So you got yourself a job....

Firstly, congratulations. Seriously. It's incredibly tough out there and if you've secured yourself a role on a graduate programme, then you've done very well indeed for yourself and hopefully you're happy that your hard work has paid off.

A lot of grads get very enthusiastic about their new role and ask what they can do to prepare to really hit the ground running when they join, so I thought I'd offer some advice on this topic.

The first point I always make to grads is to relax, enjoy and make the most of the time off you have been end of exams and the start of your job. You're probably about to enter a period of at least 40 years of work with 25-30 days holiday and maybe a couple of career breaks if you're lucky. Go and do something fantastic that you've always wanted to do - take out a small loan if you have to (just my opinion) and go and travel around Vietnam / climb Mt Kilimanjaro / drive Route 66 / bungee in South Africa. You might not get the opportunity for a while.  In addition, it works out better for us as an employer too if you come back refreshed and happy after a good break and ready to face into the start of your career. Sometimes grads who start work too quickly after Uni are the first to ask about career breaks after 18mths and that's not great for either side.

Keep up-to-date as best you can with what's happening in the industry. In this time of newsfeeds / news letters / twitter / google news alerts, etc, it's not hard to make sure that information is 'pushed' to you rather than you having to pro-actively go out and search for it constantly, so set up a few key notifications and a little time to run through them every now and again and you will be up-to-date. Keep in mind you don’t need to understand the same level of detail as you do for an interview. No one is going to sit you down on your first day and say 'tell me what was on the front page of the FT last Thursday' (unless you're very unlucky!), you just need to have a reasonable idea of what's going on. Obviously if you're going into a Trading role, then it will probably be to your benefit to stay even closer to the news.

Keep up to date too on the company you are joining. Have a look on their website on what they have that you can sign up to. Read the annual report (these will often come out in April/May time) to see how things are going. Keep an eye on the share price (if applicable), keep an eye on the Communications / Investor Relations pages for what's going on with the company.

Have a look for Facebook Groups being set-up by your soon-to-be start group and if you can't find one, consider setting up one yourself. It's a good way to start to get to know people in advance of day 1. Sometimes the company has already done the set up of a group for the new starts, so might be worth checking.

The one skill that I would tell any graduate to work on in advance of starting a new graduate job is Microsoft Excel skills. It sounds really boring, but it is the skill that the majority of grads working in finance / consulting will need in their early years. In addition, many of the grads who really make an impact are the ones with great Excel skills and you become a 'wanted' resource. That's not to say that all you end up doing is Excel, but it’s a great way to find yourself in a key position, in demand, and therefore able to make an impact in many ways over and above your Excel. It can be a 'way in' that can lead to lots more. No matter what your level of Excel is, there is always more to learn. If you only know the basics, teach yourself how to use functions and tables. If you can do that, teach yourself Pivots; if you can do that, teach yourself Lookups; if you can do that, teach yourself Visual Basic… the list is endless. I promise it will stand to you very well if you are good at Excel and can move knowledgably and effortlessly around the software. There are loads of great tutorials online, so if you are interested, take some time to 'upskill' yourself a bit.

The other area that might be worth putting some thought into is self-awareness. Being self-aware means to understand your own strengths, and your own limitations, and the impact that these can have on you and on your team. You should also note that you need to develop both your strengths AND your weaknesses. Sometimes people focus on trying to improve their weaknesses at the expense of continuing to develop your strengths. Your strengths are what will make you shine and be successful. Your weaknesses are what hold you back. You need to keep improving both at all times. Have a look at this site on Jung Types to help identify what your preferences are. http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp  If you get the opportunity to do Myers Briggs / Belbin types during your graduate training, this will further enhance your self-awareness.

Hope that helps… congrats again on the new job.

Which CV are you?

Whilst the process of CV selecting is slightly different at most firms, there is usually a pre-screen, either by HR/ Grad Recruitment / Agency before the CVs are forwarded as a CV Book / a block of attachments / etc to the business. This is the first hurdle that any applicant has to get passed. Most CVs fall into certain categories which determine whether or not they will get sent onto the business. Here are some of those categories for you to consider where yours might fit:

The "Passed Around" CV
This is the one that everyone acknowledges is a good CV - good education, good experience and great potential. The problem with this CV is that there is no clear home for its owner.  It doesn't tell a story which has a definite, or at least reasonably conclusive, answer.
The result is that everyone feeds back to HR "Good CV, but not for our team, try.. XYZ", and then XYZ say the same and so on.  Whilst it can happen that the CV 'finds' the appropriate home through these means, there is a considerable danger that it will get forgotten about... always on someone's 'to do' list, but never quite actioned. And then eventually all the roles are gone and you become an 'almost made it' CV.
Make sure your CV or app form points you towards a definite home to make sure this doesn't happen to you.

