CV layout dos and donts

CV layout dos and donts by Michael Cheary Even the best CV in the world can be let down by poor presentation A CV has to be both well written and presented professionally in order to catch a recruiter’s eye. And although your formatting may change depending on your industry, there are a few simple rules which you should always follow and could dramatically increase your chances of success.Weve already covered some excellent CV layout examples, but here’s our list of CV layout dos and don’ts:CV layout dosKeep it short and sweet. The most effective CVs aren’t just informative, they’re also concise. Try and get straight to the most pertinent points, and ideally take up no more than two sides of A4.Choose a professional font. A professional font ensures that your CV can be easily read and simply scanned. Remember: Comic Sans is not your friend.Present things in a logical order. Use sufficient spacing, clear section headings (e.g. work experience, education) and a reverse chronological order t o keep things clear and easily legible. And always make sure you highlight your most recent achievements.Play to your strengths. Format your CV to maximise the impact of your application. For example, if you feel a lack of experience is holding you back, lead with education instead. As long as you can relate it back to the role in question, how you order the sections is up to you.Use bullet points. Theyre a great way to draw attention to any key facts or relevant information, allowing a hiring manager to skim the document easily and find your significant achievements without having to wade through the hyperbole.Other things to do:  Include contact details, keep email address professional (madforit33@email.com does not count), maintain consistent formatting, ask someone to check for common spelling and grammar mistakes.CV templates and tipsSix ways to make your CV stand out CV layout don’tsBe afraid of white space. Don’t fear the gaps. Even if you think your CV looks quite bare, as long as you’ve included all the relevant information and applicable, quantifiable achievements, you needn’t worry. Remember: Sometimes less is more.Try to include too much. The ideal CV should be a checklist of all of your accomplishments. It should not be your life story. Tailoring your CV to the role is a great way to skim some of the fat and keep all waffle to a minimum.Include irrelevant information. Before including any points in your application, ask the same question: will it help you get the role. If the answer is no, take it out. Hobbies and interests are a great example. If they don’t help you stand out, don’t waste valuable space.Forget your cover letter. Although it is often seen as a different entity all together, your cover letter is attached to your CV and both are vital in helping you clinch the right role. Utilise yours properly, and your CV becomes the perfect document to reinforce your talent. Oh, they didn’t say include one? Still do. Every extra opp ortunity to sell yourself should be taken.Experiment with size. You may think that changing font size is a great way to fit your CV onto two pages. But whether you’re using large font to make your application seem longer or you’re using smaller font to make sure everything fits, you’re not fooling anyone. See also, margin size.Other things not to do: Use crazy colours, use crazy fonts, include unnecessary references, include a selfie.What not to do on your CVFive lines that are killing your CVFree CV reviewNeed more CV advice?It takes an employer just seven seconds to save or reject a job applicant’s CV. This means creating a succinct CV is absolutely vital if you want to land that all-important interview. To find out how to make your CV stand out from the crowd, buy James Reed’s new book: The 7 Second CV: How to Land the Interview. Still searching for your perfect position?  View all available jobs nowFind a job What Where Search JobsSign up for more Career AdviceSign up for moreCareer Advice Please enter a valid email addressmessage hereBy clicking Submit you agree to the CVs

Personal Branding Pledge for 2011 - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Personal Branding Pledge for 2011 - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career This is my year. This is the time when I re-launch my life. I blast away to my dreams and my visions. I leave behind ties that bind me for no reason. This is the season of my greatest leap forward, into my zone. I decide who I am and how I want to be known. I own my place on this planet, and whatever is beyond it. My trajectory goes exactly how I want it. This is the journey of my lifetime with no concessions, just blessings. I defy anyone who tries to quell me, or compel me into squandering my time. I defy gravity. I defy the odds. I do what I have never done before. I will soar. I will be more. This year I am the greatest iteration of who I can be. Because this is my time, this is all about me. I don’t care what I was; only what I can be. I have the strength; I have the will. I am ready for the fight. I know how to accomplish things that seem larger than life. It’s done in small bites, so it’s easy for me. I am voracious; I am courageous; I am prepared to be outrageous. I know where I am going and how to exit the past. This is my year; this is my life. Now I get what I want and I get it real fast. Author: Nance Rosen is the author of Speak Up! Succeed. She speaks to business audiences around the world and is a resource for press, including print, broadcast and online journalists and bloggers covering social media and careers. Read more at NanceRosenBlog. Twitter name: nancerosen

