In Telecoms & Technology and looking to hire senior staff? You should contact DJMRO. My customers are a seriously impressive group of people. Maybe that is because they have the initiative and energy to take charge of their careers.
We are helping senior individuals in Telecoms with the following backgrounds: commercial (CEO/CCO), CFO, CTO, Legal, Marketing, Project Management, PR, Regulatory and Research. What do my customers have in common? They are all taking charge of their careers, they all have international blue-chip backgrounds, many are multilingual and all of them are top-performers in their chosen field.
These are people that have enjoyed senior-level experience with Telecoms operators and vendors in dynamic, growing markets worldwide and particularly in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. We also help mining executives and are dealing with some impressive senior staff in that sector too, helping them secure new roles in the global mining industry.
So, if you need to hire, get in touch with us as we may know a strong candidate for your senior vacancy. What’s more, hiring companies have no fees to pay. What have you got to lose?
If you are a senior job-seeker looking for a new role in Telecoms, Technology or Mining then contact us to discuss how we can help you find a new challenge. DJMRO offers senior, professional CV-writing services as well as two unique careers packages for executive job-seekers; Individually-tailored CV Marketing Campaigns and DJMRO Career Boost. See my Linkedin profile and www.djmro.com for more info. Get started today.
Saturday 31 March 2012
Wednesday 21 March 2012
Is your CV letting you down?
Job applications not working out? Maybe your CV is letting you down. As a professional CV-writer/Career Advisor with 20 years’ experience in recruitment I have read thousands of CVs. Writing a CV is not an easy task and many novices make the same mistakes. These mistakes fit into three broad categories: information overload, modesty and plain stupidity.
Let’s start with information overload. Picture the scene: the recruiter is sitting at his desk and starting to review applications for the job they have been retained to fill. They open the CV attached to the email and begin to read.....the CV is 8 pages long. The candidate is not invited for interview. CV’s should be short. Two pages is ideal, three pages is OK for more senior executives but only if you are really senior.
It is important to have a short CV as recruiters - by this I mean in-house and agency gatekeepers of all kinds – will often read a CV in seconds rather than minutes. The CV should be easy to understand and the gatekeeper should be able to ascertain what kind of candidate they are dealing with in moments. A CV should have instant page 1 impact and the reader ought to be able to understand your offering as a candidate straight away. Longer CVs make this more difficult. Remember, the CV is a sales document and not an exhaustive list of every duty you’ve ever had. Skills-based, or functional CV’s; also facilitate against understanding and are often chosen by those with career gaps and other reasons to muddy the waters. Recruiters know this. Functional CVs are, on the whole, just irritating.
To avoid information overload also leave out the jargon and acronyms; fair enough if you are in a major industry and are using universally known stuff – GSM and VAS are OK in Telecoms for example. In-house, company-specific jargon and phrases are a big “no” but are surprisingly common in CVs.
Information overload is also caused by the inclusion of unnecessary detail. We don’t need to know certain things and it may be illegal in some countries to use these details to select candidates. No age, marital status, religion, race, or mug shots please (for most professional CVs in most countries).
Modesty is the second area of major CV-writing weaknesses. The CV is a sales document. Don’t just list your duties, list your accomplishments. Use verbs. Think: what did you achieve? What value did you add? What time did your innovation save? Maybe have a separate list of achievements. Also, many CV s do not include searchable key words. CVs and online profiles are often searched electronically; make sure your key words feature throughout the CV.
Finally, let’s deal with plain stupidity. This bit is easy. Don’t make spelling mistakes, watch your grammar, avoid silly or cute email addresses, don’t list irrelevant and eccentric hobbies and include your full contact details. I would also avoid writing in the first person and a final point; keep the design, typefaces and colours plain and simple. Where design is concerned less is usually more.
My Career Advice company DJMRO offers senior, professional CV-writing as well as two unique careers packages for executive job-seekers; Individually-tailored CV Marketing Campaigns and DJMRO Career Boost. See my Linkedin profile and www.djmro.com for more info and contact me anytime to discuss how I can help boost your career.
Let’s start with information overload. Picture the scene: the recruiter is sitting at his desk and starting to review applications for the job they have been retained to fill. They open the CV attached to the email and begin to read.....the CV is 8 pages long. The candidate is not invited for interview. CV’s should be short. Two pages is ideal, three pages is OK for more senior executives but only if you are really senior.
It is important to have a short CV as recruiters - by this I mean in-house and agency gatekeepers of all kinds – will often read a CV in seconds rather than minutes. The CV should be easy to understand and the gatekeeper should be able to ascertain what kind of candidate they are dealing with in moments. A CV should have instant page 1 impact and the reader ought to be able to understand your offering as a candidate straight away. Longer CVs make this more difficult. Remember, the CV is a sales document and not an exhaustive list of every duty you’ve ever had. Skills-based, or functional CV’s; also facilitate against understanding and are often chosen by those with career gaps and other reasons to muddy the waters. Recruiters know this. Functional CVs are, on the whole, just irritating.
To avoid information overload also leave out the jargon and acronyms; fair enough if you are in a major industry and are using universally known stuff – GSM and VAS are OK in Telecoms for example. In-house, company-specific jargon and phrases are a big “no” but are surprisingly common in CVs.
Information overload is also caused by the inclusion of unnecessary detail. We don’t need to know certain things and it may be illegal in some countries to use these details to select candidates. No age, marital status, religion, race, or mug shots please (for most professional CVs in most countries).
