Elvis has left the film in

I know that in France and other parts of the continent a picture on a CV is fairly commonplace but it’s not in the UK.  For one thing, it puts the reader in a very difficult position regarding potential discrimination.  Furthermore, those pictures rarely flatter the owner, and if they do the chances are that a face to face meeting will be a disappointment.

However, because of social media things are changing.  As Steve Hampshire, a north London based photographer with over 15 years experience working in corporate photography says:

“Things definitely are changing. More and more people who use social media are coming to me for better quality head and shoulder shots because they know their profile image is so important.”  

We’re expected to include a picture on our Linkedin and Facebook profiles and since most employers look you up on these platforms during the selection process it seems to me that holding back from including it on your CV is in one sense, a bit pointless.  It’s true that CV’s are still printed off and the quality of the image under such circumstances is often very poor, but still, the image is typically first viewed on the screen where it will probably look OK.

I’m not saying you now need to include a mugshot on your CV, but I suspect that as time progresses it’s going to be less peculiar to do so.

What this does mean, however, is that you need to think about that image, and what it says about you. I use Linkedin a fair amount and I’m struck by the number of poor and inappropriate pictures I see on what is supposed to be a professional profile.  It’s a bit like starting your CV with a statement along the lines of:

“I like to go to the seaside and build sandcastles.  I know I have a large blotchy body but don’t worry, what’s important is that you know I’m a fun family guy.”

Save those pictures for Facebook and other kiddy websites. Linkedin is for your career so use an image that shows you as you’d like your customers and employer to imagine you.

Steve Hampshire again:

“It’s my job as a photographer, to get the balance right by  producing a selection of well lit, well shot images ensuring that the end result projects the sitter as professional, confident and most importantly approachable. Switched on people want their profile shots to build confidence right from first viewing.”

If the point of the picture is to help in some small way to build rapport with the reader of your Linkedin profile, then there are four important rules to follow:

• Make it a head shot
• Don’t set it against a busy background
• Wear appropriate clothing for your work
• Smile

I recently asked a group of interim managers on Linkedin about whether or not to use a professional photographer and most agreed that a professionally taken photograph sends the right message, although there were several who were happy with what they felt were well taken pictures by friends.

I’m not so sure.  A professional knows how to compose and light a picture better than an amateur and, more to the point, when you pay someone to do a photo session with you they will take as many as 300 images. They’ll get you to pose, they’ll get you to change location and clothes and they’ll send you a disc with all of those images so you can choose from amongst them.  The last photo session I did resulted in around 180 good images, from which I regularly use three or four depending on the requirement.

Going through your holiday snaps and cropping a headshot out of one of them is not the way to get yourself a professional looking image.  Remember, first impressions are now drawn from your social media presence, not your CV or first interview.  Expect to be searched on Linkedin and Facebook, and therefore think carefully about what you want people to see when they do so.

My next morning workshop, Preparing for Interviews, takes place on February 9th in London.  Details here.

BEWARE: This is a trap!

Few people are aware of just how much of an impact reception sofas can have on your success in the job interview.  It’s a bit like that butterfly wings thing they talk about.  You know, how a butterfly beating its wings in a hedgerow in Kent can set of a chain of events that end up with an iceberg breaking off the Antarctic and drifting into the Pacific Ocean and causing environmental mayhem.

Except perhaps not as devastating to everyone.

Let me explain because by now I’m guessing that you are quickly becoming anxious about that interview coming up.

Have you ever noticed the furniture in corporate reception areas?  Big deep Chesterfield sofas.  low coffee tables that are just enough out of reach to make you lean too far forward to pick up the copy of the FT that’s sitting there, tempting you to read it in the hope that it will make you look like you are interested in economics.

This is a recipe for complete job hunting disaster.  You think I’m exaggerating?  Think again.  I’m being serious.  Forget about the answers to interview questions.  Forget about building rapport with the interviewer.  Forget about remembering to ask some good questions when given the opportunity.  Of course these are all important, possibly even as important as making sure you don’t sit in the Chesterfield.

