stand out for many reasons, but recruiters primarily look for the following traits when evaluating the document you give them:

  • Presentation: Aesthetics are the first thing anyone reading your CV will notice. Does it look like a typical, cookie-cutter template? Is it easy to read at a glance? Is the information organised in a thoughtful manner? Is the document clear, efficient and precise? Inconsistent formatting, typos, and uncommon file formats are all quick ways present yourself in a negative light.
  • Relevance: Employers are interested in the relevant aspects of your professional history. So they probably don’t need to know about your part-time high school job as a car washer or that you are interested in collecting coins unless those things are directly related to the job for which you are applying. Don’t include things just to fill out the CV; every item on your list should be relevant to the task at hand.
  • Experience: Of course, the contents of your CV are critical too. Employers want to know what experience you have in the profession, or what skills you possess that will help you thrive in the role.

Key Skills to Highlight in Your CV

When putting together a CV, it can sometimes be hard to determine what skills or experiences to include and what to leave off.

The following types of information are relevant examples of what skills to highlight on a CV:

Administration Skills

  • Arranged meetings with senior management personnel
  • Distributed and filed new employee paperwork
  • Contacted customers and suppliers to arrange deliveries and receive orders
  • Managed transition of data from Microsoft 98 OS to Windows XP
  • Undertook digitisation project to scan the physical file and transfer to the cloud-based servers.

Communication Skills

  • Successfully mediated conflicts between staff members
  • Drafted and distributed interdepartmental memos
  • Read market reports and trend forecasts and 1-page business abstracts laying out all the key data and conclusions
  • Evaluated candidates for new positions and wrote brief reviews during hiring process
  • Recorded minutes of all executive level meetings

Managerial Skills

  • Oversaw customer service, financial, and administrative operations in the main office
  • Managed and trained two administrative assistants
  • Ordered raw materials and managed the receipt of all orders, confirming correct amounts and products
  • Arranged optimal scheduling for shop floor staff and filled vacancies when employees were sick or on holiday
  •  Coordinated deadlines and completion estimates between customers and production staff

Interpersonal Skills

  • Managed and trained multiple new staff members
  • Took charge of account management for several customer accounts
  • Coordinated business lunches and special events (such as concerts and sporting events) for key clients
  • Planned and hosted the annual holiday party
  • Hosted weekly employee lunches with staff members from multiple departments

IT Skills

  • Coordinated social media marketing campaigns
  • Built company website using interactive web design elements with HTML and CSS
  • Oversaw backup of company files to a cloud-based storage service
  • Managed transition from CD install software to new, scalable SaaS systems
  • Managed and organised Excel databases with performance analytics data

Problem-Solving Skills

  • Identified issue in IT systems and provided alternate solutions
  • Drafted a report providing ways to streamline office functions, which were later implemented by management
  • Replaced traditional office desks with standing desks for all willing employees, which led to an 8% increase in office productivity
  • Addressed customer complaints in a timely manner, providing store credit for faulty products
  • Implemented flexible scheduling and reduced overall energy consumption by 14% in six months.

Creativity Skills

  • Set up and maintained a company blog online, with more than 5,000 daily visitors
  • Drafted new design plans for a product that sold more than 1 million units
  • Designed new labels and logo for the company
  • Created invitations to the annual holiday party
  • Designed brochures and product catalogues for distribution by mail.

Finance Skills

  • Oversaw payroll for more than 80 employees
  • Paid taxes on both federal and state levels
  • Utilised Quickbooks for invoicing and accounts payable
  • Kept track of profitability via Excel spreadsheets
  • Implemented new credit card payment scanners

Read More – www.jobs.telegraph.co.uk

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8 things to remove from your CV right away

Getting your CV right is essential for job-hunt success as it’s the first stage of convincing a prospective employer that you’re the one for the role.

To make sure you present yourself as the talent they need to bring on board, here are eight things that should not be included on your CV. Remove them right away and you’ll create an impression that lasts for the right reasons.

