As of Thursday last week BT managed to get our phone lines back up and running! Apoligies for any inconvenience this may have caused.

We are experiencing an issue with our phone lines just now, so all calls are currently being diverted to Steve’s mobile. If you can’t get through please leave a message and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can!

BT and our telephone hardware providers are currently investigating the issue, so hopefully all will be resolved soon!

In continued efforts to streamline not only our own internal processes here, but external processes on the website we have introduced a new online application system. The new system allows you to apply directly from the “Current Vacancies” page, this should both speed up application times, as well as removing any ambiguity from some applications.

As this is a new system it’s still very much in the testing phases. We are keen to get your feedback as and when you need to apply for a position. We welcome and ideas for improvement and any bugs you may spot!

Well 2009 has been and gone, and we welcome 2010 with an incredibly cold chill!

We are planning a number of changes for 2010 to make sure we can keep both job seekers and employers suitably satisfied!

The first addition we have made is to dig deeper into the world of Social Networking. As you know we already have a rather good website (well we think so!), a Twitter account to keep you up to date with all the latest vacancies and news. Now we have a Facebook page that you can sign up to. This page will be kept up to date with all company news, as well as current vacancies as they happen, we will also post events for 2010 in the Facebook page. So why not check it out? We will add a link to the homepage soon, so in the interim click the link below!

Our Facebook page

Sorry to remind you all, but Christmas is only a few weeks away! With that in mind, please see below our festive opening hours.

Monday 21st – Open 9am – 5pm
Tuesday 22nd – Open 9am – 5pm
Wednesday 23rd – Closed
Thursday 24th – Closed
Friday 25th  – Closed

Monday 28th – Open 9am – 5pm
Tuesday 29th – Open 9am – 5pm
Wednesday 30th – Closed
Thursday 31st – Closed
Friday 1st – Closed

During the office closures over the festive period, staff will still be able to contact us on our out of hours mobile. Payroll will not be affected by the closures so if you are working during this time your payments will not be affected.

All that’s left to day, is we hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Well after a few weeks of turmoil we’re back up and running! BT have been and gone and we’re back up and running at full speed!

We THINK we have still got all CVs recieved over the past few weeks, however if you didn’t recieve a response from us please feel free to re-send any enquiries you had.

Thanks for your patience!

Since Monday the 26th of October,  the network here at the Top Agency has decided to go on strike. The upshot is we are having difficulties access e-mails and the website. Our IT people have investigated and advised that we will need a whole new network setup here in the office. The worst part is that this can take weeks to do.

So please be patient after sending us e-mails, we still have access but it’s rather sporadic so you may recieve a delay in getting a response. We will still publish all new jobs to the website and our Twitter feed, vacancy alerts will also continue to go out as normal.

All in all it’s going to be a difficult few weeks, rest assured we’ll keep on being as active as always!

In the meantime, if you need to contact us urgently, a phone call would be rather more appropriate. You can find the phone number and other contact details on the “Contact Us” section of the site.

Well 2009 has been a very difficult year for most people and companies. With unemployment at a record high and redundancies being used all to often to ease short term financial difficulties, it doesn’t look like 2010 is going to shape up to be much better.

Here at The Top Agency however we have had a steady year, and have seen many people back into the workplace. 2009 so far has seen our highest temporary to permanent staff member conversion rate for the past few years! It’s good to see local industry remaining confident and really pushing forward despite difficulties. If you run a business, or perhaps know someone who runs/owns a business, we can help. Not only do we provide staffing solutions, but we also provide consulting in several areas. From general business consulting to specific subject matter, we can give you help and advice to aid you in these difficult times. Contact us for a free initial consultation to see how we can help.

Over the next few months, we will be offering free one on one tuition for job hunters. What we have found, is that many candidates that approach us have been employed for long periods of time, and as a result have lost some of the practical job hunting skills they once had. So if you want help or advice on any aspect of being a job seeker watch this space!

In the meantime, feel free to get in contact if you need any help, whether you are a company looking for help and advice on staffing or a candidate looking to find work feel free to contact us!

In a bid to make the New Vacancy notifications more relevant, we have added additional fields to allow users to specify what kind of work, and also what kind of shifts they would prefer. Over time, we may add further refinements, but for the meantime this is a good start!

We have also setup a Twitter account for all of you that prefer an even easier way to job hunt!

As we move into the Summer of 2009, we are staring to see a slow but steady increase in available work. While it’s been a rather grim year for most, we have seen other business sectors beginning to flourish. Now is a good time for job hunters in Moray, many large businesses locally have their yearly budgets reallocated to them in July/August each year, and with new budgets hopefully come new spending in recruitment!

