Showcasing Yourself and Your Skills at Application Stage Webinar

0:00 um my name is Jamila Qureshi and I’m programmer systems lead for the cipd trust and we’re really delighted to 0:08 welcome so many of you this morning to this session around showcasing you and your skills at application stage 0:15 um and this is really part of a series of sessions we’ve started running as part of the cipd trust and to just tell 0:21 you a bit more about the trust itself so it was launched back in April 2022 0:27 um and really what the trust is about is really building on the social impact work of the cipd they’ve been going on 0:32 for a number of years as well as really trying to amplify the purpose of the cipd and Champion better work on working 0:39 lives and the way we do that is by tackling barriers to it today while creating the inclusive workplaces of 0:45 Tomorrow by giving individuals like you and organizations access to the people expertise that you might not otherwise 0:52 have been able to access so as a trust we have three core focuses 0:57 so the first one is around focusing on how we can diversify the profession Itself by improving access and 1:03 progression routes within the profession um and to make sure that the profession itself is much more representative of 1:09 the communities that it serves and the second thing that we focus on is really about and this is really what this 1:14 morning’s session is all about it’s really about supporting people who traditionally face hurdles in terms of 1:20 getting into work and getting on and work to help you be able to have have the access to to the expertise while 1:27 people professionals to help improve and how people can get in and get on within work and and thirdly we really want to 1:34 inspire change by bringing people together and bringing up professionals together to help and help really start 1:41 to change practices within organizations so that things so that organizations and work becomes much more inclusive and 1:47 accessible for everyone whatever your background or situation um so we’re really really delighted to 1:54 to have so many of you at the session this morning and you’re going to hear from five of our fantastic and people 1:59 professionals who um volunteered their time to um to provide this really hopefully helpful 2:05 um session for you um so um and I should say these sessions is 2:10 the second round of these sessions that we’re running so we’re still kind of iterating and improving as we go 2:16 um so we’re really Keen as well to hear your feedback on how you found the session and anything that you think in 2:21 terms of future topics that we might want to um focus on that would that you think would really help and help people 2:27 like you who are trying to get into work or get on and work um and so this session is really about 2:32 helping you get past that first stage um so um so you’ll hear lots more in a moment and there will also be um time 2:40 for Q a at the end as well so without further Ado I don’t want to hold up anymore and I’m going to hand over to my 2:46 colleague Ada BC who is going to tell you a bit more about how the session is going to work thank you 2:51 brilliant thank you Jamila um so yes again thank you everyone for joining so my name’s Adam BC and I’m going to be 2:57 coordinating the session um today so um before we get started I just want to remind everyone again that this session has been recorded and just 3:04 for the quality as well and just again so you don’t feel pressured can I ask that everyone turns their cameras off 3:09 for now um just for the presenters um you are going to be delivering the information to leave their cameras on so um I hope 3:18 you can all see our um the second screen which is the information about our presenters so as Jamila mentioned we 3:24 have um actually today four um really great presenters who are going to be presenting the information to you and 3:30 giving you a bit more information about um um what this session is about and also 3:35 there will be an opportunity once information has been has been presented to answer the questions that you guys 3:41 submitted um prior to um the session but if there are if you don’t get the opportunity to submit your 3:46 questions and you do have some please also feel free to submit the questions via chat um we do have people monitor in 3:53 the chat or if you’re having any Tech problems please do send those through and we should hopefully be able to help you with them so um we have um our fresh 4:00 first presenter who is Belgian who I’m going to be passing over to in a second but before we get started can I just ask 4:05 that just a bit over Icebreaker for everyone to kind of just send one word to describe their current mood 4:11 um for me it’s currently where where I am so I’m feeling a bit derived to be honest so please just send some 4:17 information about just one word really about how you’re feeling and your current mood so um whilst we’re doing that I’m just 4:24 going to hand over to um sorry but actually before 500 it’s broken so as 4:29 jamila’s mentioned a little bit this is what we’re going to be covering just the pre-application stage what to look out for 4:35 um actively applying and then we’re going to have an opportunity for the Q a panel as I mentioned earlier 4:41 so the first stage I’m going to be handing over to belgan who’s going to be giving you some information 4:47 um about this and yeah thank you for sending that um the information via chat as well 4:53 um hi hi everybody it’s it’s just lovely to be here today um so before we begin 4:59 um discussing how you may want to approach your specific job applications I think it’s good practice to reflect on 5:05 why um you’re engaging in job search um what your expectations and what your 5:10 goals are from your job search so in other words what motivates you to seek your next job so perhaps you’re 5:18 um perhaps it’s your first job perhaps you are looking for your next job or perhaps you’re maybe rejoining labor 5:25 market after a period of absence for various reasons so what what motivates us and um and job search will be 5:31 different um based on where we’re coming from where our preferences are Etc so 5:37 articulating our motivation um will give us a Direction um so our research shows that when um we 5:43 apply to jobs haphazardly in other words just apply to anything and everything that comes our way and we reduce the 5:51 chances of securing a job that um we actually enjoy and one that satisfies our needs 5:57 um on the other hand when we’re super focused on very few options and this may 6:02 create a tunnel vision so we may miss out on some of the opportunities because we’re only focused on a number of 6:09 opportunities um so there is some degree of flexibility required in how we approach our applications and so our motivation 6:16 and job search may actually provide that flexibility May guide our our job search 6:22 and applications um so for some of us the key goal would be getting into any employment while 6:28 maybe we figured out what we really want or we have an urgent Financial need to 6:33 satisfy um for others um our goals may involve more personal development increasing your salary 6:41 um being more inflexible how we work um or it could be