If you can deliver on this tough and very impersonal question you’ll make it. Let’s take a brief overview. In the current climate employers are:

• Understaffed
• Have limited time to review CVs, and
• Receive multiple applications per vacancy

In our post on CV contents we focus on the ‘Achievements’ section of your CV. It is mainly your achievements that will set you apart from other job applicants and it is imperative to get a good and objective view on your CV before sending it out to multiple employers. The achievements section of your CV illustrates to the reader that your experience may be beneficiary to their company; i.e. you can save them time, money, resources, etc.
Now before you go and list loads of achievements have a look at what business expert H MacDivitt said: “This can also be the feeling experienced by many recruiters when applicants are reeling off their USPs (unique selling points). The trick is to ask them that very simple question, “So what?” For example, “So what if you worked for the largest agency in the country? Why should I care? Why does it really matter and how does it prove you can do the job?””

This statement highlights the fact that achievements in your CV needs to make sense. In an interview situation make sure that you’re able to give supporting information why your achievements are important and why they matter. Achievements supported by information and facts answers the “So what?” question and by answering it in your CV will get you shortlisted.

Take a moment and share this:

© Copyright CV Profile

Permanent and temporary jobs increased although growth remained “subdued”, research by KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) showed.

“The report brings more encouraging news for the UK job market,” KPMG said.

Both permanent placements and temporary/contract staff billings rose for the second month in a row in September and at slightly sharper rates than in August.

Jobs
The month’s drop in job vacancies was the weakest in the current 16-month period of decline. Permanent staffing demand fell modestly, while demand for temporary/contract staff rose slightly for the first time in 15 months.

Salaries
Recruiters reported that permanent staff pay fell at the slowest pace in the current 12-month decline, while the latest drop in temporary/contract staff pay rates was the smallest in just under a year.

Unemployment is at 2.47 million, the highest since 1995, with economists expecting it to continue to rise.

The employers’ group, the CBI, believes unemployment will peak at about three million in the second quarter, while the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, expects the number to hit 3.2 million in 2010.

However, the REC/KPMG report said the rate of job losses “appear to have peaked”.

Let’s hope for the best! Get your CV in order before employers embark on a huge scale recruitment drive.

Take a moment and share this:

© Copyright CV Profile

In the next newsletter we’ll send you another post with more details on how to utilise your LinkedIn profile as an on-line CV.

Herewith Kevin’s tips:

Image credit: Flickr

So once you’ve signed up and registered your account, here’s ten tips we recommend to optimise your account:

1. Fully complete your profile – Ensuring that this contains all relevant career history and interests. LinkedIn makes this easy by displaying a percentage score to show how complete your profile is. A LinkedIn profile basically acts as an online CV, so make sure you’re being honest and describing yourself and career clearly.
2. Edit profile to claim vanity URL – This should be set to use your name (or closest match if unavailable) within the URL, for example: www.linkedin.com/in/kevingibbons – this will help you to optimise your own name in the search engines and also makes the URL easier to remember if promoted on business cards or email signatures.
3. Make your profile publicly available – You can set the information which is publicly available to non-members/contacts, be careful with blocking too much information as this will also be unavailable to the search engines. As a minimum, I would recommend providing enough information for the search engines to index your profile and cache the external links you have listed! In terms of optimising your profile, the main goals are normally to rank for your own name, company name and possibly industry keywords related to this.
   
   
4. Make connections – Increase the reach of your profile by connecting with current and former work colleagues, clients, friends and family. I’d also recommend adding any industry contacts, perhaps from people you have met at conferences/events or are connected with on other social media sites and share a similar interest.
5. Request recommendations – Obviously don’t ask everyone, especially if you don’t know them that well. But having recommendations will help your profile to stand out and will help to build trust in your reputation to visiting users. This will help improve the visibility of your own profile within internal LinkedIn searches too.
6. Register a company profile – If your company doesn’t already have a company listing, you should create one! Here’s an example of the SEOptimise company profile, if your company does have a profile, you should encourage employees to create their own individual LinkedIn profile’s and ensure the current employer entry is completed. This will automatically update all employees listed on the company profile, providing the company name is exactly matched.
7. Make use of the 3 website hyperlinks – For SEO value, LinkedIn is very good – they give you the opportunity to add three hyperlinks to websites of your choice. If you’re not trying to optimise your site for “My Website”, “My Portfolio” and “My Blog” it might be an idea to select “Other” and choose your own anchor text instead!
8. Join related groups – Find groups where other industry professionals have joined and look to participate in (or at least join) these groups. Adding value to your own profile and helping you to get found by other industry contacts.
9. Use LinkedIn Answers – This can help to build up your reputation within a field. For SEO it also builds the number of internal links pointing to your profile from within LinkedIn, therefore helping to strengthen your profile in the search engines!
10. Optimise your job title – LinkedIn now includes your job title within profile title tags. I’m not saying you should lie about your job, but within reason you could include descriptive keywords which may help to attract relevant search engine traffic. For example, using “SEO Account Manager” as a job title instead of “Account Manager”, if appropriate.