It’s an easy and forgivable mistake to make.  You pitch up and exchange a friendly smile with the person on reception, explain who you are and are immediately invited to take a seat while someone is called to take you to the interview room.  You think to yourself, “Why not?  It could be several minutes before the person arrives, and I need to compose myself, relax and feel at ease.  That lovely big sofa should do the job nicely, thank you.”  And so you take up the offer, settling yourself down, then wondering if your decline into the depths of this chasm of leather will ever end.

Contract cleaning firms have been known to discover people stuck down the back of these sofas hours after the interview was supposed to begin; the interviewer eventually assuming that the candidate had been overcome by the awe of the reception area and had second thoughts about going through with the whole process.

But let’s assume for one crazy moment that you’re not going to fall down the back of the sofa.  Does that mean you should sit there and read the FT?

I say no!

Nobody reads the FT in reception areas.  They are there for decoration.  Anyone who picks up the FT to read it is considered strange.  Reading any newspaper in the reception area is strange.

Here’s why.

Picture the scene:  You are sitting in the low sofa with a large newspaper spread out blocking out the field of vision of just about everyone in the same postcode zone.  Along comes the nice person who is either interviewing you or going to take you to the interviewer.  He or she checks it’s you.  ”Yes” you say and they proffer a hand for you to shake.  While all this has been going on you have been trying to fold up the newspaper while defying the laws of physics and physiology in an attempt to separate yourself  from the furniture.

By the time you succeed your host has lost all sensation in their hand, and has probably lost most of their interest in you.

Let’s wind it back.

The reception area of an organisation is full of valuable information for you.  It tells you about the atmosphere and culture of the place.  You just need to  know what to look for.

First of all the receptionist.  Apart from the absolute golden rule about being friendly and respectful (more employers than you imagine take a sounding from the receptions about how you behaved and treated them so be nice), how does he or she behave?  Alert? vibrant? polite? interested? knowledgeable as to what you are doing there? helpful? do they offer you anything?  What do you think a miserable receptionist says about the place?  This is your first impression of the organisation, and if you’ve read my blogs before you’ll know how important first impressions are.

Now, having introduced yourself you’ll be invited to take a seat.  Instead go to the toilet.  It’s another opportunity to learn a bit about the organisation.  It may be something a bit weird that I inherited from my dear mother, but I actually think a person’s lavatory tells a lot about them.  Besides, you might be relieved to have the opportunity to use it for a freshen up and to check your hair is where it’s supposed to be.

On returning to reception don’t sit down. Instead set your case or bag down on a chair in a way that makes it easy to pick up with your left hand.  That way when your host comes to meet you you’ll be ready to shake their right one.

Don’t read a newspaper.  They are difficult to dispose of neatly and easily when your host arrives to greet you.  Besides, you won’t learn anything about the company by reading the FT, unless the company is front page news following a dramatic collapse in the share price or they are being investigated by the FSA or something, in which case, you don’t want to embarrass them by being seen to be reading all about it.  Wait until you get home.

On the other hand there may be some useful leaflets and publications from the organisation to pick up and scan.  this shows interest, may actually be informative, and will probably be fairly easy to put down when the time comes.  I’m not saying it will be boring in a put-downable way, just physically easy to  put down.  Although, come to think of it, it probably will be rather boring. These things usually are.  Oh, and maybe there’ll be some posters around that tell you something about the place and people, or an art exhibition they are sponsoring.   Taking note of all this stuff is much more useful to you than yesterday’s closing bond prices.

Another fun thing to do in the reception area is called “watch the employees walk through and try to decide if they enjoy their job”.  It’s not an accurate reflection of corporate morale, but it’s not a bad thing to be thinking about as you embark on your journey of deciding whether to spend a third of the upcoming phase of your life doing what they’re doing.

Anyway,  that’s why flapping around with a newspaper can end up ruining your job prospects.

If you want to know how to prepare really well for interviews attend my half-day workshop in London on Friday, December 16th.  Only £45 plus VAT, the class is restricted to a maximum of just ten people so you get plenty of attention.  DETAILS HERE.

It’s called “Systeme D” and it’s what you might otherwise know as the black economy, but that would be to characterise it as individuals selling dodgy gear out of the back of a van, or pirate DVDs in pubs.  All that sort of thing is a part, but only a part of Systeme D, a global system worth an estimated $10 trillion each year.

