The CV journey April 9, 2012
Posted by Kirsti Burton in : The Careers Group Blogs , add a commentOriginally posted at QM Jobs Blog
You have painstakingly prepared your CV or application form and clicked send. You imagine an employer receiving it, perusing what you’ve written and then emailing you back. You wait. You wait. You hear nothing.
Sound familiar? It’s a common experience and a frustrating one. So too is the experience of sending in an application form you have spent hours over, then receiving a rejection almost immediately.
So what’s actually happening to you CV or application form once you click send? We’ve done a survey amongst a small sample of employers to get the inside perspective and combined this with known trends in recruitment to bring you the following insights.
Once you click send…
Your CV or application form lands in a (probably very) busy recruitment team. It will join a large number of others awaiting screening. It’s unlikely that someone will look at it straight away.
If this is the case, why did you get a rejection reply so quickly?
That’s where technology comes in. The employer may be using screening software to sort applications and reject automatically those that do not appear to meet key criteria (e.g., academic results, technical knowledge and employability skills). This software is being used in more and more cases, although not all. None of the employers in our survey were using software for the first stage screening. However, all are using specialist software to store and process applications through the recruitment process.
Aren’t employers missing some great applicants by automating screening?
That may well be happening, but with large numbers of strong applicants and pressure to reduce recruitment costs, that may be a risk worth taking. To avoid being the one who gets missed, make sure your CV contains terms which directly link to the competencies and qualifications needed for the role. These will match the search terms in the software and make your selection more likely.
So it’s just about matching some key words really?
It’s much more than that. The full content and presentation of your CV and application matters a great deal. As one recruiter fed back to us “I believe candidates do not feel that attention is paid to their CVs…This is not true… some do spend the time both at screening and throughout the process to read the CV fully.”
Impact matters.
How long do you imagine a recruiter will take to read your CV fully? A trained eye may view it for 60 seconds (or less!). You need to make an impact in that time. The same goes for application form questions which are often competency based. “We … read through the answers to the competency based questions to look for good examples that the candidate has given and score these”. So it’s not just about having an example, but having a good and clearly set out example (e.g. of team working) to make sure that your evidence can score as highly as possible.
Is it only Human Resources who read my CV?
No. Our survey showed that people from the business line (i.e. those working in teams you may join) are also involved both early in the selection process and, of course, later if you proceed through to interviews. They will be sent copies of your application materials and have read them, so expect to be able to back up what you said!
What happens to my application once it’s all over?
“If the candidate is successful then the CVs, application forms and any other information about the candidate will be passed over to HR to store in their personnel file. If the candidate is unsuccessful, their details are stored separately to the main database as we sometimes find that candidates may come back to us in future to be considered for other positions. All candidates are informed that their details will be kept on file for future vacancies.” This survey response is typical of many employers. A couple of points to note. Firstly, remember that a previous application may be looked at if you apply to the company again. Be consistent. Secondly, when successful for a role, your application information will be kept on file and could be referred to at any point, so think twice about being ‘economical with the truth’ in your content.
Read more in the Wall Street Journal about the journey of a CV from a US perspective
Group Exercises for Assessment Centres April 9, 2012
Posted by Kirsti Burton in : Selection Process, The Careers Group Blogs, employability and skills , add a commentOriginally posted at QM Jobs Blog
Group exercises play an important role in assessment centres because they allow recruiters to see how well you perform and communicate with others as part of a team. The most common type of exercise is a group discussion where you need to tackle a given topic with other candidates, whilst being closely observed by the assessors. Here are some things they will be looking at:
Your Contribution to the Discussion
- Initiating the discussion or bringing in new ideas
- Asking questions to keep the conversation going
- Suggesting a solution or answer to a challenging issue
- Inviting the contribution and support of other team members.
How You Interact with Others
- Paying close attention to other people’s opinions
- Encouraging contributions and supporting others’ points
- Using colleagues’ contributions to either paraphrase or add to them
- Constructively presenting counter-arguments for other members
- Asking questions to clarify others’ claims.
