Tag: Résumé

How Should I Handle Gaps in my CV?

Posted on by Naomi Marshall

Gaps in a CV are common. But the big question is, how should you handle the gaps in your CV? Do you mention them or ignore them? Do recruiters and hiring managers really notice gaps?

YES! Yes, we notice and yes you need to address them.

First and foremost – be honest! Honesty and transparency are important in writing your CV and when you are in the actual interview. If you try to pull the wool over your interviewers eyes, we can tell that something funny is going on (remember this is our day job and we are paid by our client to make sure everything checks out).

On your CV, any extended gaps should be explained clearly. Just jumping from January 2013 to October 2013 with no explanation leaves question marks. In this employment market, where there is a lot of competition, you don’t want question marks. It makes it too easy to be put in the “maybe” pile instead of the “must meet” pile.

We understand that sometimes, things are sensitive or difficult to discuss. However, you still need to address it. If you’ve had a long gap due to illness or caring for a family member, etc., put context around this gap. You only need to be brief but put some background around the gap and highlight that you are now in a position to meet the requirements of the job description and the employer won’t be affected.

Fill the gap – If you are currently experiencing a “gap” in your career (for whatever reasons), think of your CV and try to find some fillers whilst you are looking for your next role.

“Various temporary assignments” is a great filler. So whilst looking for the right long term position, take on some temp jobs. Temp jobs are not only a great way to fill in gaps on your CV, they are also the perfect way to increase your skills and build some important networks (which may just lead to a longer term position). Read our blog on temping if you want to know more about why you should temp.

Studying short courses or online courses are a great way to up-skill while filling a gap. Taking an extended holiday is also valid reason for a gap in your CV.

Alternatively, look at some unpaid, voluntary work or taking on an internship. As far as your CV goes, these are great ways to fill in some time whilst looking for your next career move. They are also great points and topics to bring up in your interview. Just think how impressed a hiring manager will be if you say you were volunteering with “X-Company” in between interviews, as opposed to saying “I was catching up on Ellen and other day time TV”.

The important thing to remember is it is not so much about the reasons for your gaps as how you handle the gaps. Take some time and think about how you can honestly address these in your CV and during your interviews.

If you want to fill in your current gap by taking on some temp work – get in touch with the team here at Sprint. We have some great temp roles on at the moment and we would love to speak with you.

 

How to Put Together a Sales Resume

Posted on by Naomi Marshall

Not all resumes are created equal. At Sprint, we’ve written many blogs on the importance of a great resume in order to sell yourself to a prospective employer. However, if you’re in sales, there are a few other important details you must include. Yes. The layout should be neat, clear fonts, dates to one side etc etc…but what about the actual content? The actual words you choose? Here is what we recommend you include when putting together a Sales resume.

Remember, if an employer advertises a new role, they may receive over 100 resumes (sometimes more!) and a recruiter can receive several hundred in one week. If they know what they are doing they can scan a resume in about 30 seconds. So you need to make sure you are standing out and highlighting the important information that recruiters/employers are looking for!

WHAT ARE RECRUITERS LOOKING FOR IN A SALES RESUME?

Amongst other things – A HIGH ACHIEVER. A “Do-er”, a driving force, a self-motivated, energetic and positive person. Whilst I am very interested in hearing all about the HOW (relating to targets, KPI’s, day to day activities), I really want to see WHAT you have achieved.
Recently I placed a very senior sales person. To put it bluntly, she is a Sales Rocket when it comes to driving new business. She’s fearless and her resume showed that as soon as I opened it. I booked her in immediately and I had no issues in engaging clients to meet with her the minute I put her resume in front of them. Yes, she had to sell herself in the interview but I strongly believe that the points she outlined on paper were just as important when it came to securing the role.

WHAT DO I INCLUDE IN A SALES RESUME?

