HOW TO GET THE JOBYOU WANT

Chris Goulding – Regional Director

May 22nd 2012AAT

ABOUT US:

CHRIS GOULDING DIRECTOR

• Graduate from Nottingham University in History

• 13 years recruitment experience working for Hays

• Recruited permanent and interim roles during that period

• Currently manage 30 consultants in Reading, covering Procurement, Senior Finance, Non-Qualified Finance, HR, Office Support, PA and Secretarial, Tax, Treasury, Accountancy Firms, Corporate Governance and Legal

• Spent 12 years out of the 13 purely recruiting or managing consultants covering finance positions

AGENDA

• Getting Started

• CV Writing

• Interviews

• Offer Management

• Interim Work – The benefits

• Q&A – Both on presentation and other recruitment focused questions

GETTING STARTED

Prepare before hand….. Think about…

• Why do I want a new job?

• What do I want from my next job?

• What do I actually want to do?

• Understand your financial worth – the market has changed

• Practical considerations such as location

• Not every job is the right job!

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WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF A CV?

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THE PURPOSE OF YOUR CV IS TO SHOWCASE YOUR EXPERIENCE IN ORDER TO GAIN AN INTERVIEW

This is your opportunity to ‘sell yourself’ and make the employer see you as a well qualified, professional, concise and thoughtful individual who is taking your career seriously.

CV WRITING

How do you put a CV together?Common Questions We Face:

•What structure / order should my CV be?•How long should it be?•Where should education be written / qualifications?•How much detail on experience?•Should I put date of birth / marital status / dependents? •How much focus on my achievements?•Should I put a synopsis on my employers?•How much detail on reasons for leaving?•What is a good personal profile?•Should I write hobbies / interests?

DO’S

•DO keep personal data short and sweet, and don’t space it out too much

•DO include your academic and professional qualifications and which stage you’re at – put if you have first time passes, it will help separate you from the competition

•DO put your current role first and bullet point your duties and achievements clearly, not lengthy paragraphs

•DO write in the 3rd person – no ‘I did’ or ‘I have’

•DO explain any gaps – people assume the worst

•DO send a covering letter and draw attention to the reasons you feel you are a strong candidate

DONT’S

•DON’T mention marital status or dependents, people can use it to discriminate

•DON’T write date of birth on the CV

•DON’T list hundreds of duties and responsibilities – use headings and bullet points. Part of assessing a CV is how well you are communicating information about yourself, getting the message across in a succinct and precise manner

•DON’T include a picture

•DON’T write in capitals – it makes the reader feel like they’re being shouted at!

•DON’T write in a too large or too small font, 10-12 is perfect

CV KILLERS

• Different fonts, colours and clip art

• Spellin an grammer mistukes

• You can’t claim attention to detail if there is even one mistake on your CV

• Poor reasons for leaving

• Gaps on CV – employers will consider the worst (e.g Jail!!)

AND THE BIGGEST CV KILLER OF ALL…….

PHOTOS.JUST DON’T.EVER.…..

TAILOR YOUR CV

•Once the basic template is in place, target your CV to specific jobs

•What qualities have been specified in the job spec?

•Does your CV clearly highlight these requirements?

•Research the company and industry

- Internet- Use your recruitment consultant to gain inside knowledge

JOB SPECIFICATION

• Business partnering with specific part of BP in order to ensure their HR data requirements are satisfied through GPD

• Developing functional and non-functional specifications for new reports/dashboards required by each business.

• Testing reports produced by offshore & onshore team to ensure adherence to reporting strategy and business requirements.

• Providing training and assistance on use of GPD portal and subsequent new reporting outputs and new look & feel – increase utilisation of portal self-service.

• Migrating existing segment/local reports to Business Objects as and when available• Development of additional reporting functionality as part of the GPD Expansion and Cross-

Country Reporting• Accountable for the submission of all segmental headcount KPI’s/dashboards to the

business within agreed timescale• Responsible for developing and maintaining a reporting forum of GPD data stakeholders –

sharing common reporting challenges and resolutions• Working closely with the Data lead to expose and communicate data discrepancies • Responsible for developing, maintaining and delivering best practices for managing

reporting stakeholder • Managing the satisfaction of ad-hoc reports for Segment and Function teams• Accountable for measurement of customer satisfaction

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YOURINTERVIEW

BE PREPARED

Research

• Visit their company website for more information on the firm

• Look committed and find out as much as possible about the firm

• Ask your recruitment consultant what the company wants. A good consultant will know!

