Sagitha's News - the Perfect CVs blog

Olympics farse!

2011-11-09T13:32:00.001Z

One of the sponsors of the 2012 Olympics is Panasonic, just up the road from us and hey presto the Olympic torch will be passing almost past our door. Will we be turning out in droves to cheer it on its way to the East End? well actually NO! we are somewhat cheesed off with news of the latest Olympics rip off that directly affects a large proportion of our staff, including me.

Our hobby is sailing, not on luxury gin palaces but on fairly elderly cruising yachts and we would have liked to support the Olympic team efforts in Weymouth and registered with the harbour authority there for berthing arrangements during the games. This week we got the details. It normally costs about £25 per night to berth our boat in the harbour rafted up alongside other boats on a pontoon. So guess what the cost is going to be during the games? A staggering £205 per night - yes thats £205 for 1 night. Imagine paying 8X the going rate to park a car! Not only that but you have to pay up by January, so if the weather is really nasty and you cant get there for safety reasons I guess you lose the lot.

Most of us usually stay in Weymouth during the Summer for 4 or 5 nights and spend on most meals out, drinks, entertainment etc but I can definetly say the traders of Weymouth will not be seeing any of the hard earned cash of Perfect CVs staff in 2012 and maybe not again, as Im sure there will be a cost "legacy" to berthing there in future.

Recruiters and Social Networking Sites

2011-11-07T10:47:00.001Z

It is no secret that recruiters, probably the majority of recruiters, use social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn etc and to a lesser extent Twitter. Some use the data on these sites to screen candidates (either in or out) who have applied for vacancies, others use them as a search mechanism much like using a CV database and some use them prior to interview or hire to confirm information supplied during the recruitment process.

What surprised us however, is the extent to which accessing social network sites is now an almost formal part of the assessment process, particularly for administative, technical and mid level management jobs. We were also surprised at the importance placed on information on social networking sites compared with say information in a CV or application letter. It is clear that a good quality CV and Application Letter are still required but it is now essential that these dovetail with data on social networking sites. About 40% of agencies we approached said that a negative impression given on web sites would cause them to eliminate an otherwise excellent candidate.

Factors which caused candidates to be invited to interviews included:
a positive impression of personality
an indication of organisational fit, ie the type of organisation preferred as an employer
information that supported qualifications gained
well presented information that indicated good communiaction
creativity, technical expertise, interpersonal skill etc as appropriate to the role
good references, work related comments posted by others
indication of a mature, well rounded and realistic person

Factors which caused candidates to be rejected included:
inappropriate text or photos
evidence of instability, unreliability or lifestyle that was considered out of context for job concerned
badly presented or unclear information and style of language used
mis representation of qualifications, experience or skill set
image presented significantly different from that presented by CV
shared confidential information from previous employers
negative comment about current / previous employers

As ever the recruitment world is making maximum use of technology and it is the candidate who embraces this rather than the best candidate that is often the winner in securing a new job; the use of socal networks by recruiters is just one example of this changing world. If you require help navigating the recruitment process take a look at http://www.perfectcvs.co.uk/

Pay with Paypal and win back the value of your purchase up to £200

2011-11-05T13:55:00.000Z

Until 20th December 2011, Perfect CVs customers can win back the value of their purchases up to £200 when they pay by PayPal. Paypal will be drawing five winners every day between 25 October and 20 December 2011. The more PayPal purchases made, the more chances to win In parallel, Paypal are also running a 'wish it, win it' prize draw which gives customers the chance to win their personal wish list worth up to £5000

PayPal is the safer, simpler, smarter way to pay online. All you need is an email address to make secure online payments using your debit card, credit card, bank account or PayPal balance. You can shop knowing that PayPal doesn’t share your financial details with sellers and that your money and information stay safer with PayPal’s industry leading fraud protection tools. It’s also a convenient way to pay - no more waiting for cheques to clear or hassles with postal orders.