oh I think we moved on 6:46 the ah there we are um um so or it could be you know deepening 6:52 your expertise in an area Etc but it’s good practice to kind of think about our goals in what we call a smart way so 6:58 it’s recommended we formulate um specific measurable attainable 7:04 realistic and time-bound goals um specific as opposed to do your best 7:09 approach because if we don’t know what we’re looking for we probably won’t know when we find it 7:15 um so second aspect of smart goals is that they’re measurable so how do you know when you found or achieved your 7:22 goals so if your goal is flexibility what does it mean for you is it the four day week you’re looking for is it flexi 7:29 time is it part-time work or setting your own hours so how do you define that flexibility so you know when you find it 7:36 our goals need to be achievable so it’s true that difficult goals motivate us 7:42 but it’s also true that unattainable goals demotivate Us in fact may lead to 7:47 loans Health business and we may give up so if we aim for roles that 7:53 um perhaps require qualifications that we don’t have then we will forever seek that job and never really attain it and 8:00 that kind of ties into realistic goals um so for instance if you’re a fresh 8:05 graduate coming out of higher education or education um You probably wouldn’t apply for senior executive positions as your first 8:12 option and in the immediate time that’s not a realistic goal and that might be your longer term goal and so that brings 8:19 us to the time boundness of of our goals um you may want to create kind of 8:24 short-term and intermediate term goals for yourself so it might be that for 8:30 instance Financial Security is important to you in the short term while you have that foot in the door you 8:36 may then want to excel in specific areas of work um and and the more immediate or 8:43 intermediate time um so once you know your goals and motivation you can maybe make more 8:48 informed decisions in how you approach your job search um so Catherine is now going to walk you 8:54 through um understanding the specific requirements of jobs and how you may approach these 8:59 thank you thank you belgan um and good morning everyone so we’re now going to 9:05 move on to have a look at the aspect of what is being recruited for so one of the things that’s really key 9:11 when you’re searching for a job is that you look for a role that’s right for you uh it’s not a great idea just to look 9:18 for any job and that may sound like stating the obvious but lots of people especially if they’ve applied to a few 9:24 adverts may start to feel a bit desperate so to help with this it’s really important that you’re able to describe 9:30 the type of job that you’re looking for so you know when you see it as Belgian mentioned 9:35 if you’re not clear enough in your own mind then anything might sound okay and so can you actually articulate what the 9:42 role of the company would look like and what industry and function you’re interested in and it’s really worth 9:48 giving that some some thought so can we now just have a quick poll uh adibisi is going to launch the poll and 9:55 could we invite you to think about how you would like to work so how many of you have considered this 10:01 um do you really want a job allows you to work completely from home or a hybrid model or do you want to work 10:09 um all on site at an office for example so can you have a think about that and respond to the poll and then we’ll share 10:15 the results and I just confirm that everyone can see 10:22 the poll I can I can yeah thank you 10:27 so do you want to sorry completely at home hybrid so part office part home based or 10:36 all on site 11:02 Okay so we’ve had a responses through um I’ve just tried to launch the results 11:07 on screen but I can read them out to you so we’ve had 13 of people have said completely home based 11:13 um 85 percent have said hybrid and three percent have said um in the office 11:19 okay so hybrid is quite uh quite a popular one it’s interesting if we’d done this five years ago 11:25 um that possibly would have been a bit lower but I think there is an expectation now that people like to do a 11:32 bit of both for various reasons so um that’s really interesting but I mean 11:37 different models of working will suit different people and at different times in their lives or careers perhaps and it 11:44 could depend on what type of role people are doing because some jobs might be easiest to work from home or might be 11:49 easier to do a hybrid type role and some jobs might be impossible to work from home so it’s important to think about 11:55 what your preference is in but also the type of job that you’re looking for and whether you’re working style preference 12:01 could be accommodated by that role okay so now moving on 12:07 um it’s important to think uh about you know always analyzing the details and 12:12 the job advert so what’s really being said about the role and location and hours and really reading into that and 12:18 thinking what what is it saying to me here so think about is there anything hidden in there that might be a red flag to you 12:24 such as saying you know you need to be able to travel Nationwide or work away from home three nights a week don’t sign 12:31 up to that if that’s not really what you want to do and so really analyze what the job is actually requiring of you 12:38 where are they based will you be able to travel two hours each way to the office if if that’s what’s required and if you 12:44 don’t want to then don’t say you will um also consider if you’re completely 12:49 clear which industry you’d like to work in so think about what are your passions or interests and what do you know about 12:56 or what do you enjoy as this might have a real part to play in the industry that you should be looking at I wouldn’t 13:02 suggest applying for a role that’s based in the sector that you aren’t really keen on you know you wouldn’t be happy 13:07 with it you’re wrong exciting for you 13:15 have you considered which role of function you’re best suited to or more interested in so you might want a career 13:21 such as in it or as a systems engineer or in marketing or e-commerce so if you 13:27 think about the sector that you enjoy do you like say fashion or the beauty industry or is the world of Finance more 13:34 more the kind of thing you’re interested in it’s important to give that some consideration too 13:40 and in terms of the function that you’d like to work in think about that as well so would you like a career in say HR and 13:46 if so is that in recruitment or employer relations or Learning and Development or equality you know give some thought to 13:54 the function that you’d like to work in with a particular within a particular area and also remember try not to scatter gun 14:01 applications and it’s very difficult sometimes when people talk to it’s a 14:06 little bit panicky about looking for jobs but try and be more laser focused and targeted about the type of job that 14:12 you’re applying for the person that’s recruiting on the other side will probably be able to tell if you really love the role and seem 14:18 genuinely interested or if you’ve just cut and pasted the covering letter it is quite obvious to the reader sometimes 14:25 whether someone really wants the job that they’ve applied for so give that some thought as well 14:30 so now moving on to thinking about why you want this particular job so firstly 14:37 we’d like to carry out another short poll just to ask if you’ve ever applied for job but you’re really not that Keen 14:43 on so have you applied for something that you’re really not that interested in just to apply for it so if we can 14:48 launch that poll and if you can please respond and then we’ll we’ll share the results again so 14:54 um have you ever applied for a job that you’re really not that Keen in or interested in 14:59 yes or no 15:04 again if you can’t see the poll because I know someone did mention they couldn’t please feel free to send the response to our chat as well 15:21 you see if everyone’s responded had a PC 15:41 how are we doing so we’ve had um 62 say Yes 15:47 um they have applied for a job that they’re not very keen on and um 38 of 70. 