Here is a snippet of bullet points from her resume, the ones that showed me WHAT she had achieved:

Duties:

  • Successfully drove a permanent recruitment desk and managed end-to-end recruitment processes across a range of organisations from large global companies to ASX listed businesses
  • Built and managed relationships with key stakeholders by maintaining a regular account management strategy
  • Negotiated Terms of Business, fee, rates and figures with existing and new business
  • New business development on a weekly basis
  • Meeting all KPI’s on a weekly basis relating to call volumes, client visits, interviews and activity

Achievements:

  • Winner ‘2013’ Business Activity Incentive Award
  • Top Biller Quarter 1,2,3 ‘2013’
  • Organiser for client training program in 2012, 2013 & 2014 (weekly group fitness with clients)
  • Organiser for the Women In Leadership events through XYZ
  • Successful on pitching, winning and placing over 8 retained assignments

Billings:

  • Q1 2013: XXX – Q2 2013: XXX – Q3 2013: XXX – Q4 2013: XXX

Obviously these points were coming from a sales person who worked in the recruitment industry,. But whatever your industry the same method applies. Be VERY descriptive with regards to what you did, your achievements and make it sales specific. List the outcomes and your achievements with an emphasis on financial wins/gains (at the end of the day – this is what counts in sales and to our client who wants results).

Tailoring your resume for the role you want and highlighting the key factors that make you the right candidate for the role are often overlooked by candidates. If you want to work in sales – be proud of your results and sell your most important product… yourself!

If you have more questions about putting your resume together, be sure to refer to Sprint Coach and see our other tips. Alternatively, contact us directly at sprint@sprintpeople.com.au

 

Naomi Marshall – Director
P: (02) 9271 0011
M: 0422 139 910
E: naomi@sprintpeople.com.au

 

7 Tips to Help Your Resume Stand Out From the Crowd!

Posted on by Naomi Marshall

As a recruiter I often hear horror stories from candidates about how they have sent their resumes in for multiple jobs and never heard back. Application volumes (particularly for junior roles) can be HUGE! While I will concede that there should at least be some communication from an agency or company back to every applicant, the simple fact is that there is sometimes just not enough time in the day to get back to every candidate individually.

However as a candidate there are some things that are in your control and the main one is your resume and its presentation. In most instances your resume is the only piece of information that a recruiter or hiring manager has about you – and first impressions count – so take the time to get it right! Find my top 7 resume tips below.

  1. Employment history – Your employment history should always be listed with the most recent role at the top! The average recruiter spends less than a minute on each resume they look at, and if the first role they see is working at a McDonalds or something else not at all relevant, you may get overlooked for a role simply because the recruiter missed the part of your resume where your relevant experience is listed.
  2. Dates of employment – Every single role should have the starting and finishing, month and year listed. There is no need to put exact dates, but simply putting the year is not enough information! Some candidates only state the year and when I delve into how long that they were at that job, their answer can be anything from 1 day to 12 months.
  3. Duties – Recruiters find it hard to read long arduous paragraphs about what you did in your last role. So that they don’t miss anything crucial dot point your tasks and responsibilities with the most relevant points for each role at the top. These points should be able to easily account for what you did on a day to day basis, what systems you used in doing so and whom you interacted with (e.g. clients, customers, direct reports, suppliers etc.)
  4. Gaps between roles – One thing a recruiter looks for is gaps between employment. If you were unemployed for a period of time, it is important to account for it. It is better to state that you went on a 6 month holiday than to put nothing at all (for all we know you were sitting on your couch watching “Oprah”).
  5. Photo – Only include a photo if it is professional one! Bare shouldered, glassy eyed, drunken party shots do not make a good impression!
  6. Correct spelling and punctuation – In this day and age with “spell check” at your disposal there are simply no excuses for spelling mistakes. As a recruiter there is nothing worse than opening a CV in Word to find half of it underlined in red squiggly lines! In many cases recruiters will not even read your resume when this happens.
  7. Contact details should be current – I know what you are thinking “What dummy sends a resume through without the right contact details attached?” – The answer is MANY! Some resumes don’t even have a phone number listed!

Don’t miss out on your ideal role simply because you have failed to make one of these small changes to your resume. You may have the right experience for the job, be the friendliest person in the world, and have a great attitude towards work, but if a recruiter can’t quickly identify a reason to call you then then you may never get the chance to show them how great you really are.