  1. Age and date of birth

As your age doesn’t affect your ability to do the job you’re applying for, it has no place on your CV. Employers should measure your ability on years of experience, not how old you are.

In the UK, under the Equality Act 2010, it’s illegal for employers to discriminate against candidates because of their age. Therefore, recruiters should not ask for this information during the job-application process, and they should not base their decisions on hiring or not hiring you based on how old you are. Don’t give them the fuel to do so by including your age on your CV.

  1. Marital status and dependents

Like your age, your marital status and the number of children you have don’t affect your ability to do a job. Therefore, you don’t need to include this information on your CV. Plus, these are protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010.

  1. Personal circumstances

Most candidates are extremely lucky to experience a smooth career trajectory, as most of us go through a few bumps here and there. Your reasons for being out of work have no place on your CV for two reasons.

Firstly, your CV is a two-page document filled with your most relevant skills and abilities to show why you’re a great fit for a vacancy. You don’t want to waste precious space with details that could convince the prospective employer why you might not be so great. This is particularly pertinent if you were dismissed from your last role.

Secondly, some personal circumstances are also protected characteristics, such as being pregnant or on maternity leave. It’s worth noting that you’re legally protected by the Equality Act if you’re associated with someone who has a protected characteristic, such as if you were caring for a family member or friend with a disability. Even if your reason is protected, don’t open yourself up to potential discrimination by listing it on your CV. There are better ways to fill the space.

  1. A photo

In some countries, a headshot is customary. However, in the UK, a photo of yourself is not required.

Firstly, employers should judge you on your skills and experience, not what you look like. Therefore, it’s more beneficial to fill the space with the details they’re looking for.

Secondly, a photo can often reveal your age, or at least give a general idea of it. Avoid the possibility of age discrimination by not including a headshot on your CV.

  1. Your address

Once upon a time, listing your address on your CV was a requirement. Today however, you simply need to list your town and county of residence.

Most application forms ask you to fill in your address separately, so there’s little point in adding it to your CV too. But your general location can be a nice addition to your CV if your locality is deemed a selling point.

If you think your location might negatively affect your chances of landing a job ‒ if you live quite a distance away, for example ‒ you can omit your location from your CV entirely.

  1. ‘Curriculum vitae’ as the title

Many job hunters make the mistake of titling their CV with the phrase ‘curriculum vitae’ or ‘CV’. This is outdated and unnecessary.

As most CVs are sent digitally, the file name of the document should be enough to signal to the recruiter what it is. Plus, if you’ve formatted your CV correctly, a prospective employer will know that it’s a CV with one glance.

Treat your name as the title of the document. After all, your CV is all about you. Place it at the top of your CV in large lettering, followed by your email address, phone number, location and your LinkedIn URL.

  1. Irrelevant work experience and qualifications

It’s extremely important to tailor your CV to the job for which you’re applying. Therefore, don’t be afraid to cut irrelevant details from your CV. This includes work experience from over 10 years ago or positions that are unrelated to the industry you’re entering, for example.

I’d also encourage you to avoid listing every single qualification to your name if you’re a few years into your career. Summarise your qualifications where you can; for example: ‘four A-Levels, grades A to C’.  And if you’re an experienced professional, it’s perfectly acceptable to list only your most recent or weighty qualification, such as your degree. The rest of your education is suggested.

  1. References

How useful is the line ‘References available upon request at the end of your CV? Not very.

Across the UK, there is a mutual expectation between past and prospective employers that an exchange of references may be necessary when a new hire starts their role. Therefore, as everyone is in the know, it’s redundant to say at the end of your CV that you have references at hand.

If your new employer wants a reference, they’ll ask for it, so use that space on the page for more important points to show recruiters what a great hire you’d make.

Read More – www.jobs.telegraph.co.uk

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Workers could be compensated for cancelled shifts

Zero-hours and “gig economy” workers who have shifts cancelled at short notice could be paid compensation under new government plans.

The proposal is part of a package of measures aimed at improving the rights of low-paid flexible workers.

