Write A CV

Over many years, as part of my duties, I have interviewed literally hundreds of people. Some I engaged and placed in jobs. Prospective employees have turned up to see me in all sorts of guises.

Everyone who has ever conducted interviews has fads, things he or she looks for in a prospective employee that, if found, disqualify the person before a word is spoken.

However impartial an interviewer is, they have deep rooted views about certain specific matters.

Could be appearance, could be behaviour, could be anything.

A turn off is a turn off. If an interviewer is against you before you have said a word it's a devil of a job to bring the interview around to being in your favour.

With me it's dirty fingernails. No one has ever been appointed by me who turned up at the interview with dirty fingernails. Elementary can I hear you say? Of course it is.

Then why do people do it? Because they don't think.

Certain things are obvious, certain things are not. What you have to know is all of the possible traps into which it is easy to fall.

Have you ever asked anyone what is the worst thing about being unemployed? Why don't you try? I'll bet you get the same answer as I do.

They will say, "it's the time", and go on about how much it drags.

They will say they try to keep busy decorating or gardening. Ask them what they have done towards looking for work and they will say they popped into the job centre a week or so ago. They are sheep, lost in a fog.

Looking for is work hard work. The most time consuming job in the world.

To do it properly, as it should be done, takes up every minute of your waking day and most of what you may once have called your leisure time. Forget about the house, the decorating and the garden. You are going to get very busy.

You might find a minute or two to say hello to the kids, but don't count on it.

Job hunting is all about knowing how to go about a series of tasks, not one of which are difficult in their own right. If you are serious and want to work you will find a way. This course is not a ready made solution to the problem. What it can do is point you in the right direction and guide you through each stage of the process.

Many people, most of the people out there simply do not know what to do and where to START looking for a job. They are not stupid. Most are very bright and possess many marketable skills.

You are a good deal brighter than most because you have bought my book on the subject which indicates you are serious about getting a job.

Most job seekers do not have a disciplined mind and have little or no control over the thought processes. Thoughts drift from subject to subject, cricket to football, fishing to hand gliding, knitting to aerobics etc. The sickening business goes on and on. Thoughts drift about aimlessly because they are allowed to. They have never had to do anything else; never been disciplined to develop the ability to concentrate on any particular subject for more than a fraction of a minute, two at the outside.

They have never had the need to learn how to.

The tasks that were being performed were, to a degree, routine and did not require disciplined concentration.

Have you ever been asked for directions by a lost motorist? You spend an age telling the unfortunate soul where to go only to see them drive the wrong way up a one way street. The driver was unable to absorb the information.

Have you ever noticed the eyes of the person you are talking to glaze over? I'm sure it has happened to you as it has to me and continues to do so. No ability to centre the mind on what is being said.

We are fed a diet of extraneous information every minute of our waking lives across a variety of subjects and tend not to let many of them sink in before we are on to the next. What has to be mastered is a reversal of the process. You are going to train your mind to concentrate on the matter in hand and no other.

You are going to need to learn how to shut off your mind.

Thoughts of the football match last night and the smile you unexpectedly got from the new girl in the newsagents have to be taken on board and rejected speedily, before they take up too much time.

The JOB HUNT is what your mind should be centred on, from the moment you turn your mind to a task to the moment you turn it off. You need to be in complete control of your thought process if you are to be successful.

This is quite an easy exercise but it needs a little work in the beginning.

It's about as boring as listening to an old fart on a long train journey telling you his life story but it will do wonders for your concentration and ability to control your train of thought.

Concentration exercise

1) Take a book, any book, but not one that you are in any way interested in.

2) Take a paragraph at random and read five words.

3) Put the book down and write what you have read from memory.

4) Go back to the book, again at random and read ten words.

5) Repeat the writing down from memory process.

Go on like this until you are able to concentrate on the matter you are reading about long enough to remember and write down a paragraph.

Start by doing the exercise for ten minutes and continue until you can do it for an hour without allowing your mind to wander. It is essential that you master the ability to follow a path of thought as you develop skills and undertake tasks that will successfully lead you to finding a job.

Any day dreaming must be recognised and stopped short.

You will, as we progress, be told how to do a number of things you have never had to think about before.

In an everyday nine to five work situation, perhaps not unlike the one you have just been unceremoniously removed from, the need for long spells of concentration may not have been important. Many routine tasks are taken over by the subconscious part of the mind anyway. I wish I had a penny for every time I have set off for a stroll, to aid the digestion of the evening meal you understand, and found myself in the local pub. Wonderful thing the subconscious mind.

What now has to be learned is how to use and be in control of the conscious mind in all its complexity. It's not difficult after a bit of practice.

Pause here and consider carefully, do you still want a job ???

If you really do you must stop the subconscious mind dictating your actions.

Actions that make the difference between a job and no Job.