15:53 that’s interesting isn’t it so a significant proportion of people have applied for a job just to apply for the 15:59 job be interesting to uh to also see we’re not going to launch this poll but it’d be interesting to see how many of them got that job 16:05 um so you know if you’re looking for a career job it’s probably not a good idea 16:11 just to apply for something if you don’t really like the sound of it so let’s move on and think about you know why 16:17 this particular job though so just picking up on uh the fact that people have applied for jobs that they maybe don’t feel you know is really what 16:24 they’re they’re looking for so why this one think about what attracts you to this job specifically and ask yourself 16:30 what draws you to it if you’re clear in your mind about that then the application the covering letter and 16:37 ultimately if you get to an interview will sound honest and more authentic now think about will a role be a good 16:44 fit with me and you know we can look at that from a number of different aspects perhaps give 16:49 some thought to what it is you want from a job and will this position really give it so is it a career role that you’re 16:55 looking for or something short term and does this position align with that 17:00 and also think about you know can I do this job effectively again this might go without saying but it’s essential that 17:07 you think about your own ability in relation to the role as well as thinking about is the job what I’d like to do also think about can I actually do it 17:14 and does my skills and experience fit with what they’re looking they’re looking for so think about the personal factors such 17:21 as you know do you really understand the role and what’s expected and what can you bring to it and does it reflect the 17:27 experience that you have in terms of what what the job needs do you have the right qualifications if 17:33 the adverse asks for specific aspects then generally on the basis um of that 17:38 you would be selected in the first instance by specific words or 17:43 qualifications and if you don’t have what’s listed then you probably won’t be offered an interview or shortlisted 17:51 some online application systems have algorithms that screen out applications without certain skills or words 17:57 mentioned so if there are very specific things that are being asked for then try and include them in your 18:03 application because often you’ll be screened out if you don’t mention some of the things that they’re really 18:08 looking for so next think about values so what are your values and the company values and 18:14 are they aligned um it would be helpful if you clip if you think about things like your 18:19 personal values because for example if you care for the environment and then 18:24 working for a company that makes plastic bottles for example might not be the right place for you 18:30 um think about what the company values are and research them if you can what do people say about the company and is that 18:37 important to you and also what do their employees say about them look into that as well if you can well there’ll be a 18:43 lot of information online that you can research about companies and finally in this in this section 18:49 think about what company EVP is so the employee value proposition and does that 18:55 work for me ideally so what’s the company offering you as a prospective employee in terms of things 19:01 like pay and reward and benefits and culture fit and does that pay rate feel 19:06 right compared to the market and the industry and reflect the role that’s being recruited for does all that fit 19:12 with what you’re you would expect for that kind of role and what does the company do about CPD 19:18 so ongoing training development support does it talk about that does it say what kind of support you get do you have 19:24 appraisal systems how does the line management system work and also is the pay rate fixed or bonus 19:32 or commission based and does that suit you some people are motivated by commission 19:37 and will drive them and incentivize them and for some people that just doesn’t tip their box so give some careful 19:43 consideration to how remuneration is given at the company because that is something that that’s very important in 19:50 terms of fitting with your style and your approach in your career aspirations 19:57 okay thank you if I can now pass back to Belgian please 20:03 thank you thank you for that Catherine and um I’m now going to pick up on all of the things Catherine have said and 20:09 think about how we can use those um on LinkedIn to to improve our job 20:14 search basically um and so recently we’ve done um some interviews with about 80 odd job 20:21 Seekers on how they were approaching job search and in these interviews one thing 20:27 or one of the things um that we’ve realized was the vast majority had LinkedIn accounts and they were actively 20:33 using LinkedIn one way or another some saw um LinkedIn as a medium to get 20:40 to know about jobs and organizations and vacancies some use LinkedIn to 20:46 personally approach employers to ask questions about vacancies 20:51 um so to better determine some of the things Catherine was talking about for instance employee value proposition 20:58 um most um in our study use LinkedIn for connecting with professionals and 21:04 networking so research clearly shows that who you know Masters in job search 21:10 um and I don’t mean this is nepotism is the key to getting a job don’t get me wrong who you know matters because it 21:17 gets you access to information and sometimes even visibility to when when you’re doing your job search 21:23 um so you may learn about jobs and vacancies from people in your network 21:30 um people in your network May recommend you for opportunities or recommend opportunities for you 21:37 um you may learn about the requirements of jobs and value propositions of employers and through the people you 21:43 know um LinkedIn allows networking almost passively 21:49 um with a wide range of professionals and globally as well so it’s it’s an 21:55 amazing tool um and you don’t even need to speak to uh people face to face in person and yet 22:02 it makes your CV visible to to many so um it seems to be a great tool from 22:08 speaking to job Seekers