To read this post at its original location visit: http://www.seoptimise.com/blog/2009/09/10-tips-to-optimise-your-linkedin-profile.html

Take a moment and share this:

© Copyright CV Profile

A survey from Career Builder asked hiring managers to cite some examples of the oddest complaints they received from employees. These included:

* Employee is too sun-tanned
* Employee has big hair
* Employee eats all the good cookies
* Employee is so polite, it’s infuriating
* Employee suspected co-worker is a pimp
* Employee is trying to poison me
* Employee’s body is magnetic and keeps de-activating my magnetic access card
* Employee is personally responsible for a federally-mandated tax increase
* Employee was annoyed the company didn’t provide a place for naps during break time
* Employee only wears slippers or socks at work
* Employee’s aura is wrong
* Employee smells like road ramps
* Employee breathes too loudly
* Employee wants to check a co-worker for ticks
* 8:00 a.m. is too early to get up for work
* Employee wore pajamas to work
* Employee has bells on her shoes and it’s not the holidays
* Co-worker reminded the employee too much of Bambi
* Employee spends too much time caring for stray cats around the building
* A male employee keeps using the ladies’ room because the men’s room is not as tidy

The survey was conducted by Harris Interactive from May to June and included 2667 hiring managers and HR professionals.

© Copyright CV Profile

The national unemployment rate now stands at 7.6% (roughly one in thirteen people), and analysts fear that it could rise as high as 10%.  TUC general secretary Brendan Barber described the latest figures as “truly horrendous”.

Almost a million people have taken on part-time work while looking for a full-time job - that’s a quarter of a million more than last year - and over 400,000 are temping while seeking full-time employment.  Self-employment is up by more than 50,000.

Young people have been hit especially hard, with over one in five 18-24-year-olds now jobless.  The latest quarterly rise of 95,000 means some 726,000 of them are currently looking for work - and this number is set to increase dramatically as the summer crop of school and college-leavers joins them in the search for a job.

The latest figures also saw London’s jobless total grow by 28,000 to more than a third of a million - 348,000, or 8.6% of the capital’s working population - which is the highest level since 1998.

Labour Force Survey figures published on the Office for National Statistics website reveal that blue-collar unemployment in the year to March was over three times higher than that for people with professional and managerial skills, and almost three times as high as the rate for people with admin/secretarial skills.

“Heavy job losses in the financial and business services sectors - plus the fact that jobless managers and professionals often attract more public attention - probably explain why there has been so much talk about a ‘white-collar recession’,” notes CIP chief economist John Philpott.  “But the unemployment figures clearly show that blue-collar manual workers have suffered most.”

Over the past year the manufacturing sector alone has seen 212,000 jobs go, while some 196,000 jobs in hotels & restaurants and 187,000 in financial services have also disappeared.

Most analysts expect the inexorable rise in unemployment to continue to 3m and beyond.  David Kern, chief economist at the British Chambers of Commerce, has reaffirmed the BCC’s forecast that unemployment will peak at around 3.2m some time next year.

Think-tank Centre for Cities is also warning of potential large-scale job losses in cities that are heavily reliant on public-sector employment, such as Newcastle, Swansea, Plymouth, Ipswich and Newport (Gwent).  Director Dermot Finch believes “the current size of their public-sector workforce is untenable.”

Take a moment and share this:

© Copyright CV Profile

 - How can we help?

Action Plan:
Maximise your interview exposure now by forwarding your CV directly to 100s of targeted, approved recruiters in your industry.

• Connect directly with recruiters in minutes instead of months
• Get your CV put forward for unadvertised jobs
• Find jobs faster and receive better pay and benefits
  All this for a nominal fee of £19.95

Click here to send your CV now.

© Copyright CV Profile

1. Engineers

2. Skilled trades

3. Sales representatives

4. Management/executives

5. Accounting and finance staff

6. Chefs/cooks

7. Restaurant and hotel staff

8. Machinists/machine operators

9. Technicians (primarily production/operations, engineering or maintenance)

10. Receptionists

Worldwide, 30% of employers are encountering difficulties hiring staff.

