CV advice in Prague

CV advice in Prague

Our CV advice in Prague will help you to identify your key skills, and include the crucial key words, so that your profile will pop up on the recruiter’s screen.

• We will review your CV to understand your experience
• We will advise how to improve your CV by tailoring it to your job search
• And we’ll help you identify your unique skills

Our service is tailored to your needs – but there are some general tips based on our experience.

Many job seekers use just a single version of their Curriculum Vitae (CV, aka resume) when applying for positions.

There is a tendency to think after investing many hours crafting a CV that, once finished, the task is complete.

All that is left to do now is upload the CV to a job board, apply for some roles directly or perhaps even send the odd speculative application – but always using the same CV.

But this is often a big mistake.

Every Job Is Unique, So Your CVs Should Be

Even positions with the same job title can be very different from each other.

Anyone who has held a similar type of role in different organizations will tell you that the experience and responsibilities can be extremely varied. A ‘customer adviser’ could be a support role in one company but sales focused in another.

How much your CV needs changing depends very much on the circumstances.

A professional looking to further their career within a similar role and industry may need only to tweak their CV for different applications. If you are a graduate, or seeking a career change, you will need to refocus the information in your CV completely — to demonstrate the right skills and qualities for different career paths.

The first thing the recruiter wants to see is that your CV is relevant to the role applied for.

This is where a Professional Profile comes into its own. It acts as your introduction and enables you to clearly position yourself in line with the job you are applying for.

It follows then that your CV needs to focus sharply on the requirements of each individual role. Our CV advice in Prague will help you do this.

Your First CV Should Be The Foundation Block

Your first CV is just the start. If you’ve written it for a specific application then that is exactly the right approach. You need to continue that approach with every job application you make.

The amount of tailoring will vary between 5 to 10% for very similar roles, or you might need to re-write 80% or more of it if you are applying for something very different to your current role and experience.

Boost your interview success rate with fewer, focused applications. Blasting your CV in multiple directions is most likely to cause frustration when you count the number of applications made and see little return. Taking the time to carefully tailor and focus individual CVs for fewer applications should see your interview success rate start to climb. Yes, it is more effort, but then how much do you want your next job?

Having trouble rewriting a CV for a job application?

We will help you on your way with CV advice in Prague.

Everyone knows you never get a second chance to make a first impression. But what some job seekers do not realize is that a CV is the first impression you leave on a prospective employer. It is no exaggeration to say that a bad CV can ruin your chances of being hired.

There are three other important points to bear in mind about your CV:

• It is a document of record. By updating your CV regularly you will keep track of all of your minor successes, many of which you might forget if you don’t keep a note of them all in the same place.
• It is a showcase for your professionalism. Skills aren’t everything when you are on the job market. Often it isn’t what you can do but the way that you do it. Companies want employees who present themselves as polished professionals.
• It is a point of reference. A CV is helpful for employers as a way of keeping track of candidates. Your CV is what keeps you visible to employers throughout the hiring process.

What specifically are employers looking for? We can give you CV advice in Prague in the two key areas:

Presentation: We can help you make sure your CV has a clear, clean look. We can also help you make sure it avoids looking like its structure is copied from a template. Our attention to detail is crucial. Even something as apparently minor as the wrong file format can land a good CV in the dustbin.

Relevance: We’ll talk to you about the job you’re applying for, to make sure your CV is relevant to the position. Many candidates fail to realize they have transferable skills which precisely hit the employer’s requirements. Our CV advice will make sure you don’t miss a trick. We’ll also be a stern but friendly editor, rooting out irrelevant material that will obscure the key messages you’re trying to convey.

Whether you are applying for an internal or external role, a good tip is to read the job specifications carefully — and read LinkedIn profiles of those holding similar positions.

This will help you identify the areas of expertise you need to emphasize.

In fact, you should always approach an internal job application as carefully as any other. It’s wrong to assume that your results or reputation are well known within your company or organization. Many people get themselves locked into their own silos at work; it can’t help to remind them how good you are.

