Research Process
Analyse the role on offer (either from the content of the advertisement or from the agent’s briefing). Ask yourself what qualities the hiring manager will be looking for in their ideal candidate. Compare those qualities with the first page of your CV. If you feel that it is necessary to ‘read between the lines’ to see those skills and qualities then you need to re-write or adapt your CV to demonstrate you have these attributes. If you fail to impress the hiring party on the first page of the CV then it’s fairly unlikely they will bother to read further.
If you are successful in securing an interview you should research the company and be sure you understand all of their business activity. It always shows when someone has done their homework, and never fails to impress. Candidates who are better prepared are more relaxed and confident, and therefore perform well in interview situations. Minimum levels of research should include a thorough examination of the organisation’s web site, paying particular attention to latest press releases. You could also try using a web crawler to dig out other articles regarding the organisation using a tool such as www.searchy.co.uk