The Questions Your Candidates Should Ask Before Sending You Their CV

The Questions Your Candidates Should Ask Before Sending You Their CV As a recruiter, you place a huge amount of faith in your candidates every time you submit their CV to a client. In fact every time you recommend a candidate, you are trusting them with your reputation, your credibility and even your livelihood. So, if you don’t want to spend hours editing CVs, ensure that your candidates are asking the following questions. Does it look professional? It goes without saying that you want your candidates to appear professional in the eyes of your clients, so their CVs must reflect this. A logical structure with clearly defined sections and bold headings are essential, as is a succinct writing style and wide vocabulary. And of course typos and grammar mistakes should definitely be eradicated before a CV is put in front of a client. Does it create impact upon opening? If you want to impress your clients, then your candidates’ CVs must create a big impact upon opening. Ensure that they include a punchy profile that sells their in-demand talents, and that it is heavily tailored to the role you are submitting them for. If you can’t instantly see that they are a good fit for the role, then the CV may need some tweaking. Is it easy to read? Busy hiring managers don’t have the time to wade through big chunks of text and hunt down the details they need. Your candidates’ need to break the information on their CVs up into small bitesize chunks and make good use of bullet points. They must also ensure that the key requirements for your client’s roles are made prominent throughout. Is it under 2 pages long? You don’t really want to read a CV that’s more than 2 pages long and neither do your clients, so make sure that your candidates keep their CVs short, sharp and to-the-point. If their CVs are coming in too long, ask them to cut down older roles and remove any irrelevant details they may be including. Does it reflect the requirements of your client roles? If your candidate’s CV doesn’t meet the expectations of your clients, then they won’t get an interview. You must always ask your candidates to tailor their CV specifically to your role before you forward them. If there seems to be a big difference between the experience they told you about on the phone, and what is present in the CV they send you, then don’t be afraid to ask for an re-write. Are the roles well structured? As you know, candidate’s CV role descriptions will be heavily scrutinised, especially the recent roles. Poorly structured roles will irritate hiring managers and will often fail to display a candidate’s true impact. Roles should start with a high level summary, then list bullet pointed responsibilities and end with some key achievements. Does it prove the candidate’s value? Employers want to see a return on investment when they hire a candidate, so CVs must show the value that a candidate can deliver. Your candidates’ CV should include plenty of examples of the impact they have made on previous employer with their work. For example if they have improved a process, delivered a large project or saved costs in any of their roles, they need to highlight those points. Does it include numbers? Numbers are extremely important in a CV. Without them it’s very hard for a reader to understand the level a candidate works and benchmark them against the competition. Figures such as team size, budgets managed or length of projects are great ways to quantify a candidate’s impact.

A big corporate or a smaller business which to choose for an internship University of Manchester Careers Blog

