Can we be frank with one another? Do you mind if I\’m straight with you? If you would prefer me to beat about the bushes, don\’t read on – I\’m in a straight-talking kind of mood today!
Councillor Simon Wheeler, Mayor of Cheltenham opened The Jobs Show at Cheltenham Racecourse.
I\’ve been exhibiting at several job shows over the last few weeks and I\’ve completed dozens of cv reviews as a result. Most of which had very similar feedback! The very things that used to make me scream when I was screening CVs as a recruiter, are still showing up now that I\’m The Dream Job Coach and I\’m on a mission to get them gone so that you can improve your chances of getting an interview for your dream job!
Jamie McDonald Opens Beaufort Cooperative School Jobs Fair with Richard Graham MP and The High Sheriff of Gloucester.
If you still have these things on your CV you need dream job coaching! (I warned you I was going to be straight!)
Here\’s my top five, in no particular order, followed by the BIG ONE! The comments come from my \”employer mindset.\”
1. \”I work really well on my own or as part of a team.\” – Yep, you and everybody else!
2. References available on request. – I know they are and if you haven\’t got any, you won\’t get the job!
3. Your date of birth. – I don\’t need to know; it\’s illegal for me to discriminate… Oh and I can guess your age anyway from the date of your qualifications, the dates of your jobs and often, from your email address (yourname1974@hotmail.com) – Born in 1974 then!
4. Your postal address, right up top, taking up nearly a third of the page. – Is where you live really the most important thing you want to tell me?
5. Irrelevant qualifications and jobs from decades ago! – Are you telling me that you\’re the same person now as you were then?
Finally, your personal profile. Is it personal? Have you even got one? Read it back and ask yourself these questions:
Could this only be about me? Or…. Could this be about anyone?
If you\’ve answered \”YES\” to the first question and you\’ve just read something upbeat, positive and downright irresistible to your potential employer, I would like to shake you by the hand and say \”Good luck in your new job!\” with a big smile on my face because you, my friend, are on your way.
If you answered a begrudging \”Er, yes, I suppose so…\” to the second question, you\’re in trouble. Employers don\’t want to employ just anyone. They certainly don\’t want to employ a list of qualifications and job titles. Here\’s a shocker: Employers are human! And they want to employ another human to work with them, in their team and for their customers.
So, in a nutshell: Be human! Tell them about YOU and what YOU can do for them…
Join the dots for them. Explain how the things that you\’ve been doing during your current job, at Uni, in your spare time, while you\’ve been volunteering / traveling / taking a career break are relevant to the work they need doing now. Tell them what you love about what you do and about what they do! Show them examples of when you actually worked in a team and what your contribution was. Give them links to your website / linkedin / twitter so they can see what kind of a wonderful person you are and look at some of your work, if appropriate.
- Be proud of your achievements
- Show some humour (careful!)
- State your intentions
- Get focused on what you want to achieve for them
Your Dream Job is worth it!
Would you like some help with this?
Call me: 07766 250192 Let\’s get to work!