Modesty is the second area of major CV-writing weaknesses. The CV is a sales document. Don’t just list your duties, list your accomplishments. Use verbs. Think: what did you achieve? What value did you add? What time did your innovation save? Maybe have a separate list of achievements. Also, many CV s do not include searchable key words. CVs and online profiles are often searched electronically; make sure your key words feature throughout the CV.
Finally, let’s deal with plain stupidity. This bit is easy. Don’t make spelling mistakes, watch your grammar, avoid silly or cute email addresses, don’t list irrelevant and eccentric hobbies and include your full contact details. I would also avoid writing in the first person and a final point; keep the design, typefaces and colours plain and simple. Where design is concerned less is usually more.
My Career Advice company DJMRO offers senior, professional CV-writing as well as two unique careers packages for executive job-seekers; Individually-tailored CV Marketing Campaigns and DJMRO Career Boost. See my Linkedin profile and www.djmro.com for more info and contact me anytime to discuss how I can help boost your career.
Saturday 3 March 2012
How to write a CV that works
Many people approach writing a CV with real trepidation and I can understand why, it is easy to make mistakes and there are many potential pitfalls.
Firstly, it’s important to define what a CV is for. The purpose of a CV is to represent the job-seeker to a potential employer with a view to securing an interview. That’s it. A CV is not an exhaustive list or complete history, it is a sales document designed to get the job-seeker in front of the potential employer. It is a personal branding statement with a clear objective – to secure an interview.
There are some common mistakes that the novice CV-writer makes. These include issues around CV length, honesty, inappropriate use of humour, inclusion of unnecessary details (date-of-birth, marital status), overuse of jargon and acronyms, use of clichés, opting for a hard to understand skills-based CV, over elaborate formatting & poor design decisions and spelling errors. I will discuss these problems in detail in a future blog post. Other issues include not tailoring the CV to each application. This is another subject that I will return to in later blog posts.
Here’s how I recommend one should write a CV.
Length: two pages is preferred for most professionals some way into their career. This is not a hard and fast rule and three pages is not a disaster but recruiters who work for end-employers and agencies will read a CV in seconds rather than minutes. The CV must be easy to read and brief.
Format: keep it simple; avoid unusual typefaces and too much formatting or the design and layout will detract from the message.
Profiles: I like to write a two or three paragraph profile at the top of page one. This is one of the key parts of the CV. You should see the opening lines of the profile as synonymous with an elevator speech – this part summarises your professional experience and what you can bring to the table in a few lines. The recruiter should be able to establish what you can offer in seconds.
Achievements: these should follow the profile and are a list of three to five professional achievements from recent roles. They may include awards. If possible they should be supported by hard data; money generated or saved, time saved by process improvements and so on.
Then write up work experience in reverse chronological order. Keep it brief. Use bullet points and focus on the use of positive action words and searchable keywords.
Other sections will include education/professional qualifications, personal contact details and possibly systems and technical knowledge where appropriate.
There are many issues to consider when writing a CV. That’s why many people call on a professional CV-writer to help them with this crucial document. My Career Advice company DJMRO offers senior, professional CV-writing as well as two unique careers packages for executive job-seekers; Individually-tailored CV Marketing Campaigns and DJMRO Career Boost. See my Linkedin profile and www.djmro.com for more info.
Contact me anytime to discuss how I can help boost your career.
Firstly, it’s important to define what a CV is for. The purpose of a CV is to represent the job-seeker to a potential employer with a view to securing an interview. That’s it. A CV is not an exhaustive list or complete history, it is a sales document designed to get the job-seeker in front of the potential employer. It is a personal branding statement with a clear objective – to secure an interview.
There are some common mistakes that the novice CV-writer makes. These include issues around CV length, honesty, inappropriate use of humour, inclusion of unnecessary details (date-of-birth, marital status), overuse of jargon and acronyms, use of clichés, opting for a hard to understand skills-based CV, over elaborate formatting & poor design decisions and spelling errors. I will discuss these problems in detail in a future blog post. Other issues include not tailoring the CV to each application. This is another subject that I will return to in later blog posts.
Here’s how I recommend one should write a CV.
Length: two pages is preferred for most professionals some way into their career. This is not a hard and fast rule and three pages is not a disaster but recruiters who work for end-employers and agencies will read a CV in seconds rather than minutes. The CV must be easy to read and brief.
Format: keep it simple; avoid unusual typefaces and too much formatting or the design and layout will detract from the message.
Profiles: I like to write a two or three paragraph profile at the top of page one. This is one of the key parts of the CV. You should see the opening lines of the profile as synonymous with an elevator speech – this part summarises your professional experience and what you can bring to the table in a few lines. The recruiter should be able to establish what you can offer in seconds.
Achievements: these should follow the profile and are a list of three to five professional achievements from recent roles. They may include awards. If possible they should be supported by hard data; money generated or saved, time saved by process improvements and so on.
Then write up work experience in reverse chronological order. Keep it brief. Use bullet points and focus on the use of positive action words and searchable keywords.
Other sections will include education/professional qualifications, personal contact details and possibly systems and technical knowledge where appropriate.
There are many issues to consider when writing a CV. That’s why many people call on a professional CV-writer to help them with this crucial document. My Career Advice company DJMRO offers senior, professional CV-writing as well as two unique careers packages for executive job-seekers; Individually-tailored CV Marketing Campaigns and DJMRO Career Boost. See my Linkedin profile and www.djmro.com for more info.
Contact me anytime to discuss how I can help boost your career.
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