Graduate as more than just another Graduate

Now is the time of year when people start looking forward to the start of their university careers, while those who are nearing the end of their courses are looking forward to commencing their careers in earnest.

There was an interesting post on Su Butchers excellent justpractising blog from a student starting his degree who was worried that there would not be an opportunity at the end of it. I responded and it also sparked a conversation within the Calibre office; what makes the best Graduates we’ve spoken to over the years, the best?

We came to a number of conclusions and wonder if there is anything else that you would add to the list?

• Has not necessarily got a First class honours, but got a first class attitude
• A passion for the subject and knowledge of the wider issues around it
• Being comfortable talking about what they done and their reasons for taking that subject.
• Can demonstrate social skills; they make the interviewer think that they will be able to do the job well, but also interact with the team.
• Having a career plan beyond “get a job”, “work for the industry leader” or “do something in sustainability/cutting edge/world changing” but with no substance of what or how.

Looking at this list some aspects can be learnt, while others can be developed from your existing skill set. One thing is sure; while you are completing your course you can be effectively working to enhance your career prospects and more than likely benefiting your studies too.

As someone starting or part way through your degree you are in a great position to prepare yourself for getting in to a top graduate role; notice our first point was not necessarily having a First. While it is easy to think you have other things to do right now and time before you need to think about it, the steps to ensure you are ahead of your peers are simple, but will take time for you to benefit:

• Look for, and take, any opportunity to get industry related experience during your course, not just during your placement – doubly important if your course does not have one.
• Attend CPD (Continued Professional Development) seminars ran by your professional body outside of lectures, partly for the information, but also to get in contact with people who are in the trade and of influence.
• Emphasise your desire to learn the basics in a live environment when talking with people in industry. University will give you them in a teaching one, but the first thing that most Graduates find in their role is that there is a lot of difference between doing a project in class to one in practice!
• Get involved with LinkedIn groups; it will boost your knowledge and expand your contact base and therefore chances of getting opportunities that others won’t even know about.
• Learn about the wider world, read beyond the university texts (Twitter is fantastic for this) and maybe start a blog; you could post about your learning process, trends that you see within industry and ideas that you have.

If you want a good example of the above, visit this website and blog: http://www.concretegeek.co.uk/. I came across Charlotte on Twitter and we’ve had a few conversations around the blogs that she has posted on her area of expertise and also thoughts about issues around engineering. Her website is well thought out, brilliantly presented and has a feel of maturity about it; it obviously was not put together a couple of weeks ago as part of a frenzied “I’m graduating in a month and need to get something on the web now” process; I’d guess it has been given a couple of evolutions, a lot of consideration and thought over time.

Her blog posts are well written, thoughtful and show consistency. Similarly on Twitter, Charlotte comes over as professional, conversational and knowledgeable. She is also organising CPD events for the IStructE within her university while as you would expect she has an up to date LinkedIn profile.

If you are studying think about how easy Charlotte will find it to write her CV when looking for work because she has been doing all of the above. If you are an employer you may actually wonder if she’ll need one or just take the suggestion that people look up “Concrete Geek” on the web…

The thing with the ideas above is that they will build your knowledge and profile to the outside world and take you beyond being just another Graduate, which is just what Charlotte has achieved. While going through that process she has created and demonstrated a profile of someone who has really thought about what they are doing, where they are going and want to do. More importantly, it will have given her access to people who can, and will, help her down the line.

As a final thought, if you are entering year one or are near the start of your course and concerned about the future, don’t be. You have a few years to go and in that time the work situation will change while industry will have adjusted to the new economic climate. That means that the world will be a different place to what it is now (for better and hopefully not worse!) and you will have best prepared yourself for it.

Best of luck and enjoy! If you can would like to add any thoughts, comments or advice please feel free to add them below and broaden out the discussion.

(un)Healthy Career Ambition?

This post has been inspired by Mel Starrs (@melstarrs) during a conversation with her on Twitter when she responded to my blog about Youth Unemployment.