CVs need to be written by experts who know the sector in which a candidate works

2011-09-06T11:05:00.004+01:00

To be really effective CVs need to be written by specialists who fully understand the job type and market sector in which a candidate wants to work. This is why at Perfect CVs we have always engaged sector specific specialists for CV Writing, Application Letters, Interview Coaching etc. With so many candidates now wishing to change the sector in which they work, particularly candidates moving from public to private sector, this is becoming even more important and the following are just some of the sectors where we have recently found it to be particularly essential for the CV to be highly tuned to job type:

Management: www.perfectcvs.co.uk/management_cv.html

Public Sector / Local Government: www.perfectcvs.co.uk/public_sector_cv.html

Logistics & Supply Chain: www.perfectcvs.co.uk/logistics_supply_chain_cv.html

Hotel & Leisure: www.perfectcvs.co.uk/hotel_leisure_cv.html

IT: www.perfectcvs.co.uk/IT_manager_cv.html

Financial Services: www.perfectcvs.co.uk/financial_services_cv_writing.html

Construction: www.perfectcvs.co.uk/construction_cv_sample.html

Engineering: www.perfectcvs.co.uk/engineering_cv.html

Sales: www.perfectcvs.co.uk/sales_cv.html

Secretaries: www.perfectcvs.co.uk/secretary_cv.html

Retail: www.perfectcvs.co.uk/retail_cv.html

All or our sectors can be accessed from www.perfectcvs.co.uk and if you are thinking of using a professional CV Writing Company to help with creating the perfect CV for you, you will find the process very easy and affordable

The “Unadvertised Job Market” in 2011

2011-08-24T17:18:00.001+01:00

Advertised jobs on job boards, physical publications and at Job Centres have always represented a minority of job vacancies. In 2009 we estimated the proportion to be 29%, recently we estimate this has reduced to nearer 20%. We believe the main reason for this drop is the result of hiring organisations cutting recruitment budgets; agencies and job boards are certainly experiencing reduced vacancy volume; Hays one of the largest agencies recently reported quarterly results showing a 6% drop in fees.
Companies have also found that other recruiting mechanisms actually produced more effective employees that proved more loyal than candidates recruited via agencies, headhunters or conventional advertising. Collectively, these recruitment mechanisms make up a large part of the so called “un advertised job market”.
These mechanisms are: recruitment by recommendation, via netowrking of some description, via accessing a “talent pool” (often comprising previous suitable applicants for vacancies who were unsuccesful at the time and current emplyees on career development routes) and via direct specualtive applications, (ie candidates who have taken the effort to search out the Company they want to work for).
For the candidate, accessing these vacancies takes much more effort than writing a CV, posting it to job boards and CV databases, responding to individual adverts and waiting for contact. It requires a highly pro active and targeted approach but puts the candidate more in control of their job search project. Such a project would typically include:
o Physical personal networking via an extended business network and via workplace and social contacts. By “extended network” we mean using current business contacts to generate new contacts and using those new contacts to generate yet more contacts etc.
o Subscribing to on line social media and business networking sites
o Direct applications to organisations for which the candidate wants to work and have a requirement for the candidate’s skill set and experience
o Creating a reputation as an expert in a particular field or with particular marketable knowledge
o Encouraging recommendations
These routes to finding a new job require a very good CV aimed at the type of job sought but also require a different set of tools to those required when responding to job adverts.
Firstly, the application letter becomes a much more important element of the application. It still has to link the CV with the type of job sought but in addition needs to put forward a much more rounded case in terms of values, outlook, style etc to for the candidate be considered.
Profiles listed on social and business networking sites need to be written for a web audience and optimised for relevant keywords and there needs to be 100% consistency between data on different sites and CV. Recruiters often use networking sites to check a candidate’s credentials by contact with friends or work colleagues, so what is presented in profiles also needs to be absolutely accurate.
Physical personal networking and creating a reputation for expertise can both be enhanced using the web. A personal web site or at least a blog, e.g. on a site such as blogger.com ensures that your views, aims and expertise are clearly stated for your entire network (and recruiters) to see and can be instrumental in supporting one on one personal networking. For candidates in some sectors, such as marketing, design, arts etc where visual presentation of work undertaken would present a clearer understanding of skills and experience a personal web site is a must. Increasingly senior managers and consultants are also turning to this media with web sites providing a series of case studies to showcase skills in use.
Once the necessary tools are in place, the candidate accessing the unadvertised job market needs a plan of action with clear objectives mapped out, an action plan that integrates the approach mechanisms chosen and time. We estimate a succesful job hunt in the unadvertised jobs market requires a minimum commitment of 2½ hours per day, every day. We know of candidates who have won unadvertised job offers with relatively little effort but they are definetely the exception. There are organisations, often called Outsourcing Companies, that claim to do the ground work on behalf of a candidate. This does work for very senior managers and costs several thousand pounds, but our experience has been that it is not a viable route for the vast majority of candidates even if they could afford it.
Web profiles, personal web sites, application letters as well as CV writing are all serviced offered by reputable job seeker support Companies and are affordable. So there really is no reason for not targeting the unadvertised job market for that next role. Take a look at our products page: www.perfectcvs.co.uk/products_for_job_seekers.html