as well so some in our sample um followed professional bodies such as 22:15 the cipd um on LinkedIn so this again allows networking but also continued 22:21 professional development and awareness of opportunities in your area of expertise 22:27 um and Linkedin like any other social media and operates based on algorithms 22:32 so the way you engage with LinkedIn feeds into the algorithm so then we then 22:38 get targeted messages and posts about or based on our previous interactions 22:45 um so there is therefore the opportunity to feed LinkedIn or any other social media the right kind of data about 22:53 yourself and what you’re looking for in jobs um whatever your LinkedIn profile says 22:59 or what your likes or your shares say LinkedIn things that’s your area of 23:05 expertise and and um or your area of Interest so therefore we can make sure that we 23:12 get targeted messages by um setting up a profile that’s built for 23:17 purpose and engaging on LinkedIn um again towards towards our main goals 23:22 and motivation so how to best use LinkedIn then um if you go to LinkedIn courses there 23:29 are actually various courses on on LinkedIn about how to make your profile 23:35 shine and how to use LinkedIn to your adventure Advantage these are really short courses sometimes 15 minutes half 23:42 an hour sometimes longer as well um and there are also other opportunities 23:48 for different short courses um on LinkedIn that you may use to 23:54 improve your know-how not just how to use LinkedIn but on on different aspects of work basically 24:01 um a good starting point uh on making the best use of LinkedIn is 24:07 um to fill in your profile as much as possible and as accurate as possible 24:13 um based on your goals in job search and this also gives you opportunities to 24:19 list your various skills your volunteering experiences 24:24 um and if you’re a job Seeker you can also set yourself as open to work on your profile 24:30 and this makes it likely for head hunters and recruiters to support you as 24:36 a job Seeker as well um you can also sign up for job alerts so you can specify your area of work 24:43 your geographical area of work you can specify um as we’ve just mentioned whether you 24:49 would like hybrid work or primarily from the office so you can specify your preferences and again get targeted 24:56 messages that way um and Linkedin can make your CV more visible and depending on your privacy 25:03 settings and when you update your CV on LinkedIn um or like or share things you actually 25:11 communicate your accomplishments but also the softer side of what makes you 25:17 employable which may not which um we may not necessarily communicate with a paper-based CV or online CV and 25:25 what I mean by the softer side is what Catherine was mentioning before things like your values your personality so the 25:32 things we like or share on LinkedIn actually communicate messages about the softer aspects of our of what makes us 25:39 employable um so a lot of the participants on our 25:44 study saw LinkedIn as an extension um to their um actual CV 25:50 excuse me um so they talked about LinkedIn almost like a live CV where you can instantly 25:58 update your accomplishments um and your experiences and let those 26:03 who need to know about these accomplishments or experiences know about them so in the next section we 26:10 discuss how to bring your CV to life when you’re engaging with the actual job application 26:16 thank you 26:22 so now we’re going to be handing over to Jeanette just to deliver the section about um your CV and what to include in your 26:30 TV 26:38 Jeanette are you there 26:45 okay I think internet may have um cut off there and what I’m going to do I’m going to hand over to 26:50 um Dee to the um present her section and then hopefully we can get Jeanette back on 26:59 thank you the next section is around once you’ve actually 27:04 attended the interview um if you could go to the previous slide please are too busy 27:10 thank you so preventing presenting yourself professionally so what do you do beforehand how do you 27:17 prepare for that interview um when you once you’ve secured that and 27:22 it’s worth having to think the night before or the week before um what why are you actually applying 27:29 for this role why do you want to work there so you’ve done your preparation you’ve filled in the application and 27:34 you’ve been shortlisted so you’ve already sold yourself but it’s about thinking about how you can authentically 27:41 present yourself to the interview panel on the day um and that you can present something 27:46 some added value um above your job application and CV 27:53 um try and imagine yourself in the role what do you think it would look like do you know anyone that works there are you 27:58 familiar with the industry if it’s a new industry what makes you want to change Industries 28:04 um think about examples so look again at the I work in the NHS we have very 28:09 traditional interviews with competency-based questions and usually that means the questions are designed 28:16 around the person’s specification so I would always advise and I did this yesterday with a colleague going through 28:22 the person specification and anticipating what some of those questions might be and putting yourself 28:28 in that scenario so choosing some of the best examples you can choose from based on the person 28:35 specification and it’s really helpful to do that because you won’t then be scrambling around 28:41 panicking in the actual interview because it will will be refreshed in your mind 28:47 if you’ve got if you if there’s one of the person specs that um you don’t have immediate experience 28:54 of um perhaps you haven’t had experience recently or you’ve not done that exact 29:00 thing so for example maybe you’re in HR but there’s a question about budget management 29:06 think about what you would do or other situational examples that you can use don’t feel that you have to use all of 29:13 your job experiences maybe you’ve worked on a PTA and you manage the budget there and you can bring that to life so it’s 29:21 always worth being prepared and not feeling that you have to meet the person spec 29:26 100 especially if they’ve got desirable characteristics which again is something 29:32 that they do very heavily in the more public sector world that I’m in 29:37 try and bring your um stories to life and make it personal to you so if you’re 29:43 interested in a company because it’s it’s say for example a local Authority and it’s where you live tell that story 29:51 you know I’m really interested in working here because I live here and I’ve got a a vested interest in that so 29:58 make that real um rather than just being very Bland and or maybe if it’s a company you’ve got 30:04 you’ve got a particular interest in a company or a charity why why are you interested maybe you’ve had personal 30:11 experience with that charity um because it does show passion as well 30:16 and it will bring you to life rather than you just reeling off generic examples 30:22 have a think about the organization as I said and what does it mean to look professional and behave professionally 30:29 so it’s going to be very different if you’re going for a sort of a media company 30:35 um you may not