Mel is an Associate Director with PRP Architects and is also responsible for elemental, one of the UK’s longest established blogs on the built environment. Mel talked about receiving “frighteningly ambitious CV’s” for an entry level position she was advertising.

She said she found them off putting for the following reasons:

• The advert is very clear about the duties of the job – almost all the applications expanded the job description to fit their skills – this is no good to me – if I needed someone to do those additional tasks, I would have asked for them – either they aren’t reading the job description and sending their standard CV or are hoping the role will expand to fit their skills. In this market, speculative job positions are few and far between and usually clearly marked.
• There seems to be a lack of understanding about what projects are actually being built in the UK right now – while high-profile ultra low energy projects are out there, they are few and far between. The keenness to work on this type of project is very strong in most of the CV’s. This is off-putting as I can’t promise them this kind of work – a hint that they’d be equally willing to work on ’bread and butter’ would be much more useful to me
• Lots of the people are unemployed, but they don’t seem to bother reading the job description.
• A number are applying for the position and then saying that they don’t want to do that job, but the next level, or five up – not a great sell…

Mel has made a number of great points, but here’s a thought – if you have put the above in your cover note (which is well worth using as an extension to your CV), your application could be half way to being rejected before your CV has been read!

Taking that your cover note and CV are basically the same in that an employer will judge you on both, not just either one, which is potentially a complete waste of your time as well as the employers.

So what is wrong with showing ambition? Having known Mel for a number of years, I think I’m on safe ground with the following assumptions about Mel and her situation:

• Mel is as committed to giving her new recruit outstanding training as she is sustainability (check out her blog to see what I mean.)
• As such, she will be looking to teach the basics, ensure that the new team member has a thorough grasp of them before moving on to more complex and challenging tasks as the recruits confidence, competence and knowledge develops.
• Her focus will be to give them every opportunity to gain as much experience and knowledge as quickly as they are able to take on and her project workload allows.

So the applicant is showing ambition and Mel is keen to develop that; what is the problem?

• For a start you won’t differentiate yourself by saying that you want to be the next MD or using your own or the job boards standard cover letter, as you are neither recognising the importance of having sound foundations or demonstrating that you are doing little more than hurling applications to anything that catches your interest.
• You will stand out by talking about having a genuine enthusiasm for learning the basics before moving on and ensuring your CV/cover note reflects the role.
• You will stand out even more (for the right reasons) by relating what you’ve done to what the employer does; mention some projects or a connection you have with them or the company.
• I guarantee that you will get a place on their shortlist for interview, as well as possibly freaking the reader out slightly, if you mention something you’ve found out about the background of the job advertiser, department head or practice head and relate it to your own background. This is not as hard as it sounds thanks to the internet and LinkedIn, it just takes a little thought.

So how does this compare with your experience? Have you found a particularly successful approach whether it is through a volume of applications or focusing on one or two specific roles?

Please share your thoughts and let’s enjoy the conversation.

Youth Unemployment – current action and a call to action!

As you may know this year Calibre Search has committed to being part of the solution to the growing youth unemployment issue. We’ve blogged about what we have been doing and you can find those posts here and here.

As a result of this and working with the Leeds Education Business Partnership (EBP) I’m proud to say that I was invited to join the Leeds Enterprise Action Group.

The aim of the group is to act as a sounding board for the EBP as well as act as advisor’s as to how the EBP can be marketed, development of events and bring in other ideas to keep things fresh and relevant.

The first meeting that I’ve attended was this week and after a re-cap of last year’s successes (6550 children reached, 259 volunteers giving over 1800 hours of their time) we moved on to plans for this year – starting with reaching 9000 children.

There is a good reason for this; statistics and research show that if a young person has 4 contacts with an employer, they are 5 times less likely to drop out of education or training.

One of the key reasons that Jacky and Christine are keen to up the ante so much is that the government has removed work experience as being a statutory requirement due to young people having to be in education, employment or training up to the age of 17 in 2013 and age 18 by 2015.

As a result the government funding for it has been removed. Some schools will continue to send all their students on work experience, while others will target specific groups. Others have decided not to offer work experience at all due to the costs (in Leeds this is £27 per head).

