Your potential new boss spends an average of seven seconds looking over each CV before deciding who to interview, according to studies. That means you need to make an incredible first impression to stand any chance of making it through to the next stage. There are several simple but effective ways for your CV to catch the recruiter's eye. Put your best assets at the top. Start your CV with a summary of your top skills and accomplishments. This will grab the boss's attention and make the right impression. Many CVs start with data such as qualifications and work experience, so give yours the personal touch. Tell them about your strong skills, such as being great with people, your enthusiasm fo

Today’s global competitive talent marketplace is a complex and ever-evolving pool of individuals advancing their careers. Everyone is keen to flourish professionally. But what makes some employees achieve greatness and others remain ordinary? Leadership development experts Zenger Folkman asked over 4,000 employees this question across their five year study. The results are fascinating. The study revealed what many of us suspect to be true: the “best” employees do adopt separate behaviours, and those behaviours are directly related to their professional success. In fact, the best employees were found to be 43% more productive than their colleagues. Zenger Folkman discovered there are nine sig

Some small to medium businesses can struggle to attract & hire the A-Team! We’ve heard about the war for talent, an increasingly competitive landscape for recruiting and retaining talented employees. In small to medium business, there is so much to do, so little time, so many deadlines. Then there’s the competition, the big end of town, the international players with their teams of specialists in every area. It can be tough to compete, but it can be done successfully if you follow a few simple rules. Web There is still a surprising amount of businesses out there without a website or they have a website that looked good in 2000, but now, not so much! The vast majority of candidates will go st

If there's a consensus about the secret to being successful, it appears to be that there is no secret to being successful. The great and good, when consulted about the reasons for their own success, however, often set out behaviours which they believe are common to those who stand out in any given function, whether it be commerce, politics, sport or the liberal professions. Hard Work Industriousness is arguably the most obvious trait of the successful. Colin Powell, former American statesman and military leader, is quoted as having said that there really is no magic "just add X to Y" formula for success and that it is the reward of much hard work, preparedness and a willingness to learn from

Your job takes up a big part of your life, and this can be a positive or a negative thing. If you are good at your job and you are a considerate person, it is likely that you find your job rewarding and emotionally fulfilling, but if you struggle to get promoted or get along with your co-workers you will find your job frustrating and draining. If you can relate to this, it could be because you are making mistakes at work. These mistakes could be linked to your confidence, your ability to get along with others or your mind-set, but either way they can hold you back in your career. Here are some of the worst mistakes you can make at work so that you can avoid making them. Being Unlikeable If y

LinkedIn is the biggest professional networking platform in the world. Its aim is to connect professionals with employers in their given industry, making it a fabulous tool for job-seekers. But in order to attract employers, it's important that your LinkedIn profile is up to date and designed in a professional and appealing way. Even if you're not looking for a job and just using LinkedIn to network with other people, it still benefits you to give your profile a little overhaul from time to time. But what can you do to ensure your LinkedIn profile is enough to entice employers? Fill it in LinkedIn has a number of sections that require information. While some of them may seem less important t

If you work in an office you will be used to meeting requests or informal chats. However if you thought about how much of your working day was being lost as a result of all this collaboration, you would be amazed. Here we look at how constant workplace meetings can be detrimental to work, as well as what you can do to try and solve this problem. The purpose of workplace meetings is to discuss and share information and ideas with colleagues. They are also a forum for resolving problems as well as improving teamwork and performance. However there can be negative aspects of workplace meetings. Sometimes it seems as if meetings are taking over your life and not leaving you with time to get your

OK, so we all want to quit on the first day back from holidays, but here are five signs that it’s something you may need to think about more seriously. 1. You’re not getting upskilled If you’re not getting upskilled then you’re getting deskilled. The pace of change is now so great that only constant retraining on new systems and with new techniques is going to keep you at the forefront professionally. The law and taxation framework are constantly changing, so you need to be properly briefed on new developments. If this isn’t happening, you’re in a backwater, and drifting inexorably towards career rocks. Maybe your firm is run by the kind of Neanderthals who think you might leave if they trai