Category Archives: No

12 days of Christmas, No, Project Management Achievements, Seasons Greetings

On the 6th day of Christmas my true love gave to me…

On the 6^th day of Christmas my true love gave to me…

…6 Geese A-laying! Good for a hearty breakfast I am sure, but today we bring you: On the 6^th day of Christmas The CV Righter said to me 6 Key achievements, 5 Golden Rules, 4 Calling Cards, 3 Networks, 2 Referees and a killer CV!

The all important key achievements in your CV, the clue is in the naming here – KEY, meaning only highlighted ones. Not everything you have ever done and ACHIEVEMENTS meaning noteworthy pieces of work, not necessarily delivering projects on time and to budget as this is expected when you are a project manager. However it is OK to talk about projects which have faced significant challenges and if you are not a delivery person so have stepped up to the plate and delivered above and beyond the call of duty then talk about it.

I have written an article which addresses stating key achievements on your CV here.

Would you like an example achievement?? Of course you would – here:

Identifying the need for a programme management framework within a large blue chip company – on agreement, tasked with defining the associated processes and controls, recruiting a team in cross functionally to embrace and embed new method, ensuring full training administered. Resulting in a 20% improvement in project delivery across the organisation.

Only you can sing your praises, so please stop being so British about things and actually tell the hiring manager just how good you are!

On the 1^st day of Christmas The CV Righter gave to me a Killer CV

On the 2^nd day of Christmas The CV Righter said to me Two Referees

On the 3^rd day of Christmas The CV Righter gave to me Three Networks

On the 4^th day of Christmas The CV Righter said to me 4 calling cards

On the 5^th day of Christmas The CV Righter gave to me 5 golden rules

On the 6^th day of Christmas The CV Righter said to me 6 Key achievements

12 days of Christmas, Job Hunting, No, Planning, Recruitment

On the 5th day of Christmas my true love gave to me….

Nicola Caswell-Thorp Leave a comment

On the 5^th day of Christmas my true love gave to me….

….5 Gold Rings! How generous, but in-line with our theme today we are going for: On the 5^th day of Christmas The CV Righter gave to me 5 golden rules, 4 calling cards, 3 networks, 2 referees and a killer CV!

The 5 golden rules of job hunting:

1. Research – that’s right, when looking for a new role you need to put in the effort and research roles which meet your skill-set. Just because your current job title says XXXXX doesn’t mean that your skill-set matches the market standard for that role and job titles are always misleading so look through some job descriptions and get to understand where you sit in the current job market.
2. Make a list – Make a start by putting a list together of the types of jobs which fall under your remit and list out key skills you have. You can use these as search criteria for job boards and also by searching directly in the search engines – you’d be surprised how many “hits” you get with direct employers, leading you to company websites advertising the roles direct.
3. Focus – Keep to the roles you can meet 90% of the competencies listed, by doing so you keep your applications and own admin down to a manageable size and can spend more time on fewer applications making sure you are tweaking your CV and writing relevant cover notes.
Make another list – put together a spreadsheet of where you have applied to and through which websites, when etc. so you can be organised when you start getting calls from HR / recruiters etc. it does make all the difference when you sound organised on these calls.
5. Follow up – follow up applications with a call, not immediately after clicking “send” but a day or two later to speak with the person handling your application. Make sure it has arrived and ask if there is anything else they require from you at this point. End the call asking when you can expect to hear from them with a response.

On the 1^st day of Christmas The CV Righter gave to me a Killer CV

On the 2^nd day of Christmas The CV Righter said to me Two Referees

On the 3^rd day of Christmas The CV Righter gave to me Three Networks

On the 4^th day of Christmas The CV Righter said to me 4 calling cards

On the 5^th day of Christmas The CV Righter gave to me 5 golden rules

12 days of Christmas, Networking, No, Project Management Communications, Recruitment, The CV Righter

On the 4th day of Christmas my true love gave to me…..

Nicola Caswell-Thorp Leave a comment

On the 4^th day of Christmas my true love gave to me…..

….. 4 calling birds! Today we have chosen: On the 4^th day of Christmas The CV Righter said to me 4 calling cards, 3 networks, 2 referees and a killer CV!

It is important to pick carefully the contacts you keep in touch with when looking for a new job and as such ideally you should be picking 2 recruitment agencies and 2 job boards. This doesn’t mean you ignore all others but as you research agencies and job boards in a new job search you will quickly find that there are some which are far more relevant to your skill set and their behaviours towards you as a prospective candidate.

Some job boards are better than others and some more focussed on your field – by setting up “jobs by email” alerts, following their twitter accounts and “liking” their Facebook pages so you receive updates in your news feed you can reduce down the unnecessary and irrelevant information being sent to you.

Likewise with recruitment agencies you can get a feel for the types of roles dealt with and how they treat you as a candidate – do they demonstrate an interest in you and wanting to find you the right role or are you just another applicant in the long list of others.

If you are fortunate enough to build up relationships with recruiters it is a good way to keep fresh in their minds as new opportunities are being qualified and you are more likely to get a call before a job advert is even created.

It is all a big learning curve with job boards and agencies so you may find oyu change your favourites list as you progress through applications or as you realise that your endeavours are not harvesting the effort you put in.

Here is an article talking through Project Management specific job boards which you may find useful.

On the 1^st day of Christmas The CV Righter gave to me a Killer CV

On the 2^nd day of Christmas The CV Righter said to me Two Referees

On the 3^rd day of Christmas The CV Righter gave to me Three Networks

On the 4^th day of Christmas The CV Righter said to me 4 calling cards

12 days of Christmas, Careers Advice, Job Applications, Networking, No, Seasons Greetings

On the 3rd day of Christmas my true love gave to me….

Nicola Caswell-Thorp Leave a comment

On the 3^rd day of Christmas my true love gave to me….

….. 3 French Hens! Or for our theme: On the 3^rd day of Christmas The CV Righter gave to me Three Networks, Two Referees and a Killer CV!

Today we’ll cover the three main networks available for free to everyone; LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter – all three of these online social networking sites have plus and minus points. But when you are looking to identify and secure a new job, the plus points outweigh the negatives. You can manage your privacy on all of these networks and I actively encourage you to do so – you could even set up specific accounts for job hunting, clearly your LinkedIn account only needs to be as is and you should look to continue maintaining it and your contacts once you secure a new role as it important when using such a business networking site that you do not pester your contacts when you need a job and then drop off the radar until the next time you need assistance.

Your Twitter account can be used to join in discussions and follow job tweets and also is a good way to start making contact with specific recruiters (as the phone seems to be an impossible barrier at times). Facebook business pages seem to be growing by the day and so are the recruitment adverts, an easy way to integrate your usual Facebook activities is by having job updates in your news feed.

Relevant articles can be found here:

On the 1^st day of Christmas The CV Righter gave to me a Killer CV

On the 2^nd day of Christmas The CV Righter said to me Two Referees

On the 3^rd day of Christmas The CV Righter gave to me Three Networks

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Making Your CV Project You