http://www.perfectcvs.co.uk/

Plenty of Jobs in UK?

2011-03-09T17:57:00.005Z

Unemployment currently stands at 2.5 million in UK. Iain Duncan-Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, claims that the problem is not so much a lack of vacancies, but rather a failure to match people to existing jobs. We would agree.

There are currently 500,000 vacant jobs in the UK, but the quality of applications is generally poor with applications often failing to show how a candidate is suitable for a particular vacancy. There is a case for better support from Government for those seeking employment but the key to a successful job search is to get a top notch CV, make sure your cover letter highlights your skills and experience for the vacancy in question and you prepare thoroughly for the interview.

If there is any doubt about the quality of a CV, cover letter or if you are nervous about how to handle an interview, professional help is affordable and readily available. take a look at www.perfectcvs.co.uk

CIPD 2011 Survey of Recruitment

2011-02-09T10:06:00.004Z

We reproduce here some extracts from the latest CIPD survey with our comments:

The good news is fewer organisations said they would be implementing a recruitment freeze in (22%). More(65%) expected to continue to recruit key talent/niche areas (53%). Nevertheless the outlook appeared much bleaker for the public sector, where particularly large proportions are anticipating recruitment freezes (51%) and
reducing the number of recruits they hire (68%).

The volume of applicants for vacancies has increased. Seventy-six per cent of employers have noticed an increase in the number of unsuitable applicants and 32% reported that there were too many suitable candidates to choose from. At the same time, 41% reported that competition for talent was greater as the pool of available talent to hire had fallen sharply. As in previous years, the majority of turnover is attributed to employees leaving voluntarily. The voluntary turnover rate reduced substantially in the manufacturing and production sector (2010 survey: 2.7%; 2009 survey: 7.7%).

Key human capital benchmarks(UK averages)

Labour turnover for all UK employees averaged 14%, down from 16% in 2009.
Organisations making 10 or more staff redundant 33%
Organisations experiencing recruitment difficulties 68%
Organisations experiencing retention problems 55%
Between 2009 and 2010, the proportion of organisations reporting retention difficulties decreased from 69% to 55%

The proportion of employers that expected staff levels to increase against those that expected them to decrease improved to +12 in the three months to December 2010 from –3 in the three months to December 2009. However, employers are less optimistic about the medium-term outlook. The proportion of staff that expected staff levels to increase against those that expected them to decrease is +1 in the 12 months to September 2011.

At Perfect CVs we saw the traditional surge in job seekers in Nov - Jan period but a higher proportion of those seeking work were not at the time in paid employment. There is awareness of increased competition for jobs and much greater selectivity on the part of employers. Recruitment agencies continue to reflect this, only introducing candidates with very tight fit to vacancy specifications. CIPD report a higher proportion of unsuitable applicants; in our experience it is not so much a case of unsuitability, more a case of applications and CVs underselling candidates.