The name “Systeme D” derives from the term débrouillard - a word that describes those people who are willing to take a risk and operate outside the stifling legitimate system.   These are the people that come up with clever ideas and work out how to implement them, they are adaptable to changing circumstances, finding ways around obstacles and, importantly, they don’t let official regulations hold them back.

It’s a particularly pertinent idea in French speaking Africa where so much happens under the radar, but it’s a worldwide phenomena and it accounts for, according to estimates from the OECD, almost 2 billion people – that’s half the world’s working population.

However Systeme D is not a mutually exclusive working environment.  Sure, there are those who are only working in this way, but there are many people who work in the legitimate economy, paying taxes as they should on some of their earnings while doing a little extra on the side that goes undeclared.  This isn’t new.  If it’s not the garage mechanic who will do the occasional job for cash, it’s your neighbour who runs a market stall at the weekends to pay for the second holiday.

Systeme D: thriving in the UK

What is significant is that this economy is set to expand as the way we work changes.  More and more people are building portfolio careers where they mix a full-time job with a tidy little sideline or do odd bits of private consultancy, and there are those who have a number of different jobs and are easily able to hide some of their income from the taxman.

The world is becoming a place where fewer and fewer people are declaring all of their income to the taxman.

My guess is that the tax game is changing much faster than HMRC is willing admit.  They may be claiming to be winning the battle against tax avoidance, and in their latest figures they say that uncollected taxes are at their lowest since 2004/5, but HMRC is fighting a losing battle.  The rules have changed.  Now governments tax us where they can, and they know that fewer and fewer people are declaring all their earnings and there’s nothing they can do about it.

According to 2009/10 figures from HMRC the amount of uncollected VAT, income, National Insurance and capital gains tax was around £26bn, of which £1.3bn was estimated to come from people who don’t declare any of their income and £1.8bn from those who moonlight and don’t declare income from second jobs.  This seems to me to be a fairly unsophisticated picture of the world of work.  Many people have multiple income sources and it’s going to be increasingly difficult to assess which are above the line and which below.  Estimates of uncollected taxes are going to become more and more inaccurate. I think the above combined total of £3.1bn is probably at the very low end of the estimated range.

The taxation culture is changing and my guess is that we will soon be living in a society, if we aren’t already, where it is considered perfectly acceptable to pay tax on some of our earnings but not all, and nobody will truly consider themselves to be doing anything terribly wrong.  It will be thought of as a way, in a world where real pay is in decline, to claw back some of what the individual is losing, because here in the west it’s becoming harder and harder to earn a decent living.

Perhaps this is why HMRC is now making efforts to go after unpaid taxes stuffed away in Swiss bank accounts.  It’s easier pickings than the cash your neighbour stuffs into his back pocket at the Sunday morning boot sale.  Until recently it hasn’t been worth the expense and hassle of going after that money.  It’s a bit like the way oil companies only go for difficult to extract oil when there isn’t enough of the easy stuff left to suck out of the ground.

Systeme D may have been born in the developing world, but it’s a system that is set to dictate the workings of the global economy of the future, and everyone’s relationship with the tax system.

My next workshop is Interview Preparation and it takes place on December 16th.  Details here.

If you want to delay something, use one of these, not your CV

I’m seeing a lot of CV’s these days with a skills section early on, either after or as part of the profile statement.  I like a profile statement (as long as it’s well written and free of superlatives and self-raising fluff) but I just don’t see the value of the skills section for the vast majority of people.  What a skills section does is delay the reader from getting to where they need to be – your achievements.

Let’s get the exceptions out of the way first.

Skills are particular, let’s say technical, abilities.  If you put anything near the top of a CV it’s because the reader needs to see it quickly.  Often it’s the sort of information that the employer will be screening on.  If you’re going for a job as a surveyor, there’s a good chance the potential employer will want to know that you are qualified, so you’d put RICS right up there near the top.  That’d be OK.

Similarly, if you’re in IT you might use your Key Skills section to list the programming languages or platforms you work with.