How You Helped the Group
- Tactfully avoiding digressions or bringing the discussion back to topic
- Reinforcing awareness of both goals and time constraints
- Diplomatically seeking to deflect tensions or conflict between participants
- Summarising the discussion as a whole
- Gaining agreement and reaching a consensus within the group.
At the same time, the employers will be looking out for negative behaviour which can impact the group as a whole. Be sure you avoid:
- Lack of participation or disengagement with the topic
- Off-topic contributions or comments
- Ignoring or not paying attention to other candidates’ opinions
- Interrupting or talking over other participants
- Disagreeing with or dismissing someone’s contribution without justification
- Behaving aggressively and trying to dominate the discussion.
Practice psychometric and aptitude tests – update February 9, 2011
Posted by Helen Curry in : Psychometric and Personality testing , 1 comment so far****Be aware this content is over two years old****
Image by http://www.emiliogarcia.org/
|| Original post – 12/Aug/10 || Updated – 09/Feb/11 ||
Prepare for an assessment centre, or learn more about yourself and your abilities, by using these resources to try out graduate-level aptitude tests.
University of London careers services have now subscribed to an online testing service so students can practice numerical and verbal tests that will be just like the tests recruiters use, and get detailed feedback - get in touch with your careers service to request an account. The careers service may also run workshops, or appointments with a careers adviser where you can discuss your results and approaches to the tests.
Books
Our latest acquisition
Your careers service library will have plenty of books where you can work through examples of specific kinds of tests - we have these in our collection if you are looking for recommendations. Recruiters will usually be happy to tell you exactly which kinds of tests you will be sitting – numerical and verbal reasoning are typical, but you might also get personality, diagrammatic, abstract reasoning or profession-related tests that are quite different.
Tip – check out the practice test supplied by the recruiter before doing too much practice, there is quite a bit of variability in difficulty level and current graduate tests can be at a more challenging level than some books.
Online tests
There are a lot of websites out there that offer practice psychometric tests, if you do decide to buy a product, as I mentioned before, check sample questions carefully first. The following is a slightly different version of the last list, this time with a focus on free tests supplied by graduate recruiters.
Disclaimer: Please use your own judgement and be especially wary of any service which asks you to pay! No responsibility will be taken by, the Unversity of London, or The Careers Group, for loss or damage, direct or consequential, resulting from the use of services or information provided by the maintainers of these links.
Multiple tests available
These suppliers are used by recruiters, so are an excellent first choice for preparation.
- SHL – practice numerical, verbal, mechanical, inductive reasoning and an online interview test. Each takes 20-25 minutes. SHL are a major supplier of aptitude tests, so these ones are particularly good to practice. These tests appear to be down at the moment so see the verbal, numerical, inductive, personality, motivation – example questions instead
- Kenexa – practice numerical, verbal and logical reasoning tests.
Also worth a look:
- These pages on the University of Kent Careers Advisory Service site have a wide range of practice questions
- Psychometric Success example questions
- Kogan Page – Verbal, Numerical and Abstract Reasoning Ability practice tests
Numerical
- eFinancial Careers – numerical reasoning
Personality
- Morrisby – profile practice questions
Reasoning
- P&G Careers – Practice reasoning test for Procter & Gamble – available in a number of languages.
e-Tray
- Civil Service fast stream – example e-tray exercise
Strengths
- Ernst & Young – discover your strengths – useful if you are more interested in choosing your career than preparing for specific assessment centre tests
Let me know what you make of them, and leave a comment if you know of any more you recommend.
Follow Friday: Graduate Recruitment on Twitter December 3, 2010
Posted by Helen Curry in : networking , add a comment****Be aware this content is over two years old****
Image by joelaz (Flickr)
Active UK graduate recruitment accounts on Twitter
- Mercer – consulting, outsourcing, investments – @mercergradrecuk
- Teach First – @TeachFirst
- Centrica Grads – energy – @centricagrads
- Jaguar Landrover – @jaguarlandrover
- Unilever – @unilevergradsuk
- Addleshaw Goddard LLP – law – @AGgrads
- Linklaters LLP – law – @linklatersgrads
- Mishcon de Reya LLP – law – @mishcongrads
- Vodafone – @graduaterecruit
- Xerox Europe - @xeroxstudents
Follow Friday: Graduate recruitment on Facebook November 26, 2010
Posted by Helen Curry in : networking , add a comment
Image by columnfive (Flickr)
Active UK graduate recruitment pages and groups run by companies and organisations. In no particular order…
- National Audit Office
- Mercer
- TeachFirst
- Centrica
- NHS Graduate Management
- KPMG
- PwC
- Reed
- Cisco
- Fujitsu
- IBM - UK Graduates & Students
Know of any more?
