NI number on your CV?

In a world corrupt with ID fraud and ID theft, why would anybody wish to publish their personal NI number? A CV usually contains a considerable mount of personal data including your name, your address, your phone numbers, your place of work, sometimes even your salary etc. Don't give fraudsters a chance of stealing your identity by providing them with more information like NI umbers.

I have even seen a CV with bank details on it recently!!

Once you submit your CV to any organisation, especialy on-line you have no idea who will have access to your details. If an employer requires any personal information not contained on your CV they will ask you for it later in the recruitment process usualy in a written application form etc.

Protect yourself - don't include personal information on your CV which isn't required.

Happy hunting

The Job Guru

To see more published articles like this, click through the titles on the right. >

To see Financial Services vacancies, please click [here]

***job Alert***

Experienced Paraplanner (Urgently required) - Altrincham

Our highly respected IFA client is currently seeking an experienced Paraplanner to help support their sales team. Having previous financial services experience and a minimum of full FPC (or equivalent)(AFPC an advantage) you will be responsible for providing excellent support services to your consultants by producing client reports including suitability letters, research and business reviews.

This is a fantastic opportunity for the right person looking to play an active role in an expanding, forward thinking IFA business.

Generous basic salary (negotiable) as part of a very attractive package. Salary £25,000 to £35,000 dependent upon experience and qualifications etc.

Moorejobs Ltd. are a specialist Financial Services recruitment company. Set up and run by experienced Financial Services personnel, so we understand this industry. We are working with some of the largest financial organisations in the UK and we are happy to receive applications from all FPC and CeMap/CFP (or equivalent) qualified candidates. All applications will be held in the strictest confidence. Email us your CV today and one of our Recruitment Consultants will contact you as soon as possible.

To apply for this position please click [here] and email us your CV.

Covering Letters

There seems to be an increase in candidates taking the time to apply for one particular position (eg Advertising sales) and then using the same CV and covering letter to apply for a completely different position (eg Specialist Financial Adviser!) without changing a single word..

First Impression?

Think about it. If you were an employer or an agency advertising for a 'Specialist Financial Adviser' for example and you received an application from a candidate applying for an 'Advertising sales position' what would you likely to do with that application? Yep, no doubt it will head straight for the bin!

You would not believe how many times I have seen this happen. At the very least it is careless, possibly lazy and at worst it is just un-professional and a waste of your time.

Be Careful!

If you have read my previous posts, you will understand how important it is to consider each application as a separate project. Think about the position. Are you qualified? Have you the experience? If so, shout about it as loud as you can. Make it the main feature of your application. 'Tweak' your CV and covering letter to give you the best chance of it getting noticed and your best chance of success.

Fact!

It is a fact that most employers will only ever 'scan read' a CV, usually due to the volume of applications they receive. Make yours stand out by having your 'relevant' experience and qualifications near the top of your CV so the employer doesn't have to search for what they are looking for to include you in the 'possible' pile.

Please feel free to comment on any of my posts by clicking the 'comments' link below.

Good Luck

The Job Guru

For more information regarding Financial Services jobs and Services please click [here]

Job boards

The increased use of the internet to search for new opportunities has led to the explosion of internet based job boards. The concept is simple, a client can post his or her current vacancies in the form of a job advert and any candidate currently seeking a new job can usually register their CV and search/ apply to any job of interest.

This simplistic approach seems, on the face of it, to be an easy, convenient and cheap way of attracting candidates and filling vacancies.

BEWARE

I am not sure if any candidate really understands that as soon as they have uploaded their CV they will be inundated with telephone calls & emails and even mail through the letterbox. I have had a conversation with one candidate who decided to post his CV on one of he largest job boards in the UK and he received more than 40 phone calls and 60 emails in the space of 2 days!!!!. This may be fantastic news if this is what you were expecting. But if not, how frustrating. These contacts were mainly from recruitment agencies (like us) who grab at a CV as soon as possible in order to beat the competition.

Please be careful. I am not trying to convince you NOT to use job posting, far from it. As I have already indicated, we use job boards all the time. I am simply saying be careful. Not of the agencies who subscribe to these site wish to upset or frustrate any candidate by contacting them only to find out they are the 40th call they have received that day and they are fed up with them. We are simply offering a good service to them and perhaps finding them their next job! So please be careful.

I personally would recommend you do some free searching and check out any agency directly before sending off your (very personal CV) to anybody.