It could be said that £27 is not much to find, but with school budgets being under substantial pressure it is enough to force the school to choose between work experience or another valuable activity. Some would say that raising the participation age (RPA) is a good argument for two periods of work experience, one between ages 14 and 16 and the other between 16 and 18, but there is a funding issue for having just one, never mind two.

How that can be solved time will tell; there are numerous ideas to be explored ranging from parental contributions to employer sponsorship or even applying as a worthy cause for lottery funding.

There was one agenda point that we did not manage to reach so I’m going to ask for your help as it is a key one to help the EBP going forward. What would you suggest as a new activity for the EBP to deliver?

At present they have three events that they run:

• ‘Interactive Workplace’ –a  career exploration event where different employers run an interactive activity to show the skills they need to work in a particular industry which engages the students and then discuss the career with the students.
• “You’re Hired”, where students work with a HR volunteer going through an application process complete with mock interview and feedback.
• “Cashpoints the Money Management Game” which involves students in setting up businesses and learning about the different options that their career decisions leave open to them.

What skills do you think students will benefit from that could be delivered within a volunteer led setting to a group of up to 6 students? Alternatively, do you have an idea for a session lasting up to 3 hours? All ideas are welcome!

Similarly, if you have thoughts regarding work experience placements please share them here and if you are not happy about the changes, why not share your thoughts with your MP too?

Does the wind of change truly blow cold?

Does the wind of change truly blow cold?

One thing that the recession has done (amongst many others), is force change upon us all; some of it welcome and some of it not so.

I recently wrote a blog about a looming skills gap (click here to read it) and identified 3 groups that appeared to be particularly hit by the first rounds of staff cutbacks, one of which was people in the twilight of their career, or who are sometimes referred to as “Lifer’s”. In that blog I did not take the opportunity to explore the assets that this group has which others just can not possess:

- Long service: Within construction as a whole, anyone who has been with an employer for more than 10 years would qualify as a Lifer.

- Experience: Generally a good thing, but also a double edge sword; have you been doing many things during your career or the same thing for many years?

- Stabilising influence: If you have been with one employer for a significant length of time, the chances are you will be one.

This is, and should be considered all good, but in this climate of change, we have noticed that some employers are specifically looking for people who have demonstrated dealing with it throughout their careers. While everyone has change in their roles over time, this may not necessarily be portrayed on a CV and can be difficult to do so within an interview situation if you don’t think about it before hand.

Before you can consider explaining change in your career and therefore your CV and as part of interview preparation, you need to think about what change you have dealt with previously, and how this is exceptional, or at least matches that, of others who have moved companies more often or dealt with a broader range of schemes.

Classic examples are promotion, changing project team or having a new manager, but these changes are typically incremental or predictable. To demonstrate an uprooting as you would have experienced when changing roles takes more thought.

TUPE transfers are often over looked, but typically there is great upheaval. The period of uncertainty during the process; colleagues leaving and the concern about your own position coupled with the integration with your own and the new companies policies, procedures and personnel. Relocating between offices presents a similar opportunity too, especially with a franchise organisation with an umbrella branding, but each individual unit operating with their own autonomy.

Believe it or not, the key one that most people who have been made redundant miss is being made redundant. There is the transition from stable employment to conducting a full job search when it may be a decade of more since you were last in that position, as well as the massive uncertainty that goes with it. If that does not qualify as change, what does?

Louise Ebrey, a Change Facilitator, comments:

“When you’re asked about how you cope with change, it can be difficult to think of examples. I often suggest people think about when they’ve had to adapt the ways they work or live to changing circumstances or to get something they wanted out of life. Adapt seems to be an easier thing for people to relate to than change. Other questions you could ask yourself include; “How have you helped move yourself, your team or your organisation from a stuck place?” or “What’s different in your role when you compare it to 5 or even 10 years ago – what changes happened along the way?”

Another way to think about this is to turn it on its head and think about the changes you’ve been dying to see, but which haven’t happened. What’s the opportunity in this new role for those? What can you bring to help make this happen? Giving examples of how you’ve been frustrated by the lack of change and are looking forward to a new environment will help demonstrate your openness to change in the new role”

What Louise has added is two crucial factors; that while the past can’t be altered, you can control how you present it and while it may appear that you have not courted change, you can demonstrate your desire for it.

