Anchor’s Tips for landing that special job

What is it that employers are looking for in your CV?

In most instances the people who will be responsible for selecting new staff are highly trained professionals and a C.V. is usually your first and often only means of communicating with them.

Your C.V. tells prospective employers about you and its main function is to get you an interview. Your C.V is often the only thing taken into consideration in the interview selection process. To the person recruiting, the C.V is you.

There are in fact three key aspects of your C.V. that many candidates overlook the significance of.

The Covering Letter

The covering letter gives the recruiter an opportunity to see beyond that which is fact and look for an impression of you as a person. How concise, how well educated, how to the point? Was the letter typed or handwritten? Could you be bothered to write one at all? Most recruitment professionals are knowledgeable enough to know your C.V. is used for many jobs but they expect the covering letter to be specifically aimed at them and consequently attribute a great deal of importance to it.

Presentation

It is very important that as a candidate you seriously consider not just what you put in a C.V. but how it looks. Remember that your C.V. is likely to be photocopied, scanned, and faxed, will your presentational style replicate nicely when sent through a fax machine? Try to avoid making text bold or heavy, as this will distort in scanners and faxes. Never use fancy borders, graphics, text effects or coloured paper and don't cut into the margins with bullet points, because you'll loose them. Pick a clear and easy to read font and allow generous line spacing. It is very important that you put your contact details at the top of the page in the middle. This is the most obvious place, least likely to get overlooked or cut off.

It is also very important that your C.V be as concise as possible, ideally you should be aiming to fit all of your essential, personal information on two pages.

Marketing

Whether you like it or not your C.V. is a marketing tool designed to sell a product and that product is you.

Your C.V. must be the best possible example of you, your ability to work, to present yourself and to communicate. Your C.V. is marketing you and just as you will find no spelling mistakes on a cereal box, there cannot be any on your C.V.

You as a candidate must sell yourself on the basis of your experience; you need to show your prospective employers that you can do what they need and more. The best way to show that level of competence is to tell them you've done it before and then to prove it to them. If you have no directly relevant experience then think about what you have done and make it relevant. Make sure that you inform the people you want to work with how competent you are. Don’t be frightened to sell yourself.

Remember when a prospective employer receives a C.V. that is all they have of you. No smiling face, no smart suit, no helpful demeanour, just the paper you sent. You'll have a matter of minutes to tell them about your skills, experience, qualifications and aspirations. Make it clean, clear and honest, make you the remarkable thing about your C.V. not the fact that it won't photocopy and that every other word is spelt wrong.

Interview Techniques

An interview is proof that a potential employer is interested in you. This is your chance to cement the good impression that your CV has evidently made. The interview is your big opportunity to impress, and to demonstrate that your personal skills are just as good as your knowledge and practical experience.

Before dealing with the subtleties of any interview there are a few basic steps you can take. Dress appropriately and comfortably. Ninety percent of communication is non-verbal, once you recognise this you can use it to your advantage. Be aware of body language, of posture and the tone of the conversation. Speak clearly and make eye contact, but try to do so naturally; trying to stare out the interview panel will do you no favours.

It sounds obvious, but preparation really is key, and it is a good idea to try and anticipate the kind of questions the interviewer will ask. You need to ask yourself why you want this job and what it is that you personally have over the other candidates. It is a good idea to do some research about the interviewer or the panel, this way you will feel that the process takes place on a more equal footing. You won't convince your employer if you yourself are not convinced. It's also a good idea to have a question or two in mind in case you are asked, but again use common sense and never ask just for the sake of it.

Your aim should be to present yourself as qualified and motivated. Be positive about your abilities and try to make your experience relevant. Interviewing candidates can sometimes be very dull; it should be your aim to create a real dynamic, to leave the interviewer with the impression that you have many unique selling points.

The current employment market values flexibility, this principle appears in a number of different ways; there is the need for employees to be flexible with their time, but more importantly there is a need for flexibility of thought. If you find that your prior employment has not been exactly comparable, think around the questions you are being asked. You should be able to demonstrate that you are capable of using your initiative. You need to prove not only that you are well suited to the position, but also that you have the ability to learn new skills and handle different situations.

If we imagine your CV to be a sales pitch, the interview is the hard sell. It may sound mercenary but this is purely about you and your potential to aid the business or organisation to which you are applying. If you are successful, the interview will form the first, and therefore probably the most important image of who you are and what it is that differentiates you from everyone else. That impression should appear as well rounded and as three-dimensional as possible.

Anchor wish you the very best of luck!