Talent at first sight – CV top tips for those starting out

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Does your CV scream “read on”? Or is it just full of cliches that have been used by many candidates before you?

As a recruiter who has looked for a job in the past, I still swear by the advice I was given by my recruiter when I was looking for my first job: “make sure that the top third of your CV grabs the attention of the person reading it”.

To be honest I wasn’t 100% sure what they meant by this until I started writing it. Initially, I felt like this meant I needed to squeeze everything into the top third, but as that was not possible, I had to get creative! Now in my role as a recruiter and finding myself in the midst of a pile of dozens or hundreds of other CVs, I have an even greater appreciation of this advice.

Remember, your CV is our window to your skills and experience, so why wait until the end of it to tell us how talented you are? Most employers simply don’t have the time to read your CV in its in-depth entirety, so here are some top tips to keep that top third clear, concise and relevant.

Name and contact details:
Give yourself enough space to talk about your skills and experience. Your name is important, but it really does not need to be in font size thirty! Two font sizes bigger than the size of the main body of text is more than enough. Bolding and underlining are also good features for making this section stand out.

CV writing skillsLook at how you can claim at least two more lines back by reducing the font size of your name and using just one line for the address and one line for your contact details. As a recruiter, we hope that you are aware of  and are happy with the location of the position before you apply. If so, your address could be shortened or better still removed. That’s another crucial  line back!

That all important profile:
This is your opportunity to show employers why you’re amazing! It’s important that you don’t reiterate all the common cliches in order to fill the space. Give yourself a maximum of four lines to begin with, and highlight your key strengths, experience and interest. Remember, this serves as an appetiser to encourage the employer to read the rest of your CV for more detail or better still, to contact you.

Good start: “I am a recent media communications graduate with X:X honours degree. I’m looking to secure a position within your marketing team where I can implement and further develop my creative and copy writing skills, drawing on my previous experience in product marketing operating in a fast paced environment.”

Bad start: “I am a recent graduate with good team working, and communication skills.” There is nothing individualistic about this statement. You can show off your communication skills with a well written CV and demonstrate teamwork through your work experience examples.

If you get stuck for words, ask those around to read over your CV and give you feedback or better still, use a thesaurus.

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Achievements/technical skills:
Depending on the role you are applying for, a search-friendly CV is a must and there is no better place to demonstrate your achievements/skills than at the top your CV.

If the role is project based, then your achievements is the best information to start with highlighting the key outputs in the roles you previously worked in. Remember, responsibilities are very very different to achievements.

Responsibilities: shows how your experience makes you the ideal candidate for the job you’re applying for.

Achievements: shows that you are able to make improvements either practically or personally, to the business or the working life of the company you worked at previously.

If you are applying for a more technical-based role, it would be beneficial to start your CV with your technical skills. As information evolves, there will inevitably be tools that you have not used before, but being able to display what you have used will show that you have previous experience and demonstrates an aptitude to learn new tools.

Don’t make up your achievements, but at the same time, don’t underestimate the times you have gone above and beyond to support or lead on an important project. Likewise, from a technical perspective, unless you write everything with pen and paper, you must have used a system. If you have forgotten the specifics, then reaching out to an ex-colleague could be your best bet.

The AA brings Prova onboard

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The AA (The Automobile Association) has appointed Prova PR, a specialist automotive agency, to run a B2B thought leadership campaign.

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British motoring association, The AA

Prova will promote The AA to the fleet and SME sectors through strategy, insight, media relations and content creation. It will share the stories of The AA’s business customers and its research.

Kirsty Pendleton, senior marketing manager, fleet and SME, The AA, said: “Prova impressed us straight away with a creative strategy that fully understood the complex market in which we operate. They analysed our big challenges as a business and this gave us confidence in their ability to implement an exciting campaign that would deliver results.”

Aimee Postle, director at Prova, added: “We’re thrilled to be working with an organisation as well-respected as The AA. We have some exciting campaigns planned and look forward to using our extensive experience of the fleet and SME marketplace to deliver significant PR and commercial results.”

Prova specialises in automotive communications. Its clients include Honda, Triumph Motorcycles, BMW Group Financial Services, Transport Research Laboratory and the Motorsport Industry Association.

Opinion: Ethics in the PR industry

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Adherence to a code of ethics is essential for the health of the PR industry, says Claire Walker, CEO at Firefly Communications. She suggests four top tips to ensure that high standards are met and upheld. 