How LinkedIn Recruiter Speeds up Searches

How LinkedIn Recruiter Speeds up Searches This post is sponsored by LinkedIn. The new LinkedIn Recruiter is helping talent acquisition  professionals take a central role in business strategy. In recruitment, as in all areas of business, time is of the essence. Between meetings  with hiring managers or clients, candidate interviews and conference calls, recruiters â€"  both agency and in-house often find themselves lacking time to complete their single-  most important task: finding the right talent for a role. To make it easier to pinpoint the right person faster, LinkedIn recently rolled out its  newly redesigned LinkedIn Recruiter product, the flagship product from its Talent  Solutions business already used by 41,000 companies worldwide. The new innovations  in the product are designed to help recruiters both in-house and agency and  business owners find and engage the best talent faster by tapping into LinkedIn’s  insights from its 414m members worldwide.  The changes to LinkedIn Recruiter are expected to make the lives of recruiters easier  than ever, and make it more accessible to non-specialists who are responsible for talent  acquisition as part of their role, including small business owners and HR teams. The  updates will make it possible for them to bring new data insights to inform the hiring  conversations they have with business leaders. It’s all part of LinkedIn’s drive to evolve  recruitment professionals to be more strategic advisors for their organisation. A number of companies have had special early access to the new version of the  product, including SAP. Commenting on the new product, Vice President of Global  Sourcing and Employer Branding, Matthew Jeffrey, says, “LinkedIn offers the insights  we need to get a better view of the talent in our key markets in the UK and worldwide.  SAP is very excited about the newest version of Recruiter. It is even more intuitive,  enabling us to enter the names of top performers in our teams and instantly get back a  list of professionals with similar skills and experience. The right data insights combined  with helping us find the best talent as quickly and efficiently as possible is a powerful  combination.” So how does the  new LinkedIn Recruiter  do it? Here are three stand-out changes to look out for to  make the most of the new features: 1. Replicate the best hires For many recruiters looking for their next top hire, it’s often easier to say who they’re  looking for rather than what skills they want. With the new tool, users can type in the  name of top employees into Recruiter and its smart matching algorithms will serve up a  list of professionals with similar skills and experience. In Recruiter these are called Ideal  Candidates and can be a quick and effective way to let the data do the hard work on  finding great talent. 2. Assess talent pools in real time For recruiters involved in planning new growth strategies for their company, one of the  first questions should be how are they going to effectively find the right talent to make  the business initiatives a success. LinkedIn Recruiter can now show users the available  talent pool available to them based on the specific skills and experience they’re looking  for. The number of available candidates will immediately update depending on how  broad or narrow they make their search, giving them an accurate idea of how easy or  hard it will be to find the skills they need. 3. Prioritise the most-likely candidates first Filling critical roles is often about speed as much as the right skills and experience. The  new LinkedIn Recruiter helps highlight the candidates most likely to respond to a  recruiter by looking at the digital cues that suggest they might show an interest in an  organisation. This includes candidates that already have connections within the  company, those who followed its Company Page or liked, commented on, or shared a  relevant update, and even previous job applicants. These ‘Spotlight’ candidates are two-  to-three times more likely to respond to a recruiter, increasing the speed of finding the  best talent. So far, employers using the tool have seen some impressive success. Initial results  show a 17 per cent reduction in the number of searches, a 42 per cent uplift in profiles  viewed per search, and recruiters are saving 23 per cent more of the profiles they find.  Together, these numbers indicate that recruiters are finding more relevant candidates  with less effort and in a shorter amount of time. Dan Dackombe is the sales director for LinkedIn  Talent Solutions EMEA.  Image: Shutterstock

