Making The Best of Rejection

BBC Radio 4 programme Woman’s Hour recently broadcast an interesting piece on graduate job-hunting which exhorted unsuccessful candidates to seek feedback from the employer.

Getting useful feedback can make the difference between success and failure at your next interview.   Unfortunately, too many organisations offer feedback such as:

“You did very well and were appointable, but unfortunately there was a better candidate.”

“You didn’t have any weak areas, but your scores weren’t as good as those of other candidates.”

If you are the unsuccessful candidate, this kind of feedback might help you feel a little better about the rejection, but it doesn’t enable you to identify what you have to do to be successful in your next interview.

I’ve managed assessment centres and interview processes for more than 15 years, and during that time I’ve trained thousands of assessors.  Here are my top tips for candidates on how to elicit useful feedback:

1. Contact the organisation as soon as possible.  You’re more likely to get some helpful insights if the assessors remember who you are.  Ideally, you want to talk to one of the people who actually interviewed you, rather than an HR person who is reading someone else’s notes.

2. Be tenacious.  Giving feedback to unsuccessful candidates is probably not top of the assessor’s ‘to-do’ list for that day, so you may have to gently but persistently chase them.  If you’ve left a message but they haven’t contacted you within a couple of days, try again.

3. Be nice.  Assessors are much more likely to open up a bit if you are pleasant and grateful.  Use phrases such as “thank you very much for taking the time to call me - I’d really value any comments you have which might enable me to be successful in my next interview”.  Express appreciation during the conversation - it will make the assessor more inclined to give specific feedback.

4. Don’t argue.  You might feel that the interviewers made the wrong decision and you may disagree with their assessment of your capabilities.  But they are not going to change their minds.  You are far less likely to get helpful specific feedback if the assessor gets the impression that you want to challenge their decision.

5. Do probe (gently).  Although you don’t want the interviewer to feel that you are cross-examining them, it is important that you get specific feedback so that you can change your behaviour at the next interview.  So, if the assessor says things like:

“We just felt you weren’t committed to a career in this sector.”

or

“We didn’t see enough evidence of your team working skills.”

Ask them questions such as:

“Could you say a little more about what it was that gave you that impression during the interview?”

and

“What aspects of my team working experience should I have emphasised?”

6. Send a 'Thank You' email.  This is common courtesy and I know of one candidate who was offered a job 6 months later by the organisation because they remembered how professional she had been in the way she had handled the post-interview feedback (she had sent a pleasant email saying that she was disappointed by the verdict but would love to be considered for future positions).

Image from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/help/acknowledgement/index.php

Beat The Back-To-Work Blues

It's grey outside, the holidays are over, and many of us are suffering from the back-to-work blues.  Here are 7 tips to ease you through that difficult first week.

1. Have a transition plan. To help you over the first week, build in some treats - eg, have lunch with a friend, book something nice for next weekend.  Have some emergency chocolate to hand.....

2. Go to sleep. Many of us don't get enough, and it's only when we enjoy an extended period of good sleep during a summer holiday that we realise how tired we had become.  Try going to bed one hour earlier for a week and see what difference it makes.

3. Keep the holiday feeling alive. Update your screensaver with some holiday snaps and treat yourself to an occasional 5 minute daydream reliving the highlights.  Studies show that recalling happy times helps boost happiness in the present.

4. Have you been flogging a dead horse? Some of us make the working day harder for ourselves by ignoring our natural rhythms.  Aim to alternate gloom-inducing activities with those that are easier or more enjoyable. Work out if  you're a lark or an owl (best early in the morning or late afternoon) and try to tackle your difficult tasks accordingly.

5. Start a 'Pink & Fluffy File'. This can be a folder on your computer or a file in your desk drawer. It's where you put letters/emails/feedback that make you feel good about yourself, so when someone sends you a message of appreciation, make sure a copy goes in your file.  Set up a bring-forward to look at the file every so often. Your Pink and Fluffy file counters the natural human tendency to focus on our weaknesses and discount our successes.

6. Start planning your next holiday. One of my clients has a stress management strategy which involves never being more than 6 weeks away from a mini-break. She combines her annual leave and flexi-time allowance to have lots of little holidays during the year. So even when things are tough at work, she has something to look forward to

7. Help someone else.  Pay a (genuine) compliment, to someone at work.  It'll give you both a lift.

Thanks to Lucy Owens for suggesting the theme for this edition of the blog.

How to Refresh a Tired CV

It's tough out there. Too many candidates going after too few jobs. Confronted by a large pile of CVs, many recruiters are becoming ruthless in rejecting those that don't make an immediate impact. Here are 7 tips on how to make your CV stand out from the crowd.

1. Grab the reader's attention
Remember that the recruiter may be sitting at home with a glass of wine and a big pile of CVs to wade through. When a recruiter picks up each document, their eyes fall naturally on the middle third of the first page. This is where your most impressive information should be, for example details of achievements in your current job, or a description of your key skills. Bear in mind that many CVs only get 30 seconds worth of attention, so you need to make an immediate impact.

2. What sort of CV do you need?
If you are applying for roles similar to your current position you can either have a Career History CV, which sets out your employment history in reverse chronological order, or a Skills-Based CV, which describes your skills and personal qualities before your employment history. If you are looking to move into a completely different sector, or undertake a career change, you should go for a Skills-Based CV as this emphasises your transferable skills.

3. Don't simply cut and paste from your job description
These days, simply listing your responsibilities isn't enough. Your CV needs to give the reader information on the roles that you've undertaken, but you also need to provide concrete evidence of your soft skills and achievements. Soft skills include things like your ability to build relationships, the way in which you motivate your team, having a 'can-do' attitude. When I surveyed 6 NHS Finance Directors recently they were unanimous in their view that, when there is a large field of well-qualified candidates, it's the soft skills that make individuals stand out. Your achievements can be things that you have initiated or changed, or simply examples of when you maintained a high quality service at a time of intense pressure (during staff absence, for example).

4. Consider starting with a Personal Statement
Sometimes these are called ‘Profiles’. They are becoming more common, and are a good way for the reader to get an immediate handle on what you have to offer. They also provide an opportunity for you to set out what you want from your next move. However, the big pitfall with Personal Statements is that they can turn into a list of self-aggrandising adjectives: “I am a resourceful, focused, people-oriented manager”. A better approach is to make the Personal Statement factual: “I am a qualified accountant, with seven years experience of working closely with clinicians in acute trusts”.

5. Facts and Numbers
Details of the size of your budget, the number of staff that you managed and your organisation’s turnover all add a sense of substance to your CV. One tip from an experienced recruiter is to alter the way that you describe your current role, depending on the type of job that you are applying for. For example, if you are sending your CV to a large private sector organisation, you might want to emphasise the size of your current organisation (6,000 staff, £500,000,000 turnover). Alternatively, if you are seeking a role with a much smaller organisation, for example a GP consortium, you might emphasise how you have provided a comprehensive service to a small group of budget holders.

6. No more than 2 pages
Curriculum Vitae means 'The Story of My Life'. And that is exactly what your CV should not be. Prune out all the content that doesn't make a strong impact (it makes it harder for the reader to pick out your impressive achievements). Don't name all the short courses you've ever attended. Summarise your GCSEs rather than listing each one. Leave out the more mundane elements of your current and previous roles.

7. Don't forget your hobbies
A surprising number of recruiters are interested in what you get up to outside of work. Your interests don’t have to be spectacular, but listing them as ‘reading and listening to music’ isn't enough.  Enthuse briefly about the kind of reading you enjoy, what sort of music you like to listen to.