What employers want: what do careers advisers know about it anyway? August 26, 2010
Posted by TCG Info in : Uncategorized , add a comment
****Be aware this content is over two years old****
The Careers Group‘s careers advisers are regularly out-and-about meeting employers, attending open days and interviewing recent graduates to find out what graduates need to do to get that job. For each visit they will write up a report and share it with colleagues across the group so everyone can stay up-to-date. Some of our advisers have even started to share these reports online on their blogs, so if you want to know what employers want too, check these out:
- Graduate Opportunities at Bloomberg – QM Jobs blog
- Top tips from recruiters – 5 posts including videos, from Unilever, Santander, FreshMinds, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and Cushman and Wakefield - UCL Careers Service blog
- Returning home after graduation? 10 top tips to support your job-hunting! - Tips from almuni – UCL International Students blog
Returning home after graduation? 10 top tips to support your job-hunting!
Is your CV heading for the shredder? August 17, 2010
Posted by Helen Curry in : CVs , 1 comment so far**** Be aware this content is over two years old ****
Photo by Matthijs Rouw
Recruiters are having their say about common CV mistakes to avoid in The Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) LinkedIn discussion group – some useful tips here that I had to share.
Mistakes to avoid:
- Poor spelling and grammar (as ever – but they all say it!)
- Unusual formatting – it should be easy to scan.
- Hard-to-find contact details
- Targeting another company/job
- Too long – two pages is the standard for graduates in the UK, unless it is for an academic position. You can always put ‘references available on request’ instead of lengthy referee contact details
- Awkward copy and paste
- Not specifying the necessary grades when the position has minimum requirements
Stating they have four A-levels ranging from A* to C is of no help… I’ll cynically assume there were more Cs than A*s!
- Last-minute applications – tolerance levels go down when recruiters are swamped by a rush of applications at deadline-time
- Use of tiny fonts and slim margins to cram in more text – instead make strategic cuts to highlight the best, stand-out content.
- Cover letters that begin “Dear Recruiter”…
It is so easy to pick up the phone to find out the name of the lead recruiter – a personal approach is so much more powerful.
- Crazy fonts and colour schemes – often inappropriate for traditional corporate roles, though it can be good for creatives…
- Obvious template CVs – recruiters do get familiar with some of them!
Interview questions: real-life examples February 26, 2009
Posted by TCG Info in : Uncategorized , 1 comment so far****Be aware this content is over two years old****
Here is a short list of some websites where you can find real-life interview questions that candidates have reported being asked.
- eFinancialCareers.co.uk – interview questions for graduate programmes and internships in financial institutions
- WikiJob – covers major employers in a range of sectors. Check out both the employer pages and the forums where students report their experiences.
- Whatwilltheyask.co.uk – covers a range of sectors, with personal reports on specific jobs. There aren’t as many on here, but it is still useful if you can find just what you want.
- Prospects – the student forums are quite active, so it might be worth posting details of the interview you have coming up in the Applications and Interviews forum, and seeing what information or support people can offer.
All these sites are dependent on students sharing their experiences every year, so if you use them do submit your experiences to them afterwards.
And just a word of caution, recruiters can change questions and indeed whole recruitment strategies without warning, so check the dates of these student reports, and use these as guidance rather than a definitive programme.
Practice graduate recruitment selection tests February 24, 2009
Posted by Helen Curry in : Uncategorized , 3comments****Be aware this content is over two years old****
To start with, I have to mention our excellent information sheet on psychometric tests available here. Prepared by a group of careers advisers, this leaflet provides the best introduction to different types of selection tests: aptitude, numeracy, verbal and personality tests. At the end of the sheet there is also a list of books to help you prepare and a few websites, so I definitely recommend you take a look at that first. This Prospects page also provides a good overview of the tests with examples.