need to be all suited and booted compared to for example a finance 30:40 company in the city or um one of the top law firms they’ll expect a different way 30:46 of presenting yourself and again have a look at things like the dress code beforehand so that you are in alignment 30:54 you don’t have to have that thinking in the back of your mind when you do attend 30:59 um next slide please I just wanted to do a short poll because 31:05 this is increasingly um my personal view is I think face-to-face versus virtual interviews 31:12 seem to be about 50 50 but we thought it would be really interesting to see 31:17 um what you all thought and what your experiences have been so I just wondered if that’s possible 31:23 Eddie busy yes I’ve just launched a poll um please 31:29 as before and then I can view the responses 31:36 I’ll just let everyone answer that 31:46 and did the answers coming up yes so we’ve had 75 percent of people said yes they have and 25 is said no 31:55 okay so that’s interesting because you will prepare um differently for each scenario there 32:03 are advantages to both um and there are drawbacks to both as you might expect I think the advantage 32:10 of having uh virtual is that you can have a crib sheet nearby 32:15 um where you’ve written down your potential answers to the questions if you um again if you’re in the public 32:21 sector they often ask about values we talked about values earlier remind yourself of those values don’t you don’t 32:28 want to be scrambling around so again you can have a quib sheet that you can just quickly glance at obviously you 32:33 don’t want your head down when you’re doing that um if you’re if it’s face to face then 32:39 obviously you’ve got issues around making sure you get there on time the Journey’s not gonna that you know cause 32:45 any problems maybe you do a dry run on the weekend to make sure you know how to 32:51 get there where the building is how to get in some kind sometimes access can be a challenge 32:57 if it’s virtual again have you got the right text so you know you don’t want 33:02 dogs leaping in the background in the Amazon career at the door when you’re doing that so make sure all distractions 33:09 have been removed and what is the background telling them about you um it’s probably best to have a sort of 33:16 generic background like they have on Ms teams and zoom but again do a trial run with getting yourself set up 33:25 so once you’ve got there and you you’re in the interview and you’ve practiced your you’ve got your sort of ideas about 33:31 what the potential questions are we had this earlier the um star interview 33:36 method so situation task action and result and this is a really good way of 33:43 demonstrating a real example of you’re describing the situation so you understand the problem 33:49 that they’ve asked you what the task was what action you took 33:55 and I’ve myself been in interviews where I didn’t explain my role in that and 34:00 they will therefore follow that up a good interviewer will follow that up and then what was the outcome and if you if 34:07 you haven’t done that exact thing you can always say if I was in this situation or I was 34:13 aware of this situation uh say for example you took notes 34:18 um Assamese in and then what the learning was what the outcome was because it shows you’ve obviously 34:24 reflected on that and and got some learning from that so it’s always good 34:30 to practice some star because it’s not an it’s not a particularly natural way of communication so it’s good to do that 34:36 the night before even if in front of the mirror um or with someone else so that you’ve 34:42 you’ve actually gone through that as as embarrassing as that might be um so they’re the sort of key tips 34:48 around interviews and uh the differences between face-to-face and virtual 34:53 um I would say though that a face-to-face interview it does get the adrenaline going much more in some ways 34:59 than the virtual so if you can do anything to get that um sort of spark 35:04 and you go in I think um I would encourage that when you are on a virtual interview 35:09 thank you adubisi thank you Dee and we have Jeanette back at perfect timing actually so I’m just 35:16 going to hand back over to Danette um he’s going to give you a bit more information about CVS and just how to tailor your application to the job that 35:23 you’re searching for um hi everybody just to say apologies 35:28 now this is where resilience and patients come into it and we’re back online 35:33 um back to you guys and it’s all about bringing your CV to life um see your CV is your first touch Point 35:41 um in certain instances so it’s how you can make your CV um as creative and as personal to you 35:49 um CVS capture all your experience your achievements and facts and figures for 35:54 those of you who are creative you can turn at amazing CVS using fonts and colors and things like that but word if 36:01 you’re going to word they’ve got a temp and in the new area they have templates which help with resumes so if you’re 36:07 kind of um don’t know how CVS should look now 36:13 um and give you examples of great CVS going to work look at the resume mode 36:18 templates and just one grab one that might suit your purpose and then 36:24 just personalize it to yourself there’s certain CVS that you can put your picture on as well so there’s a 36:30 different sort of CVS out there um so and it’s a great way to use color 36:35 um list yours experiences your Styles and things like that in just a really creative and capturing way you’ve got to 36:42 bear in mind that companies get thousands and thousands upon CVS so a CV that stands out 36:49 um just in terms of color alone or layout and things like that will actually get their attention not to say you will get the job at least they’ve 36:56 given the opportunity it’s stand out and they’ve read it so a great way create your own CVS or as they’re going to word 37:03 and grab a template and just look how CVS are laid out um now because some of our CVS we 37:09 haven’t updated in years and they are quite old and we’re now obviously it’s 2023 so just make your CV as bright 37:16 vibrant as you are sometimes your CV also needs to capture your 37:21 experience our experience comes from our professional experience and our personal experience and then all you need to do 37:28 is just capture sometimes it’s best to just brainstorm your experience because 37:33 if you’ve got a lot of experience you just need to capture it all on paper and 37:39 pull the experience out that is probably relevant more so to the job you’re going for because we do we have a talk of 37:46 experiences but we just need the ones that are really relevant and that powerful that we can put on our CV so 37:52 all your experiences you just capture on your CV subject to the job description and subject to what the company is 37:58 looking for so it’s always mirroring your experience with what they’re looking for your achievements we 38:05 have achieved a lot in life we’ve achieved a lot professionally we’ve achieved a lot personally we some some 38:11 things we’ve even forgotten so once again pen and paper is your best friend just scribble down your achievements to 38:17 date and then anything that’s relevant that you can use on your CV