Dress sharp for interviews. They say that you only get one chance to make a first impression, so dress up.

Even if you are being interviewed at a company with a casual dress code, you should be wearing a suit and looking as professional as you possibly can. I have had clients moan about the following things:

Brown suit, dirty shoes, nasal hair, carrying a newspaper, comedy tie...

You need to be ready to smile. When the interviewer greets you they will be looking at your face first, so a smile is vital.

Then you need to think about the first thing you are going to say:
"Good to see you"
"Great to meet you"
"Thanks for taking the time to see me"

When we get nervous our body assumes we are either going to fight or flee; it increases the blood flow to the muscles and opens our lungs and throat so we breathe faster, and the blood is sent to the muscles. We sweat and our voice goes squeaky. It is this process that makes our “minds go blank”.
 
To counter this you need to remind yourself to be calm, slow down your breathing, by taking deep breaths, open your palms and give your body a chance to slow down.
 
I find leaning against something cold, like a wall, with my hands flat against the cold surface helps.
 
Understanding why you feel that way is the most helpful thing.

Have a sensible email address when applying for jobs. I laugh at some of the email addresses I see, but are they helping you to find a new job or hindering you? It is very simple to set up an extra name on your hotmail account so that you don’t need to use your funny one; you can still keep your old email address and run them in parallel.

A shared email address makes you look lacking in independence, for instance jonny&lisa@

A super-work focused one makes you look too serious, i.e. Jim_sage_job@

But some of my personal favourites are:

Psycho_bunny@
Lazysod@
Shagnasty@

My advice is that you use your name and a number such as: tomwhite35@ (not your date of birth).

Work hard until the very last day of your notice period.

When you leave your current job, the last few days that you have at your old company are the ones your employers will remember so make sure you put in as much effort as you can. I have heard of 3 cases where people have burnt their bridges by not working hard in their last week.

You never know in life when you might need a favour, a good reference or even your old job back.

So make sure you leave on great terms with your old company, even if you get sent onsite to Norwich in your last week. (I am from Norwich!)

Don't be late for an interview, especially if you have an early morning meeting.

If you can stay in a local Travelodge the night before, that is ideal. With the advent of Sat Nav and route planning, being late is becoming less forgivable.

In reality 10 minutes early is actually the right time to arrive. If you are going to be late, then call the company or your recruiter as soon as you can, to give them plenty of advance warning.

Being early means you can take a breath and quietly prepare yourself to be great at interview.

Being late means you are hot, sweaty, flustered and wound up, which makes it very difficult to perform well at interview.

Your CV is quite simply an 'advert' to sell yourself to your recruiter and to the client.

List your most recent experience first. When writing your CV always put a line about what each employer does, the number of employees and the size of team; it gives context to your role there. Write your CV in the first person and start with what you actually delivered e.g.: "I implemented Sage 200, commercials and financials in 3 sites in the UK."

Focus the CV on activities and tasks that you did; clarify the software you have used and highlight your core competencies. Make your CV a remarkable document that puts you uniquely ahead of other candidates.

There is only one top tip on CV writing and everything else follows from it: that tip is to think as carefully about the document you are creating for your own career as you would if you had to prepare a very important presentation for a client or a report for your boss. Don’t rush at it in hope; find the professional inside yourself and let your application reflect that power.

Clean out your car before you go to your interview. I heard about the boss of a company, who at the end of the interview walks the candidates to their cars in the car park. This particular employer says that how someone looks after the inside of their car shows how organised they are. It doesn’t matter how that candidate looks at their interview - if their car is full of sandwich wrappers, paper and coke cans they are not going to be meticulous and he won’t hire them.

So think about giving your car a quick clear out before you arrive at the interview.

AND – your CV again...

If you send your CV out in PDF or Adobe format it is very difficult to process using recruitment agency software. Word is much better.

Don't wait for a counter offer from your employer. As the economy picks up, employers are reacting to resignations with big counter offers. But the damage to the employee / employer relationship is massive. 9 out of 10 people who accept counter offers are back looking for work 6 months later, because nothing actually changes in their job role. Plus your employer's impression of you goes from you being loyal and dependable to being 'the guy who wanted to leave'.

So if you are thinking of leaving your job, assume that your current employer will offer you more money to stay. Find a time to sit down with them and tell them "I want more money"; it will save you a lot of hassle when they say yes.

Once your interview is arranged, make sure you are properly prepared. Differentiate yourself from the other candidates so that you leave no doubt in the interviewer’s mind that you are the person they should hire.

Research the company and provide evidence that you have done your homework and have thought about why you want to work there. See if the person you are meeting has a profile on LinkedIn and read up on their background and experience.

Plan ahead with a location map, telephone numbers if you are late or lost and always give yourself extra time for unforeseen delays.

Think about the type of questions you are likely to be asked. Interviews tend to follow a similar pattern and include questions designed to establish your specific skill set, motivation and team fit. Look the part, check your appearance and get it right.

Enter the room confidently, offer a strong handshake and remember to introduce yourself. During the interview, smile and make eye contact, and be aware of your body language.

And don’t forget to say thank you at the end of the interview!

Please don't bother with attaching cover letters for your recruiter.

I get about 100 CVs each day, 2,000 a month, so all I care about is the CV and its contents.

I will ask you all the relevant questions to qualify what you are looking for and what your strengths are and you will have the opportunity to talk about your perfect role.