A big corporate or a smaller business which to choose for an internship University of Manchester Careers Blog So what do you need to consider and what are the benefits? Here are a few points to think about when applying for work experience and internships. Dont blindly join a rush for a graduate scheme for one of the big corporates without considering if it is for you. For your interest 40% of graduates go to work for small to medium size businesses instead of larger companies.   Have a look at the details on Futuretrack. The big corporate employer A well-known established company may have organised a clear structure to their internships with projects for interns to do, skills to develop, and available support. If you choose a   global company there may be opportunities as part of the internship to travel and work in other locations or countries in future roles in the company. It may be of interest to see work at an international level. If there is a graduate scheme then a successful summer internship may support an application to this scheme The office environment may be a more comfortable and established work place. There may be support provided from graduates who previously were interns and in the same position as you. This can help to give you a real insight into what they learnt and how they progressed through the internship to their graduate role. The small or medium sized business (SMEs) Gain an overview of how the whole business functions working across different areas. This is useful if you want to set up your own business after your degree or in the future A more hands-on experience to give you a variety of different skills and responsibilities. This can help to broaden your skill-set, being flexible to cover a number of specialist functions within the company You may have less competition in your application to a smaller company (depending on the role) but still gain all the skills and experience you need for your CV and progression in your career There are a lot more small businesses than big corporate companies to apply to, widening your area of applications could increase the possibility of gaining an internship Opportunities to work with people at all levels of the business including reporting directly at a higher level to company directors or the boardroom There may be higher expectations on your performance and contribution as part of the internship on company projects and their success, but a great opportunity to meet the challenge SMEs initially can pay less as a starting salary but then progression in your career and increases to a higher salary may be quicker The start up phase for small businesses is exciting with immediate growth and decisions can be made quicker They are often dynamic and need people with an open mind, prepared to respond to surprises and be adaptable Smaller businesses are often more flexible in their approach and have a more personable environment Closing dates for internships may be later in the academic year depending on the sector, giving you more time and flexibility to still apply to opportunities and secure a summer internship Ensure that you check out that the small business you are applying to is a legitimate business? Do some research. How does their website look? Is there anything else on the web to back this up? So how can you find out about if you want to apply for an internship with an SME ? Make contact with an SME to organise a work shadowing/ volunteer day: Do you know anyone in your own network of contacts working in a small business? You could join LinkedIN and find contacts with smaller businesses to liaise and network with. Join groups that have a focus on SMEs. Do   a keyword search on the CareersLink online QA mentor search to see if any registered mentors have given details about working for a small business and then follow the instructions on the Careers Website in how to make contact to find out more. The Careers Service website will give you more information on small businesses Look at information on small and medium businesses or graduate accounts on SMEs and Corporate work experience on the Prospects website. Also have a look at our Work Experience page for more information in finding work. CareersLink is a useful tool to access for internships by searching under ‘student internships/placements. SME opportunities are more likely to start being available from early Spring onwards so keep a look out! All Undergraduate Undergraduate-highlighted corporate employers Internships SME work experience

Top Tips for calming your pre-interview nerves

Top Tips for calming your pre-interview nerves Top Tips for calming your pre-interview nerves We all know how stressful job interviews can be, so when the time for your job interview date is coming near, follow some of our helpful tips to calm your nerves.You are never going to banish your nerves completely before your job interview, but by trying out some of these proven stress-reducing tips and tricks, you may be able to greatly reduce them. Get plenty of sleepTwo or three days before your interview try taking a warm evening bath with relaxing aromatherapy oils. Doing something like this will help soothe your muscles, reduce tension and calm your mind. This will help you drift off to sleep more easily.Give yourself a break from screens and electronic devices. It is well known that the light emitted from TVs, computer screens, tablets and phones can stimulate your brain. Staring at screens too close to bedtime can make you restless and unable to fall asleep quickly.Before going to bed take 20 minutes or so to sit in the dark, close your eyes and practice some deep breathi ng. A great breathing technique is the seven/eleven method to help reduce stress and give you a peaceful mind. This means to take in a deep and slow breath to the count of seven, then release your breath slowly to the count of eleven.Abstain from alcoholThe night before your interview you may be tempted to have a drink to steady your nerves, but this can often have a reverse effect. Alcohol acts as a stimulant and can actually keep you awake rather than allowing you to sleep.It is also a diuretic and can cause you to wake up in the night to use the toilet and disrupt your sleep pattern. This can leave you tired and cranky on the day of your interview â€" not what you want! You will want to be well-hydrated and mentally alert for your interview so taking a break from alcohol for a couple of evenings before your big interview will really pay off.The day of the interviewHopefully you will wake up refreshed and ready to take on the day. To start with, make sure you have a good breakf ast to kick start your preparations. Quite often people will let their nerves get the better of them and will skip breakfast before their interview. This can often backfire and attending your interview on an empty stomach can be disastrous.You may find yourself running on adrenaline, but you will soon burn out and feel awful. Your interviewer may also be put off by the loud rumbling sounds coming from your empty belly!Soothe your senses with some essential oils. Mix two drops of Jasmine essential oil with a tablespoon of carrier oil, such as sweet almond or grapeseed, and gently massage into the soles of your feet. Apply a little to your wrists to and take a little sniff when you need to. Jasmine oil helps you to feel energised and also boosts your confidence.Unfortunately, some people are more affected by anxiety than others, but if you feel your anxiety will get the better of you, try using Bach Flower Rescue Remedy. A few drops under the tongue will encourage your senses to calm down and give you some inner focus. Take the bottle with you and pop a few drops under your tongue just before you go into the interview room.Arriving for your interview Allow plenty of time to get to your interview. If you are driving, leave a little early to ensure that you can get there without the risk of heavy traffic or roadworks making you late. If you arrive feeling flustered or hot and bothered, go to the bathroom and run some cold water over your wrists. This can cool you down and prevent having to give your interviewer a horrible sweaty handshake!Oh the waiting! That dreaded waiting time spent before your interview where your nerves often get the better of you. Instead of reading anything that is laying around to kill the time, try to focus on something positive and relaxing instead. Take out your phone and flick through your pictures. Focus on the smiling face of a loved one and practice smiling back. The act of smiling can release calming  endorphins in your body. W hen you are called in for interview you can look calm and happy instead of wound up and worried.During your interviewIf you feel your anxiety rising during your interview, try massaging the middle of your palm with your thumb. There is a pressure point here that you can work on to help relax you. Take slow, deep breaths and push your shoulders down to help relieve tension build-up.These little things can be subtly done during your interview. Dont forget that your interviewer will be aware that you may be a little nervous, so they are often quite forgiving.Keep your breathing deep and steady to help release tension and calm your mind. It will be over before you know it and then you can go and do something fun to celebrate how well you did.Good luck.Featured photo credit: unsplash.com previous article Plain and Simple â€" A Basic Resume Template Giveaway next article Dark Resume Template Freebie Elegant Dark Grey you might also likeWhy Do You Want to Work Here? Best Answers to T his Interview Question