Good luck

The Job Guru

Check out some of our current vacancies [here]

Obtaining an interview

Every job vacancy will have its own individual requirements. The key which provide you with the best chance of obtaining an interview is simple - you must fully understand what the position is and what the employer is looking for. It is not uncommon to ‘tweak’ ones CV in order to match more accurately, the requirements of a specific vacancy.

Whilst I would never advocate being dishonest, especially with a potential employer, I would recommend any candidate who is serious about obtaining an interview should ensure they are in with a chance by promoting any relevant experiences or qualifications in a way that the employer can easily find.

The basics

Don’t ignore the basics either, a clearly laid out, well presented and un-cluttered CV which highlights the qualities the employer is seeking is by far the best way of ensuring consideration for interview. Be careful when including personal email addresses. You may not get far with an email adress like 'lazyherbert@email.co.uk' or 'psycho@email.com' etc. I have seen emails similar to these and it just does not creat a good impression. If you have to, create a new email adres just for your job applications. You can still do this for free with many companies.

Make sure you application is received on time and make sure you have their details handy should you have provided your mobile telephone number as a method of contact.

It is quite off putting to an employer when they speak to a candidate for the first time only to find them confused as to who is calling them and cannot remember applying to them for a position. All your hard work on getting this far can be easily wasted.

Do your research

Don’t forget to do your research on the company before you apply but don’t go overboard reciting every detail at either the first telephone call or at your interview.

A good level of knowledge and understanding is usually enough to ensure you have a good chance of proceeding to the next stage but if you try to be too clever, you could easily come unstuck!

Good luck

The Job Guru

Why not check out our website click [here]

Recruitment Agencies

Why do we need agencies? What do recruitment agencies do? Are they all the same?

Moorejobs Ltd. are a dedicated ‘Financial Services’ recruitment company. Unlike many other agencies, we specialist in the Financial Services industry. We do not recruit in any other industry.

Why?

We believe that the industry is so complex that only a specialist company who understand the industry will be able to offer a good service and be able to assist in finding the most suitable position for a candidate.

Most agencies will have a few clients who are looking for similar candidates and they will submit their CV to any suitable client.

We prefer to telephone screen our candidates to enable us to understand their requirements in order to introduce them to just one of our clients at any one time. This allows us to address any issues resulting from any feedback and enable us to use this information to ensure a successful placement.

We believe that recruitment agencies can and do play a vital part in the recruitment process. However, we do believe that there are a lot of companies ‘selling’ their clients vacancies to their candidates resulting in placements which do not quite fit and ultimately leading to a breakdown in client, candidate and agency communications.

Buyer beware!

Ask for testimonials, seek referrals from other candidates who have used an agency. Ask the agency for their levels of experience etc. I am sure that you will find our experiences to be useful.

Good luck.

The Job Guru

For our latest Financial Services Vacancies click [here]

A self-promoting CV

I have lost count of how many truly awful CVs that have crossed my desk in the attempt to gain employment.

Colourful designs, graphics, photographs, poor spelling etc…….. I have seen them all and there is usually only one place they will end up and that is the ‘little round filing cabinet’ which lives on the floor in the corner of my office!

Why?

Simply because they are just too difficult to read and worse still, they suggest that they are an attempt to disguise the candidates true skills, personality or experience.

The golden rule when it comes to writing an effective ‘self-promoting’ CV is :-

‘KEEP IT SIMPLE’

How many times have we heard that in our lives?

Regardless of what else you may have read about creating the ‘perfect CV’ and ‘getting yourself ‘noticed’ most employers that I have spoken to would like to see a simple, easy to read & well laid out CV which contains factual and relevant information about the candidate.

Use a ‘professional looking’ but simple layout and don't forget to include your contact details!!! You would be amazed at how many I have seen without even a telephone number!

Avoid excessive use of bright colours, pictures and graphics unless it is really necessary.

Keep your information listed in chronological order. I personally prefer to read ‘most recent first’.

Finally, remember, your prospective employer may have to sift through dozens (even hundreds) of CVs for any advertised vacancy. Try to understand how they read any batch of CVs. They scan read them. To stand a chance of being invited for interview, the most relevant qualities, experience etc must be very easy to spot if scan read. The use of bold text could be acceptable providing your don’t over do it.

Remember, keep it simple, avoid unnecessary colours/graphics or text effects and post importantly…keep it relevant and easy to read.

The Job Guru

For Jobs in Financial Services click here :- http://www.moorejobs.co.uk