There’s no value in using the skills section for soft skills like leadership, communications, negotiation, etc.  At this stage it’s just your fluffy opinion.  I want evidence that you are a good negotiator, not just you telling me you are.  For evidence I mean examples, and the examples are found in your achievements under each role.

The Key Skills or Key Strengths or whatever you want to call it section is a bad thing because I’m likely to respond to those claims with either “That’s obvious” or “Prove it”.

Let’s take a look at a couple of examples from recent CV’s I’ve been looking at:

A marketing director put amongst her key skills “Experience in managing below the line campaigns”.

What’s the problem with that?  Well, first of all, it doesn’t surprise me in the least that someone reaching the level of marketing director  has experience of below the line campaigns.  What surprises me is that they feel the need to make the point – as if they don’t have much of it, or perhaps they’re hiding the fact that they don’t have above the line experience.  Second, Just because she’s experienced doesn’t mean she’s any good at it, so I’m going to be looking for examples of her ability in the CV anyway.  In the end, my response to the claim is “So what?” and you really want to avoid people thinking “So what?” when they read your CV.

Here’s another example from an accountant:

“Excellent negotiating skills”

Fine.  Prove it.  What this candidate has done is to flag up something I’m going to want to see a good example of later on.  If there are no examples of negotiation in the achievements I’m going to be scratching my head very hard.

Stop putting off the reader. Stop packing your CV with padding.  Get me to your career history and your achievements as quickly as possible.  If I’m trying to make decisions on which six out of 60 CV owners to interview don’t try my patience with fluff.  Cut  to the chase!

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My next workshop for jobsearchers is all about networking.  It’s a really important aspect of the jobsearch process and too few people do it, usually because they are frightened.  there’s no need to be scared fo networking because proper networking doesn’t require you to go cap in hand asking anyone for  job.  I’ll show you painless networking and once you start doing it, the quicker you’ll have your next job.  

Here are details and the registration form for the workshop – I look forward to seeing you.

What I’ve realised is that nobody takes much notice of the pre-packed Chapter leader’s speech, nor any of the other scripted bits.  They just accept it as how the thing works.  The barely disguised indifference displayed even by those reading out the lines can only mean one thing:  ”Get over yourself, Nick”.  You can pretty much hear the silent voices in everyone’s head – “yeah, yeah. Heard it before.  Let’s get on with it”, as they shuffle business cards into the big tray, scribble out referral notes and post their thank you cards.

What did it for me in the end was two things:  1) the group I’ve applied to join is friendly and they have a good laugh with each other, and 2) they are all serious about their business, and understand that networking is a tool you use to market your business, not something you do online because you don’t have much of a business to work in.

I’m going to hate getting up early and I’m going to resent feeling humiliated if I can’t bring a referral to a meeting.  Nonetheless, I’m looking forward to doing something I know I can and have done regularly over the years – making networking connections for people.

I’m also looking forward to finally finding a plumber who will think twice about stitching me up.

If you want to learn how to network successfully as part of your job search then don’t miss my next workshop on November 15th in London.  It’s called Effective Networking Masterclass and you can find further details here.

Would you get up really early for a breakfast meeting if this was for breakfast? I would.

This morning I attended my first BNI (Business Network International) meeting.  A friend asked if I’d like to go along and when she first mentioned it I bristled.  My perception of BNI was of hard sell American style ra-ra-ra and rapped knuckles if you’re a naughty chapter member and don’t bring referrals.

Even calling the groups “Chapters” puts me off.  As does Ivan Misner’s hair. Oh, and don’t forget:  Givers Gain®

More than anything, getting up at 6am for a 6.45 meeting was exactly what I promised myself I would never do after adopting Andrew’s advice, and I certainly wasn’t going to sleep with all 60 odd of the people with whom I found myself munching waffles in order to fall in with his condition.

Nonetheless I went along as a favour to my friend who, I thought, had asked me in order to fulfil her obligation to offer up fresh meat to the massed ranks of hungry networkers.

As it turned out I was very pleasantly surprised, once I got over the distinctly American patter, and boy there sure is a lot of American patter.  In fact the whole thing appeared to be done from a script and it sounded like the script is read out, verbatim, week after week.  I’m sure after a short time people start to switch off.