The "Should have been selected but isn't" CV
Two people with exactly the same qualifications, experience, education, etc, can very easily end up on two sides of the selected/not selected scale. You must remember that it is not enough to have the experience for the role, you must describe and explain it in a manner that really puts it across in the strongest possible way.  I see CVs like this and comments like "I'm not sure s/he has the depth that we are looking for", "doesn't seem to be a lot of effort put into the CV - if that's representative of what s/he will do here, then would rather get someone else in".
No matter how good your education and experience is, you still need considerable effort to go into your CV to guarantee you the interview.

The "if only" CV
Possibly my least favourite CV to encounter as they are the ones with the silly mistakes - spelling mistakes, no degree result put on there, the wrong company mentioned in the accompanying letter, etc - but which are really very good CVs. Sometimes if a recruiter is feeling generous, they will correct silly mistakes before sending to the business, but more often then not, they won't. It's not really fair on the other grads who have taken the time to make sure everything is perfect.
Also, there is an increasing tendency by grads to supply a CV in PDF format, which is fine, but it does mean that if you do make a mistake, you are 100% guaranteed to get binned. HR wont forward a CV to the business with mistakes on it, because it makes it look like we haven't bothered to screen it.
Get someone else to look at your CV before you send it to a company. When you have been staring at something for such a long time, it is easy to miss small mistakes. A third party will usually spot them a lot easier than you will.

The "let's give him/her a shot" CV
This is the CV that isn't quite as strong as some of the others that you have seen, but it is clear that the person has worked very hard to date, has put a lot of effort into extra-curricular activities to build their transferable skillset, has done work for the community/a charity, etc. They usually have to be accompanied by a strong cover letter as well, but if that is the case, then they have a reasonable chance of being included in a pack sent to the business for consideration.

The "everyone wants him/her" CV
This is the CV that all of the teams that it's forwarded to want to see.  This is generally a good place to be as there can be a lot of internal rangling as to who gets to interview him/her first, etc. The downside is that sometimes it is the team that has the most internal 'power' that will get first dibs on seeing you - which might not always be the same as the team that you want to be in - but there is usually a way of negotiating your way (carefully, and not too early in the process) to where you want to be. Be careful not to come across full of it if you start to realise this is the position that you are in, because you can find yourself not wanted by anyone very quickly if it starts to sound diva-esque....

CV Structure and Format Checklist

There are thousands of decent CV structures out there that are perfectly good robust as templates for your CV. However, there are a few checkpoints which I think apply to most CVs.

Take a look through the list below to see if any apply to your CV and if it's worth reviewing the structure a little...

• Be consistent with tenses - either present or past
• Use no more than one level of bullets
  
• Keep the amount of space you use for "Personal Details" at the top to a minimum- don't leave loads of white space on either aide by centering the text. Use text boxes if necessary to get the look you want and to maximise space.
• Don't use generic dates for work experience: 2008-2009 could be two days, two weeks, two months or two years. As a recruiter, if you see generic dates you will assume it was a very short period of time that you are trying to make sound longer than it was. You are better off being honest upfront.
• Don't use the Word header functionality for any important information (like your name!). Headers and footers don't appear on certain Word views and it can look like you've forgotten to include your name... Also some of the CV scan technologies that companies use dont like headers/footers, and again can cut some of your information out.
  
• Try to stick to one tab level throughout the CV, or two at the most, otherwise it looks inconsistent and confusing for the reader
  
• PDF vs editable. My advice is probably go editable. Whilst the PDF is a great, robust format, if you've made any mistakes, no one can correct them and your CV will get binned (as opposed to someone doing you a favour and correcting it before forwarding to the business, which does happen occasionally).
  
• If you have more than one page, number the pages (pg 1 of 2, pg 2 of 2) and put your name on all pages as sheets do get separated quite easily.
  
• Make sure you include your degree result, or most recent result if you are not finished. If you don't include it, the reader will usually assume its below the required level and decline your app.
  
• Do include Hobbies/Interests - at a graduate level, they are good for showing you are a rounded individual with other activities to draw on experience from.
  
• If you are including a personal profile, my recommendation would be to not to write in the third person "Steven is a ...... " - "I" is better given that it is you writing the CV and that is acknowledged. (If you get a job in consulting, then you will often see CVs written in the third party as they are being included in proposals, etc, but outside of that first person is better).

Can't think of anymore for now, but will edit and and when I come up with more!

Have a nice weekend all.