CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
A Welcome and Words of Encouragement
Dear Job Hunter,
Welcome to Inspire a Hire.
You are already a success because you are here for a positive reason!
You might be here because:
• You're serious about securing the job, career, and lifestyle you want.
• You're looking for your first job or have been employed in the samecompany for many years and face redundancy, thinking you would neverneed to write a CV or embark on job hunting. The truth is, the job marketcan be a minefield.
• You're not be getting past the recruitment systems that send youthose disheartening letters that say, 'Regrettably, on this occasion youhave been unsuccessful', with no feedback to help you identify how toimprove.
• You're proactive and not a quitter. My guess is you're also determinedto get what you want!
So congratulations!
You're already ahead of the majority of job hunters who randomly fire off apoorly drafted CV into the electronic ether and wonder why they don't receiveany calls. Whatever your reason for being here now, I want to welcome you tothis practical, tested approach to getting interviews and, ultimately, offers forthe job you desire.
My mission in the following pages is to teach you the proven approach thathas helped me, and others, move jobs and significantly increase earnings relativelyquickly, even during an economic recession and in a highly competitivemarket.
The lessons presented here, if you choose to apply them, will help your CV passa recruiter's ten-second-scan test, will emphasise your added value, and willmake you someone to take seriously as a potential candidate.
I am going to help you realise what your unique selling point is – and yes, youare unique. There is no other being like you in the universe. So know youruniqueness; it will make you stand out from the crowd. A great thing to knowat the start of this e-book journey is that these are simple lessons learned fromexperience that require only a little logic and creativity to apply.
All I ask is for you to trust what I have learned from my own job-hunting experienceand from other job hunters. Apply it, and then let me know your resultby emailing your success story to me at mycoach@inspireahire.com.
I believe that you have what it takes to add value to any organisation becauseas Stephen Covey tells us the first habit of highly successful people is to beproactive. So read on, my friend, and let us travel together towards the successyou desire.
May you be blessed with achieving your unique vision of success, whateverthat vision may be.
Well done!
Rich Hobbs, BSc, FMMYour Job-Hunting Coach
CHAPTER 2
THE RECRUITMENT REALITY
An Experiential Insight into the Recruitment Industry
So, you have spent time searching for the job or career that turns a light oninside you, and you're confident that latest application and CV will be a winner.You prepare a CV to the best of your ability and hit the Send button, or maybeeven lick a stamp the good, old-fashioned way, and say quietly to yourself,'Please, God, let this be the one.'
Whatever the method required for the application, you have actually madeprogress, and you're hopeful of a positive result. The days go by, then a coupleof weeks, and still you have not heard anything. You go over your application,wondering why you haven't received a response, and you eventually musterthe courage to ring up the agency or employer, only to hear the classicphrase:
'Unfortunately, your details did not match our requirements. We will keep yourdetails on file.'
Hanging up the phone, your stomach sinks with the disappointment of rejection.Then begin the self-analysis and internal chatter that may negativelyimpact your emotional state. Those nearest to you see you're upset, and youhave to announce that you did not even get an interview.
Does this sound familiar?
Believe me, I know this very well, and I've spent several years doing what canonly be madness, as we have been told that 'to do the same thing repeatedlyexpecting a different result'. Until I learned the lessons I will be outlining in thefollowing pages about the reality of the recruitment process.
Sales Drive Behaviour
According to the classic book The Goal by E. Goldratt, the reason most organisationsexist is pure and simple: to make a profit! This is their sole purpose – theydo nothing more and nothing less. All behaviour within these organisations isdriven by sales and profit margins to achieve this goal.
So let's enter the mind of the recruitment consultant. Having been a recruitmentconsultant for a couple of years, I have a sound insight into this role andknow that having this reality check should increase your chances for success.
Imagine that your job security is strongly dependent on achieving sales for theagency and hitting your targets, and success means placing candidates intojobs. That's also how you achieve your bonus.
How focused would you be?
How much time would you be willing to give candidates who do not make aserious attempt to communicate their work experience clearly?
What is the underlying goal in the back of the recruiter's mind?
Reflect on this for a moment.
The Process
At some point, an employer loses a member of staff, decides to expand the team,or even creates a brand new role. This is the birth of opportunity for you as the jobhunter. The employer will decide either to run their own recruitment campaign orutilise one of the many recruitment agencies. And so the process begins.
The recruitment agencies' clients who are hiring need to explain what they arelooking for in the ideal candidate. This could be a brief conversation with therecruitment consultant, who scribbles down the job description, or a detailedface-to-face meeting where the client clearly knows what he or she needs andprovides a detailed job specification, a candidate profile, and a list of both essentialand desirable qualities for the position.
