Candidate Tips

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.