You may find within an interview that change is not mentioned and that there is an opportunity to bring it in to focus yourself. Seize that moment; it could be the elephant in the meeting room… If your comment is picked up by the interviewer, you have taken the initiative and addressed something that they wish to probe. If not, you have tried and it is either a non-issue for the employer, or it is something they will cover later in the interview.

Whether the wind of change truly blows cold or not, is a good question; but with thought, preparation and consideration it is certainly possible to warm it up and make the most of it.

The whole issue of addressing change within this situation is relatively new and unexplored. While the above is merely my own and Louise’s thoughts, it would be great to hear your own and about what you have experienced.

Are you a “Lifer” who has suddenly found yourself looking for work, or, an employer who has been looking at a “Lifer’s” CV; what were you thoughts and actions? What advice would you give to others?

Louise Ebrey is originally from an Engineering background and has become facilitator and coach to Internal Consultants, Specialists and Advisors to reach their potential and achieve better results for their organisations. Louise also advises in the field of Business Improvement solutions combining her extensive experience in Business Improvement and Lean, with
NLP, strategic change and people development.

She recently co-founded the Great Insiders tribe where Internal Consultants can meet, share experience, learn from each other and hear from expert speakers. Find out more at www.greatinsiders.com, on LinkedIn or Follow them on Twitter. Louise can also be contacted directly louise.ebrey@bridgewaterlattitude.com or or follow her on Twitter.

Back to school – again!

If you are a regular visitor to our blog you’ll know that I spent a day with St Mary’s Mount school in Leeds in January (see http://calibresearch.wordpress.com/2012/01/20/youre-hired-back-to-school-style/ for details) as part of Calibre’s commitment for one of us to spend a day a month working to either reduce youth unemployment now or prevent it in the future.

This month I went to Crawshaw School in Pudsey, (arranged through Becky at the Leeds EBP, tel: 0113 395 2646 or Rebecca.Cumberworth@leeds.gov.uk), to meet with two teachers, Richard and Janet as well as two students; Morgan and Kieran. The aim of the session was for me to build upon the work that Richard and Janet had already done with them and also so that they could hear the message from a different voice. My role was to talk with Morgan and Kieran about interviews, the questions that they will get asked and how they can prepare for them rounding off the session with a brief interview so they can experience having to talk to a stranger about themselves.

I was asked to meet with Morgan and Kieran specifically as they are completing work placements and non-academic studies, as well as core GCSE subjects. The main difference between this and the previous session that I took part in was that I had to plan what to do with the time to achieve the goals, while not knowing who my audience was or where their focus was going to be.

Thankfully, Richard had provided information before hand which helped me collate my thoughts and ensure that I could give as much as I could that Kieran and Morgan could use immediately as part of the study module, but also, hopefully in the longer term with securing a role.

We covered the purpose of interviews, where to find roles, how to read job adverts to understand what the position involves and likely interview questions, what the difference is between open and closed questions plus examples as well as how to answer them and why an interviewer will ask different types of questions.

Not only did I have an enjoyable, and highly focused 90 minutes keeping their attention and interest (which I’ve been told is an achievement in itself), I came away thoroughly impressed with the set up at the school and the opportunities that they can provide for the students. Kieran was already spending a day a week at college on a plumbing course, while he had previously been on a placement at a local stables providing riding for the disabled which he’d enjoyed so much that he was still working there at weekends. Morgan is in the year below him and was in the process of organising a 5 a side completion for a younger year group within the school. The passion that Richard and Janet have for their work was clear as was the level of support that Kieran and Morgan received and great to see. It was great to have the opportunity to contribute to that and I hope I have chance to do the same again in the future.

Do you still need your recruitment agency?

This may seem like a strange question coming from someone who has made his living from the recruitment industry for over a decade. Given the change in the economic landscape over the past three years, it is a valid one for the majority of sectors.