Similarly, it’s worth you conducting your research on the new role or department as thoroughly as you would when considering a move to a new organization. You may think you know all about it – but taking a fresh look could provide you with new insights. Perhaps you’ll decide against applying at all, or maybe your knew knowledge will help you secure the post.

How To Present Your Achievements:

Our career advice in Prague will also help with something many successful people often struggle with – selling their own achievements.

First, a definition: an achievement is not the same as a responsibility in a job description. It’s how well you did it. Often, it can measured, such as sales figures or KPIs. Other times, it will be something you initiated, created, or designed that had a lasting impact.

An achievement can be a unique selling point. So, it’s far better to stress your achievements than your responsibilities. Our career advice will help you distinguish the two in your specific employment history.

Some other general examples of achievements / accomplishments might be:

• Positive feedback
• Awards, prizes, or commendations
• Meeting and / or exceeding targets
• Saving time or money
• Increasing profits, customers, sales or production figures
• Improving / streamlining workflows
• Overcoming specific challenges or problems

Many of these will also enable you to present a story in an interview. People love success stories. If you’re CV is well written enough to get you an interview, the next step will be to practice telling your key stories – and we can help you with that too.

But let’s stick to CVs for now. Achievements should be predominantly related to your professional experience. Yet sometimes, an achievement from your personal life, or from voluntary work, can also be included. It might be relevant to the role you are seeking, or it may simply reflect well on your character.

Your LinkedIN Profile

This is not your CV, but it’s pretty similar. Having a great LinkedIn Profile can:

• Strengthen your professional reputation
• Put you on the radar of potential employers and boost your chances of being hired or headhunted
• Help you to network with professionals in your field, including former colleagues who may help you advance your career

Whenever you meet new people in a work environment, be they a client or a colleague, they may have checked out your LinkIN profile. Our CV advice in Prague service can help you make sure your profile does you justice. It’s your shop window. It needs to be great.

A Great Profile includes:

• A clear headline which neatly sums up your experience and interests.
• A recent professional photograph, ideally a headshot, in which you look professional but also friendly.
• A brief summary of your career history and current work.
• Your main areas of expertise. It’s important to think of the key words employers and contacts will search for.
• A paragraph highlighting the key elements of your current job, written specifically to appeal to your target audience.
• A career history with job titles and dates. Start with the most recent stuff, and give this the most detail – though a couple of sentences will usually suffice. As you move on to older or less relevant jobs, cut it shorter. Leave out irrelevant jobs that don’t reflect on who you are now.
• Selected recommendations to emphasize key strengths and your general approach to work. The best recommendations come from former bosses, senior colleagues and clients. It is also best if they are concrete, identifying specific accomplishments.
• Your educational and professional qualifications, plus membership of professional bodies and networks. But keep it short and relevant.
• Links to LinkedIn groups you have joined which reflect your existing interests and aspirations. Employers sometimes target groups when posting jobs.
• Links to your other online presence, such as blogs or social media, if you think these will help you – though sometimes these can be more of a hindrance.

What is the main difference between a CV & a LinkedIN profile?

Unless we are actively seeking a new job, many of us put our CVs to one side.

But a LinkedIn profile is different. It’s an organic record regularly improved with status updates, recommendations, and interaction with others.

And just by being on LinkedIN we can use it to seek new positions, research companies or people holding jobs we’re interested in, reach out to new contacts, and much more.

It also provides new means of presenting information that a CV can’t do: videos, photos, infographics and graphs.

All this means that recruiters and employers think LinkedIn is a great way of finding candidates.

It’s an enormous database in which, with the use of the right key words, they can quickly find the people they need. If they stumble across your profile, what will they find? And if you don’t crop up at all, what kind of message does that send?

Often you can be found on LinkedIn first – and your carefully crafted CV will only be read if the recruiter or employer likes what they see online. Our CV advice in Prague will make sure you have the key words — which open the doors of opportunity.