then you add 38:23 it to your CV um it could be anything some even some hobby that we have 38:29 um you can list facts and figures um some of us work for a big large company some work for small figures but 38:35 as always if you can just give a number about the figure like for example Tesco’s Tesco’s has 7 000 stores Tesco’s 38:43 has four hundred and thousand plus employees Tesco’s is a big company so to 38:48 say um your facts and figure I’ve worked for a large store that’s got 7 000 Outlets four thousand staff that alone says you 38:56 you can work in a big company if you said you work in a boutique company they know that you will fit into a kind 39:02 of a smaller company just look for the size in terms of the size of the company look how much that company made in a 39:09 year um look what how much that your team um made in that year and these are the figures that you can add that I’ve 39:14 worked for a large team and we did a deal of 1.5 million or billion so you catch all those figures facts and 39:21 figures and you include that on your CV in certain places like the company that you worked at that would just signpost 39:27 the um person who’s looking at your seats like okay this person can work in a big team of 20 or a small team of two 39:34 they can be a good team player they’ve worked on large projects they’ve worked with um big deals small deals so facts 39:41 and figures actually speaks volumes so that’s just one way of bringing your CV to life we’re gonna now look how to 39:48 tailor your CV um tailored applications 39:54 best practice is to read the job description and make sure they give you 40:00 words in there um and what they’re looking for and then all you need to do is ensure that you 40:07 fit what they’re looking for so it’s perfect alignment so we need somebody who’s a team player well then if you can 40:13 draw from your experience that yeah I have a team player because I worked in a particular team therefore you’re 40:18 aligning your language with their language and your experience with what they’re looking for 40:24 the best place to tailor your application is to read the job description and actually Google the 40:29 company and go on their website you capture all this information and then how you fit and they fit together then 40:36 you will include that a on your CV or at least when you go for an interview then 40:41 you have like shared experiences there’s nothing more bonding than shared experiences the same thing goes for our 40:47 applications if we can mirror to a degree what the company’s looking for then that puts us in a good position 40:53 once again relevant experience there’s no point so going for a job where you 40:58 need to be a chef and you haven’t done any you’ve got no relevant experience um and you just said okay I used to work 41:05 you know somewhere else so you have to have the relevant experience to the job description 41:11 um once you do that that once again it’s a mirror it’s a perfect fit and it’s a it tailors to what the company is 41:17 looking for values there’s a whole rust of values and it’s more so than you know team your 41:23 value value um family and friends and you value this and you value that find out what your 41:29 company’s values are they will be on generally on their website look what their values are if they value family 41:35 family orientated company and you obviously value family as well that’s a 41:40 perfect fit if you value um oh God there’s so many things one can 41:46 value um if you value socializing there are very sociable sociable company they’re 41:52 always doing things well then you know you’re a good fit for that company as well so once again it’s always looking 41:57 at the job description always going on to their website and looking at the buzzwords they use look what they’re 42:03 looking for and just make sure you mirror yourself with your company your experiences mirror what they’re looking 42:09 for and the position that you’ve a you’ve probably had worked in that position before or you you can bring 42:16 some experience to that position so these are just small ways to bring your CV to alive and how you can tailor 42:23 your applications to ensure that you’re a good fit for any organization 42:31 thank you Jeanette thank you so much um to all our presenters for um the information that you’ve delivered so 42:37 what I’m going to do is just move on us on quite quickly to the q1 sorry the Q a 42:43 panel and we’ve had one question come through already via chat which I’m gonna hopefully we’ll have some time for but 42:50 I’m gonna pose um our first question and to our panel um if you could please turn your cameras back on Just for this 42:56 section um that would be great and again if there’s anyone who does have any questions you do if you know if you want 43:01 to send those questions through via chat please do feel free to send them free and hopefully we’ll try to get as many 43:07 questions as we can so the first question which I think is on everyone’s mind and based on some of the um 43:12 conversations that have been going on Via chat is what are the criterias recruiters look at before they employ 43:18 you so whether that’s a recruitment organization or specifically the company what are the criterias they look out for 43:32 so that could go to I don’t know who wants to go first um to answer that question 43:42 um I can answer that question um in terms of what recruiters are 43:48 looking for I recently just in 2020 um I um secured a position at a law firm 43:56 and purely because um yeah I I think we were coming into something and I just got a job quickly 44:01 so that was fine the recruiter they wanted to know my personality I had to literally before the lockdown I went 44:07 into the agency and it was they were very strong on personality because that’s what their client wanted the 44:13 company and they were also strong on um my ability because it was a position for an I.T 44:20 um position believe it or not um and so I had to do a test inside 44:25 um in the agency itself with regard to my ability to deliver on I on it because obviously they didn’t 44:32 want me to send me to they didn’t want to send me to the client and I couldn’t do what they what the client wanted so 44:37 they they saw me make sure I was ready fit um for that company so let obviously 44:44 a good impression for myself but also a good impression for the recruiters in the agency themselves that’s my 44:49 experience when it comes to read just make sure your personality and your skills um are relevant for the recruiter as 44:56 well as the company thank you um Jeanette 45:02 um B did you want to um comment on that question as well yeah I would I would add that um 45:09 regardless of the role um people looking for the softer skills so a good communicator someone who’s 45:16 flexible um someone that’s willing to work well within a team 45:22 and someone that’s willing to learn and I think those would apply to probably most jobs regardless of the job or the 45:30 or the industry so I think that’s something that is worth thinking about 45:35 um really and and demonstrating in in all aspects of the recruitment process 45:44 brilliant thank you for that as well D so we’re going to move on um to the next question 45:50 um so how do you um