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Claire Walker

There was a time, not so long ago, when PR practitioners sat firmly alongside traffic wardens and politicians in Britain’s ‘most hated’ list of professions. Thankfully, we seem to have left the ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ and ‘The Thick of It’ days behind us – even if most of us would confess a secret love for Peter Capaldi’s sewer-mouthed character, Malcolm Tucker.

That said, perceptions can change in seconds and if our profession is to show that we have a valid role to play in providing transparent, valuable, insightful and honest content and communications, then we can’t take our eye off the ball.

So, how can we make sure that we are continuing to uphold our professional reputation, while showing the value of PR in the modern business world?

Thankfully, we have guiding bodies to help us and I recommend reading the PRCA or the CIPR code of conduct. For example, the PRCA Code says: “A member firm has a positive duty to observe the highest standards in the practice of public relations. Furthermore, a member has the responsibility at all times to deal fairly and honestly with fellow members and professionals, the public relations profession, other professions, suppliers, intermediaries, the media of communication, colleagues, and above all else the public.”

But above and beyond these guidelines, here are four of my own top tips for ethical PR:

1) Trust your instincts for what seems right and wrong. PRs usually have finely-honed gut instincts and when it comes to ethics, your first reaction is usually right.

2) Once you have checked your internal barometer, think carefully about the repercussions of your actions. Remember that you represent the client but also the PR agency itself, the industry and future client relationships.

3) Ensure that your team is also aware of the code of ethics. Challenge them with dilemmas and carry out ‘pre-mortems’ on client situations to be fully prepared. This is also great for team building and mutual understanding. While we should always hope for the best, we have a professional responsibility to prepare for the worst.

4) Keep learning: Join my PRCA webinar – Ethics in PR on 13 October and see how you fare with a wide variety of ethical dilemmas set out in front of you.

We talk daily about how PR is an ever-changing industry and one in which you’ll never be bored. But this also means that we have a responsibility to respect PR industry standards and adhere to them consistently. This is everyone’s responsibility, from the newest graduate trainee to the most experienced senior director – after all, to quote the philosopher Edmund Burke: ‘all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing’.

If we do nothing, before you know it we’ll be back to the days of pink fluffy PR, ‘salmony nibbly bits’ and streams of foul-mouthed profanities. And while it might be entertaining, it drags our industry back into the dark ages.

Rumpus appointed by paper manufacturer Northwood & WEPA

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Manchester PR agency Rumpus has been appointed by household paper manufacturer Northwood & WEPA to drive trade awareness nationally.

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The Rumpus team

The brief focuses on the definition of Northwood & WEPA’s brand messaging, the revitalisation of its web presence and on building social media engagement. Rumpus will also work on improving the business’ visibility in trade media and among existing and potential buyers.

Paul Evans, managing director at Rumpus, said: “Our B2B team will be capitalising on the heritage, expertise and innovation that underpins the Northwood & WEPA story, building belief with buyers that Northwood & WEPA is the first choice for driving growth in the household paper category.”

Deborah Veitch, customer marketing manager at Northwood & WEPA, added: “Although Northwood & WEPA formed just three years ago, the business has a strong heritage in paper manufacture reaching back to the 1950s. Rumpus’ campaign strategy will boost awareness of our years of expertise and strong innovation with potential clients, making us top of mind for good value, high quality household paper products.”

Rumpus recently moved to larger premises in Altrincham.

Forster Communications to help inspire Londoners to recycle

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Forster Communications has been chosen by Recycle for London to help increase domestic recycling rates in the capital city, following a competitive pitch.

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Peter Gilheany

Recycle for London is a consumer campaign, which delivers both London-wide comms and borough level support to  encourage behaviour change amongst London residents.

Forster has been briefed to help ensure all London residents have the information they need to recycle the right things, in the right way. The aim is to increase awareness and participation across the city in order to contribute to higher recycling rates, with the overall goal of helping local authorities achieve 50% recycling by 2020.

The first campaign will launch during Recycle Week, which takes place from 12 to 18 September, and will focus on raising awareness of recyclable items in the bathroom. The campaign will involve traditional media relations alongside on-the-ground activity to drive engagement with messaging in key London boroughs.

Further activity and focus areas are planned across the year to cover a range of recyclable materials.