Job Description

• Read the job description carefully

• Ensure you can discuss all the points on the job description. You may not have all the experience, but they have chosen to meet you for a reason.

• Be confident that you are technically qualified to do the job

• Have examples from your previous role to demonstrate your ability to do this job.

AT THE INTERVIEW

No matter how well-qualified you are for the job, your personality and personal presentation will count greatly at interview. What ever your confidence levels, you can develop and work on the skills required to make the interview process more bearable.

Get Organised• Basic information, who & where?• Paperwork

- CV- Application Form- Notes / Questions- Job Specification- Journey / Travel

Your First Impression• Appearance• Firm handshake• Eye contact• Body Language

INTERVIEW DO’S

Punctual

Professional

Know your CV – be clear on dates and order of jobs before you go in

Take Time Over Answers

Justify Career Moves / Decisions

Have Examples Prepared

Plan Questions To Ask

INTERVIEW DONT’S

DO NOT Arrive empty handed

DO NOT Bad mouth ex employers

DO NOT Cover weakness by blaming others

DO NOT Be vague

DO NOT Be first to mention money

DO NOT Be too opinionated or show lack of morals

CHANGING TIMES…..HOW INTERVIEWS ARE CHANGING

OLD STYLE QUESTIONS:

Q: Tell me about yourself?

Q: What are your strengths?

Q: What are your greatest weaknesses?

THE NEW WORLD!CBI – COMPENTENCY BASED INTERVIEW

• What is a Competency Based Interview?

“Competencies are defined as behavioural traits combined with technical knowledge and skills that will serve as indicators of success in specific jobs or positions.”

• Why are they used?

• What is assessed at the competency based interview?- Skill- Knowledge- Competency

CBI HOW TO ANSWER

Situation

Task

Action

Results

CBI – QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR ROLE

Q1 - PersuasivenessDescribe your most satisfying (or disappointing) experience in presenting to, and gaining the support of, top management for an idea or proposal.

Q2 - Teamwork Tell me about a situation where you have been part of a group workingtoward a specific goal. What was your role in the group?

Q3 - Problem SolvingTell me the most difficult situation you have had to face and how youtackled it?

Q4 - Achievement FocusTell me about the last time you had a lot of work to do within a verylimited deadline. How did you go about it?

CBI CONCLUSION

Good Preparations = Strong Interview

Follow the STAR Methodology

Always ‘I’ not ‘we’ or ‘my team’

Ask questions

QUESTIONS TO THE INTERVIEWER

Topics to consider when asking questions:

• Training delivered and courses offered?

• The wider department and internal relationships?

• Changes seen within the company / team in recent years?

• Scope for development or increased responsibility?

• What they think it takes to succeed in this role?

Examples Of Negative Interview Feedback

“He asked if we had a company website”

“The candidate just did not let me speak to ask him questions. It was more like a monologue than an interview”

“I counted 4 questions he asked me about the role which were answered on the spec he had in his hand”

“She was nice enough but seemed more interested in bad-mouthing her current employers than hearing anything about what we’re like”

“It was all going well until he started demanding more than we were paying, before I’d even guided the conversation towards remuneration”

“He was pleasant enough and the interview went OK. However he clearly just wants a job. He did little to convince me why this was the job for him”

“Well, his phone rang in the interview. He then answered it in front of me. Lets just say we ended the meeting there”

“I wish he’d looked me in the eyes as opposed to my chest!”

AFTER THE SUCCESSFUL INTERVIEW THE DREADED TESTS…….

• Verbal Reasoning Test

• Numerical Reasoning Tests

• Personality Profiling / Psychometric Testing

OFFER STAGE

• How to deal with an offer at interview

• When does an offer become legally binding?

• Negotiating package

• When to hand your notice in • Negotiating notice period

• Counter offer

INTERIM WORK – THE BENEFITS TO YOU

• Keeps some money coming in while you look for a permanent role

• Add skills (especially project skills) to your CV you may not acquire in a permanent role

• A way to truly add short term value to a business

• In current climate it can open doors to a permanent role

• Due to the recession you are no longer seen as ‘jumpy’ if you have taken interim work

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QUESTIONS?

Career Support

• AAT careers information: https://services.aat.org.uk/careerhelp/

 

• AAT CV builder and video case studies: https://services.aat.org.uk/myaat/services/abintegro/

• AAT jobs: http://aat-jobs.co.uk/

• Hays Recruitment: http://www.hays.co.uk/

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