Category Archives: project management resume

Underperforming Project Manager CVs

Our CV is a personal thing, in that we take it personally when we receive no feedback or rejection for jobs. After all we have spent hours of blood, sweat, and tears putting together a document which talks through our life’s work and it reads great to us so why don’t others get it? Lots of reasons I am afraid, it is difficult for you to be objective when you have spent so much time creating it and you understand what the jobs involved. To others though it can be a mix of lists and terminology which they have never come across before, and when they have literally hundreds of CVs to review they will not spend extra time trying to decipher or pick up the phone to ask you to clarify. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons a CV may be underperforming:

  • Gaps in the CV – naturally there will always be a gap or two in a CV, it is (thankfully) not the law that you must go from one role to the next without a break. But you do need to address the gaps, if you were travelling, then fine add in a line.
  • Nondescript profiles – this is very common on a CV, your profile needs to tell the reviewer what it is you do rather than telling them that you are motivated and have good time management – a given for a project professional surely!
  • failure or successLess is not more – often the more senior the PM Professional the less information they add to the CV. Big mistake, huge! As you will be a high earner and the role will demand a lot more, you need to address this and demonstrate your worth. Work hard to really drill down what your role involves and don’t be shy when talking through the project lifecycle – employers do want to see this, especially reviewers who may have a tick list which will inevitably involve a number of competencies based around the project lifecycle.
  • Poor grammar and spelling – yes, we’ve said this over and over but still this is prominent in a lot of CVs. Think about how others will view this, if you cannot construct a document which makes sense and is spelt correctly what type of communications will you be sending out to customers and internal staff!?
  • Structure – PM is all about structure, no matter how ad hoc you perceive yourself to be. Structure is important for success and demonstrating this on your CV with an easy to read, flowing document is a must.
  • Internal terminology – easy to use this especially if you have been a organisation for a while. However it makes little sense to people outside the business.

If you are applying for roles and not getting responses, equally if you have your CV in databases for recruitment agencies and online and no calls – it is time to go back to the drawing board and work on your CV.

We offer a free CV review for UK and EU residents at The CV Righter, you will receive honest constructive feedback and gain a better understanding of how your CV is viewed by a recruiter.

The rise of LinkedIn endorsements – Project Manager Skills Lists

We have seen LinkedIn evolving over the years and one feature which seems to becoming rather popular is the skill endorsement function. It is very easy to endorse our connections for various skills by “ticking a box” which is displayed in a list on our profiles. Quite an interesting function but does it really add value to your profile, because it is so easy to endorse others and those who have Skills listbeen endorsed may feel compelled to return the favour – which in essence isn’t a bad thing but if you are being endorsed for skills which others haven’t seen you demonstrate then the whole concept falls apart. It isn’t this aspect which I wish to address today; it is the perceived value of a list of skills on your profile which often takes the place of a CV for those interested in gaining a new role. I was talking with a client the other week that had a comprehensive list of skills on his CV, when I pointed out that it is not the best use of limited space on the CV and lists don’t help hiring managers – he questioned (quite rightly) why. I completely understand the need for adding in keywords but with no context the reviewer cannot see where/when/how they were used, therefore they should be integrated into the role remits with further detail on what that skill means in that role. When I pushed back with my client and asked why he was so keen to keep the list, he said that he had a lot of endorsements for skills on LinkedIn and felt that this must be the trend moving forward. I suggested a link to his LinkedIn profile on the top of his CV might be a more valuable way of offering up additional information to hiring managers, after all if you are to place a link to your profile there should be extra information there not just a carbon copy of your CV. With LinkedIn profiles it is a good opportunity to talk through further information and tempt in those recruiting through the website and then when they make contact you will have a CV which can back up the information provided – so it works both ways!

Case Study – Project Manager not securing interviews

Last month I worked with a client who we shall call Matt, he is a Project Manager who implements bespoke software solutions. Working closely with clients Matt takes the project from scoping in conjunction with the account management team right through to business as usual. Matt was made redundant at the end of December and decided to take a few weeks break as he had been with the company for a Head in handsnumber of years and felt a short break with the comfort of his redundancy payout was well deserved. When Matt came to start applying for jobs (bearing in mind he had not been on the job market for a number of years), he found that his applications were going into a black hole – rarely receiving acknowledgement.