Our June 2010 job survey is published on this blog and we beleive the findings then are still relevant in Feb 2011. Our next survey will be in early Summer 2011. if you wish to be included please contact me at sagitha.henderson@perfectcvs.co.uk

The November Rush

2010-11-11T09:35:00.002Z

Its November, cold and wet and at Perfect CVs the pre Xmas rush to find a new job is as strong this year as ever. We usually see demand for CV Writing and Interview Coaching soar at this time of year but was uncertain whether the economic climate would make people think twice about moving jobs - well the answer is a definite NO. If anything the demand for professionally written CVs is higher this November than last with demand in PA / Secretarial, Logistics / Supply Chain, Retail and Construction being the strongest.

Not surprisingly we are also seeing large numbers coming to us that have never had a CV previously. These include owner / managers seeking employed roles, workers with trade skills and long standing employees, usually 15 years + in same Company, facing an uncertain future or redundancy. There are also numerous public sector workers asking for CVs appropriate to the private sector.

The CV Writing specialists at Perfect CVs are adept at handling all the above situations and more and because they understand their specific sectors or job types intimatly, they know exactly what needs to be said on a CV to get the attention of the recruiter and secure interview invitations.

Agency recruiters, in particular are becoming increasingly selective in choosing interview short lists and a CV therefore has to really stand out from the crowd to be successful. Similarly when recruiters search CVs that are posted to job boards or CV databases, they are being far more diligent in selecting the keywords appropriate to the job to which they are recruiting. Hence optimisation of CVs so they show up well in job board and CV databases is fast becoming a very critical aspect of CV construction.

A high proportion of CVs that we see (eg submitted to us for a free review)are quite good but poorly optimised for the job sought. These will never even get seen by a recruiter. Optimisation is a specialist skill and one in which are specialist CV Writers excel.

Other feedback we are receiving from job seekers relates to the interview process - first interviews are predominantly CV based, ie the recruiter is verifying data ona CV, adding client specific data and establishing if there is a "personality fit" between client and job seeker. The key to success is knowing your CV inside out, being raedy for predicatable questions and projecting an image appropriate to the role sought. Feedback about second and subsequent interviews, usually with the employer, reveals a much heavier emphasis on working / management style, approach and interpersonal skills rather than harder technical ability / skillset. Larger organisations are placing emphasis on synergy with their values and core competencies
and they tell us this is because they are wanting to recruit individuals for the long term and are looking more at their potential than the current skill set and experience; this is particularly the case in IT, Finance, Marketing and HR roles. Being prpared for discussion about these issues requires prior consideration to be successful.

Good luck to all of you looking for new jobs this Novemeber, our Customer Support team will be happy to provide free advice about Job hunting and provide detail on any of the Perfect CVs products and services.

UK Jobs Market- June 2010

2010-09-22T14:26:00.001+01:00

Our latest UK survey of hiring managers, recruitment agencies and job seekers conducted in June shows that an accurate description of skills, experience, achievements and style are now more important than ever in winning job interviews and we share here some of our findings.

Employers have become much more diligent in finding candidates that exactly meet their requirement and are much less likely to accept compromise. In response to this agencies have tightened their screening criteria and reject even good CVs that do not describe a highly relevant skill set and experience. Of the job seekers that submit their CV to us for a review, only 7.2% of CVs pass the “instant appeal test” which largely determines shortlist selection. Despite this 57% of these job seekers actually can demonstrate they possess what recruiters are seeking; it is just that their CVs do not present them in the best light.

