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Looking for the perfect job can sometimes be a daunting prospect with many candidates often applying for the same role. You need to stand out from the crowd and a fantastic CV is the best way of doing this. Having a great CV will professionally introduce you to our clients and let them know all about your experiences, skills, and the value you can add to benefit their company.
When you create your CV ask yourself, what would you be looking for if you were an employer? Below are a few hints and tips to help you. For more support with your CV, please get in touch.
Hints & tips for a standout CV
Employers receive hundreds of CVs every year so here are a few pointers to make yours look professional and encourage companies to contact you:
- Include two separate and distinct sections: Your Personal Details followed by your Employment History
- Bullet point the text where possible to make it easy to read in an instant
- Show the most detail for recent positions only. Earlier roles can be summarised briefly to show your career progression.
- Qualifications should be restricted to professional qualifications and your highest academic achievements
- For shorter or trainee employment, more detail should be given to provide a balanced overview of qualifications and achievements
- Most importantly, your CV should be relevant and tailored to each role you apply for
What is a competency-based interview?
During a competency-based interview each candidate is asked the same questions that have been designed to find out if there is a good match between your competencies and skills, and those required to do the job. These questions concentrate on your past experience so it’s a good idea to think about the skills you have gained in previous roles, helping your interviewer to understand if you have the ability to carry out the work required.
Why are they used?
It makes sense for interviewers to ask candidates about their professional background and competencies to see how they match the job requirements. This is also useful for candidates to assess whether the job matches their abilities so they can work out if the role is right for them too.
What is behavioural interviewing?
Behavioural interviewing helps to predict your future behaviour based on your past behaviour. For example, your interviewer may have identified certain skills and competencies needed for the role and will ask you to describe a specific instance in your past that relates to these.
Why is this used?
Employers will use your answers to understand more about the way you work and draw conclusions about how you are likely to react if you are faced with a similar situation in the future.
Some of the skills and qualities you may be evaluated on include problem solving, decision making, initiative/execution, handling details, technical expertise, flexibility, communication, conflict management, business acumen, achievement drive, leadership, stress management and teamwork.
The best approach to take when answering these types of questions is the SOAR interviewing approach, Situation, Opportunity, Action, Result.
- Situation: Give an example of a situation you were involved in that resulted in a positive outcome or learning experience and describe the tasks involved
- Opportunity: Discuss the opportunity you had to make things different during that situation
- Action: Talk about the various actions you took
- Result: Talk about the results that followed because of your actions
This method is a great way to show your interviewer more about your personality and capabilities because you are proving your strengths with real-life examples!
If you would like further help and training, please call our team on 01295 724570.
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