Ali Moore, campaign manager for Recycle for London, said: “We’re excited to be working with Forster, which brings strong experience in behaviour change campaigns. With its creative support we are confident in delivering an engaging and impactful series of campaigns to encourage Londoners to recycle not only more frequently but also in the right way.”

Peter Gilheany (pictured), PR director at Forster Communications, added: “Recycling is one of those areas where we need to constantly refresh people on its importance and relevance and inspire them to do more. Recycle for London is a great fit for us as they are really open to new ideas for how to do that, and we look forward to working together to help increase awareness and engagement across London. We are relishing the challenge of coming up with new fresh ways to get Londoners thinking and acting more on recycling.”

Farrer Kane promotes property developer SAS

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Comms agency Farrer Kane has been appointed by London residential property developer SAS Investments (SAS) to lead on UK-based media relations activity for the company and its sister consumer design brand, Jamm Living.

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Farrer Kane will handle all UK media relations activity for SAS

SAS specialises in sourcing opportunities with development and planning potential and creating boutique contemporary homes in sought-after locations in London and the Southeast.

Its latest project to come to market is Pinnacle N10, which involved the redevelopment of a redundant former pub, night club and car park at the top of Muswell Hill in north London, offering the first new build homes in the town centre for more than 60 years.

Tim Jackson, co-founder and commercial director of SAS Investments, said: “This is the first time we have engaged a communications agency and it is a sign of our growth and the potential we see in the development market. Farrer Kane’s breadth of expertise and contacts at both the national and property trade media levels meant that they were a natural fit as partners for us.”

Alex Kane, director at Farrer Kane, added: “SAS and Jamm have an enviable track record within the London market. This is a great opportunity for us help develop their profile in the marketplace and allow them to stand out in this competitive area.”

William Murray CEO leads management buyout

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Food, drink and hospitality agency William Murray Communications has changed hands after a management buy-out led by CEO Anita Murray.

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Anita Murray

Founded in 1989, the agency has 25 employees and last year, William Murray’s fee income grew 15% to £2.2 million. The agency ranked 93 in PRWeek UK’s latest top 150. According to the list it is the 12th largest agency outside London.

Clients include Unilever Food Solutions, UCC Coffee UK & Ireland, Quorn, The Ascott Limited, Santa Maria, Elior, BRITA and it is a rostered agency for the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB).

The deal is the culmination of a plan started in 2012 and sees fellow director Dave Greenwood take a minority stake as part of the buyout. The MBO was achieved without any “external” financial support.

Stephen and Karen Browne, the agency’s existing owners, retain a minority stake. Karen takes on a new role as chairman.

She said: “The business is in great hands and I’m proud of everyone at William Murray for their passion, creativity and commitment they put into delivering our award winning campaigns. We have a strong and established client base and will continue our growth by building on our reputation as the UK’s specialist food, drink and hospitality agency.

“I’ve had an incredible 18 years and I’m delighted William Murray will continue to be led by an amazing group of people who will deliver the next stage of the agency’s growth.”

Murray added: “I’m delighted to have completed a management buyout of William Murray. While we can be proud of our achievements so far, we have big plans for the future. William Murray is an agency with a great history and fantastic reputation for being the UK’s specialist food, drink and hospitality agency.

“Over the last two decades the agency has grown substantially and we’ve adapted our offer to include digital, copywriting and marketing. We have an exciting journey ahead and I’m looking forward to the future.”

Opinion: Influencer Marketing – you have to earn it!

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W Communications launched a new division, W Influencer, this month, with the aim of bringing the benefits of “earned advocacy” to a wider range of brands. W’s founder and CEO, Warren Johnson, argues that, while influencer marketing is a “hugely powerful tool”, the practice of paying “influencers” to promote your product defeats its purpose…

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Warren Johnson

I was disappointed this month to read the new set of guidelines from The International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network (ICPEN), requiring online influencers to disclose when they have been paid for content.

Not because I think it’s OK for influencers to conceal payments. Not even because it implies that brands are complicit in concealing payments to their influencers. But because I believe that, more often than not, brands shouldn’t be thinking in terms of just throwing money at influencers.

Let me explain. Wikipedia defines influencer marketing as “A form of word-of-mouth marketing which leverages the trust enjoyed by certain individuals (influencers) in favour of your brand.” It’s clear. It’s concise. And it’s unhelpful, because it leaves open the question of whether or not you should pay your influencers. Looking at how influencer marketing is transacted today, that seems to me the core question.