74% of Perfect CVs customers are now in new jobs (compared to 71% in 2007). Optimisation of CVs has become much more important as more and more recruiters are using scanning software to select suitable CVs. These search engines are similar to using e.g. Google; keywords are entered and a set of matching results are displayed. If a candidate that represents excellent fit for a job does not have a CV containing the correct keywords with sufficient prominence they are invisible to the recruiter. Not surprising that CV Optimisation or rather lack of it, is the number one answer to the question “Why do I not get selected for interviews”

On average job seekers took 9 weeks to find a new job (compared to 6 weeks in 2007) but there is a wide spread on this figure. Sales, Customer Service, Administrative, Secretarial and junior / mid level retail candidates took 3.2 weeks (exactly same as in 2007) whereas IT, technical and engineering candidates took 8.7 weeks (7.1 weeks in 2007)and senior managers took an agonising 17 weeks (8.4 weeks in 2007) with often 3 or 4 interviews being required particularly for finance jobs. Surprisingly the figure for public sector roles at 4.4 weeks was actually faster than in 2007 when the time lapse was 5.4 weeks. A trend we have noticed is that more manual and trades workers are requiring CVs, often for contract work and this cohort was finding work in an average 4.2 weeks but regrettably we did not monitor this sector previously so have no comparative data.

The latest ONS figures show a slightly improving unemployment rate at 7.8% but index of both manufacturing and production are both down around 10% compared to 2006, only services are holding up compared to 2006.

The seasonally adjusted results show 481,000 job vacancies in the UK for the period May to July 2010, up 9,000 (1.8 per cent) from the previous quarter and an increase of 51,000 (11.9 per cent) on the year. The analysis by industry shows that there were small changes in the estimates over the previous quarter in most sectors. The largest increase was 9,000 in the “wholesale & retail: repair of motor vehicles and motor cycles” sector. The largest fall (10,000) was in the education sector followed by “Public Admin & Defence; Compulsory Social Security” and “Human Health and Social Work Activities” (both down 4,000)

The overall impression of the jobs market in UK is that vacancies still exist in most sectors but much greater professionalism is required in the CV and what we call the project management of finding a new role. We note that several job boards no longer display the number of vacancies on their sites, which probably hides bad news and those that do are generally advertising numbers as much as 22% lower than in 2007.

The message from recruiters remains crystal clear; if you want us to hire you make absolutely sure that documents cover letters, completed questionnaires etc that form your application are 100% accurate and properly describe skill set, experience, aptitude for the job and style that makes it easy for a recruiter to recognize your value to a hiring organization. If there is any doubt about the quality of an application, then professional help should be sought which is both affordable and effective.

Get Your Job Application right!

2010-08-27T15:52:00.002+01:00

A cover letter is an essential link between the job spec and your CV
The link however needs explaining and the explanation gives the opportunity to enhance those sections of your CV that the particular recruiter in question will find most relevant. Why? – because he/she has bothered to include them in a job ad or job spec. So don't spam! Make each letter individual; the chances of selection increase every time you make a connection with a reader.

More interest will be generated from a short informative letter rather than a long dissertation. A one-page letter with absolute maximum of three or four paragraphs and preferably two that are organised to demonstrate how your skill set, experience and style match the needs specified is what is required.

What the recruiter is searching for is whether a candidate is worth a second look, so just concentrate on the juiciest relevant bits of your CV ideally described in different words to the ones actually in your CV.

The cover letter also gives opportunity for getting personality across, particularly if sent by email where less formality is the norm. So take advantage, use the words and phrases that you would use in everyday life and if the job spec / ad asks anything about style then use the opportunity to describe yourself but again in no more than a few sentences.

A cover letter by itself will never win you a new job but could very easily prevent you from being considered for one.

Direct Links to some of our most popular pages

2010-08-23T13:56:00.011+01:00

Optimising CVs for good response from JobBoards

2010-08-23T13:06:00.007+01:00

One of the checks that PerfectCVs make on all CVs that we write is an "optimisation" test. This test looks at the top keywords in the CV, relevant strings, the prominence of keywords and strings and the relevance to the specific job desired. This is a question of predicting the keywords and strings that a recruiter would use when searching for suitable candidates in a CV database and we check from time to time that our optimisation procedures are in tune with recruiters and the programming of JobBoard search engines.