How Craig Fisher Helps Businesses Build Human Connections

How Craig Fisher Helps Businesses Build Human Connections Craig Fisher is the Head of Global Marketing and Employer Brand Strategy at Allegis Global Solutions, and founder of TalentNet LLC events and consulting. He helps employers, job seekers, sales organizations, and even HR tech firms brand themselves to build stronger human connections. We chat with Craig to discuss how he has reached the top of the recruitment industry by focusing on empowering people, but we also delve into the most common mistakes he sees recruiters make, the hardest lessons he has learned along the way and more! Whats your key to success? With over 30 years of industry leadership, we have been successful by focusing on people and caring. We believe in supporting the communities where we live and work through volunteerism and philanthropy. Our Allegis Group Foundation helps causes that align with our mission: Providing individuals with life skills to reach their full potential. Strengthening the Workforce through career development and access to employment for underserved adults. Employee Engagement by supporting causes that our employees are passionate about. We also invest heavily in our people through: Extensive training courses, employee awards, and recognition programs. Actionable employee engagement programs. Diversity and Inclusion Employee Resource Groups and Diversity Councils. Volunteer days to support local charities that are important to our employees. What can we do to build better connections with candidates? Brand yourself!  Make it easy for job candidates and customers to find you when they search for a recruiter to partner with. Be Human!  Dont be so buttoned up that your audience cant get to know you. Share something personal about yourself even on places like Linkedin to ensure you are memorable and personable before someone ever has to decide whether to call you back. Share great content in social places! Part of having good personal SEO is being a good network citizen because of search engines like fresh content. Give more than you ask. I suggest a 5:1 give-to-ask content sharing strategy that emphasizes sharing personal stories, helpful 3rd party articles, and fun content more than asking for referrals or job applicants. Give often and every once in a while let your network where youve built trust know that youre hiring. What are the most common mistakes you see recruiters make? Recruiters often either rely too much or too little on automation and technology. The balance is critical. You cant automate every task and rely on your tech to do all of your communication and relationship building. Job candidates still prefer high touch over high tech. At the same time, you must utilize the systems at your disposal consistently for proper tracking and nurturing of your talent pool. Finally, when in doubt, pick up the phone. It never hurts to have a live conversation with a candidate or hiring manager. We sometimes can rely too much on emails and text messages. What hard lessons can you share with us? Stay steady and dont put all your eggs in one basket. Its great to land big clients or make multiple placements. But the economy is fickle. Ive been through multiple recessions and boons. You cant get too excited about either situation. Recruiting is up and down, so you have to remain centered with your mindset. When Ive had losses, Ive learned that they are to be expected and to have my business spread out to many industries or customers. If you get too up and down, you will burn out, bottom line. Whats your best source of hire? Referrals are still the best source of hire. If you treat customers and job seekers right, they will refer their friends and colleagues to your organization. We have a rich referral community because we foster great relationships with employees and clients. What’s your tech stack? Personally, I use Hootsuite and Crowdfire for sharing and monitoring, the Adobe Suite and Camtasia for creating, my iPhone and lots of Google and Chrome apps for searching  and sourcing. At an organizational level, we are an Office 365 and Salesforce shop with strong partnerships with companies like Smashfly, Olivia (by Paradox.AI), Enboarder, Ideal, and of course HiringSolved to power our clients talent strategies. What’s up next for recruiting? AI and automation will become second nature just another tool like the internet or smartphone. But the app economy isnt the passing fad much thought. Cloud workers are making 2x-3x what their full-time counterparts are earning. Recruiting will have to adapt their contracts and hiring strategies to incorporate the next wave of talent, which is very on-demand and not locked into one organization.

Ideas for 4 Kinds of Corporate Parties and What Makes Them Work CareerMetis.com

Ideas for 4 Kinds of Corporate Parties and What Makes Them Workâ€" CareerMetis.com evalevalCorporate celebrations can be pretty drab if done poorly. These kinds of occasions don’t make employees and staffs feel inclusive because it’s mostly going to be a glorified meeting with the same talkers and even more listeners. But what if it could get better? What if you could do something to make your parties more exciting? Here are some corporate event ideasthat can give everyone a great time:1) The SocialevalA great way to keep your events relaxed is to turn it into a social. Like a more professional soiree, the company social is a great opportunity for everyone to sit down and talk to people from other departments and even from people outside their offices.This is perfect for businesses that have different branches and need their people to be aware of the movement in each location. This is best when you get help from event production planning from Utahprofessionals, who know how to host and lead a get-together without making moments boring.2) The InspirationalA grea t way to inspire and encourage your people is to invite a motivational speaker, entertainer, or performer in your event. Getting the CEO or the managers to talk in front of the stage is common practice for such parties, but people honestly aren’t that interested in listening to the same voices anymore.evalThey want fresh, humorous, witty stories from motivators such as Nick Vujicic or Ann Jillian. The worth of a keynote speaker is by the power of their message and the truthfulness of their struggle and achievement.3) The MergerCompanies come and go. With strong competition and a massive playing field, it’s hard to make mergers and buy-outs look and feel good, especially for those who need to become part of the bigger fish. This can create unease when you think of it as a completely business-oriented change, so turn it into a welcoming party or reintroduction.It’s especially important for employees who are unfamiliar with the choices of upper management and want to remain part of the business. Take the time to talk to the managers of the newly acquired company and give them incentives to keeping their people. After all, it’s much more efficient to maintain skillful and willing people than it is to hire fresh faces.4) The RebrandingCompanies change and grow with time, especially those that have been around for years. With the many advances in technology and marketing, it’s a constant race to be the first, if not the best, in company brands. When you want to launch a new media manager or business model, it’s important to inform the team of the new developments.You can turn this into a small celebration among yourselves, which lets you ease into the learning process, particularly when there are new modules to learn and best practices to develop.It’s hard enough working for a business that takes your time nearly the entire week. It’s even tougher on your subordinates, especially the ones who keep the company running through their work and time. If y ou want to throw a corporate party, make it fun and enjoyable for all the people attending.