The central part of the morning is the 60 second commercial.  I’m used to this because I teach it in my own networking workshops.  Again, with a large group I imagine people switch off if they get the same pitch every week and it’s badly delivered.  The advice I was given is to keep it varied and try to engage the audience as much as possible.  I heard some good pitches and some distinctly mediocre ones this morning.  I’m sure there’s plenty of truth in the comment I read from one cynic in the blogosphere who said that nobody hears what others are saying because until it’s their turn they’re consumed with worry about whether their pitch will go OK, and after they’ve done it they’re consumed with worry about whether it went OK.

Then there’s the 10 minute pitch where one member gives an in depth introduction to their business.  The whole point of all this, of course, is to drill yourself into the minds of your “sales-force” so that you are top of mind when they’re out there talking to other people and hearing about a need that you might be able to solve.  I’m pretty sure it works when it’s done well, and for it to be done well it needs a group of people who understand networking and know how to do it.

So is BNI for you?

First, take a good look at the group itself.  Use the opportunity to visit it a couple of times and notice your first impressions.  Did you enjoy the experience?  Did you think the people there were likely to be good networkers?  Were there enough people in industries that you think are likely to be in touch with your target market? Are they a successful group with lots of referrals flying around in a lively atmosphere?  If you can answer yes to those questions then the group has potential.

Then, I reckon, you need to ask yourself the following questions:

1. Am I willing to live with the structure and style of the meetings?
2. Am I willing to commit to getting up at an insufferable time once a week?
3. Am I willing to get to know a lot of people well enough to be able to recommend them appropriately?
4. Am I willing to feel slightly humiliated if I don’t fulfil my obligations?
5. Do I have the potential to present myself well and build relationships with people?

I’m still deciding about whether BNI or the group I visited is right for me.  I’m also thinking carefully about whether I’m right for BNI.

If you want to learn how to network successfully as part of your job search then don’t miss my next workshop on November 15th in London.  It’s called Effective Networking Masterclass and you can find further details here.

If you do receive a letter or call that’s not the end of the process.  You’re unlikely to get the job, but it’s not the end of the process because it’s an opportunity to seek feedback.

The only way to guarantee feedback

The trouble is that most candidates are as bad at asking for feedback as employers are at letting candidates know they haven’t got the job.  The main reason is that they don’t ask for the right reasons.  They’ll pretend that they want the feedback in order to improve their performance for the next time, but really they are just hoping for another bite at the cherry, but like I said, that isn’t going to happen.

What happens therefore, is that candidates ask for feedback in a way that tells the interviewing company that they don’t really care about the feedback but they just want to look keen in case something happens and the door suddenly opens again.  This tactic is slightly more likely to work than you turning up to watch Manchester United in your replica shirt and being asked half way through the second half to start warming up because you’re going on to replace Rooney.

Nonetheless feedback is useful so it’s worth asking for.  You won’t get it all of the time even if you do ask in the right way.  You won’t even get it most of the time.  Employers hate giving feedback for various reasons and therefore what they do give, if they give any, is usually meaningless and unhelpful.  Here’s why:

1. They don’t want to get into a debate with people who decide that the feedback is wrong.
2. They’ve already made their decision not to take you to the next stage and have better things to do with their time.
3. The person who is letting you know is often not the person who interviewed you.  To get you feedback they’d have to go and find the person who is busy getting all excited about whoever has got to the next stage
4. Most of the time the real reason someone is not taken to the next stage is because the interviewer didn’t click with them and that’s a pretty harsh thing to say to someone
5. You didn’t ask for feedback in the right way.

That kind of feedback is all too common and not at all helpful. There are a few reasons for it, mainly:

1 They don’t want to get into a debate with candidates which can often happen if the feedback is responded to with a counter argument, e.g. “You didn’t give strong enough examples showing your leadership skills” can lead to an excuse and a series of new examples in the hope the the interviewers mind will be changed

2 They can’t be bothered to give useful feedback because it would require them thinking over the interview and they are no longer interested in you (although if they were smart they would realise that it would do their brand plenty of good if they were to be more helpful)

3  Candidates don’t ask the right question.

This last one is important for you. I don’t know how you asked for feedback but, as I said at the beginning of this post, most people just say “Thanks for letting me know, can I have some feedback about my interview as this will help me for next time?” or something similar.