This year we have observed some subtle changes; there is greater emphasis placed on prominence and relationships of keywords and the keywords themselves are more likely to describe very specific skills, experience, qualification or style. To emphasise just how important it is to get the optimisation correct we reviewed (our free CV review service) a very well written CV for a fairly senior secretary; well written in every sense other than its optimisation. The candidate was getting virtually no response from JobBoards and what she was getting was not relevent. Changing just 16 words and re-ordering parts of the CV produced a new document which resulted in calls from 7 agencies on the first day the CV was uploaded to 3 of the top JobBoards in UK. The candidate had several job offers with 2 weeks.

So dont ignore optimisation in writing your CV. To find out how well your CV is optimised, get a free CV review from Perfect CVs at www.perfectcvs.co.uk/get_cv_review.html

Upturn in UK Employment?

2010-03-19T11:11:00.006Z

The figures released this week showing a reduction in the UK jobless total certainly surprised us and many of the recruiters that we regularly talk to. Whilst we see job seekers for temp and part time jobs finding work relatively easily, particularly in service sectors, the picture is not so rosy elsewhere. Feedback from clients for our CV writing services suggest employers are taking much longer and conducting several interviews sessions before making decisions with the average job hunt in professional sectors now at 7 months. There is good evidence to suggest that fewer candidates are being selected for interview and that recruiters are less willing to accept compromise in the skill set, experience, style, personality and attitude of the candidate. One large retailer looking for buyers stated "The people we want to hire are out there, we will wait until they decide they want to work for us".

Given the situation it is not surprising that the demand for CV Writing has increased this year even after the annual Jan / Feb deluge and we are seeing a marked increase in candidates for interview coaching particularly in sectors such as admin, office and secretarial and some service sectors. The message is make sure your CV is up to scratch and you are totally confident handling ajob interview, if any doubts exist get professional help which is affordable and very efective. Take a look at www.perfectcvs.co.uk

CV Layout / format

2010-02-23T15:45:00.004Z

Has something happened to job board CV databases? We have had a whole load of questions recently about CVs not uploading to job board CV databases and one of the causes seems to be formatting, particularly when backgrounds and text boxes etc have been used. We dont advocate use of particularly Microsoft Word functionality in displaying graphics on CVs but for all those interested, below are our comments about CV layout or format.

CV Layout - Good CV Layout adds significantly to the visual appeal of a CV and provides structure that aids the recruiter to quickly find relevant information.

CV layout should concentrate on making the most important and relevant information obvious to the reader, both in the style of presentation and in the position it carries on the page.

Fonts used for CV layouts

The popular fonts for CV layout are Arial, Tahoma, Verdana and Times New Roman. When choosing a font it is important to ensure the font itself and the sizes chosen look clear on screen and on paper and reproduce clearly when scanned.

10 or 11 pt is the normal size for text and 12 pt for headings. Major heading can be underlined but too much underlining makes a CV layout look cluttered. Itallic fonts should preferably be avoided as they often cause drop outs when scanned. The font used on this web page is Tahoma and Tahoma or Verdana are our preferred choices for CV layouts since they are both very easy to read and have a little more "style" than eg Arial. In some countries it is usual to add a signature to a CV with a statement of accuracy; Brush Script is the best font for the signature or scan in an actual signature at the foot of the CV layout.

Highlighting for CV Layouts

Care should be taken when using Microsoft Word facilities for highlighting sections of a CV since the formatting is likely to be lost when the CV layout is uploaded to, for example a job board CV database or library. The "Text Box" in particular should not be used and coloured text should be used with extreme care. Simple surrounds and background colour, ideally a neutral colour e.g. grey are usually OK but it is best to avoid white text on a darker background.

