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It’s crucial on your curriculum vitae (CV) and during an interview that you insist upon making an example of yourself!

Why? It’s so easy to make claims about being able to work in a team or work on your own initiative, (claims that 99% of administration staff make on their CV by the way), but it’s another thing to example these claims. So, if you’d like to make your CV stand out from the crowd and your answers to pack more of a punch during an interview, make sure you provide real life examples to back up your claims.

On your CV, provide a concise list of achievements under your personal profile. I’m amazed that more people don’t do this. If you believe that an interviewer will go hunting, on your behalf, to establish your achievements by reading and re-reading your CV, you’re mistaken! Your achievements need to be concisely typed and placed beneath your personal profile where they stand out.

Your personal profile may, for example, detail that you’re passionate about customer service and nestled below in your achievements you could , (if it were true), detail that you were given a Customer Service Champion award in 2012. This would be an excellent example of positive reinforcement through providing an example and would have massively increased your chances of being placed in the yes pile of CV’s.

Exactly the same is true once you have secured an interview. It’s absolutely crucial that you rehearse your answers to typical interview questions by practicing your answers which incorporate cast iron examples. For example, if, during an interview, you were asked what your biggest strength is, you could answer in these two ways:

You could simply state, “My attention to detail” or you could explain:

“My attention to detail. For example, in my current role I am responsible for collating the sales team’s data on a weekly basis for my sales director. It’s absolutely crucial that it’s accurate because it’s used to calculate their bonuses. My data is double checked by the Finance Director and I’ve got a 100% record for the last 4 years”.

Who do you think made the best example of themselves? Answer: The same person who just got offered a new job! Whether you are composing your CV or answers to interview questions make sure you evidence every skill with a cast iron guarantee.

For more help on writing a great CV, getting prepared for interviews and general recruitment advice for getting the Best Jobs in Milton Keynes, please go to our website: www.ascendantrecruitment.co.uk

With so much discussion about austerity, belt tightening, and general down beat forecasts you could be forgiven for worrying about your future career prospects – or indeed whether you’ll have a job next week! For what it’s worth, we’re sure that things are beginning to improve. Nevertheless, if you are concerned about the future, it can pay to evaluate whether or not your employer considers you a good employee – and, of course, how motivated your employer will be to retain your services if the going gets really tough again in the future.

If you ask employers what constitutes a good employee they usually cite words such as hard working, dependability, punctuality, communication skills, flexibility, motivation etc. These words mean different things to different people and nobody trains you how to be flexible, motivated and dependable – so how do you know if you are behaving as a good employee? Most employers assume that their employees will be punctual, honest and dependable and it’s wise to concentrate on the personal attributes that form the building blocks of most ideal employees. So ask yourself the following questions:

How hard do I really work? Ouch! Look at the most productive person in the office and copy them! In these uncertain times, nothing really matches a real grafter.

How loyal am I? Loyalty counts for a lot in today’s marketplace and always speaking positively about your employer is one of the measures of company loyalty.

How flexible am I? Be willing to take on extra responsibilities and learn new skills could be just what you employer is looking for you to suggest. And within reason it’s best not to avoid doing something just because it wasn’t listed in your job description.

Do I take initiative? Look around for things that need to be done – don’t wait to be asked. Suggest new ways of doing things if it’s appropriate and come up with new ideas.

Would I want to recruit an employee like me? Really think about this one – if you arrive for work at 8.55 am when all your colleagues are there at 8.30am would you consider yourself for the next expensive training course, promotion, or even extra responsibility? Possibly not. So lead by example and do to your employer as you would want done to yourself. In today’s world it’s absolutely crucial to have the right mental outlook. As an employee you should look “to do” first and seek reward and recognition second; far too often these two activities are mixed up with dramatic consequences for your job security!

Would I want to work with people like me? Try taking time out to help junior colleagues – suggest a mentoring system if there isn’t one in place – it’s a great thing to have on your CV. If this may seem grandiose, simply make sure that you are positive to all around you and consistently strive to be the best that you can be.

Am I motivated? Appear eager to be at work each day and make sure that you’re keen to keep learning. You need to have that willingness to learn and move with the times. Never fall in to the trap we refer to as “Veteran’s syndrome”. Things never stand still and what you know today may be of no use to the employer of tomorrow so make sure that you keep learning.

The work ethic may differ from company to company but genuine hard work, honesty, punctuality, a positive attitude together with motivation and flexibility will all make for a valuable employee. If you’ve portrayed yourself at interview as dependable, ethical and flexible with a real desire to succeed then as long as you really work on those attributes, you won’t go far wrong, no matter what the economy is doing!

CV Preparation is key when job hunting. Our MD Nick Peacock explains why:

There are many benefits of being a temporary worker, particularly in the current economic climate. Our recruitment consultant Maria works on the temporary side at Ascendant, here are some of her thoughts on life as a temp:

I wanted to write a short, but hopefully informative piece on how to quickly and effectively write a job specification, written from our perspective, the recruiter. I hope, that as I explain the crucial things we always want to know, it will help you clarify your thinking, speed up the writing of your job specifications and help you write job descriptions that help you to find the right person for your business.

First things first, establish your Key to Hire:

Basically the first question you should ask yourself is what are the non-negotiable skills, attitudes, behaviors and duties your role demands?  We call this your Key to Hire.

At Ascendant Recruitment we live and die by the 80/20 rule.  Richard Koch has written a great book all about the 80/20 rule if anyone is interested.

Your Key to Hire will make up a very big part of your job description.  For administration roles, (Ascendant Recruitment are Milton Keynes leading Office Support Recruiter), the Key to Hire can easily be 80% of the role.  What skills are essential if the person is going to make your role a success?  What attitudes and behaviors must they display if they’re going to really make an impact?  And what are the key duties the candidate must be able to perform?