Under the proposals, they could receive the full value of the shift cancelled or three times the hourly minimum wage for each hour cancelled.

The government is canvassing views on the proposals over the next 12 weeks.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said one in six low-paid workers on flexible hours received no more than a day’s notice of a cancelled shift.

In addition, nearly 40% of all UK workers said their hours varied from week to week, with 1.7 million people saying they were very anxious that their working hours could change unexpectedly.

 

Business Secretary Greg Clark said new business models had opened up “a whole new world of working patterns and opportunities”.

He added: “It’s vital that workers’ rights keep pace with these changes, reflect the modern working environment and tackle the small number of firms that do not treat their staff fairly.”

The proposals are intended to build on an earlier set of reforms introduced in December last year.

Those were based on the findings of a review into modern working practices led by Matthew Taylor, a former aide to ex-PM Tony Blair and chief executive of the Royal Society of Arts.

As part of that process, the Low Pay Commission was asked to look into the issue of “one-sided flexibility”, and their ideas are at the heart of the latest consultation.

Bryan Sanderson, who chairs the commission, said it was “delighted” that the government was taking it further.

“The proposed changes, part of a package of policies we suggested, have the potential to improve work and life for hundreds of thousands of people,” he added.

But the TUC said the proposed changes did not go far enough.

General secretary Frances O’Grady said compensation would be “a step in the right direction”, but repeated the TUC’s call for zero-hours contracts to be banned.

 

Read More – www.bbc.co.uk

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The do’s and don’ts of getting a pay rise

How much are you worth? Or rather – is the answer to that question equal to the sum paid into your bank account by your employer?

If not then you need to ask for more, and that means you have to negotiate with the person who pays your wages. It’s something that puts the frighteners on a lot of people. It shouldn’t.

“No one ever got fired for asking for a pay rise” said Pip Jamieson founder of the professional networking site, The Dots. “In fact rather the opposite – asking for more money shows ambition and shows you want to stay with the company.”

But there are good ways of asking for a pay rise and there are bad ones. So here are some dos and don’ts when it comes to asking for a bigger salary.

DO: Research properly

Go to a salary comparison website or talk to a recruitment agency or your Human Resources department (HR) to find out the kind of pay your job should be getting. You need hard evidence to back your pay rise – sales targets reached, contracts signed, goals met. Remember, it’s surprising how little the person who decides your salary, especially in a big organisation, may know about what you do.

“Work at it,” says Dulcie Shepherd Swanston, author of It’s Not Bloody Rocket Science and founder of the business training company Profitably Engaged. “The sort of qualities you need for getting a pay rise are the same sort of qualities you need for being a good employee.”

DON’T: Randomly demand more money

Tessa Fyson had been working in the NHS for six months when she decided to ask for more money.

“When I got asked the inevitable question, ‘Why should we give you a pay rise?’ – I froze!” she said. “Any type of meeting with management can make you nervous and I lost all ability to speak. It made me feel and look incredibly naïve and I was told to think of the reasons why and then come back.”

Ms Jamieson insists employees should see pay as a commercial contract, not a favour, which should be negotiated seriously.

So you should not argue that you need the money to pay the rent or buy Prada handbags on a monthly basis.

But Lou Goodman, marketing director at the employment website Monster for the UK, Ireland and Benelux cautions: “It’s always worthwhile for a company being empathetic about your personal life, because if they lose an employee, the resources needed to find, recruit and train up someone new can be considerable.

“But in the end, pay should reflect someone’s performance and the performance of the company itself.”

 

Read More – www.bbc.co.uk

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Half of British workplaces now dress smart-casual

Only one in eight British workplaces now enforce a smart dress code, according to a new survey.

Research revealed the trend set by Steve Jobs and Sir Richard Branson in staff, managers and directors abandoning shirts and ties in favour of more comfortable day-to-day attire, is still growing.

Half of workers now follow a casual or smart casual dress code at work, allowing for jeans and other dress-down styles, according to the poll.