Order of Information in CV Layout

For most situations the order of information on a CV should be:

Name and Contact Detail
Summary of Skills,
Achievements etc Career History (Employers)
Explanations that may be Required
and finally Qualifications, Vocational Studies and for more junior posts Interests and Hobbies

The exception to this layout for a CV relates to new graduates and school leavers where the CV layout should highlight Education and Qualifications

This information about CV layouts should be read alongside advice provided in our CV Tips page where more specific detail about CV content is described. CVs by their nature are reasonably formal documents and the CV layout should therefore be similarly formal and business like. However, some market sectors and some job functions are characterised by less formality e.g. marketing, media, web design etc and this can be reflected to a greater degree in the CV layout or format.

e CV Layout

For those professions and market sectors where visual representation of skills helps paint a more complete picture to a recruiter, e.g. grahic or fashion design etc, e CVs can provide a CV layout electronically that allows greater freedom of expression. Graphic design, use of logos and greater selection of text style and presentation can have dramatic impact on a recruiter and the e CV is becoming very popular for these reasons.

Job Hunting with Perfect CVs

2010-02-15T13:39:00.011Z

For a while now we have had feeds for job vacancies from twitter and Workcircle on our home page www.perfectcvs.co.ukwww.perfectcvs.co.uk and these have proved very popular. Many of you asked that we make these job searches sector specific and we have now started doing this on our market related pages. the first ones to go live are:

Construction www.perfectcvs.co.uk/construction_cv_sample.html

Engineering www.perfectcvs.co.uk/engineering_cv.html

Sales www.perfectcvs.co.uk/sales_cv.html

Secretaries www.perfectcvs.co.uk/secretary_cv.html

Retail www.perfectcvs.co.uk/retail_cv.html

and more to come

Great Job Hunting and dont forget to make sure your CV is up to scratch!

e CVs - how useful are they

2010-02-10T14:17:00.007Z

e CVs are used quite widely in sectors where visual representation of what a candidate has done in their career is important and where a lot of information needs to be provided e.g for a consultant or interim manager.

Perfect CVs have produced personal mini websites displaying e CVs for Job Seekers in e.g. marketing, graphic design, fashion, consultancy, TV, journalism, teaching. The service is described at www.perfectcvs.co.uk/e_cv_microsite.html

We are interested in hearing opinion about the usefulness of e CVs in other sectors and also whether audio or video CVs are of interest to Job Seekers.

Let me know what you think

Sagitha

Sagithas News

2010-02-08T09:40:00.006Z

Hi,

We have made some changes to the Perfect CVs news pages. These cover anything recruitment / jobs / what we are doing etc. But we have now turned it into our own hosted blog with facility for our followers, and any one else, to post new topics, ask us any question on job hunting issues, request stuff and comment on the many articles our staff write. So if you want to have your say about the job hunting scene in UK, the place to go is www.perfectcvs.co.uk/news.htmlYou can also sign up to receive email alerts to newly published articles.

Should You Stay in a Job You Hate?

2010-01-29T14:54:00.003Z

For some reason this is becoming an increasingly common question, probably because so many people have been fearful of getting a new job over the last 18 months or so.

The short answer is No, since you are not likley to perform at a good standard if you have no interest in the job and would sooner or later face getting pushed out. However, the deeper answer involves WHY you dont like the job. Maybe its the people you don't get on with, maybe your boss has a style you dont appreciate or maybe you dont like the location, the money etc etc.S elf analysis of these and similar issues will quickly tell you whether the situation can be resolved or whether you are in fact better off leaving and give you some good clues as to what to look for in your next employer.

Poltical Correctness now invades CVs

2010-01-27T23:05:00.004Z

The buzz around the office today was incredible. A lady came to us for CV advice after being asked by a recruitment agency to change her CV so that it did not contain statements that could be considered discriminating before they could send her to their client.

What were these discriminating statements? words such as Motivated, Energetic, Demanding, Experienced - what we regard as power verbs. Relevant power verbs are needed in most CVs, the idea is that you are convincing someone to hire you rather than someone else.

Recruitment agencies have to be rightfully careful about ethnicity, gender, age etc discrimination but surely this has gone far too far.

We did produce a CV for her (for free), that could not possibly offend anyone and its the most dynamic and concise CV we have ever written, Ive printed it below:

Mary XXXXXX
tel and email addresses

Member of the Human Race

This is Ok as non humans are not covered by the discrimination acts in UK, at least, not yet!! the lady decided she didnt want to work for such an employer but sent her new CV in anyway, we await the reply with interest.

