2. Securing a Job in a
Tough Market
• Aaron George – Group Director
• Mariken O’Donnell - Director – Global Project
Management
• Economic Climate
• Model
– Personal preparation for job search
– Practical preparation for job search
• Discussion
• Objective – provide a model for securing a new
opportunity

3. Job market/Job search Model
• Context – what is the job market like?
• Personal
– Why are you looking
– Creating self awareness – strengths/knowledge
– Career Objectives
– Mindset
• Practical
– Optimising your CV
– Setting Realistic Expectations
– Identifying Opportunities
– Networking Skills
– Interview Preparation
– Interview Skills

4. Understand Reasons for Looking
• Push Factors
– Redundancy
– Career progression blocked/limited
– Poor projects/work content
– Company culture
– Bad Management
– Location
• Pull Factors
– Great work content
– More money
– Career progression
– Location

5. Identify existing strengths &
knowledge base
Self Analysis:
• What am I good at/what are my skills?
• What do I enjoy?
• What am I driven by/interested in?
• What are my values?
• What is my knowledge base?
• How am I unique, what makes me more marketable than other candidates?
• What do I want to do? General direction.
• Am I qualified to do that now, or do I need to find an interim role to get me to that place that I
want to be?
Understand your career path
• Where have you been professionally?
• Why have you made the career decisions you have?
• Can you tell a cohesive story about your career choices?

6. Career Objectives
• Long term objective
– Where do you want to be?
• Position/Status
• Work content/Projects
• Money
• Location
• Work/Life Balance
• Type of organisation / culture
– What is your timeframe?
• Short term goals
– What path do you need to take to achieve your long-term objective?
• Do you need further qualifications?
• What positions will you need to work in along the way?
• What organisations will should you be working for along the way?
• What circles do you need to be moving in?
– Set short term goals that are timebound

7. Job Search Mindset
• Create mindset to find the right opportunity
– Establish Self Belief and be true to oneself.
– Establish your key achievements.
– Build up ones ‘inner-strength’ to know that you can ‘add value’ to a
situation or a person.
– Business is about creating and fostering relationships.
– Be proactive – you will get lots of non-communication and knock
backs.
– Learn from your experiences!
– Formulate a plan and stick to it (regardless of whether there is a
bad day or a particular opportunity does not materialize).

8. Optimise your CVs
Aim: Highlight skills & experience to get an interview
• Qualifications, employers, time period, title, roles and
responsibilities and project experience
• Detail on your experience; precise and to the point
• Notable projects in CV. Detailed project list as attachment
• No spelling or grammatical errors
• Factually correct
• 3 pages maximum
• No unexplained gaps
• Tailor to specific audience

9. Realistic Expectations
• Not Easy: job searching like a job itself
• Timeframes: currently not unusual for feedback / interviews to
take several weeks
• Salary: these have remained stagnant for past couple of years
and even dropped
• Location: you may need to widen the area you have been
looking

10. Identifying Opportunities
• Many companies never advertise their jobs, rather use network
• Recruiters work for some people, but not for others
• Many applicants for online advertisements resulting in lots of
competition
• Sometimes companies see a great person and they create a job
for them
• Also, a job could just open up right when you reach out –
someone resigns/retires/etc

11. Finding Your
‘Perfect Opportunity’
Your ‘perfect opportunity’ can come through:
• Your ‘warm’ network (events, friends, ex-colleagues)
• Your ‘cold’ network (Linked In, press research)
• Recruiter
• Job Boards
• Company Websites
• Trade Press
• Staying where you are – creating opportunities internally

12. Networking
• Development and maintenance of mutually valuable
relationships.
• People like to do business with people they know, like and trust.
It takes time to build up your own network of trusted contacts.
 Used to help find a job
 Important to develop and progress career
Networking can be:
• Formal, i.e. networking events,
• Informal, i.e. your immediate group of friends
• Online, i.e. Linked In.

13. Interview Preparation
Before the interview:
• Research the company and interviewers
• Company location and how you will get there
• Prepare for interview questions
– Know your CV inside out
– Understand job profile and how your experience fits
– Your longer term objectives and how this fits with the role
and company
• Eight to ten questions so you can ask three to four
• Company location and how you will get there

14. Interview Preparation
SOAR is a useful acronym. For appropriate questions
• Describing a situation,
• What objective you were trying to achieve,
• What action you took and
• What the end result was

15. The Interview
On the day of the interview:
• Presentation: dress smart, conservatively and professionally
• Take contact details, a spare CV, pen and notepad
• Switch off your mobile phone
• Be punctual, arrive 5-8 minutes early
• Interview starts as soon as you step inside the company’s offices
• Smile, have a firm hand shake and make eye contact
• Be enthusiastic and honest
• Avoid derogatory comments about former employers or colleagues.
• Listen and answer the question that has been asked

16. Summary
• Personal
• Practical

17. Questions
Contact Details
www.amida-recruit.com
0207 0333 788
Aaron George
aaron.george@amida-recruit.com
0759 9416 616
Mariken O’Donnell
mariken.odonnell@amida-recruit.com
0782 5127 553

18. Example CV Layout
Contact Details: Name, Email , Phone number and address.
Personal Profile: career to date, strengths and goals
Qualifications
If graduate or limited employment experience also include relevant course details in brief
Any professional affiliations
Employment Details:
Company Name
Month, Year started to Month, Year finished
Position
In bullet point form list your responsibilities and duties –4-6 key ones
List of Notable Projects. Including value followed by brief project description
Continue in this layout as appropriate
Key accomplishments and skills: Bullet point work, academic, sporting and personal
Skills : Bullet point IT, languages etc
Appendix 1 – Project List
At end can list all projects in sectors (or as an attachment)
• One font size, ideally 11. Black text.

19. Example Interview Questions
• How did your boss get the best out of you?
• In what ways has your job prepared you to take on greater responsibility?
• How do you organise and plan for major projects?
• What are some of the problems you have encountered in doing your job and how do you
deal with them?
• Describe a difficult problem you have had to deal with?
• What are your biggest accomplishments?
• What are your outstanding qualities?
• What types of decisions did you make in your last job?
• Why do you want to work there?
• What is your idea of how this industry works?
• What have you done that shows initiative and willingness to work?
• What would you do when you have a decision to make and no procedure exists?
• How long would it take you to make a contribution to our company?
• How well do you feel your boss rated your job performance?
• What personal characteristics are necessary for success in your field?

20. Example Interview Questions
contd.
• Why do you want to leave your current job?
• You’ve been given a project that requires you to interact with different levels within the
company – how do you do this and what levels are you comfortable with?
• What have you done that shows initiative and willingness to work?
• What can you do for us that someone else cannot?
• Do you prefer working with others or alone?
• Do you make your opinions known when you disagree with the views of your supervisor /
manager?
• How have you benefited from your disappointments?
• What is your general impression of your last company?
• What would your references say?
• What are some of the things you find difficult to do and why do you feel that way?
• Tell me about an event that really challenged you? How did you meet the challenge?
• Why have you changed jobs?
• How did you react to a difficult situation?