Just 12 per cent of those surveyed said management still insisted on a smart dress code and 16 per cent said they are required to wear a specific uniform.

 

One in five considered the rules at their place of work to be “mostly smart”, allowing freedom for casual items of clothing.

Three quarters believed that workplace attire has become more casual across different industries in the last decade.

“As work hours have increased and the ‘always on’ culture has come to prominence thanks to developments in tech and connectivity, the lines between our work lives and our home lives have blurred,” said a spokesperson for search platform Lyst, which commissioned the poll. “This meeting of worlds is reflected in our expected work dress codes.

“Work is no longer siloed off from the rest of our lives, and therefore it is right that the rules around dress codes in the workplace have become more relaxed.

The research also assessed the position of jeans in British culture, with 75 per cent of the 2,000 adults surveyed viewing  the clothing as a key component of their style and the average respondent owning five pairs.

 

Read More – www.independent.co.uk

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Finance firms sign code in bid to support women-led start-ups

A host of major banks and venture capital firms have signed up for the Government’s latest initiative to boost funding for female entrepreneurs, the Treasury has said.

The financial institutions signed up on Tuesday to the Investing in Women Code, agreeing to a set of measures aimed at improving equality for small business founders including publishing gender funding data.

The banks putting their name to the plans are Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, Santander, TSB, Metro Bank, the Co-operative Bank and Bank of Ireland UK.

They are joined by venture capital firms Frontline and Episode 1, angel networks UK Business Angel Association and Angel Academe, and institutional investor British Business Bank.

Speaking at the launch of the Investing in Women Code at a reception in Downing Street, the Exchequer Secretary Robert Jenrick said: “Breaking down gender barriers could add billions to the UK economy.

“I’m pleased to see so many of our major banks and venture capital firms support the code, and I call on others to follow suit.

 

“It’s shocking that only one in three entrepreneurs are women and I hope that today’s commitment signals a turning point in attitudes towards investing in female-led businesses.”

It follows the findings of a review led by NatWest’s deputy chief executive Alison Rose earlier this year which showed closing the gap between male and female entrepreneurs could add £250 billion to the UK’s economy.

Challenges facing female founders identified by the report include low access to capital, high risk awareness, disproportionate primary care responsibilities and a lack of relatable role models.

Research commissioned by the Chancellor had previously revealed that female-led start-ups get just a penny for every £1 of venture capital investment in the UK.

Signatories of the new Investing in Women Code pledge to nominate a senior leader to take responsibility for equality, as well as adopt internal practices that will improve access to funding and resources for women-led founder teams.

They will also publish data on funding granted to businesses, showing whether the founding teams are male, female or mixed.

Ms Rose said: “When we began this process, everyone involved was in agreement that raising awareness of the Rose Review’s findings is only one small part of what is needed; what we need is action.

 

Read More – www.msn.com

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Why Britain’s record jobs and pay miracle is not what it seems

Britain has witnessed a remarkable period of high employment, with the number of people in work at its highest since the 1970s.

The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show the unemployment holding steady at 3.8%, its lowest rate on record.

Wages have also increased at their fastest rate in more than a decade, data published on Tuesday shows.

But the reality of Britain’s labour market is a lot less rosy and a lot more complex than some of the headline figures suggest.

Half the new jobs are in self-employed, insecure work

Half of the past year’s employment growth has been in self-employment, which is typically far more insecure and often less well-paid than staff roles, according to the Resolution Foundation.

“One of the big changes in the job market over the past year has been the return of growing self-employment. The number of self-employed workers has increased by 167,000,” the think tank said.

It is part of a growing trend over the past decade, with increased numbers of young people employed in the gig economy and rising numbers of over-65s continuing to work on a freelance basis.

 

Read More – www.msn.com

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EasyJet reassures on outlook, hires Ryanair operations chief

Britain’s easyJet on Thursday reported third quarter trading in line with expectations, boosted by more customers taking optional extra services and enabling it to reiterate its full-year profit forecasts. The budget airline also announced that it had poached Peter Bellew as its chief operating officer from Ryanair.