It won’t guarantee a better response but you have more chance of getting something useful out of them if you say something like: “Thank you. Please will you let me know what I lacked that the successful candidates had, or what I might do better the next time I’m interviewed”.

In other words, ask for specific feedback about your experience, skills and performance rather than a vague questions that invites them to simply say “Another candidate was more suited to the role.”  This way they are invited to tell you more about what they were looking for, and that may be useful to you, especially if you find the same feedback occurring time and again, because that’s something you can work on or adapt to.

UPCOMING WORKSHOPS

Tuesday October 11th, 9am – 1pm London, Interview Preparation.  Click here for further details and registration

Peer support helps individuals to overcome both. The practical, in terms of supporting each other through the change with advice or ideas, the emotional by helping people through the loneliness, loss of confidence or motivation and, in some cases, anger. Emotional departure does not always happen at the same time as physical departure and the time lag can be difficult to cope with, causing a sense of isolation and possibly strong feelings of need for affiliation as well as rejection. Being able to maintain the connection with the company through other leavers can ease the transition.

Peer pressure helps individuals to move forward – it is quite common for people to lose their desire to get things done when there is nobody around to encourage them, or who rely on the outcome. At work we are often motivated by our desire not to let down colleagues or to appear unreliable. Peer support provides for this function.

The group can be made up of people in a range of ways. It may be open to any employees of an organisation that have been made redundant or are facing redundancy, people from a particular functional area within the company, or based on level of seniority. While some of the advantages of mutual understanding are lost if a group comprises people from different organisations, this situation still has the potential to foster a valuable experience for the members.

The pros and cons of each model are:

All Employees

Advantages

* Few people leaving

* Small, tight knit organisation

Disadvantages

* People with different needs and issues may not be able to help each other well

Functional group

Advantages

* People know each other well

* People understand each others’ needs in terms of employment aspirations

Disadvantages

* May be competition for jobs therefore some tension

* May lack the creativity that cross functional interaction brings

* May be a narrow skill set so some external help may be needed for some activities

* Different levels of employee may have little in common and senior people may be uncomfortable being as open with junior people

Seniority Groups

Advantages

* Common understanding of situation

* Cross pollination of expertise

* Openness and not too likely that there will be competition

Disadvantages

* Groups of junior people would benefit from the greater experience and contacts that may be derived from mixing with senior people (maybe in larger set up there is a possibility for matrix peer groups or just better to extend to outside the group if required)

There is no limit to group size, although 6 – 10 appears to be optimal. Any fewer and the benefits of shared tasks are reduced, any more and it’s harder for everyone to meet at the same time.

Part of the purpose of peer support is for the individuals to feel free to talk openly about their feelings, and this may mean expressing anger about what has happened. I call this “bite-back”. Bite-back cannot happen easily if the initiative is seen as being started or supported by the organisation itself. It is therefore important that support groups are formed independently and employees join a group only if they want to. The only intervention the company might provide is some information about such groups as part of the overall support programme so that people can take them up if they want to.

There is no optimum time for groups to start – it may be best to wait until people have finished work or as soon as they have been given notice. For some people, a break before beginning the process is required and these people may not want to do anything about their career transition for some time. For others, emotional support may be required regardless of whether or not they are ready to start the job search.

Meetings will benefit from regularity in order to foster and maintain momentum. Once a fortnight appears to work well – enough time for individuals to make progress between meetings, yet not so far apart that the impetus is lost. The meetings are a social occasion as well as for business. Make them relaxed and keep the agenda as loose as possible. The more “business” there is the less opportunity will there be for personal support.

