Career Coach CV/Resume Writer by Rob Ridout

BECOME AN INTERVIEW DETECTIVE USING LINKEDIN by Rob Ridout   One of the most vital aspects of any job interview is your ability to successfully interpret the job specification. For many, this elusive document often carries with it very little information, which in turn provides no insight into the vacant role and therefore impacts your chances of a successful interview.   This is where your detective skills are needed.   Finding the exiting incumbents profile There is a part of the job specification that is always left out and is vitally important - who was the incumbent in the role? This is the starting point of investigating your alignment with the vacant role.   My tip First, find the previous incumbents profile on LinkedIn. By simply inserting the job description title and choosing the company name in your search fields you have a good chance of finding the profile(that’s if it's not a new role). You can also use google this may also take you to re...

Avoiding the Recruiter   by Rob Ridout You finally come across a role that looks like the exact fit. You scroll down to the bottom of the page and there it is the recruiter’s email address. Your heart sinks. Most candidates at this point either don’t apply or apply and give up on ever getting a response. There is, however, another option to giving up on the recruiter. I have never met a candidate who thought about getting around the recruiter and going straight to the hiring company.  For an article on becoming a more proactive job seeker follow this link.  https://www.yourcvforlife.com/blogger/post/6563766512731420083 So lets set the scene. Companies do not want to pay recruitment fees! No debate, it’s a grudge purchase. It would be astonishing to me that any line manager or HR manager decline a candidate on the basis that they avoided the recruiter. Now, this is important, the closer you get to the actual hiring manager with your CV the bet...

When searching for work on LinkedIn of jobs many candidates tend to choose for the lazy option and use the automated job email notification tool to find work. I cannot emphasize enough that as an active candidate in the market you utilize  the search function to search for jobs. You really need to adopt an aggressive approach to finding ideal roles rather than sitting around on your rear end waiting for the work to come your way.  Use this tool efficiently is actually a little bit of a science. Most people I coach tend to plug in their own title, conduct the search, find a few roles and they satisfy themselves that they have done a hard days job of being a proactive individual. Others tend to thrash the living daylights out of the search by searching and applying to everything that moves apply for everything and then give up when nobody returns their emails in a record-breaking turnaround time and all of this with a poor CV and not so great LinkedIn profile.  ...