Thankfully for the most part my clients are keeping me busy, but there is a perception from some quarters that recruitment services must be in decline due to these challenging times. This got me thinking… Is it generally easier or harder to recruit the right technical staff these days?

The argument that recruiting services are less relevant today is normally focussed on the following points:

• There is simply more direct responses to advertising.
• Salary expectations are lower.
• Advertising is easier and cheaper through social media and traditional methods.
• There are less positions opportunities for the talent pool, therefore less competition between employers.
• The current employer is less likely to counter offer.
• Recruitment services are expensive compared to advertising.

So all this makes it a buyers market. Right?  

With the exception of hiring from internal referrals (which should be at the heart of any company’s recruitment strategy) the feedback I have been given by many hiring managers is quite different, for the following reasons:

• More is less: Applications are increasing but the quality is reducing as more people are applying for positions to which they are not suited. Reasons for this are plenty full but common reasons can be  due to either a lack of opportunity in their own geographical region or area of expertise.
• Skill shortage for experienced graduates/trainees: There is not always an abundance of applicants. For example there have been fewer and fewer trainees and graduates taken on in the last few years, resulting in a skill shortage at the experienced graduate/trainee level.
• Less Liquidity in the marketplace: Generally during harsher economic conditions people are less willing to risk moving jobs without good reason thus reducing the number of ideal applicants in the active job market, making it harder for employers to reach them. This can be exacerbated for those forced to make redundancies in recent years.
• Valued employee’s  are still in demand:  If employers have held onto their most valued staff this far in rocky times, they will try everything to hold onto them for the future, increasing the possibility of a counter offer.
• Unrealistic Expectations:  Employers may unwittingly overlook a good hire by having unrealistic expectations of the applicants. Due to the perception that there are plenty of people on the job market, there is the temptation to set the bar so high it rules out 99.9% of the talent pool, whereas 5 years ago they would have been happy with the skill sets available. This can lead to positions not being filled for unnecessarily long periods of time.

This list is not exhaustive but just an example as to how things are not always what they seem; having recruited in both buoyant and challenging climates it is my experience that in many ways that it is just as difficult today as it was 5 years ago, although the reasons may have changed.

Certainly, given all of the above, most of the pitfalls can be managed by the recruiter reducing the amount of money and time wasted during the recruitment process, by only short listing well qualified, motivated applicants who will not only accept a position, but stay long term.

I would be very interested to hear from other people’s experiences of hiring in the current climate, either using a recruiter to help them or recruiting directly. It would be of particular interest as to whether they have found it any easier, more difficult or the same as it has always been in technical/professional markets.

Calibre Search is a specialist recruitment consultancy operating in the Built Environment, FM / Building Maintenance, HVAC / Refrigeration and Marketing sectors throughout the UK.

“You’re hired!” – back to school style…

Youth unemployment; a big concern now and a time-bomb for the future. This we know; there are enough people writing about it without saying the important thing: what action they have taken beyond commentating.

At Calibre Search we have decided to give a day a month to different groups to contribute to the solution. This is first in a series of blog postings that we’ll be making telling you what we have done, how we found out about it and contact details for how you can get involved should you feel that you would like to do something similar.

This Tuesday I spent most of the day at St Mary’s Mount School in Leeds as a mentor working with a group of 6 pupils at an event developed by the local Education Business Partnership (EBP) called “You’re Hired!”. The “You’re Hired!” exercise was run twice before lunch and after the break I had the opportunity to talk with pupils in the classroom as an open forum.

Before going to the school I was given a thorough briefing by Becky from the Leeds EBP as to what was involved, what to expect and what my role would be.

As I would be just visiting the school I would not need to have a CRB check carried out and my role was purely as a facilitator and to advise; I would not have to supervise the pupils at all, just introduce myself, tell them about my experience of interviewing and guide them through the event.

After introducing myself and finding out a bit about the pupils I was working with we started on the formal aspects of the exercise analysing what constitutes a good and bad first impression before moving on to looking at attitudes and skills. The students had completed a questionnaire before hand looking at their attitudes and their own unique selling points.

