In this article I will try to provide some ground rules and guidance for you if you are thinking of changing your job and specifically having a complete change of direction.

If you are trying to change your direction and move into a new career, my general advice at this point in time is Don’t do it! However I would like to add a couple of clarifying points to this. If you are in a secure position where you are, consider the state of the world economy and the daily news of redundancies. There are at present large numbers of people losing their jobs due to the recession, many of these will be highly skilled and experienced in their area and will be joining the long list of job seekers looking for their next job. If you are trying to change your direction in your career you will be competing with an increasing number of experienced applicants for the same role. I’m not trying to dissuade anyone from looking for a new job, on the contrary there are lots of really exciting opportunities out there, even in this time of economic suppression, but right now it’s probably more realistic to look at career opportunities within your existing area of skill and expertise. This advice applies equally to you if you have been made redundant and are looking for a new role. If there was ever a time to play your joker and use your areas of greatest strength it is now.

A good example to illustrate my point was a recent applicant who was a Chemist in a pharmaceutical company, he approached me for advice about getting a job in the offshore industry. He wanted to know if I thought he would get an interview for an offshore Chemist job. My advice was that I thought it highly unlikely that he would progress to interview stage in the face of competition from applicants with offshore Chemist experience. He said that he would be happy to pay for his own offshore survival and medical. Again I had to advise that simply possessing these certificates may not increase his chances, as the key factor in short listing would be evidence of relevant experience in the sector. My advice was that he should look at moving into a petrochemical / oil and gas related chemist role onshore initially so that he gained experience in the right sector, and that once he had done this he might even find that a company may sponsor his offshore survival and medical. So keep your expectations realistic, set your goal and work out a set of steps that you need to take to reach your goal. It may be that you need to take a number of small steps rather than a giant leap of faith.

Have you thought of finding a new role using your existing skills and experience but in a new way or with a new company? I spoke to a candidate only yesterday who was completely unaware until very recently that his skills were very much in demand. He is a Mechanical Engineer with particular experience in Maintenance and Reliability engineering and he has good petrochemical experience. At present there are a number of companies looking for these skills and this person was delighted to find out that he could command a good salary or daily rate in a new and challenging role with a new employer. He had been feeling that his role had become stale, it had lost its challenge and he felt stuck in a rut. What better time to look for a fresh new start where he can use his 30 years of experience in a new and interesting job, and in this persons case one that will pay generously for his knowledge. I’m currently waiting for news of an interview, and he was under the misapprehension that no one else would be interested in him! Nothing could be further from the truth for this person.

So if you are feeling like you’d like a change of job, analyse whether it is your duties, your employer, your career aspirations or your colleagues that you want to change, and decide which of these factors is the most important to you? Do you really need to change your direction completely, perhaps you just need more of a slight deviation than a complete U-Turn. Tempering your desire for complete change may prove more lucrative too. Now look for your next role, contact your recruitment agent and take advice. Spend time polishing and honing your CV, it’s your key to change, and is a critical factor in your success. Advice on writing a CV is addressed elsewhere on this blog, and finally, keep your expectations realistic. (However being a glass half full kind of girl I always struggle with this last one myself!)

If you have found the information on this blog useful I welcome your feedback and would be pleased if you would pass my link on to others who it might benefit.

Thanks

Rowena

If the question is a comparison between CVs which are in the written format, ie traditional resumes which can be printed out, vs the video CV, then I believe that there will be some sectors which will lean towards the video CV, for instance the creative industries or roles which rely more on personal presentation skills than academic or technical qualifications and experience.  In these roles I can envisage how a video CV may be useful as a show reel for personality and presentation skills, and I can see the potential for this medium particularly with the growth of personal use of video.  However knowing how many applications are generally received for job adverts and how few seconds are taken up on first sift reading of CVs, I wonder if the video CV might be a second stage CV after the more quickly read “paper” version.

There are many roles where personal presentation skills come secondary to a persons technical skills, qualifications and experience. For instance a senior mechanical design engineer working for an oil and gas producer in an engineering office would be judged almost entirely on his technical ability to fulfill the role.  He or she may have two heads (well not literally!) but I am not interested if they have the potential to be a news presenter or look good on a shopping channel.  My client will only be interested in seeing CVs from skilled, qualified and experienced mechanical engineers regardless of their personal appearance or ability to have the confidence to front a video.

I suppose the other factor is that like writing CVs, creating an effective video resume is an even taller order for most people, and whereas I can help my candidates to present themselves in the best way on paper, through interview and editing of their CV, it is a far more time consuming and costly process to produce a video.  I always recommend that candidates tailor their CV to each application, whilst this is easy using the electronic or paper format, editing different versions of a video would be again more difficult.

If the question relates purely to the comparison between an electronic and paper CV, then in this age most companies and recruiters are geared up to processing any documentation electronically, and so almost instantaneously.  A paper CV sent through the post may well have missed the boat, and certainly when being sent via internal post between departments often on remote sites would be at a disadvantage over an electronic copy.

A paper CV arriving through the traditional post will be at an instant disadvantage arriving at a recruitment agency whose clients expect them to present all candidates in electronic format and in a standardised presentation format.  A paper CV presents problems in that it would have to be either retyped or scanned and edited using character recognition software.  The electronic resume can be dispatched to multiple interested recipients within a company regardless of location, it can be edited quickly and easily, firstly by the recruiters to improve presentation and include extra content derived from initial interview, and it will arrive in perfect condition straight to the desk of the intended hiring manager or HR person.  The electronic CV will most likely only be printed out as a paper copy for interview purposes, as interviewers still like to put the old fashioned pen to paper to make notes during interview.

In conclusion my answer is that I believe there is a place for paper CVs, electronic written CVs and video resumes. For more information on how to create a good CV I have prepared written articles and short video presentations which you can view in other sections on this blog.  And before you write back and comment on my video presentation skills, I would like to point out that although I know I will never make a TV news presenter or shopping channel sales person, at least I don’t have two heads.  (Although the saying does go that 2 heads are better than one!)