The top roles that employers are finding difficult to fill globally are:

1. Skilled trades

2. Sales representatives

3. Technicians (primarily production/operations, engineering or maintenance)

4. Engineers

5. Management/executives

6. Accounting and finance staff

7. Labourers

8. Production operators

9. Secretaries, PAs, administrative assistants and office support staff

10. Drivers

All sectors experience shortages for good staff

Qualifying these shortages in the current economic climate is very difficult with between 33 and 50% of jobs not being advertised.
One thing is for certain, it is time to step up your job search strategies or it is time to ship out. Starting with your sales letter aka CV. In the current climate a poor CV is unacceptable and will get you nowhere. Get your CV professionally reviewed and we advise to get your CV on the desks of as many relevant recruiters and employers as possible.

Consider CV broadcasting: Would you rather apply to one position at a time or by sending your CV to one recruiter at a time OR distribute your CV and reach 100s of targeted recruiters in just a few minutes for only £19.97

This amount of exposure can take months off your job search. Click here to maximise your interview exposure now by forwarding your CV directly to 100s of targeted, approved recruiters in your industry.

© Copyright CV Profile

This could be great news to you! But careful application is needed so read further.

These stats were according to the fourth Manpower Annual Talent Shortage Survey released today. Mark Cahill, Managing Director of Manpower UK, commented: “Despite the highest levels of unemployment the UK has experienced for over a decade, employers are still struggling to recruit people with the skills they require.”
The figures remain consistent compared to the 2008 findings when 12% of employers surveyed highlighted difficulties in recruiting the right staff. However, the figures represent a marked improvement from 2007 and 2006 when 34% and 42% of employers respectively cited difficulties recruiting staff with the right skills.

Your weapon is your CV and finding that ideal job will depend on the following factors:

1. Your CV  needs to be in the in the best possible condition it can be. It should be part of the 6% and not part of the 94% of CVs which are not good enough
2. Is it important to get a great job? Then put your money where your mouth is and get your CV professionally reviewed
3. Then get your CV in front of the right people

I can help you with No. 2 (indirectly with No.1) and with No.3

How? I hear you ask.

By paying a nominal fee for both a CV review and for getting your CV distributed to the right people.

But how will it land me a better job sooner?

1. Giving you a professional CV Review.

This will supply you with an objective recruiter opinion on your CV.

2. Opens the unadvertised job market up for you.

Often the best jobs are never advertised, instead they are offered first to jobseekers that have already sent their CVs to recruiters. 67% of Jobs do not make it to job boards or newspapers.

By sending your CV to recruiters directly, they will be able to consider you for the best vacancies that they never advertise.

3. Professionals matching you to jobs.

Recruiters that receive your CV, can use their experience to match you to jobs that you are best suited for. Usually, the best paying jobs for your skills.

4. 100s of recruiters working for you instantly.

In minutes you can have 100s of recruiters searching through their database of jobs for suitable positions. How else can you get your CV out to so many recruiters?

To accelerate your job search go ahead and get your CV reviewed and distribute it to employers and recruiters with live jobs for only £19.97, click here.

All the best with your job search,

Rudolf

© Copyright CV Profile

New figures suggest quite a different picture. Langley James have completed a survey of candidates that registered with them in January 2009. The results were as follows:

1. Only 5% have found a new position, leaving the other 95% still seeking that perfect opportunity
2. 30% of candidates had not yet managed to secure an interview, with the average number of interviews amounting to just one
3. More than a third of candidates asked would be willing to accept up to 10% lower than their expected salary in the current climate, with some candidates even stating that they would take a salary cut of up to 40%
4. 22% of the responses however, found that candidates simply could not lower their salary expectations due to rising living costs

These stats are based upon the IT job sector, one of the only sectors where hiring figures is higher than firing.

Action Plan:
Maximise your interview exposure now by forwarding your CV directly to 100s of targeted, approved recruiters in your industry.

• CV Broadcaster - get access to unadvertised jobs
• Connect directly with recruiters in minutes instead of months and get access to unadvertised jobs
• We have hundreds of companies and recruitment agencies looking to recruit
• This amount of exposure can take months off your job search
• Sign up for CV Broadcast and we’ll review your CV and send it to recruiters looking for candidates with your skills and experience
• £19.97

Click here to send your CV now.

© Copyright CV Profile

“Against this backdrop, graduates and school leavers need to sharpen their case for being picked ahead of their classmates - and fast.” according to Gerwyn Davies, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development policy advisor.

In the CIPD report it shows that just 17% of employers plan to hire 16-year-olds leaving school in the quarter, while a third plan to hire school leavers at eighteen.

Less than a half of employers plan to hire university leavers and 45% and 54% of the private and voluntary sectors respectively are not planning to hire young people.

Desperate times requires… yes, it maybe time to get a professional to look at your CV. Or one of the most effective ways is to get it checked AND to distribute it to the right decision makers. For more info visit CV Broadcaster.

Take a moment and share this:

© Copyright CV Profile