Juggling a Job Search While Currently Working - CareerAlley

Juggling a Job Search While Currently Working - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. The latestreport from the U.S. Department of Labor shows that employment opportunities continue to increase, especially in the health care, hospitality and technology fields. There are more jobs and more people looking, which means now may be a good time to search for that next step in your career. If you have a job now but still welcome a change, consider these tips on searching for work while employed. Be Prepared If you are currently looking for work while employed, you should not tell your current employer unless theyve already told you to look for a job. Assuming you are looking for new opportunities in secret, you should have a plan on how you will keep your search in secret but also for what to do if your secret comes out. Beware of these scenarios: Suggested Reading:Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 3.0: How to Stand Out You interview with the CIO of a small company who plays racquetball with your boss You forget a copy of your resume in the office printer/copy machine A company calls your office and leaves a message reminding you to send job references with your application Youve used your work email for job search and your Compliance department has discovered your search Situations like this could leave you facing some tough questions in the workplace. Should your manager become aware of your job search, the best course of action is to be honest about your job search. After being caught, its difficult to keep up the secrecy act. Use Your Own Time and Resources Even while searching for a job, continue to work hard at your current job and remain a good employee. You should conduct your job search outside of work hours so that you can continue to focus on your current job while in the office. Do your research and interviews (to the extent possible) on your own time and dont give your manageror peers any reason to doubt your dedication to your current job. Resources that automate your job search and application process can be leveraged (see below) to helpmake the time spent on your job hunt more efficient. Also, avoid using company equipment such as work phones, computers, fax machines or copiers for your search. This could be a violation of company policy. Job-applications.com This site aggregates the company career site links for many companies, making the application process much easier. Glassdoor.com Find out how much you are worth before your job search (set your goals to match market expectations). Keep it to Yourself Leveraging the Internet and social media for your job search is certainly the way to go, but keep in mind that it is easy for news of your search to spreadaround quickly. Even just hinting about a job search on your Facebook page or Twitter could quickly get back to someone in your office. A suggestive tweet or leveraging LinkedIn (in a non-confidential way) could make its way to your boss racquetball partner. Take no chances and keep any word of your job search off social media. Theres one exception: Do update your professional profiles, such as on LinkedIn, since these could be a valuable asset to your job search. However, there is a delicate balance between having your LinkedIn updates available to all of your connections, versus keeping them private. How Do I Find Jobs on LinkedIn? Learn how to leverage LinkedIn in your job search. Five Devastating LinkedIn Profile Errors Dont make these LinkedIn mistakes. Act Professionally As with any job search, avoid speaking poorly of your current employer; rather keep a positive and steady attitude at work. If you walk in to your job in a particularly good or bad mood because of an interview the night before, you might start getting questions from your boss or peers. We are always eager to hear from our readers. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or suggestions regarding CareerAlley content. Good luck in your search,Joey Google+ Visit Joeys profile on Pinterest Job Search job title, keywords, company, location jobs by What's next? Ready to take action? Choose the right tools to help you build your career. Looking for related topics? Find out how to find the opportunities that help you grow your best career. Subscribe and make meaningful progress on your career. It’s about time you focused on your career. Get Educated Contact Us Advertise Copyright 2020 CareerAlley. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy + Disclosure home popular resources subscribe search

Custom Resume Writing An Objective - How To Write A Good One

Custom Resume Writing An Objective - How To Write A Good OneCustom resume writing an objective is a must to get your dream job. If you want to get a decent-paying job, then you need to make sure that you have one. When you will be asked to write an objective, you have to know how to do it the right way so that you will be able to get what you want out of it.The first thing that you need to do is to take note of the purpose of your objective. In order to do this, think about the reason why you need the position. To put it simply, your objective should be focused on the particular job that you are applying for.After you have written down the reason why you want the job, you can start creating a work history section. This is the one that you need to concentrate on the most. With this, you need to write down all the skills and experience that you have that can contribute to the position that you are applying for.Now, once you have written down your work history, you can start to add some keywords that can be related to the work that you have done. However, make sure that you don't forget to mention the exact keywords that you want to include in your resume. It is the most important section of your resume.Once you have finished writing your resume, you can now move on to the main part of your resume. Since you have already taken note of the reason why you want the job, you can now focus on the objective section. Here, you need to highlight and emphasize the skills and experience that you have already mentioned in your work history section.You can also take note of the areas that you want to focus on while writing the objective. Focus on your skills, career objectives, and any other section that you have written down. Remember, focus on the key strengths that you have to get a good job.Now, the next thing that you need to do is to make sure that you highlight the skills that you have learned from your past jobs. It is best if you can write down in detail what you lea rned from your work experiences. Even though you didn't use those skills in your current job, they can still help you if you apply them to your new job.Finally, you can go over the points that you wrote in your resume. Make sure that you have proofread it and checked it for grammatical errors. It is also best if you double check your resume so that it will look professionally written. Once you are done with this, you can now send it out to the companies who are looking for someone with your skills.