The recruitment consultant negotiates a fee with the client, which may be thatthe agency receives a percentage of the successful candidate's salary. This isthe typical approach for permanent vacancies; however, a fixed charge may beapplied. Whatever financial arrangements are made, the recruiter is hungry towin the business, as this industry is highly competitive. Once the recruiter hassome sense of what the customer desires in a candidate, he or she will workan advertising campaign to attract that candidate.
In an ideal world, where time is in abundance, the above process would bedone thoroughly, with the recruiter getting a clear understanding of the client'sneeds and job hunters getting full details of the job specifications. However,the recruiters and client are driven by pressure to find a new employee, andthey go through this process so quickly that they often overlook details. Theunderstanding of the client's need by the recruiter and the recruiter's objectivesby the client is somewhat grey.
The next step in the process is the advert. Potential candidates will be attractedby the job title, salary, and other content it gives. They will prepare their coveringletters and CVs and then apply for the role. The recruiter will review applicationsand match candidates' experience to the job specifications. In thisselection process, the recruiter highlights some candidates as potentials andrejects the rest. The client is then presented with the selected potentials toreview to decide whom to interview. This final filtering process is often performedby the hiring manager, who is also under pressure to fill the gap in hisor her team.
Tip! Candidate filtering is now mostly done automaticallyby smart computer systems that look for keywords,so your CV's wording and spelling are critical!
This whole process depends on human interpretation of a workplace task,which ends up in the form of a job specification. This following point is what Iwant you to grasp:
Tip! The recruiter does not often really understand theactual job being offered. The company's HR team is unlikelyto have performed the role being advertised, andthe hiring manager is likely too busy to get hands-onexperience of the role. Therefore, you need to recognisethat this whole process is open to misinterpretationof the common characteristics or skills that someoneneeds to perform the role.
And here is the opportunity you must see:
Tip! You do not have to be an exact match to get througha recruiter's filtering system. I repeat, because it is veryimportant: you do not have to be an exact match to thejob specification.
Recruiters are there to prevent hiring managers from spending hours siftingthrough hundreds, sometimes thousands, of applications to find their newemployee. Good candidates will get through the filters if they fully absorb andunderstand the detail of the job specification and emphasise their key characteristicsthat best fit those details in their covering letter and CV.
Tip! Do not be put off or disheartened by what you readin a job vacancy advert.
An open job vacancy is an opportunity waiting for your skills. However, I wouldnot suggest applying for a neurosurgeon's role if you have no medical training,but I'm hoping this is quite obvious! Understand the key features of therole, grasp the advert's core content, see the needs of the employer, identifythe experience and skills required, and review how your own experience andskills match those.
If the advert is poor, by this I mean very brief and non-specific, then move onto something else, as the hiring company do not really know what they want.Alternatively you could ring them and ask for a detailed job specification. Ifthey cannot meet this request, then consider whether you really want to workfor that company, as such a lack of communication and clear information is notthe mark of a quality organisation.
The recruiter is under pressure to achieve sales and will not spend time reviewinga poorly written covering letter or CV. He or she will scan your applicationin ten to fifteen seconds. The recruiter will scan for keywords and key phrasesdenoting certain skills and experience that match his or her interpretation ofwhat the customer needs. If the recruiter registers a match in his or her mindwithin these first ten to fifteen seconds, then he or she will invest more timein taking a closer look; otherwise, the recruiter will reject the application. Thisis the ten-second-scan test.
Therefore, you must ensure that you express in your covering letter how, specifically,you are a good match to the company's needs. As stated, you don'thave to meet all the criteria, but you must make it jump out that you are thebest fit. Your CV must also clearly show keywords and key phrases indicatingexperience and skills to register as a hit in the mind of the recruiter. So, if youreally want to get in front of the hiring manager, be prepared to make adjustmentsto your covering letter and CV for every application you make to designeach application as a match.
Tip! One standard covering letter and CV do not fit allsituations.
Again, recruiters will not spend hours trying to work out what your skills reallyare and then go out and sell you to employers. The majority of a recruiter's jobis to simply match his or her interpretation of a need.
If you tell them, specifically, how you are the best fit, you will make their jobsimple and stand out, because many people apply for jobs without consideringwhat specifically the employer requires, and recruiters become swampedwith wasteful activity.
When you take the time to specifically tailor your application documents tomatch the employers requirements, recruiters will see you as a potential saleand will make efforts to convince hiring employers that you are the candidatebefore a competitor beats them to the sale. You then become a marketableasset for the recruiting agency. If you help the recruiter by telling them clearlyhow you are a match, some agencies will actively approach clients and sell youinto the organisation.