If you are Job Hunting, take a look at http://www.perfectcvs.co.uk for helpful advice, Cv writing tips, Job Seeker products and much more

Find out if Your CV is Up to Scratch

2010-01-07T12:07:00.005Z

We see loads of CVs.

Most are posted to one or other of the many job boards in UK but the majority of CVs in these databases will never be seen by anyone because they are not "optimised" with the keywords and phrases that recruiters use when searching these databases.

Most CVs are written in a manner that describes the candidate in the eyes of the candidate, not pitched as a selling document for the recruiter.

These are just two of the reasons why so many applications never result in invitations to job interviews. A good quality, professionally written CV should produce 4 or 5 interview applications per week, if a CV is not hitting the "for interview" pile frequently then its time to get some help.

You can find out very easily if your CV is up to scratch, for free! just go to www.perfectcvs.co.uk/get_cv_review.html and an experienced, sector specific CV writer at Perfect CVs will produce a very informative , written report for you detailing how a recruiter would rate your CV, go on give it a try, you've got nothing to loose!

ps thats what i did and ended up getting this job!!

Sagitha

Getting to work in snow

2010-01-07T11:55:00.003Z

this is just to convince my boss of the effort I made to get in to the office yesterday!!!
We had abot 30cm snow and it took me an hour to clear the car and driveway, and then it was slither and slide to the main road which wasnt too bad. In fact most of the crew made it in and those that couldnt have got secure access to the servers from home so Perfect CVs is fully operational in all weathers

In fact if you are snowbound, good opportunity to log into www.perfectcvs.co.uk and think about how to improve your career

sagitha

How long will it take me to get a job? ...and other questions

2010-01-06T22:49:00.005Z

Amongst the most frequently asked questions from job seekers contacting our customer support team are:
how long do you think it will take me to get a new job?
how many applications should I be making?
how many and which recruitment agencies should I approach?
how many interviews can i expect?
is my CV any different to everyone else's looking for XXX job?

Whilst there are no hard and fast answers to these questions, feedback we receive does give some very good clues:-
How long? - junior, manual, admin roles typically 3 months, mid management level 3 - 6 months
How many applications - as many as are relevant and in line with your career objectives. It is not worth going "off piste".
Recruitment agencies - a few local ones and any that specialise in your area of expertice or industry sector. As most agencies advertise on line and scan the business /social network sites, you are often better off putting the effort into searching these and you can get help with this that will yield more appropriate jobs than you could find yourself, see for example www.perfectcvs.co.uk/CV_distribution.html
this will get your CV in front of hundreds of trelevant recruiters.
We find that 4 or 5 interviews per month are required for a succesful job hunt, less than this and you should consider your approach. e.g is your CV up to scratch, if not see e.g. www.perfectcvs.co.uk/products_for_job_seekers.html are you making the most of the web, using business network sites? do you have a professional web profile or your own web page or site
A lot depends on your CV gaining instant appeal from a recruiter and containing sufficient relevant keywords so it becomes visible in searches that recruiters make of CV databases supplied by the job boards and other commercial organisations. Most job seekers dont pay enough attention to the detail in their CV or write it to appeal to a recruiter. If you have any doubt about the effectiveness of your CV, get an expert to give you their opinion, you can get a free review at e.g. www.perfectcvs.co.uk/get_cv_review.html. Good luck with you job hunt project

new product

2010-01-06T16:23:00.000Z

Hiya,

i'm Sagitha and have just joined Perfect CVs to keep the world informed about what we are up to and get feedback on anything to do with jobs, recruitment.

Before I joined, they launched a new product, its a Personal Mini WebSite to allow job seekers to promote themselves to potential employers using the web. It was done as a result of feedback from particularly the IT and media sectors and its getting great interest from marketing folk, consultants as well as the IT and media folk; take a look at www.perfectcvs.co.uk/microsite.html

What we are interested in now is comment about what you all think of it and maybe what other features you might like developed