There is no model for how your group might be shaped in terms of the topics it covers. In broad terms, there are three main categories:

Job or career help, including

Contacts for networking

Suggestions and advice about CV or letters

Looking out for possible opportunities for each other

Helping each other to identify strengths and weaknesses

Suggesting creative ideas for career change

Brainstorming specific agreed topics such as “How can we get experience of new work”

Practical support, including tax and financial planning issues

Researching the best suppliers of equipment or supplies

Negotiating with the employer as a group

Social and emotional support, including doing fun things together

Helping with travel / holiday arrangements

Being a comfort when under stress

Instilling confidence or motivation when either are waning.

Again, there are no recommendations for best practice in terms of the location of meetings. It comes down to what is most practical for the majority of members. This might mean a regular fixed venue or moving around. It could be members’ homes, a restaurant or bar, or some other public space like a hotel or serviced office.

Case Study: the New Futures Group

The New Futures Group was originally formed in early 2005 by seven senior managers at InterContinental Hotels in London. All took voluntary redundancy or were made redundant as part of a large re-organisation programme. The group was essentially social in nature, typically meeting over coffee or lunch. The initial value to the members was to retain a social network, gain and share practical support and maintain their connection with the company.

The group worked successfully because they shared values and felt trusted and understood by each other. This fostered individual motivation and pressure to complete the tasks that members set for themselves. It also provided opportunities to do fun things together such as a rather unsuccessful car boot sale!

The most obvious benefit was that rather than each person looking after their own issues in isolation, there were six other people thinking about them. This also meant that people could use complementary skills for their mutual benefit. The upshot was that each person had easy access to each other’s networks and networking activity grew very quickly for each member as a result.

They also advised each other on CV design, application letters and interview technique. Those with IT skills trained the others where necessary. Other examples of ways by which members of the New Futures Group supported each other were:

* Advice on purchasing business tools and supplies that had previously been provided by the company such as computers and broadband, mobile phones,cars and business cards.

* Financial matters: recommendations for IFA’s, insurance, medical cover, and sorting out pensions, tax and national insurance details as well as state benefits.

* Dealing with the company: The group members had common issues such as what to do about their share options and obtaining various papers and documents. Rather than each person dealing with the company on an individual basis, one person would take on the responsibility to handle the matters for everyone.

* Recommending recruiters and head-hunters.

Conclusions

Peer group support is widely recognised as a valuable channel for personal and professional development. As well as the benefits of resource sharing, a trusting group that has no obvious leader provides an environment that can be empowering for the individual. Members of the New Futures Group have been able to move through the career transition process with greater efficiency and vigour than many individuals would have managed alone. While the ideal situation is for former colleagues to work together, it is possible to form a successful peer support group with people leaving different organisations. Much of the benefit is still available and in the absence of former colleagues to work with, it is recommended above working alone.

Written in co-operation with Jacqueline Moyes, Head of Organisational Development at Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Hong Kong.

1. Use brightly coloured paper.  Given that nearly all CV’s are sent electronically this will certainly get you noticed.  However, it is such a blatant attempt to be noticed that it is likely to set a negative tone from the outset.  If you’re going to send your CV in the good old fashioned way, just use good quality white or cream.  Anecdotally, I understand that sending the hard-copy CV is enjoying something of a resurgence as people look for ways to be noticed.  Certainly letters are rarely sent and received in business and it may well get you noticed, however, my worry is that recruiters and HR departments are so geared up to electronic receipt of CV’s that you may just fall out of the process if you don’t conform.  So how about sending along an electronic version as well?
   

   Yes, OK, you can use Comic Sans, but nobody else please.