PhDs Want teaching experience and an opportunity to make the world a nicer place University of Manchester Careers Blog

PhDs â€" Want teaching experience and an opportunity to make the world a nicer place University of Manchester Careers Blog Are you passionate about your subject area? Would you like the opportunity to work with local school children? …then the Widening Participation Fellow programme might be for you!   The Student Recruitment and Widening Participation Team is currently recruiting non-final year PhD students for the position of Widening Participation Fellows. These positions support the University’s widening participation activities with a range of learners from primary through to sixth formers. There are a number of posts available in each Faculty. You can learn more about our Widening Participation work by visiting our webpages and view our annual report from last year. Applications are online via this link  and should be submitted by 5pm on Friday 25th  August 2017.  You can find out more information about the WP Fellow positions online here. Please note these positions are open to PhD students who won’t be in their final year from September 2017. Students who will be 1st Years in their PhDs in September are able to apply.  For further information and enquiries, please contact the relevant Faculty Officer below: Biology, Medicine and Health:  Roz Webster  Roz.Webster@manchester.ac.uk                       Humanities:   Emma Britain  emma.britain@manchester.ac.uk Science and Engineering:  Emma Lewis-Kalubowila    elk@manchester.ac.uk   All Postgrad-highlighted Postgraduate PhDs work experience