so how do you crack the interview and prepare a solid CV as a fresher so I 45:56 think this question might be coming out um from someone who maybe is fresh out of University and you’re kind of still 46:02 getting your foot in and you’re not really sure I know we’ve spoken about um CVS a little bit but more importantly how do you basically prepare yourself 46:08 for your interview and I think this links to one of the questions we had earlier as well in terms of are you able 46:15 to um you know to in a face-to-face interview can you bring a crib sheet in or is that you know would you not advise 46:21 doing that so how do you prepare yourself you know to go for that interview 46:31 foreign 46:42 I think in terms of preparing it’s about thinking through possible questions that 46:49 you might be asked but also as one of us mentioned earlier um thinking through what it is 46:56 specifically we have in terms of evidence or information that we want to make sure we get across so if you are 47:03 you know trying to think in your your head what um questions might I be asked you know try and think of scenarios that 47:09 you can bring so if somebody asks you how you work as a team try and have something prepared that you can talk 47:15 about and if somebody says you know give me an example of when you’ve had a difficult conversation with someone 47:21 fine I’ll have that at the back of your mind so when I was going for interviews particularly as a graduate or in my kind 47:28 of early career I really try and think you know what sort of things do I want to make sure I get across in terms of my 47:35 skills my experiences and think through those scenarios and role play them we 47:40 talked before about you know looking in the mirror when you’re practicing and rehearsing and also thinking about some 47:45 of the Practical things like if you are having a face-to-face interview 47:50 um do you shake hands now when you walk into a room you know is that something that people don’t do anymore people 47:56 always used to meet and greet and shake hands you know maybe that’s not acceptable so kind of Take A vibe from 48:02 the interviewers or the panel or whoever’s uh having that interview with you but try and think it through 48:08 beforehand so you’re not caught unawares it’s not going to be possible to think of every scenario but do try and think 48:13 through the kinds of questions you think you might be asked the kind of evidence you’ve got that you want to make sure 48:18 you get across and just the Dynamics of um how the actual process might work 48:26 brilliant thank you for that Catherine um the next question is actually quite a good one um I’m kind of links to the interview 48:32 process as well is would you would it be acceptable to request a question prior to the interview so would it be 48:37 acceptable to ask you know the company or the recruiter to send you the interview questions prior to you being 48:42 interviewed elegant if you want to get that one I just saw your face there 48:49 um I no I thought that was a brilliant question um to be honest I am not aware 48:55 um whether this is a practice that’s um I’ve never heard of it but 49:01 um what I was thinking was there is now a lot of tools that job Seekers actually use to figure out what comes in the 49:08 interviews um so one example is for instance Glassdoor if you 49:14 um log on to Glassdoor you could figure out um how previous job Seekers 49:21 um experienced um interviews and job applications with various organizations and that might 49:26 give you some hints as to what kind of questions might be coming your way from different companies but I’m not aware of 49:35 requesting pre um um interview questions before the 49:41 interview they might have a different experience but I see Jeanette and Katherine going no no no 49:49 um so um with that one that was actually a really good point that’s what popped into my head instantly um Belgian Glassdoor um I know that 49:56 um people do Post information about oh I had an interview of this company and they give information about this is what to look out for or even more information 50:03 about how the interview went so I would say you know that probably is a good start to look at to see what you could 50:09 look out for at the interview so Dee did you want to come in on this one as well I think this is becoming we are seeing 50:15 more like this um it is because also people may have a 50:21 disability they may have you know a neurodeiverse conditions such as dyslexia 50:27 um and they may require that in order to enable them to compete on a Level 50:33 Playing Field so I I think it’s not unreasonable to ask that uh we have had 50:39 that and we have we have allowed it um if they have declared that they have 50:44 got a disability um in terms of crib sheets I think 50:49 that’s also becoming more of a um more common and I don’t think that needs to 50:56 be something based on a disability I think it’s something that people are finding 51:01 uh more like a comfort blanket and again we we in the NHS do allow that 51:08 um I think we’ve had some strange ones where people have asked not to have their camera on 51:14 and we’ve said that we expect the person to have their camera on um we don’t think that’s a reasonable 51:20 adjustment so I would just add that I I should have mentioned that earlier but we would expect to be able to see the 51:26 individual um we would expect to see them once they got the job so I don’t think that that’s 51:32 its reason was unless there was an extremely good reason um so I think it’s it’s all those things 51:38 and I think I think interviews are changing from say 10 years ago 51:44 thank you the Anne Catherine if you want to come in let’s just go into it I was just going to add that I am aware more 51:50 recently um partly I think since covid where there have been more online interviews 51:56 that um clients are giving applicants some 52:01 information about the types of things they’d like to talk through they’re not necessarily giving them the questions 52:06 but just saying you know I’d like you to talk about your experience in the buying 52:11 department or when you were merchandising or if they’re looking for very specific more technical skills so 52:18 it’s a way of kind of assessing that very specifically and somebody put up in the chat before about you know do you 52:23 have to do technical skills sometimes during an interview it depends what the type of role is but I have known that 52:29 increasingly really where they need to make sure that you can look at an x-ray and work out if somebody’s got a broken 52:35 arm or whatever it might be so some of those practical things are being brought into face-to-face interviews in 52:41 particular a bit more but you would usually be given some notice of that but not always I mean sometimes you have to 52:47 be unexpected yes great thank you all for coming in on that question so I’m gonna um just pose 52:53 one more question which I think it’s come up um in the chat now and it was um it was submitted 52:59 um a few times as well um prior to the session so how do you you know talk about gaps in your CV you 53:06 know I I always think when you have a gap in your CV or when you’ve taken time away to look after a family member or 53:11 