2. Use the Comic Sans font, preferably in a mad colour.  Let’s face it, Times New Roman and Arial are so boring aren’t they?  What about something that says “I’m fun”?  If you’re seriously contemplating using Comic Sans then step away from the keyboard now!  It doesn’t say “I’m fun”, it says “Don’t take me seriously because I’m as gauche as wearing socks with open toe sandals”.   If you’re thinking about using any other obscure font, just remember that there’s a chance that it will not be recognised at the other end of the internet, and if that’s the case an alternative font will be used which could mean either that the formatting goes out and you end up with overhanging lines, or worse, that it converts your lovely font into gobbledegook.
3. Include a photo of yourself.  Preferably one taken on the beach when you were in your early twenties, or while out on the lash with your mates.  This shows that you’re a fun loving person who likes to enjoy life and has plenty of friends.  On second thoughts,  Don’t.  I know there are some parts of the world that like a picture but unless your image is what you are selling, for example as a model or actor, how you look is totally irrelevant and can only be a potential source of discrimination.  If you really feel it will enhance your chances and enable you to stand out from the crowd, at least get a professional quality picture that makes you look professional, but remember, once it’s been through a low quality printer at the other end, you’re always going to look dreadful.
4. Ditch the standard CV – create an animated CV or a movie or make a website.  There’s nothing more useful for someone recruiting a facilities manager than to know that the candidate is a whizz at creating Flash animations.  Similarly, people just love to have to scour several lurid web pages for the information that could so succinctly be provided in an easy to read two or three page Word document.  If you have a personal or professional web-page or blog, by all means include the URL and invite people to visit it, but don’t substitute it for a standard CV.
5. Have your hard copy CV delivered by stripper-gram.  This will certainly grab the attention of the recruiter or HR Partner.  Please make sure you know the gender and sexuality of the recipient, it would be a terrible shame to go to the expense of such an outstanding stunt sending along a gorgeous girl in fishnets, suspenders, top hat and tails only to find that your target is gay.

It’s all about making the process run smoother and who can blame the corporates for wanting that?  It’s not their fault that the internet has, in part,  led to a massive increase in the number of applications per role.  With that in mind it’s hardly surprising that they have adopted technology that eases the screening process even if the efficacy of the systems are highly suspect.  The problem with this, and for you as a candidate, is that the successful candidate is never going to be the best person for the job. The successful candidate will be the best of those who have understood how to create a CV that gets them through the electronic screening process.

Chris Evert: fortunately never forced to put in a written application for her world ranking

Imagine if the world tennis rankings were decided on a process that first required players to write a letter in support of their claim as the best in the world, and that the only letters that made it into the final 20 all happened to include certain words that the tennis authorities were looking for.  Then, those twenty players competed in a tournament to decide the final rankings.  That’s a bit like how the internet has affected the recruitment market.

Still, that’s the game that over 80% of employers and recruiters have signed up to and you need to know how to play it, and to play it well you need to focus on those keywords.

Back at the dawn of electronic CV readers candidates were advised to include a keyword section right at the top of their document, the idea being that those 50  to 100 words would ensure that you were caught and seen as highly relevant for appropriate roles.  That’s no longer necessary as long as you make sure the right words are liberally used throughout your CV.  That’s easier done when you are responding to a specific role than when you are firing off your CV on a speculative basis to recruiters.

Here’s the deal.

When you are responding to a published job, analyse the ad or job description carefully, noting the IMPORTANT words, i.e. the words that go to the nub of what the employer is looking for.  These will be the likely search words so get them in to the CV three or four times at least.

If it’s a speculative approach and you are loading your CV into a resume bank the task is to make sure you know the search terms that are likely to be used for roles you are interested in.  That’s harder to do, but relevant job descriptions for other roles will help.

In both cases you should use job titles that are considered to be relevant for the role.  If you can’t adapt your own job title to fit, consider using the good job title as a descriptor of the role.  For example, if you are looking for a job where the favoured candidates are likely to currently be financial controllers, and your official job title is Senior Finance Manager, yet you are, to all intents and purposes a financial controller, consider using this as your job title.  While it may not be totally truthful, it is a more helpful label for both the reader and yourself and therefore I think it’s OK.  If there is any reason why you mustn’t or don’t feel comfortable calling yourself Financial Controller then consider including a line in the role description along the lines of “This was a Financial Controller position” so that the words are picked up.

You can find plenty of articles on line that tell you how to format your CV for these readers, and they’re worth digging out.  I’m not going to repeat that stuff here.

Electronic CV readers are not a passing fad.  They’re going to be relied upon more and more as part of the recruitment process, so you need to get the hang of how they work, and know what key words press the right buttons.  If you thought you could go through the job search process with just one version of your CV, think again.  You don’t only need to adapt your CV for each role, you need to have parallel versions of your CV purely for electronic readers.

I’m giving away my 50 page e-book “Create a Great CV”.  Click here if you’d like a copy.