Spend the most amount of your time on this part of writing the job description (your own unique Key to Hire) as it really is the most important part of the job description.  Get this right and you’ve taken a massive step in clarifying the type of person your business needs.  The opposite of this, is to ruminate for hours about silly little incidental skills and abilities that, even if the candidate possessed them, would have little or no impact on their performance. 

Second thing to do, establish the second most important skill, attitude, behavior and duty!

Simply repeat step one for your second key to hire

Third thing to do, establish the third most important skill, attitude, behavior and duty!

Simply repeat step two for your third key to hire

At the end of this process you will have established the top three skills, abilities, and behaviors you need a candidate to display and you’ll have clarified the three most important duties you want completing.  This will add a great deal of clarity to your recruitment process and massively increase your chances of quickly filling your role.

Ascendant Recruitment has filled over a thousand permanent roles since we opened our doors in 2003 and I can guarantee that if you use these three simple steps, you’ll have a very robust, efficient and accurate job description; possibly on one side of an A4 sheet of paper!

Some may scoff at the simplicity of what I’ve written because they like complicated.  We don’t like complicated we like simple.  Simple works, is understood by all and helps us, time after time, locate the right person for our client’s positions. 

By all means you can elaborate on the job description if you feel the role warrants it, but the elaboration must be built on a solid foundation of Keys (skills, attitudes, behaviors and duties) to Hire; never forget the 80/20 rule!

Final Tips

1. Don’t succumb to the temptation to merge two completely different skill sets in to the same role.  For example, please don’t think it’s a good idea to try and recruit an accounts clerk and also ask the person to complete telesales work – just because you happen to have two live roles.  It’s a bit like trying to recruit a builder who you want to cut hair in the afternoons!
2. Avoid your company jargon, no one else understands it.
3. Remember to focus on the big things that will really make a difference to your company; eliminate the pages of fluff!
4. If you’re using a recruitment agency, make sure you know this information.  We’re not psychic!!!!   Vague job descriptions will never produce relevant candidates.

This really is a whistle stop tour of writing a job description for office support, administrative positions only.

If you’d like any help to write an effective job description or with a piece of recruitment please call me or one of my team today!  On 01908 200270.

Alex Pratt’s book, “Austerity Business” 39 Tips for Doing More with Less, is a great book tailored to the environment we’re currently in.

On page 193 he explains what he believes our priorities should currently be.  Namely:

1. Growing your bottom line
2. Building your brand
3. Improving your cash efficiency

I think his advice to try and measure everything you’re currently doing on a daily basis against these three priorities; to ensure that every activity meets at least one if not two of them, is great advice. 

Not only is this great business advice for everyone tasked with running a department or a company, I think it gives job seekers a valuable insight into what every employer in the current job market is looking for.

Quite simply, as a job seeker, I think you’d greatly increase your chances of a successful interview if you’re able to demonstrate your ability to help your future employer achieve one, two or all three of the above.

So when you’re preparing for your next interview remember the pressure your future employer may be facing, even if business is good, and cogently explain how you’ll assist them in growing their bottom line, building their brand or improving their cash efficiency.

I’ve worked in recruitment for 15 years now and I’m often asked what it takes to be successful within the industry? I’ve always answered passion and persistence – in fact they are my two favourite words, I love them!!!! I use them all the time in Ascendant Recruitment’s office in Milton Keynes.

During the halcyon days of pre 2007 I began to question myself because I witnessed CV sprayers succeeding in the market. It took no passion or persistence to download CV’s and spray them out to unsuspecting clients but it seemed to be working for them! What was going on??

Fast forward four years and where have they all gone????? I don’t delight in any business failing but I’m pleased that the passionate and persistent in our industry, and that includes every member of the Ascendant Recruitment team, have been rewarded; they’re all still standing and going strong!

So having blasted our way through 2010 and 2011 I’m totally reinvigorated that passion and persistence are indeed the skills that I always believed them to be – the key ones to possess in order to survive and prosper in this great industry. But I’ve now learned that I need to add one more skill when I’m recruiting and that’s faith.

It’s easy to be upbeat and positive when everything is going your way, but battling through more sales calls, tough breaks, and clients squeezing margins and still remaining passionate and persistent requires faith!

If you need any direction on faith look no further than Mr. Will Smith. Go to YouTube and type in Will Smith motivational quotes – watch Will, he’s awesome!! Just awesome!

Ascendant Recruitment is undoubtedly, in my opinion the very best Independent Professional Recruitment company in Milton Keynes; others, namely our competition may disagree. But hey we’ve had a very successful 2010 and 2011 (so far) and I’m mad keen to find the next generation of Ascendant Superstars for this decade and beyond.

We intend to keep learning, improving and offering our candidates and clients better and better service; an unbeatable service offering based upon the simple promise that we’ll continue to offer our candidates the very best temporary and permanent office jobs in Milton Keynes and the very best people to our clients.

If you can demonstrate, (and that doesn’t mean just telling me meaningless quotes), passion, persistence and a clear understanding of what it means to keep going when there’s no good reason to – when it would have been easier to just go home, you could be just who I’m looking for.

My consultant’s are the best trained and most passionate and determined set of people you’ll ever meet. I’m proud of each and every one of them. If you’re not being fast tracked, developed and recognized for the Superstar you could be, call me to discuss our opportunities.

This decade could be the making of you, but you’ve got to be in the right place. If you’re not in the right place call me today. Nick Peacock – 0778000 2696. (24 hr mobile. If I don’t pick up, please leave me a passionate message!