by Reynold Owuor | Oct 18, 2019 | Career Happiness, CV, Job Applications, Job hunting, Job Search
The job market is stiff and it’s a no-brainer that your CV has to be in top shape in order to attract a hiring manager or recruiter, and it has to be 2-3 pages long.
Some things have become obsolete and take up too much space and as a result, are no longer required in today’s CV i.e.
1. Personal Information – Other than your contact information all other information is unnecessary i.e. age, date of birth, race, religion, sex, or marital status. Although some of these might be useful in international applications, if the job is in your home country it’s better to leave it out.
2. Education Level – Always include your latest educational level on the CV and any other certification that might be relevant for the role you are applying to. Often little attention is given to where you went to primary or high school. Unless it’s the highest level attained or is required in the application, leave it out.
3. Unrelated skills – Employers are interested in learning about your current skills that will be useful for the role, not skills you gained in your entire career. Be careful when using overused words and phrases. Balanced careers have created a guide on the list of skills and words that will give you an edge. Read more here.
4. Work Experience – Only include experience related to the job opening. If you worked as an assistant in your uncle’s company while in campus it’s best to leave it out unless the job you are applying for is for an assistant position, or this is your latest experience. Also if you have had an 8+ years experience, it’s best to include experience related to the job you are applying for. If narrowing down is a challenge, talk to a recruiter or career coach to help you out.
5. Career Objectives – Lengthy objectives might end up doing the opposite of what it’s intended to i.e. be a career summary. Make sure it’s concise and ties up your key areas of contribution and ambitions well. I can’t stress this enough but it should be tailored to the role you’re applying for and your career aspirations.
Other things to leave out include; personal pronouns, long descriptions, acronyms, exaggerations, spelling and grammatical errors.
by Fabianna Mueti | Oct 8, 2019 | Career Happiness, Job Applications, Job hunting, Job Search
We like to acknowledge the fact that job hunting is not easy. We know because we are constantly getting requests from hundreds of job seekers who are looking for jobs, and some of them can’t seem to understand why they are not getting hired.
Times have evolved, employers are no longer just asking for your CV and inviting you for interviews. A lot of organizations are asking people to fill in application forms and there are other stages in between such as take-home tests, phone interviews, video interviews and psychometric tests before physically meeting your prospective employer. So as a job seeker, the ball is in your court to prove that you’re dedicated to getting that job and you’ll be able to add value to their organization.
It’s important to recognize as a job seeker that organizations spend a lot of resources hiring, so it’s paramount to them that the people they add to their teams will contribute to the success of the organization and will be a good culture fit.
That being said, here are top 5 mistakes you can avoid when applying for jobs, why they get you disqualified, and what you can do to possibly get considered for the next stages.
1. Grammatical errors – it goes without saying that grammar errors represent a lack of attention to detail. As recruiters, we find it hard shortlisting such a candidate, because it tells us that their lack of attention to detail will also display itself at work, and why would an employer want to risk this? Grammarly is your friend, download it today! Please proofread all your documents before sending them out. A tip to sending a great application is preparing it on a word doc first and then putting the answers on an application form.
2. Not following directions – I can’t begin to tell you how often candidates fail to follow instructions outlined in applications. Only 10% or less of applicants follow application instructions. Are you one of them? Do you set time aside to fully internalize what is required of you? Not answering questions as asked, ignoring certain aspects of the questions, leaving blanks and not attaching certain documents is what happens as a result of not being intentional.
3. Not tailoring your application to the role – Many times, people fail to customize their knowledge, skills and abilities to fit the jobs they are applying for. Just because you are applying for jobs in the same career path, does not mean that all requirements are the same. All organizations operate differently and have a different set of skills that matter more than others. Ensure you thoroughly go through the JD and tailor your CV, cover letter and application answers to these requirements. Again, be intentional about this so that you avoid getting into the rut of sending applications randomly.
4. Applying for jobs you’re unqualified for – This one is a bone of contention because there is a small group of people who have gotten jobs they were not qualified for, according to testaments on different social media platforms. We are aware of the fact that people are encouraged to apply for jobs they’re not qualified for because “you never know what will happen”. This can be true, you can be hired because of the potential you exude, or because you are in a job that does not utilize your abilities fully and the next employer sees that in you and you have proven it. What is also true, is that applying for jobs you are absolutely not qualified for shows the recruiter that you did not pay attention to the requirements of the role, or you completely ignored them. Either way, it’s not a good look, and constantly doing this may position you as one without a clear focus.
5. Excluding relevant details in your CV or application – Oftentimes, we have had to call candidates and ask them to send us a more detailed CV, or make clarifications on something they said on their application form, because the information provided seems incomplete. Please avoid sending out a CV that does not list your responsibilities, or successes in your current or past jobs, or an application that provides little information about the same. You may just miss out on an opportunity for these reasons, and the truth is, not every recruiter will call you for clarifications. You know the saying; first impressions matter? Still holds true.