The Self-Employment Mindset What You Need to Succeed [Guest Post] - Career Pivot

The Self-Employment Mindset What You Need to Succeed [Guest Post] - Career Pivot The Self-Employment Mindset Can everyone succeed at self-employment? This question comes up every time I speak to an audience about my new book, The Self-Employment Survival Guide: Proven Strategies to Succeed as Your Own Boss. Being asked this question repeatedly has prompted me to think about the mental mindset that is required for self-employment success. Based on nearly 30 years of being my own boss and from close observation of self-employed clients and colleagues, here are five attributes that are part of the mindset that will help you succeed out on your own. The good news is that if you’re not strong in most of these, ways exist for you to build yourself up and become stronger. Persistence When you’re self-employed, you often hear some version of “Thanks, but we’re not interested.” But you must persist. When one new business opportunity falls through, you must get right back in there and seek the next opportunity. Persistence is also important at other times, like when a client’s payment is overdue. You have to persist in reminding them that they owe you money. If you are someone who will shy away from asking for what you’ve earned, self-employment can be quite difficult. You might need to look into assertiveness or communications training that will help you become more comfortable in doing things. Things like negotiating good deals and dunning clients when necessary. Decisiveness Until you’re self-employed, this is probably the first time in your entire career where you have the ultimate decision-making power. Previously, a boss set your priorities and decided how you’d spend your time. That changes dramatically when you become self-employed. Now you are responsible for every single choice that needs to be made about your business. You need to be able to make decisions in a timely manner and then stick with them. Every day is filled with choices about the direction you’re taking your business, what you need to do next to move your business forward, and about the work you’re doing for your clients. Making this transition to being the decision-maker can be smoothed if you understand your decision-making style. Are you someone who has to research everything to death? If so, you probably need to lighten up a little bit on that or else decisions will never get made. Also, it helps to have a friendly sounding board for when you’re making a really big decision. A friend who is also self-employed can often provide objective feedback on the choices before you. Finally, learn to trust your intuition; it will usually guide you right. Risk tolerance The list of potential hazards you may face when self-employed is long and daunting. Everyone who is self-employed has cash flow worries and has to chase clients for overdue money now and then. We all worry about juggling the competing demands from clients to keep everyone happy and satisfied. We all have clients who don’t meet their own commitments, causing projects to fall behind, so we have to work nights and weekends to make up for their laxity. We all are at risk of losing clients for external reasons, having nothing to do with the quality of the work we deliver. If you aren’t risk tolerant, you may find yourself frozen in place, unable to set priorities, make decisions, and take necessary actions. Now, the good news is that with experience, you will learn how to overcome many of the risks you face. For example, as I advise in my book, you’ll learn to ask for deposits before starting work for new clients so that if they turn out to be slow payers, your cash flow won’t be quite so compromised. And as you succeed at facing and conquering more perils that come your way, you will gain confidence in your ability to stay the course and succeed. So risk tolerance is something you can build over time and that’s good news for anyone considering self-employment. Optimism I won’t say that a pessimist can’t succeed at self-employment, but I definitely think it is easier to succeed if you’re an optimist by nature. People are attracted to people who have a positive attitude and an optimistic outlook. It’s hard to convince yourself to do business with someone who always thinks the sky is falling. Also, in my experience, I’ve found that pessimists worry too much about things that are never going to happen. This is energy they could be using to move their business forward. If you’re a pessimist, you’ll also have a harder time recovering from the inevitable blows that come your way when you’re self-employed. Each time you lose a customer, for instance, you’ll take it harder than someone who is optimistic and works off the philosophy that when one door closes, another one will open up. Self-motivation Finally, let’s talk about self-motivation. A comment I’ve often heard over the years when I tell people I am self-employed is this: “Oh, good for you…I don’t think I have enough self-motivation to be self-employed. I’m not sure I could stay on track.” My response has always been that the thing that motivated me most was the mortgage bill arriving in the mail every month…that will motivate almost anyone! Yes, it is important to really like what you’re doing, but most reasonably well-adjusted people will find within themselves the motivation to do what needs to be done in order to pay the bills. If you truly feel you need external motivation â€" that you need a boss to hold you accountable for getting things done â€" then self-employment probably is not for you. But I doubt that is the case for the vast majority of people, especially those with plenty of work experience under their belt who are looking forward to a career change. This was written by Jeanne Yocum. Jeanne has nearly 30 years of self-employment experience and is author of The Self-Employment Survival Guide: Proven Strategies to Succeed as Your Own Boss, which is available on Amazon and in bookstores nationwide. Her blog is SucceedingInSmallBusiness.com. Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons above. Like What You Read? Get Career Pivot Insights Check out the Repurpose Your Career Podcast Do You Need Help With ...