Hiring managers will follow the same logic. Their minds will register keywordmatches to skills and other criteria. When you do eventually get in front ofthem, they may overlook many of the specification requirements and insteadconsider them as areas for training. Thus, the job specifications become simplya guide, not the deciding factor for hiring.
Once your application has been approved and you've had an interview, manymanagers will ask themselves the following questions in assessing whether togive you the job.
• Do I feel comfortable with this candidate?
• Could I work with this person?
• Can this person be trained?
• Do I like this person's attitude?
Interviewing, which is intended to be a fair process based on well-definedcriteria, simply boils down to non-verbal signals and your ability to create arelationship within a short meeting. This will be covered later, in a discussionon the actual interview.
Remember! You do not have to be an exact match, sorelax.
I deeply want you to know the nature of the animal you are dealing with soyou can tame it and make it your servant to get you the interviews you deserveand thus achieve your dream.
Let us look now at the CV structure that has proven successful for many jobhunters.
CHAPTER 3
A WINNING STRUCTURE
A Step-by-Step Structure of Some Successful CVs
So there you have it, a personal insight into the reality of the recruitment processthat you are dealing with and some valuable guidance on what steps totake to pass the ten-second-scan test. Now let's get into the detail of the designof the vehicle that will increase your chances of winning the interview. Keepthis famous quote in mind throughout the process:
Everything should be made as simpleas possible, but not simpler.—Albert Einstein
Within the world of professional CV writing, there is no one standard formatfor this document, but some common themes and styles have emerged overtime.
What follows is a simple-to-follow method that has proven to be successful andwill guide you step by step to creating an interview-winning CV. If you like tojump straight to the answers page, then check out the appendices and studythe examples of actual interview- and job-winning CVs.
It is worth noting that there are different types of CVs, including chronological,functional, and combined. Most of this e-book is about a chronological CV, butif you want to learn more about the other types, check out appendix D now.But make sure you come right back!
Welcome back. You did have a look, didn't you?
The structure you need to use will depend on how you want to present yourself.As I have said before, be prepared to create a new version for each uniqueopportunity if you want to be an interview winner. Keep this thought in theback of your mind:
Important! One size does not fit all.
Real job-winning example CVs appear in the appendices of this book to illustratethe finished CVs I have written for clients who were successful on thejob hunt, and a couple of great testimonials from a young job seeker and abankrupt business owner also appear.
My objective is to walk you through the building blocks of a winning formatand to show you examples to reference when creating your own unique, winningCV.
Here is the structure I have found to be highly successful. But remember – thereis no definitive standard:
1. Your name and contact details. This may seem obvious, but many peoplefail here.
2. Your personal profile (the sales pitch). This is often very weak.
3. Career highlights (three to four key results/savings/awards).
4. Career history. This is what hiring managers really use to match youagainst the job specification, your actual experience.
5. Training/education. Remember, this is also about personality.
6. Key skills (three to four skills you are confident to discuss)
You can include hobbies, interests, and references, but I have learned thatthese things are rarely the primary focus for the recruiter or hiring manager.Writing standard comments like 'I enjoy reading and socialising' add virtuallyzero value to your CV. However, some hobbies and interests may have desirablequalities (e.g., youth leader, sports coach, running an online business). Soexpand your thinking and add an interest if you believe it contains an added-valueskill set.
References are good to include if you have them and have informed them thatthey will be contacted. Most employers now send emails directly to the refereerequesting reference details. Often, employers will not contact referees, as theprocess often only confirms that you were actually employed where you sayyou were and is an added cost to the hiring organisation.
At this point, if you are only starting out in your working life, you may havea sinking feeling that you have no career highlights or key skills to list. If youfeel this way, please go straight to appendix F and see Alison Jones's winningCV. This young job hunter thought she had no skills until she received a littlecoaching.
Your Profile, the Unique You!
The first section of your CV – contact details – is not something I need to explain,but it is worth noting that you must get someone to check this for youbecause the last thing you want is an error in your contact details that leavesyou un-contactable. Hyperlink your email address and test that the link works,as this helps the recruiter to email you quickly. Avoid writing 'Curriculum Vitae'at the top of your CV, as it is self-explanatory.
Now, let us look closely at your profile – the hook that will catch prospectiveemployers' attention.
If you have seen The Apprentice with Sir Alan Sugar on TV, you know that thewhole process is about sales ability. Fail to sell and you're fired! Get your pitchright, make a profit, and you're headed for the job. In the final, the candidateshave to understand marketing, develop a brand image, be unique, and selltheir product to achieve the business goal of making a profit.