We hope you found the above information useful. We’d love to hear your thoughts. What other reasons do you think get people disqualified from job applications? Share with us on our social media pages, where you can find more similar content: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
by Reynold Owuor | Oct 8, 2019 | Career Happiness, Job Applications, Job hunting, Job Search
You have done a hundred applications and aren’t getting feedback.
Many companies aren’t relying on just CV for recruiting The traditional way of recruitment leads you to believe it’s your CV that isn’t getting you a foot in the door i.e. a callback? While this might be true there might be other reasons you haven’t thought of.
The following are some of the reasons you probably hadn’t considered:
– You are applying for the wrong job.
– Your CV isn’t in the right format i.e.is more than 2-3pages, has grammatical errors.
– Your CV doesn’t actually highlight your achievements.
– Your applications are not good enough for the hiring manager or recruiter.
If you are having a difficult time figuring out what the challenge is, research on recruiters that can offer you advice. Check out our previous video on why your CV is not landing your perfect job here .
At edge we are always happy to help, you can send an email to happycareers@edgeperformance.co.ke to sign up for any of our career coaching programs.
by Martha Karimi | Oct 3, 2019 | Career Happiness, Job hunting
Job hunting is quite a tasking experience and in order to increase your chances of landing your dream job, you need to build a network of professionals, among them, being recruiters.
And as with all relationships, communication is key! See a sample below of how to communicate with a recruiter.
How you communicate can leave a lasting impression on a recruiter and also the value you bring increases the chances of them contacting you should they get a future opportunity.
Your relationship with a recruiter needs to be professional but also genuine in your interaction.
And obviously shouldn’t feel overbearing.
by Reynold Owuor | Jul 8, 2019 | Career Happiness, Job Applications, Job hunting, Job Search
In this age of technology and communication getting ghosted after applying for a job must be one of the most painful things to experience, even sometimes more painful than being ghosted by your significant other.
Let’s take a look at some of the reasons your recruiter hasn’t gotten back to you. Some of them are simple yet unexpected.
1) You didn’t apply. Sometimes as a candidate you see a job and get over excited reading the job description and daydreaming about how you would be amazing at this job. So you send the recruiter an email expressing your interest and then forgetting to actually fill in the application. Months later you are still waiting for a call or feedback that never comes because you didn’t read the instructions to see what is required to submit an application.
2) Unforgivable mistakes. Applications usually require you to put in a lot of thought as this is the first step in getting noticed by the recruiter. Hence mistakes such as poor grammar, spelling mistakes and small letters in place of caps and vice versa might be the reason you get disqualified from the process. You may have also provided irrelevant responses to the questions!
3) You apply for every job. We know the unemployment rate is high and sometimes you may feel desperate. However in your desperation do not at any point apply for all jobs listed by a company or recruitment firm. This might be taken to mean that you do not have an actual passion/interest for any role and are just applying for the sake of applying.
4) One size fits all CV. Before applying for any job go through your CV and make sure it highlights clearly your skills and experiences relevant to the JD. Some candidates copy paste their current job description into their CV and even go as far as copying pasting the same description on all their past roles with similar titles. Other common cases where the CV has several diverse experiences thus it’s difficult to pin point where the relevant expertise for the specific job you are applying for is.
5) The recruiter is overwhelmed. Sometimes the recruiter has to go through hundreds of applications and this makes the process take longer. Sit tight and wait for the process to run its course they will hopefully get back to you.
6) You are stalking the recruiter. The recruiter is just as excited to fill the role as you are to get the job. And sometimes in your excitement and impatience you end up calling the recruiter every day even on weekends for feedback on your application. While asking for feedback is acceptable overdoing it might communicate a lack of professionalism on your end.
7) Wrong phone contact. You made a great application. However your phone number is incorrect.
8) They have changed their hiring plans. Often, in the course of a hiring process, the business may undergo major changes that lead to hiring decisions being halted. Such could include change in budget, team, business priority and so on. Sometimes in this period there are a lot of internal conversations and uncertainties that delay the decision on what to do with the current applicants.
9) You are unreachable via phone or email. Timely communication really helps in the process, in case you are unavailable let the recruiter know, be professional in your communication. Some applicants may go offline for a while and not inform the recruiter and hence loose out on communication regarding the selection process of the role. Keep checking your spam folder to avoid missing an email.
10) The overall decision maker is unavailable. The recruitment process is sometimes longer than usual because the hiring manager or overall decision maker is unavailable; maybe they are on business travel, leave or have taken a sabbatical and therefore this drags the process.
11) Other good candidates. It is painful to hear but maybe there is another candidate out there who has more years of experience, is more skilled and submitted a great application. Thus the recruiters are running an assessment for those before considering everyone else. Sometimes actually they may end up still considering your application!
12) Bearer of bad news. Recruiters are human too and no one ever wants to be the bearer of bad news, so maybe you haven’t gotten feedback because someone is procrastinating giving you bad news.
13) Qualifications. And the most obvious reason could just be that you did not qualify for the role and that’s why you haven’t been called for that interview.
We hope you enjoyed the series!