We then went on to looking at a job advert, identifying the key aspects of it and how to use that information to anticipate, and prepare for, questions at a mock interview.

Holding the interview was good fun and I was amazed by how well my interviewees performed with very little preparation time; it was obvious that the children had bought in to what we were showing them and the materials were supporting the learning very effectively.

What was particularly interesting was providing feedback directly to them and how the group were keen to contribute to that process as well as take on board the additional thoughts I gave as to how a good answer could be extended to be a great one.

After a brief look at using the STAR (Situation Task Action Result) competency based interview format including a role play and feedback session we had a brief open forum where the children asked me questions about everything from the session itself, to what I do as a recruiter and what general advice I could give them.

The event was rounded off with presenting attendance certificates before enjoying a much needed coffee ready to do the same again with the second group.

Running through the event the next time was interesting; while I had a better idea of what would happen, the second group who had a slightly different take on the material. As a result, it got me thinking and I had to present the thoughts and concepts in a different way to before.

Both groups said that it was a useful exercise and you could see how with very little input, their thinking had radically changed about how they would approach applying for a role, preparing for an interview and the interview itself.

After lunch I spent 40 minutes in the classroom with about 30 students and their teacher answering questions about looking for work, applying for roles, writing a CV and different careers. It also gave me the opportunity to find out what they think their situation will be when they leave school. I was pleasantly surprised by some who had thought about their careers, picked their options accordingly and working hard to achieve the grades that will keep them on the path. There were others who created the impression of being completely disinterested, but as the end of the session approached were busy quizzing me about all manner of subjects. Just maybe everything that they had experienced that morning and spoken about previously had got their eyes open and minds buzzing; I sincerely hope so.

Given the response that I get when I inform people that they will be having a competency based interview when they meet my clients I think it shows foresight introducing the concept at this stage and will certainly help any of the students that use in a real situation stand head and shoulders above what will no doubt be stiff and plentiful competition.

The EBP runs this and other similar sessions throughout the year and there are a number of EBP’s throughout the country. They are really keen to speak to people who feel they can help deliver sessions such as “You’re Hired!” or talk to students about employment related issues or give information about career choices.

The two local ones for us are Leeds and North Yorkshire and while Leeds’ is titled “You’re Hired!”, NYBEP does something very similar. Geographically,  Leeds tends to operate within the City boundaries and North Yorkshire works on a much wider scale (including Leeds’ region in some respects) with both being able to put you in contact with counterparts in your area if you want to take part.

If you want to know more it is well worth contacting:

Leeds: Becky Cumberworth on 0113 395 2646 or Rebecca.Cumberworth@leeds.gov.uk. (No website at present due to Leeds City Council IT changes)

North Yorkshire: James Curran on 01904 693 632, james@nybep.org.uk or www.nybep.org.uk

New Year, New Focus – 5 tips for job search success

If you have been seeking a new role for sometime, it is likely you will have felt frustrated with the lack of positive response, or indeed any response in some instances and possibly that recruiters have no interest in your goals. With the New Year, it is the ideal time to try some tips for a new focus and approach to your job search which may well change that.

Tip 1: Value your own application.

It may be tempting to apply for a number of roles that you are not suited to, or would like to do on the basis that “you have to be in it to win it”. This is not a prize draw though, but a considered decision making process. By using a scattergun approach you will get demoralisingly more rejections or hear nothing more often than you should. To send your information to the same recruiter, either in one flurry or over a period of time for different roles, locations or wide range of salaries or industries can also result in that person paying less attention to each successive application.

Tip 2: Think about the reader.

On the first read, recruiters will rarely look at your CV in detail; some have neither time nor the technical knowledge while others will be keen to complete one task and move to the next. Being aware of this means you can take advantage of it, or at least prevent falling victim to it.

Make sure your key skills and background is easy to read and likely to be noticed by someone scanning your details.

Keep your CV current; if you apply for a contract job described as an “immediate start” and your CV looks like you are in a permanent role you are highly likely to be rejected unless the recruiter takes the time to contact you and ask the question, which they may or may not do once they have reviewed other candidates.