 

We talked through how he was applying for roles and he was covering all the usual approaches such as online applications, registering with agencies, making his CV searchable on all the large job websites and using his contacts for advice/referrals/insider information etc. I performed a review of Matt’s CV with him over the phone, pointing out the areas which weren’t adding value and also clarifying information, as it soon became clear that he was selling himself short with the information he was supplying.

At the end of the call, Matt told me he’d never had such a thorough review of his CV and that asking recruiters he was told it was OK. I pointed out that calling up already very busy recruiters for feedback might not be the best route as they are often just trying to get you off the phone so they can get on with filling roles. Also the recruiters might not have an in depth knowledge of Project Management and so wouldn’t really know where to start in teasing out the relevant information. At the end of the review, Matt explained he was very low on funds and couldn’t justify paying out for a professional CV writing service as his house was soon going to be at risk. I sensed his desperation and supplied him with some support documentation which together with his notes from the review would arm him to rewrite the CV himself. I offered to review the CV again once he had rewritten it and told him to spend some time over the weekend working on it.

On the following Monday I had another call from Matt who told me he needed to secure a job within 3 weeks and he had sat down to write his CV but was struggling to articulate himself, he decided to take the CV writing service and I promised to coach him in addition to sorting the CV. We worked together to create a fresh CV, performed a skills audit and worked through effective job application coaching.

At the start of the process, Matt was panicky and deflated – by the end (which we conducted an intense few sessions to quickly get him in a good position) he was reinvigorated and had a new found confidence in his abilities. Within hours of loading his CV online he had recruiters calling him and also started to receive call backs from the roles he applied direct to. Within a week he had 3 interviews secured, by week 2 he was on second interview stage with 2 companies and by week three he had an offer for a job he really wanted.

We did it!Matt called me to thank me and told me he was initially hesitant to engage because of his financial situation but now realised it was the best investment he had ever made towards his career.

Advice I always give to those who are between contracts or made redundant is to try job applications with your current CV and see what kind of response you get, but always set aside a budget for support services such as CV writing and don’t waste your money on services which do not understand where you are coming from. You may not need the assistance, but as Matt found out, sometimes you may just need that helping hand. The most common comment I receive from those who contact me is that they just need to get through the door of the interview and they know they will do fine, but actually getting their foot through the door is the issue.

Project Manager CV writing services

Writing your CV doesn’t come naturally to a lot of people and Project Professionals particularly find it difficult to strike a balance between getting the project information versus the core competencies. This is understandable as there is often a great deal of detail you wish to include and in doing so, key criteria is missed out completely. Knowing what the hiring managers want to see has changed over the years and with the volume of job applications increasing for roles you are unlikely to be called in for an interview to discuss the missing parts when there are those who have clear and concise documents which do have the correct balance of information.

I was talking with a recent client who had previously had her CV professionally written and one of the bullet points stated Change Management – I probed what this involved in that role and she said she hadn’t actually done any CM in that role but had been advised to state it anyway. I pointed out that should she secure an interview with the CV that she would inevitably be asked to expand, as there was no detail and it is a point of interest for a Project Manager job. She became very concerned that her CV was not saying the right things and began to question the advice she had received from the service she had invested time, money and faith into. I have come across a number of CVs which have been professionally written, which either don’t make sense or are limited in content – the problem with not using a CV writing service which is specialist in your field. At the CV Righter we work with you to understand where your skill-set lies and help you achieve a CV which will draw attention for the right reasons, we look to add that extra information about your style and where you go above and beyond the role. Setting you apart from your competitors is crucial to getting you on that shortlist for interview.

Service your CV

Do not make assumptions about the reviewer of your CV – they can come from all sorts of backgrounds and may not necessarily understand Project Management, you need to be hitting the right keywords but also adding in context to make the information understandable to all.

Identifying a CV service which is right for you and your skill-set is important – just because it is cheap or very expensive, doesn’t mean you will be getting value for money. Ask for a review of your CV before engaging services and see what their understanding of your experience is, it is all well and good pointing out grammatical errors and formatting – but what will they do with the content and how will they work with you to achieve a good, strong, honest document which will harvest results?

 

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