Influencer marketing is a hugely powerful tool in the marketer’s armoury. It can help with pretty much any marketing or communications task that needs greater engagement: NPD; beta testing; qualitative research; promotions and activation; trade marketing; loyalty programmes and brand building – as well as areas such as media relations and celebrity endorsement. But its power lies in its authenticity.

Consumers easily sniff out in-authenticity – which is one reason why advertising increasingly doesn’t work. So simply paying influencers to broadcast brand messages is problematic in two ways.

First, the moment you pay an influencer to distribute your message, you run the risk of compromising the integrity of their influence and therefore its commercial value. It’s the great paradox of influencer marketing. If you turn it into an old-fashioned media buy then it’s more about reach than quality of engagement. And it’s the quality of engagement that makes influencer marketing most effective.

Second, both UK and US regulators agree with ICPEN. They all maintain that if a blogger or vlogger is paid to just promote a product or service, and an advertiser controls the message, then it becomes an ad and must say so. Research from Twitter suggests that the mere inclusion of #ad or #spon reduces effectiveness by a quarter. I’m surprised it’s not much more.

So, in the interests of both ethics and effectiveness, the best way to get around the disclosure/effectiveness conundrum is not to pay your influencers. In other words, to treat influencer marketing like earned media.

Newspapers are influencers: would you pay them for editorial coverage? No. And in most situations, the same principle should be true for influencers. You gain coverage by providing them with stories and materials that are so interesting they want to write or talk about them.

And it’s a philosophy that should hold true even if money has to change hands – with brands and influencers acting as collaborators in creating relevant, authentic content that has both integrity and real value and – yes – earns the attention of its audience.

Undertaken properly, the beauty of earned influencer marketing is precisely that its value is so clear to see – with a wide range of engagement metrics, from simple likes and average dwell time, through to content sharing, sentiment tracking, and even direct sales.

But if you still don’t believe that influencer marketing should be approached like earned media, test it for yourself. Send out two branded tweets, identical in every way, except that one contains #ad. The difference in response will be so stark that you’ll think twice before paying next time.

Warren Johnson is founder and CEO of W.

Gorkana meets…Klaus Fiala and Forbes Austria

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Klaus Fiala

Tell us about your role and remit at Forbes Austria.
I am a reporter covering business and finance, specifically for the investment section of our monthly print issue, where we cover topics such as markets, stocks, and so on.

In addition to conventional equity analysis, we also aim to seek out unusual stories such as interesting Fintech companies or unusual investment approaches. We want to get people excited about finance, even when they wouldn’t necessarily be interested in these kinds of articles.

Since our editorial team is relatively small, I also cover topics for the magazine such as business, lifestyle etc. Moreover, there are smaller tasks to do, which include proofreading prior to our publication date or internal coordination. From time to time, depending on time and occasion, I also write online articles for our website www.forbes.at.

What does a typical week look like?
The main task at the beginning of each month is researching and planning, which means deciding on the topics, conducting interviews, researching articles, attending press events. During this time I am quite frequently away from my desk.

The further the production proceeds, the more I actually write. In the last two weeks the entire team is in the office more regularly, trying to complete the layout and finish the text.

How does the US edition of Forbes influence your work on the Austrian edition? How much content do you share with the US?

Basically, we can determine our topics independently and decide on the cover, articles and main focus ourselves. However, the US issue obviously determines the general direction of the magazine – an emphasis on entrepreneurs of all different kinds .

Additionally, each issue contains 30 to 40% content from the Forbes network. We select the best stories and features from Forbes US, translate them and then include the articles in our magazine. This way, we have well-researched pieces, which provide our readers with background information from the US and other countries in which Forbes is active, such as Mexico, Russia or Africa.

Our US colleagues also happen to use articles from the Austrian issue for the US magazine. In the future, we would like to increase the amount of content published in the US.

You are a relatively young journalist writing for one of the most well-known business publications. Can you tell us a little more about your recent career path?
During my studies (economics) I undertook work experience in journalism and wrote for the Austrian daily newspapers Der Standard and Kurier and the Austrian press agency Österreichische Presse Agentur (APA). From the very start, I was covering business and finance, topics in which I had a personal interest and which also complemented my studies.

In March 2015, I became aware of the fact that Forbes was planning to start an Austrian issue and absolutely wanted to be a part of that. Luckily, it worked out.