Relate your application to the role; there is nothing wrong with (I highly recommend) having two or three versions of your CV appropriate to different roles, if you legitimately are confident and competent in those positions.

Tip 3: You are in the wrong place, so say why you can/will be in the right one.

Remote working is possible, but most employers (and to be fair most employees) prefer to have a more conventional arrangement rather than working from their back bedroom.

If you live more than 45 miles or 90 minutes commute from a post, make it clear how you plan to get there. Will you lodge or re-locate? From a recruiters perspective, particularly when looking at a permanent role relocation is the only way. Give a timescale and state your links to the area or reason for wanting to move there. This will get the recruiters attention positively. Saying that you will take a role if the employer will pay lodge/re-location fees or “if the money is right” is unlikely to improve your chances of success as you are not showing commitment or “give”.

Tip 4: Read the advert – carefully!

Sounds obvious, but you would be amazed how many people don’t… Recruiters don’t want to read 50 CV’s and whittle out those who are unsuitable for the position. They want you to rule yourself in or out and use words such as: “essential”, “advantageous”, “desirable” etc to help you do that.

As a rule of thumb, if an advert has 10 criteria and you genuinely meet 7 of them, apply and highlight why you satisfy those points.

I’ve used the word “genuinely”; consider if you were recruiting for the role, how would you grade your application against each point?

Tip 5: Speak to the recruiter.

If you see a recruiter advertising that you think you can help and that they can help you, introduce yourself with an email or ‘phone call. Jobs boards make it very easy to make an initial introduction but by actively building a rapport with someone you may well get the call from them before they place the advert or at least you will have put yourself in a far better position when they see your details in future.

Tell us about your experiences and successes! Have you tried any of the above previously, or is there anything you would like to add?

As always, we’d love to hear from you.

It’s pantomime season so – 2011 “it’s behind you”!

So we come to the close of another year and the start of pantomime season. It is also when the traditional media round up of  “the best of 2011”,” What have you achieved in 2011” and “What made 2011 memorable” etc. begins.

I’m a traditional kind of person so I thought it would be a good time to share pieces of advice which seem to be “Keys to Success” when planning ahead.

Key 1: “Don’t look back, you’re not travelling that way”. For many, 2011 has been tough but if you only take negatives away from this year, it will more than likely get you off to a bad start for the next.

Key 2: “Have a mix of goals, not just the things you want to do”. Choose some for work , home, family and the community at large.

Key 3: “Share them and make them public”. Two reasons for this; firstly, you are making a commitment to yourself by writing them while cementing that commitment by announcing it to others who are involved and able to help. Secondly, by telling someone about your goals, you are giving them consent to ask you for a progress report…

So to help me fulfil Key 3 (who said blogging is altruistic?!), here are my objectives for 2012:

Career objectives – My primary area of recruiting is within the building services sector of construction (heating, ventilation, air conditioning and Public Health as well as electrical systems in buildings). I’ve been in enforced exile due to changing roles that will be over at the end of January. My objective is simple; let everyone know that I’m back and re-establish myself within the region.

This year Calibre is going to be volunteering in schools to help promote the industries we serve (marketing, civil & structural, HVACR maintenance and building services engineering). We need to find out what we can do, who for and when.

Family and home – My daughter Anna is now nearly 5 and settling well at school so my goal is to support her and ensure that her confidence and knowledge of the world grows by showing her what is out there for her to enjoy. With the house, big projects for this year are raised vegetable beds in the garden, to be built, filled and planted. That means this particular job has to be off the list by the end of March. There is also painting the wooden fence before the garden wakes from its winter slumber and covers it up – lets hope for some dry days in Spring…

Interests – On my LinkedIn profile and Twitter bio I mention that I’m a biker. I will be doing the Royal British Legion Riders 1000 where the aim is to travel 1000 miles in a day raising funds for the Legion. I still need to persuade my wife that I am neither mad or worth divorcing for wanting to do it.

I guess that means that I am now committed!

I’d love to know what your plans are 2012 and how you plan to make it a great year. Please leave a comment below and fulfil your own Key 3!

Does your profile portray your confidence as well as your competence?