Is Owning a Small Business for You - CareerAlley

Is Owning a Small Business for You - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. Just about everyone would love to make more money for themselves. You could use this money to buy a new house, pay off debt, or just to enjoy it with your family. We all want to achieve financial independence and obtain job security, and owning a small business can offer that. However, owning a small business is a job that not very many people are cut out for. In fact, most startups fail just one to two years after their initial launch date. Its not that these businesses had no potential, but that the owners failed to do what was necessary to keep them alive. If you plan to be successful with your small business, you better find out whether or not youre really up for the challenge. Are you driven by numbers and have the desire to succeed? If youre driven by numbers, this is a key indicator that owning a small business is something you might do well with. Business owners have to be goal oriented and very focused on the results that they expect to achieve. If you feel like you have potential that is not being utilized at your present job, owning a small business would allow you to follow your dreams and truly succeed. If youre looking for something more in life and you enjoy handling customers and selling products, you might just have what it takes. Do you love talking to people and are you patient and understanding? If you want to own a small business, you absolutely must have good communication skills. If you enjoy talking to people and you understand of their problems, then this is yet another asset working in your favor. A successful business owner has to understand the importance of customer service. As a business, your customers mean everything. Every customer is a step in the right direction and could result in more profit for you and your employees. Treating customers with respect and providing them with high quality products and services should be your number one goal. Can you stay calm under stressful situations? Lets face it, owning a business is definitely not an easy job. Not only do you have to provide quality products and services, you have to manage your customers and the budget. The amount of money that the business brings in compared to the amount of money that the business spends is a mathematical equation you have to constantly run over in your mind. Managing the budget can be very stressful and some people have a difficult time managing stress of this degree. If you can stay calm under stressful situations and not let the anxiety get to you, then owning a business could be something you excel at. Is efficiency something you pride yourself on? A business owner has to be constantly evaluating the efficiency of the companys employees. Its your job to make sure everyone is doing what they were told to do and they are doing it correctly. The future of your business relies on how well you instruct your employees. If they don understand the importance of their job, then they will never take the business to its next level. The business owner must be looking for areas of inefficiency and improving those things as best they can. This includes every department of your business. Are you motivated to expand? After successful completing something, do you get the urge to keep going? Once you own one business that has become profitable, its then time to venture out into multiple locations. If you dont have this type of mentality, then the business will always be limited to one location. If youre motivated to expand in other areas of your life, this characteristic will likely follow you and help you succeed when owning a business. more Small Business Ownership Author Bio: Stevie Clapton is an associate at OnlinePaydayLoans.net a company that connects those needing quick loans with lenders in their area. This is a Guest post. If you would like to submit a guest post to CareerAlley, please follow these guest post guidelines. Good luck in your search. Visit me on Facebook

Are You Interested in Writing a Strong Resume Objective?

Are You Interested in Writing a Strong Resume Objective?If you are in the middle of your graduate program, then you are likely aware that there is a difference between writing a strong resume objective and writing a strong resume. As it turns out, it is really easier to write a resume objective than it is to write a strong resume. You do not have to think about what a resume objective is, in fact, it will probably surprise you that there is such a thing as a resume objective.So, how do you write a strong resume objective? What is it you should know and how do you go about using it to get the most from your graduate school experience? Well, just as with a resume that you would use for other types of professional fields, you want to think about what the best traits of your prospective employer will look for. In graduate school, there are two specific areas where you can use your resume objectives to best advantage.The first area to explore is your previous professional position. The re ason this is important is because the employer is looking for you to provide a lead on your future career. If you had the opportunity to work at a specific company and you took it, then you should give the employer an idea of what you can offer them now. If you have done the same work elsewhere, then you have the benefit of a past professional resume.The second area to investigate when thinking about writing a strong resume objective is if you have a high GPA. Yes, graduate school is not just about getting a job. For most people, it is about furthering their education, and ultimately the opportunity to get a job, in the professional world.There are several elements you should take into consideration when writing a strong resume objective. One of these is the type of job you might have been thinking about after graduation. Another consideration is what you have achieved or are planning to achieve in the future. This includes the major accomplishments that have helped you realize your ambitions.As with all documents, one of the most important things to remember is not to add anything extraneous to the resume except your name. It is important to stay focused on the purpose of the document, what is important for the applicant to know. There are many employers who are more interested in the content of your resume and less interested in what is in it.Remember, there is a difference between writing a strong resume objective and writing a strong resume. If you are in the midst of your graduate school career, then you need to pay close attention to the potential of your resume and your job search.