for maternity you know all that experience isn’t lost it’s not you you haven’t just not done anything you know 53:17 there’s still experience there’s still time is still valuable so how do you explain that you know first you on 53:23 LinkedIn for example but also how do you explain that to an employer who thinks oh gosh you’ve had five years off work 53:29 what value can you bring to this job how do you talk about that to an employer 53:36 yeah just quickly in terms of where gaps are concerned like you said you’ve done 53:42 something generally in those five years or what however many years and it’s to just bring that alive and 53:49 you know just say yes it was a gap and I was saying I was looking after my mother but the skills I learned with that it 53:56 could be patience could resilience um being supportive 54:01 um and it’s it’s once again looking for those um words that you know the soft skill 54:06 words or the the words that they would appreciate hearing um as to why you had that Gap there’s 54:11 nothing and I think especially now there’s no there’s nothing wrong with having a gap 54:16 it’s just okay I was doing this and I learned this and I experienced that and 54:22 it’s to bring that it’s to bring that gap of life it probably is so relevant why you had that Gap and it will fit 54:28 really really well in probably with the company um yeah so I think we have this we can 54:34 actually own certain things now um and I actually think it’s a great time if you have had a gap to just say I 54:41 was doing whatever and I learned this and I developed that so I think they’re just once you do that and you’re honest 54:48 and transparent I think they will recognize that thank you Janae and Catherine yeah just 54:56 to add really um say what you have done not what you haven’t done and I was talking to 55:02 somebody somebody the other day about this very issue they’d have four years they’d move countries they’d had a 55:08 family their husband had a very demanding job and when the child’s now at Nursery they want to return to the 55:15 workplace and they’ve had four years without working and we were talking quite a bit about you know don’t say 55:20 what you haven’t done you don’t have to make an excuse for that as Jeanette says say what you have done during that time 55:27 what skills you’ve learned and bring those those issues out um most employers will only ask the Gap 55:34 question just to make sure that nothing untoward has gone on but also to see how 55:39 people do respond to it so you know if you’ve had a gap of 10 years is that because you you know something 55:46 has happened or you’ve been in prison or whatever I have known that happened before 55:52 um but you know every opportunity every every situation can be turned into an opportunity so don’t feel that it’s um 55:58 slight on your life choices or circumstances that you’ve been involved 56:03 in just bringing out what what you’ve learned from it and the good side of it don’t be afraid about 56:09 um admitting it or talking about it great thank you both for coming in on that um question um I see Belgian and 56:16 Dee you both have your hand up but I’m quite conscious of time so what I would say is that I’m just gonna try to round off here but 56:22 um some of the other questions if it’s okay I can send the questions through to you guys and if you’re okay to just type 56:28 up a few response then that would be really brilliant um so just moving on in terms of my 56:34 colleague Jamila for [Music] um um for everyone who started the session did give a bit of an overview in terms 56:39 of who we are as the cipd trust but I wanted to give you guys some information about the further support that you can 56:45 get from us um if you are job searching um so with the steps ahead mentoring program you do have um one-to-one 56:51 support um to help you intubate basically get into work if you are looking for work 56:56 um but you will be matched with uh Mentor so all of our presenters today are mentors on our program who will be 57:03 able to give you some um one-to-one support in terms of looking for work where to start how to tailor your CV how 57:09 to prepare yourself for an interview my colleague um Zoe has sent some information in the chat as well 57:15 um about how where to find out more about the um about the program the 57:22 um sessions can take place virtually so you know you don’t have to track to meet your Mentor anywhere so it will be 57:27 virtual um the meetings are virtual so you can basically get support and ask your you know Mentor questions about the the 57:34 interview process or even to help you prepare for um you know to do a mock interview or mock run through you know I 57:39 know some of our presenters today have mentioned making sure that you prepare and you run through that interview and 57:44 to look out for what to expect so if you do click on that link that’s been sent to you you can find out more information 57:50 about the program and also if you do have any questions I’m going to be posting our um information about how to 57:57 get in touch with us on the screen shortly as well please do feel free to get in touch with any questions you may 58:03 have um and I’m also going to ask my colleague Zoe to send 58:08 um a quick evaluation link to you guys I promise it won’t take more than one minute to just answer some questions in 58:13 terms of how you found the session as my colleague Jamila mentioned earlier this is only the second time we’re running 58:19 these sessions and it would really apprec appreciate some if you can give us some information about you know how 58:25 you found the session and just to get more information on how we can improve the session as well moving forward so 58:30 please do for um please do fill those in but again before you go I have one more poll that 58:36 I want you guys to complete please just a quick one just to give us information again on how you found this session so 58:42 I’m going to launch that now just give me a second 58:47 um 58:54 okay so I’ve launched that now so please just um fill in the poll and then 58:59 um yeah that will be the end of the session 59:08 has that come up for everyone okay excellent 59:26 okay brilliant thank you everyone and for answering those questions and again if your question was not asked um as I 59:33 mentioned I will be um sharing the um questions with the um presenter so hopefully we might have 59:38 some responses to your um to your question we are also delivering um the exact same session um next week 59:45 Thursday as well so please feel free to join that session if you do have a present question that you still want to ask so please feel free to join that but 59:52 yes thank you again and I want to say a massive thank you as well to all of our um presenters because they have put in a 59:57 lot of time to put this session this one hour session together it’s we’ve been planning it for a while now so thank you 1:00:03 guys so much for delivering this session we really appreciate it and thank you to you guys who have joined the session as 1:00:08 well and hopefully we see some of you um join the program and some of you next week as well but yeah thank you very 1:00:14 much thank you thank you thank you thank you 1:00:21 thanks bye-bye thank you okay