In this post I just wanted to list a few more online practice tests and websites, to highlight the fact that there are plenty of opportunities for free practice.
The tests can be fun to do (well maybe the personality ones more than the rest…) and quite revealing, so even if you haven’t got any assessment centres lined up, they may help you with your career choices.
Multiple tests available
- SHL – practice numerical, verbal, personality, motivation and inductive reasoning tests, and online interviews. SHL are a major supplier of aptitude tests, so these ones are particularly good to practice. Complete a practice ability test by the 31st March 09 and as well as getting free feedback, you will be entered into a draw for a 120GB iPod!
- ASE – practice numerical, verbal, non-verbal, abstract, spatial and mechanical reasoning tests. Practice test no longer available – 18/05/09
- Kenexa – practice numerical, verbal and logical reasoning tests.
- Psychometric Success - practice numerical, verbal and abstract reasoning, spatial, technical and clerical aptitude tests. More information on different types of test is available on their website.
Reasoning
- P&G Careers – Practice reasoning test for Procter & Gamble – available in a number of languages.
Personality
- Keirsey temperament sorter - Personality test – the basic report is free, just note there is a scale of prices for more detailed results.
Many firms who use aptitude and psychometric tests will provide details and sample questions on their own recruitment sites, like Procter & Gamble above, so it is worth checking their website. If they don’t and you have been invited to an assessment centre, you could try emailing your contact there to see if they will tell you which tests are being used. They might not want to give too much information (sometimes recruiters prefer candidates to be unprepared so the tests are more ‘honest’), but it won’t do any harm to send a short, polite query. You can also check WikiJob to see if there is an entry for that company, as they often outline which tests have been used.
For more resources to help you prepare, including lots of relevant books, try browsing the Careers Tagged listings for psychometric and aptitude tests.
Getting a graduate job in the recession January 16, 2009
Posted by TCG Info in : Uncategorized , add a comment
*****Be aware this content is over two years old*****
With the BBC reporting a 17% cut in graduate recruitment targets this year, you may be worrying about your prospects at the end of this year. Certainly the reported halving of recruitment in the financial sector is cause for concern.
This leaves you with a choice – apply to a different sector, or get ready to beat the competition.
Apply to a different sector
The public sector is often considered a safe place to work during a recession - the civil service remains a consistent employer of graduates. And there is always demand for doctors, nurses, teachers and administrators in the health and education sectors.
Not what you had in mind? You might be surprised what else you can find outside of The City. Aldi is offering a starting salary of 40,000 plus car! If you explore Industry and Retail sectors you can still find management and finance roles that will match your skills and interests. Although prospects in these sectors may be looking uncertain considering the recession, not all companies are suffering, Aldi can back up their offer with a 25% growth in sales.
Explore different sectors using summary guides like the TARGETjobs guides and Inside Careers guides, available free at your university careers service, and investigate the opportunities available at various employers’ websites.
Beat the competition
- Sharpen up your CV by getting it checked at your university careers service. You may find a change in layout will make you look more professional, or a different way of describing your previous jobs will bring out your responsibilities and skills. It is always useful to get a different perspective on your work.
- Boost your CV and employability by competing in business challenges.
- Improve your work experience by volunteering – your student union should have a volunteering society that can help you find local opportunities really easily, including short-term, even one-day projects.
- Research the company you are applying to. You must tailor your application approach to each company.
- If you are struggling with interviews and selection centres, you can try a practice interview with a careers adviser, or visit your careers service library for practice tests and advice books.
One book we recently bought that provides a good overview of the whole recruitment process is Get That Job! by Andy Gibb. It starts with the basics, choosing the right career for you, then carries you all the way through finding jobs, applying, interviewing, psychometric tests, assessment centres, 0ffers and feedback, and head-hunters. It is worth a look to help make sure you are competitive at every stage and know exactly what to expect.
