Career Advice from Zenopa Recruitment Ltd
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CV Preperation
Interview Tips
Psychometric Test Tips
Presentations
Zenopa can help CV Preparation Your CV is the first point of contact between you and your prospective employer, it needs to grab their attention and sell you as an outstanding candidate. Keep your CV simple and concise, it needs to be easy to read and tailored to what the employer is looking for. Your CV needs to well structured, too many sections on your CV can make it too long to read and uninteresting. Simple, labelled sections are more appropriate and will keep an employers attention, especially if they are scanning through multiple CV's. Education Clearly labelled qualifications, your degree subject and university, plus A level grades, also include any other qualifications you may have attained that are above GCSE level. GCSE's can be summarised, but presenting the grades in Maths and English is advisable. You do not need to include education previous to GCSE qualifications. Work experience It is not enough to simply list your experience, you need to add bullet points to each one, explaining what the role incorporated and what skills it gave you. You need to show a wide variety of skills used, skills gained and how skills you already had were improved. Including stats on a CV can be beneficial, especially for a sales CV as it provides evidence of your ability. Dates of employment are usually required and any breaks in employment need an understandable reason. Interests, Achievements and Skills This section isn't crucial to a CV, however it is an area where you can stand out to the reader. Keep this section short and to the point, as your work experience grows, this section will shorten due to skills and achievements being presented by the roles you have worked in. Try to avoid boring statements such as 'hanging out with friends' and use interests that will make you stand out from the crowd. Here you can add skills such as foreign languages or what ICT programmes you can use. You can include both personal (running the London marathon) and commercial (sales person of the year 2011) achievements to help present yourself to the reader. Remember to label correctly personal and contact information and to correctly address any cover letters. Interview Tips All employers will understand that the candidate is nervous and will keep this in mind when conducting an interview. For a formal face-to-face interview always wear smart clothes, shoes and arrive early. When preparing for the interview you need to have a good knowledge of the company, yourself and the job description so when answering questions you can provide answers that relate to what they are looking for. You will often be asked questions about the company, what you think the role entails and how you will be a benefit to the organisation. How much background research you do for the company you are applying to, not only directly reflects on your enthusiasm but will increase your performance in the interview. Good preparation gives you genuine confidence and enthusiasm, which can be very important to your interviewer. When looking into their company website, make notes of their latest development, as well as important events in the company history. Find out what the corporate mission statement is, and try to embed their philosophy in your interview answers. If you are applying for a sales representative position, do you have good understanding of their product range? Identify what was successful and what was not, put yourself into the role and be able to give some constructive evaluation. More over, based on your evaluation, prepare a plan of action, bullet point how you would run and manage your territory. Prepare yourself for questions on your previous work experience, be ready to discuss what you did, what skills you learnt and improved while doing it and what you added to the role. Try to think of questions that an interviewer would ask you about your employment history as well as difficult questions they may ask, such as if you have a gap in employment on your CV, this way you will be prepared to answer both negative and positive questions. Some employers will ask for a mistake you have made previously, think of something beforehand and turn it into a positive for the future. Have a list of questions in your mind that you can ask the interviewer, questions about the role, the company, travelling, anything that will start a conversation and make you seem genuinely interested in the company. Try to make the interview as two-way as possible so you are not continuously reeling off answers. End the interview on a positive note, enquire when you might hear about the result of the interview, reiterate your enthusiasm for the role and thank them for their time, end with a firm handshake, which is the common signal for the end of the interview. Psychometric Tests During the recruitment process you may be asked to complete one or more psychometric tests which can include: - Abstract problem solving
- Numerical
- Verbal
- Personality
Abstract Problem Solving This tests your ability to identify a pattern or meaning from a sample of information such as finding the next part of the pattern or identifying the odd one out. Some points to remember are: - The obvious choice is often correct
- It is highly unusual there is more than one correct answer
- Each pattern will commonly have a theme / characteristic to identify
- Check all the answers first before deciding
Numerical Reasoning These tests involve calculating something from a pool of information and test you on your knowledge and speed. Some questions may involve you identifying a calculation that needs to be done then selecting the correct answer. Other questions may be a sequence of numbers, and you have to work out the equation to find the next answer in the sequence. You will usually be able to use a calculator as these tests are designed to be performed at both home and at assessment centres. Verbal Reasoning A verbal reasoning test can entail different types of questions. You could be presented with a few sentences of information and then a list of statements about the information, you then have to select one that is true or one that is false. Another question would be to identify the odd word out, for example the verb out of a group of nouns. These are the two main types of verbal reasoning tests that you will encounter, remember to read each word carefully and in the case of sentences be sure of what it is actually saying, you need to differ between facts and assumptions. Personality Profiling These tests are designed to find out what kind of person you are and how you would approach different situations. There are no right or wrong answers as each company may be looking for a different type of employee, even if they all used the same test. Don't try to trick the test by choosing answers that are not genuine as questions will often be asked multiple times in different ways to catch you out. Personality profiling will assess your characteristics and present them as a profile to the employer, they are often used to determine whether a candidate will be a good company fit and right for the role. It is difficult to prepare for psychometric tests, practice will help and you can find practice tests online to complete. Try to remain calm throughout the test and not take too long over questions you are stuck on. If you take a psychometric test at home you are sometimes asked to complete one again at an assessment centre, so you should complete them alone the first time to avoid getting a different answer the second time round. Presentations When creating a presentation get a brief of what you have to present and find out what they are looking for. Complete research on what you are presenting about before beginning the presentation. If the presentation is on yourself use past experiences you can talk about with ease. The slides should be bullet points or small sentences and you should evaluate on them when presenting. Incorporate the company in the presentation, use their logo, a phrase or colours on the slides. You will be allowed to take notes with you on card to help you evaluate points. When presenting you should speak clearly and avoid repeating yourself. Look at employers when speaking, don't stare at your notes or the presentation. Zenopa can help Zenopa's friendly consultants will help you through the whole recruitment process and will offer advice and support at each stage. They will advise alterations to your CV and prepare you for your interview, tests and assessment centres. We are only a phone call away at all times and will endeavour to help you through the process as much as possible. Call us now on 01494 818 000 to find out more or start your recruitment process!
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