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The CV journey April 9, 2012

Posted by Kirsti Burton in : The Careers Group Blogs , add a comment

Originally 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 comment

Originally 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

How You Interact with Others

How You Helped 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:

If you want to know more about group exercises and assessment centres, visit our website or drop by our office to pick up some resources. You can also make an appointment to talk about your assessment day with a careers consultant. Just come to room WG3 in the Queen’s Building or give us a call at 020 7882 8533 to book a session.

Raluca – Maria Cherejir

French and Politics student 

Practice psychometric and aptitude tests – update February 9, 2011

Posted by Helen Curry in : Psychometric and Personality testing , add a comment

Brain with frogs legs!

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.

Since my blog post last year, 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.

Also worth a look:

Numerical

Personality

Problem solving

Reasoning

e-Tray

Strengths

Let me know what you make of them, and leave a comment if you know of any more you recommend.

http://www.assessmentday.co.uk/free-online-aptitude-tests.htm

Follow Friday: Graduate Recruitment on Twitter December 3, 2010

Posted by Helen Curry in : networking , add a comment

Image by joelaz (Flickr)

Active UK graduate recruitment accounts on Twitter

See also Graduate Recruitment on Facebook

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…

Know of any more?

New careers guide for final year students October 22, 2010

Posted by TCG Info in : Uncategorized , add a comment

Click on the image for PDF

The Finalist Directory is a handy all-in-one careers guide for any student in their final year. It contains advice on:

It also has listings of upcoming employer presentations in London, and graduate schemes that are currently recruiting. Looking at these opportunities, some of them are closing quite soon in November, and others are ‘rolling’ so they will take applications until places are filled (which might be sooner than you think) so my top tip is apply now, don’t wait for the closing dates!

And check out that cover design by competition winner Karina Filonenko.

The idea was to visualize the theme of guide as a helper. This guide answers questions that are asked by students when they’re choosing their own way in future career path, postgraduate education.

Well done Karina!

What employers want: what do careers advisers know about it anyway? August 26, 2010

Posted by TCG Info in : Uncategorized , add a comment

Careers adviser from Queen Mary, University of LondonThe 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:

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 , add a comment

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:

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!

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.

The Guardian London Graduate Fair from The Careers Group June 16, 2010

Posted by Helen Curry in : Uncategorized , 1 comment so far

Don’t forget, our big graduate recruitment fair is coming soon! Put the 23rd and 24th of June in your diary, and sign-up online to get in first (and enter the draw for a 737 flight simulator experience – want!).

The fair is free to any and all comers, whether you are a current student or a graduate, a University of London alumnus or from further afield.

We have 96 exhibitors booked and confirmed, so there will be plenty of options to explore, including the Civil Service, KPMG, Waitrose, Haymarket Media Group, The Army, IBM, London Fire Brigade, Teach First, The Body Shop, Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET scheme)… need I go on? Plus, many more further study, training, recruitment agencies and gap year organisations. This makes the fair even bigger and better than last year, so if you are worrying about getting a job this summer, it’s all happening here!

For more information see the fair website – http://www.londongradfair.co.uk/summer/ Where you can also sign up for workshops, and check out the schedule of career sector talks and employer presentations.

For the latest news on exhibitors, follow:

And before you go, remember to check out these previous posts for top tips about how to make the most of the fair and impress those recruiters!

Five things to do before The Guardian London Graduate Fair June 10, 2009

Posted by Helen Curry in : Uncategorized , add a comment

  1. Check out what is going on. The fair runs over two days, 16th-17th June, and there’s more than just employer stands. There are talks from our careers advisers on the job market in various sectors (very useful at the moment), plenty of exhibitor presentations, as well as careers workshops.  Check out the presentations programme so you can plan your visit to fit.
  2. Prepare yourself for some networking. Many people find networking intimidating, but the fair is all about making a connection with an employer and finding out more. Here are some examples of questions to ask well as links to further resources.
  3. Get your CV checked at your university careers service in advance of the fair. It is worth bringing a number of copies of your CV for employers who ask for them. These CVs should be the real deal – spell-checked, polished, and printed on good quality paper. You can get a CV check at the fair, but the queue does get very long (over 30 mins) and you don’t want to waste time standing around. It’s much easier to get it done beforehand!
  4. Research. You can see who is exhibiting at the fair here and who they are looking for. Do some research on the companies you are interested in beforehand so you can impress the employers with informed questions.
  5. Plan to get there early and get to the front of the queue so you can get the attention of employers first. It is easier to make an impression at the beginning, and the employers will still be ‘fresh’ – by the end of the day everyone gets tired from talking to so many people in a busy environment. Pre-register and you can get in an hour before everyone else.

There are many more tips in the recruitment fairs podcast from The Guardian.