What first got you interested in business and finance? What do you find most challenging when writing about these areas?
The more you learn about the topic – especially financial markets – the more diverse it becomes. On the one hand this is intimidating, but on the other hand also extremely exciting. The financial crisis in particular made it apparent how far-reaching economic processes are in a global context and which economic ties exist. The debate surrounding economic and political issues has been carried out in a prominent and controversial manner, especially since 2008. In my opinion, this is the most exciting topic area.

For me, the biggest challenge is processing the extremely complex content in such a way that my grandmother or my 14-year-old cousin would be able to understand it as well (a test which I actually put it through from time to time).

In the field of financial journalism, in particular, terms are often explained inadequately while too much jargon is used. This might be interesting for a handful of readers but not the wider public. Writing in this style is not easy and, unfortunately, I don’t always succeed.

However, I think the aim should be to give as many people as possible the opportunity to inform themselves, so they can then form their own opinion about events.

You produce content for Forbes’ print and online editions. How does your approach to writing and sourcing information differ depending on the type of publication? 
For the print issue, we have the luxury of allowing ourselves (a little) more time for the articles. They therefore usually focus more on background information, strong images and are generally longer. With the print issue, we have a bigger chance of gaining the reader’s undivided attention. For example, when they are at the beach reading our magazine, than would be the case online.

Readers’ attention spans are shorter (effectively) on our website. Mostly, the articles are shorter and more provocative than in the print issue. Only very specific topics are interesting for our online community.

Long reads, even if they are well-written and researched, are scarcely read online. What I like about online content, on the other hand, is the smooth integration of external sources (such as other newspapers or magazines) and different media formats, such as video.

At the end of the day, print and online are two different media formats that overlap and should be treated according to their respective characteristics. However, the research methodologies are quite similar:  even when working on content for the print edition, as long as it’s not regarding interviews, my research predominantly takes place online.

Do you use social media for your work? How does social media influence your work?
I use Twitter to keep informed and up-to-date throughout the day. LinkedIn is great for researching short biographies. Instagram and Snapchat are for private use – hardly ever professionally.

I haven’t had a Facebook profile for private reasons (e.g. data security) for a long time. Sometimes this can be a bit of a disadvantage because people, especially those my age, communicate via Facebook very often. My colleagues also get some of their information through Facebook.

On the whole, social media certainly doesn’t influence our daily work as much as it influences online journalists.

How can PRs help with content?
PR agencies are great if they know the specific product and make suggestions accordingly. Standardised press releases are not really helpful for a monthly magazine but if we get suitable interview and topic suggestions, a collaboration often works out well.

For us this includes topics in the areas of business, finance and lifestyle which have some sort of extraordinary feature or something unexpected. We don’t necessarily have to be cutting-edge, but should be able to provide something new. Some agencies manage to do this better than others. But I think this is the best way to get our attention.

What is the best way for PRs to get in touch?
Preferably via email but over the phone is also perfectly okay.

In an ideal world, if you could choose to do something completely different from media journalism, what would you like to do?
In an ideal world I would be a professional football player for SV Darmstadt 98 or would have enough imagination to write novels in a small country house.

Klaus Fiala was interviewed by Gorkana’s Davia Peris.

CIPR reveals regional PR awards shortlist

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The CIPR (Chartered Institute for Public Relations) has revealed the names of the shortlisted PR agencies, teams and campaigns in its annual, regional PRide Awards.

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In 2015, Mexia Communications won gold in the Corporate and Business Communications campaign category at the Anglia, Thames and Chiltern regional awards event

The 2016 PRide Awards will take place in nine regions across the UK: Anglia, Thames and Chiltern, Cymru Wales, Midlands, North East, North West, Northern Ireland, Scotland, South of England and Channel Islands and Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.

In Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, agencies shortlisted in the Outstanding Public Relations category are: Aberfield Communications, Acceleris and Finn. Clearbox, JPR, LK Communications, Morrow Communications, Serious PR and Smarts Communicate are shortlisted in the same category for the Northern Ireland region.

More than 1,000 entries from public relations teams, consultancies and individuals across the UK were submitted to the awards. There are more than 300 entries shortlisted.

Paul Mylrea, director of comms at the University of Cambridge, and Sandra Macleod, founder and CEO of Mindful Reputation co-chaired the judging panel of 68.

To view the full shortlist for each regional category, visit the CIPR website.