Advice
CV information and advice
CV preparation
- Keep it short at ideally two or a maximum of three pages. Any longer and the reader will lose interest. Any shorter and you will probably not provide the information you need to.
- Include details of your last three roles, starting with the most recent, or your experience over the last ten years, whichever is the longer.
- As well as responsibilities, such as number of staff and size of budget managed, ensure you include your achievements, and quantify these where possible.
- Make it easy for the reader to pick out successes. A 'major achievements' heading will help, followed by no more than six bullet points outlining your successes.
- Attach a well written letter with your CV, showing you have considered the information you have been supplied with from an advert or the assignment brief.
- Be succinct when communicating your strengths.
- Include all contact details: mail address, telephone and e-mail.
- Without going into too much detail, do mention your interests outside of work. This will not only make you appear as a more rounded individual, but may be helpful in building a rapport at interview.
- Finally, check your spelling, paying particular attention to names. As presentation is key, also ensure that the formatting you have used will not be lost once emailed.
CV Advice
Here at Think Recruitment Solutions, we think your curriculum vitae is the single most important weapon in your armoury when it comes to job hunting.
A prospective employer will often make a snap judgement the second they read it and even the most qualified people on the planet can find themselves rejected if the CV fails to come up to scratch. So how can you improve yours?
Simplicity. Avoid making it too fancy and complicated. You only have about five seconds to grab the attention - if it is too clever and unreadable it will go in the bin. Make sure all key points can be seen clearly and quickly on the page.
Click here for a CV template.
Interviews
The key to success at interviews is preparation. It is your opportunity to show your interviewer that you have all the right qualities for the job so it is essential to ensure you are fully prepared.
- Research the company so that you can demonstrate you have a good knowledge of their history and current plans.
- Ensure that you are on time for the interview
- Know your own CV in real detail.
- Practice questions and answers that you think may come up in the interview.
- Prepare some questions that you would like answers to at the interview.
We can give you further and more detailed advice on how to be as well prepared as possible for your interviews so that you can give yourself the best possible chance of success.
Psychometric Assessments
Increasingly more companies are using psychometric tests as part of their recruitment process to enable them to get more information about you that they can’t easily get from the interview. They are used to find out about individual behaviours and can be divided into two types; skills (ability and aptitude) and personality tests.
The best way to deal with these is to be prepared. There are example questions available on the internet and in books so you can practice in advance. We will work with you to help be better informed about the type of tests that you may be asked to complete as part of your assessment process.