Does your profile portray your confidence as well as your competence?

I don’t know if it is something you have thought about while writing your own profile, or reading that of others, but for a while I have been wondering whether there is a link between the words on someone’s CV/LinkedIn/facebook profile and their current state of mind. More to the point, will those words have the desired effect?

It seems I am not the only one asking the question, in the Sunday Times (13^th November 2011) there was an article about women being able to spot unattractive men from just their profile, not photograph, on dating sites. The summary of that piece was that the more attractive men were confident in the language that they were using to describe themselves and their situation. Perhaps there is something in this…

Like it or not, when you are writing a profile for business or social networking, or just talking to friends you are selling yourself. At the very least you do not want people to think that you unhappy or unsuccessful.

We’ve all been there; you’ve had one of those days at work and a long standing arrangement to go out for a drink with some friends, one of whom is annoyingly cheerful when you feel like this, always positive about their work and their life in general. They don’t have bad days, only good ones at the bottom end of the scale and great ones at the top. How would you alter your description of your day to that person?

Alter the situation slightly and take the same day at work, but then instead of going out for a drink, you are about to sit down and update your CV or LinkedIn profile. Is it possible that the same frustrations can show in your words and affect your audience?

As a recruiter I’ve read 1000’s of CV’s and profiles in various places such as LinkedIn etcetera, but as someone who enjoys newspapers (old fashioned I know…) and browsing the web to see where I end up, I know it can. Certainly, if you are writing your CV without thinking you are selling yourself you are sadly mistaken.

A couple of weeks ago I was sent a CV with the following paragraph and I saved it with this blog in mind:

“While being unemployed and while looking for a permanent job I have used my time to find jobs such as project management of minor jobs such as fire alarm systems, burglar alarm systems, emergency light systems and electrical design work to keep my hand in so to speak, in effect do anything no matter how small just to keep busy.”

What does it say to you about the author? Take aside the style elements which tell their own story; what do you think was going on in the writers mind?

If you felt that there was a hint of frustration there and a lack of detail which left you wondering just how what work this person had undertaken and how enthusiastic they felt about it, you word the words which are OK on the surface, but was left feeling the same as me about the writer.

The writer had actually been made redundant 18 months ago from a fairly senior position and had only been invited to four or five interviews in that time so any of the emotions we felt on reading that one paragraph are understandable.

Before I submitted his CV to a position, I carried out some minor amendments with his blessing:

“Since being made redundant I have been actively looking for a permanent job and also carrying out a number of minor works for contacts such as project management of installations such as fire alarm systems, burglar alarm systems, emergency light systems and electrical design work to keep my hand in.”

I’ve kept in a similar style of writing and the majority of his words while alluding to him keeping in touch with old contacts and tried to ensure that there is an up-beat feeling to it.

The result of that submittal is that he has an interview secured for the role. I don’t know whether that can be attributed to that change specifically, but if you felt better about his situation, there is a good chance that the employer did too…

So what can you do to come over positively?

First of all, how do you feel? If you are only doing it now to get the task out of the way, don’t bother! Chances are when you re-read it in the morning you will want to start again…

Secondly, have faith in what you are writing. Using buzz words or phrases that you think an employer wants to hear, but you would never use to describe yourself, tend to come over as being flat and having been written without belief – particularly if everyone else is using them too!

Thirdly, think about specific situations when you have excelled. Writing “I am a great Project Manager” may be to the point, but there is no proof or substance to that statement. This may take up more space, but is worth the investment: “I took over the project management of a scheme that was 3 weeks behind schedule and £45000 over budget with just 9 weeks to run. Through working with the sub-contractors, design team and the client I managed to deliver it on time with just a £9000 deficit”. The reader is convinced you are a great Project Manager and the paragraph gives you both something to discuss at interview.

If you can have a few examples like this that show a range of situations and skills you will be creating a very powerful document that will achieve the objectives you have set for it.

Please feel free to let me know what your thoughts are, or share any tips that you have to portray a more positive mindset that others can see in the comments section below, or by email: simon.owen@calibresearch.co.uk