EasyJet said revenue for the quarter ending June 30 increased by 11.4% to £1.8 billion, driven by more bookings, initiatives to optimise its pricing and more ancillary revenue from additional services such as allocated seating and luggage check-ins.

Shares rose 3.2% after the update.

The robust trading, at a time when many the industry are struggling, comes despite a general softening of demand due to tougher economic conditions across Europe as well as Brexit-related consumer uncertainty in Britain, it said.

“Make no mistake – it is still tough out of there. It is still a challenging environment… but I think what we are seeing is that the actions we are taking ourselves is having a positive effect,” Chief Executive Johan Lundgren told reporters on Thursday.

“We’ve been pleased with how the late trading has come in, which has been supported by these initiatives.”

The airline said it expected to deliver a profit before tax of between £400 million and £440 million, in line with market expectations, and Lundgren said that second-half forward bookings were at 78%, giving the airline better visibility.

The group added that it had hired Bellew who is stepping down from his role at Ryanair at the end of the year, according to a memo to staff seen by Reuters.

The former chief executive of Malaysian Airlines re-joined the Irish carrier in December 2017.

Ryanair on Tuesday said it had cut its forecast for growth in traveller numbers for summer 2020 to provide for the possibility of further delays in deliveries of the grounded Boeing 737 MAX.

Lundgren said that easyJet’s strategy on capacity wouldn’t change with anything a competitor was doing.

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How businesses can do more to address Britain’s skilled worker shortage

Lloyds Bank’s Business In Britain survey showed a rise in business confidence, but firms also said that it is getting harder and harder for them to find the staff they need to capitalise on it.

The bank reported that while confidence was at an 18 month high, challenges in hiring were at a ten year high.

A staggering 52 per cent of respondents said they struggled to recruit skilled staff in the last six months.

It should be stated at this point that this is no cynical attempt by Lloyds to garner a bit of cheap publicity. The Business in Britain report is in its 25th year and is put together from the views of 1,500 companies, mostly small and medium sized enterprises that are (as we keep being told) the engines of growth. As such, its findings are worthy of note.

Now, regular readers won’t be surprised to see me using this as yet more evidence of just how stupid, and damaging, the current Government’s approach to immigration is.

Making EU residents feel unwelcome, and pandering to racists, will cause real, and lasting economic damage to this country. They’ve already started to vote with their feet, exacerbating the nation’s yawning skills gap.

However, at the same time, it is also fair to ask whether businesses are doing enough to mitigate the problem themselves, and whether their approach to recruitment isn’t making the difficult situation they identify worse than it otherwise might be.

After all, we were talking about the skills gap before the EU referendum and it would likely have continued to cause problems even had David Cameron’s decision to call it not resulted in an outbreak of collective insanity.

Part of the reason why it continues to be an issue is that businesses are failing to exploit the talent that is under their noses.

For example, I constantly highlight the disability employment gap within these pages. Despite the labour shortages Lloyds references, skilled disabled people can’t find jobs.

According to disability charity Scope, the difference between the rate of employment among able bodied people when compared to that of disabled people currently stands at a staggering 31.3 percentage points.

But it isn’t just disabled people. Unemployment is also markedly higher among black and minority ethnic people, about twice the rate found among white Britons in fact.

Last year, I revealed the results of a TUC study that found that the disparity in incomes between BAME workers and their white workers actually increases the more qualifications they get.

Meanwhile, we constantly see reports highlighting poor treatment of female staff, and of LGBT staff.

What all this indicates is that UK businesses are failing to tap into some substantial pools of talented and skilled workers, failing to make the best of the workers from them when that they do hire them, failing to treat them well.

Part of the problem might be being caused by recruitment agencies. Many firms use them, and they may sub consciously, or even deliberately, exclude certain candidates from shortlists to minimise what they misguidedly perceive as “risk”, all with the aim of keeping their clients happy.

 

Read More – www.independent.co.uk