Most points on this topic list blunders that very few people are daft enough to actually make. Maybe we’re making a bold assumption, but it’s not likely that very many people are “stating that they work well in the nude”, as one CV blunder article cautions against. Nor are very many job seekers likely to “use pale blue paper with teddy bears printed around the border”, as another article warns of. Very helpful! But nevertheless, there are quite a few real CV blunders that perfectly intelligent people commit, which you should be aware of, because they can diminish you in the eyes of employers.

1) Letting typos slip through

Possibly the easiest CV blunder to make, letting typos slip through is almost one of the most dangerous. A recent survey indicated that 84% of hiring personnel throw a CV in the rubbish upon spotting just one or two typos! Understand this for what it is: the HR people do not have some type of vendetta against spelling errors. Rather, what they see when they come across as a spelling error is a lack of conscientiousness. They see someone who apparently did not even take their application seriously enough to proofread it before clicking the “Send” button or mailing it in. This isn’t the impression you want to give off, so be sure to eliminate all spelling errors before submitting your CV.

2) Inappropriate e-mail address

It is common today for applicants to leave an e-mail address on their CVs. Nothing wrong with that. Unfortunately, many applicants make the mistake of leaving personal or inappropriate e-mail addresses rather than professional ones. Put yourself into the HR guy’s shoes. You are looking at two very impressive applications, but one them lists their e-mail as “ismokeweedeveryday@gmail.com” while the other lists theirs as “JohnSmith@gmail.com.” Which person are you more likely to hire? If you don’t already have a professional-sounding e-mail address, just visit one of the many free e-mail providers (like gmail, yahoo, and hotmail) and sign up for one.

3) Listing irrelevant, non-job-related information

Too many applicants try to get “cute” and show how eclectic they are by listing non-job related information in their CVs. This can be anything from the vacations they’ve taken, the hobbies they enjoy, or even (in rarer cases) the pets they own! It’s understandable to want to “liven up” your application, but remember this: the HR person who will eventually read it reads thousands of applications each year. They have trained themselves to relentlessly skim through applications searching for only the very relevant details.

4) Poor formatting

Remember: employers and their HR staffs scan CVs. They do not painstakingly read each and every word. Being that this is the case, the best thing you can do is make your CV scannable. This means using one of the many free CV templates that come with Word or that can be downloaded on the Internet. These are the formats employers are used to reading, and it’s one easy way you can take friction and hassle out of their reviewing of your CV. Don’t get “cute” with formatting!

5) Use of personal pronouns

Remember back in university when your professor didn’t let you use words like “I” or “me” in essays? Keep this rule in mind when creating your CV as well. Like an essay, a CV is a formal document (albeit a business document rather than an academic one.) For example, rather than saying

I oversaw the creation of a new department that generated  £5 million in sales and increased pre-tax profits by 15%.

Say this instead:

Oversaw creation of new department that generated £5 million in sales and increased pre-tax profits by 15%.

If this seems like a lot to remember, just pretend that you are someone else, describing yourself to another person. This rule will help keep you on track.

6) Trying to sound “well-rounded”

Some applicants believe they will look better to employers if they seem well-rounded. Such people typically play up how many committees they’ve served on, how many different and varying job titles they’ve held, different industries they’ve worked in, and the like. Unfortunately, this does not work as intended. Most employers see such people as not being great at any one thing, and they are thus unsure of how to evaluate them. Most often, such applicants are simply passed over in favor of those with more specific skillsets.

7) Self-deprecation

Too many CVs have self-deprecating remarks and phrases. While it’s understandable to not want to be seen as bragging on your application, you still want to look good. It is for this reason that statements like “graduated in the top 66% of my class” and “self-employment: what a disaster that was!” will not make you look good. Rather, they will make you seem like a potential threat to the organization, someone who probably shouldn’t be trusted with much power or autonomy.

8 ) Bragging

Of course, the other side of the CV blunder coin are applicants who excessively brag about themselves or their achievements. Again – you do want your CV to make you look like a strong candidate. What you do not want is obnoxious arrogance, as seen in statements like “you will never find a better candidate than me”, or “my job performance is unsurpassed”, or “if you don’t hire me, you’ll regret it!” Such statements make you seem cocky and indicate a potential lack of team spirit (or even narcissism!)

9) Focusing on responsibilities instead of achievements

The best CVs draw attention to what you as an employee have achieved – sales growth, cost-cutting, higher customer retention, etc. The worst CVs talk only or mostly about what responsibilities you have held – manager, committee supervisor, etc. Take a good, hard look at your CV and determine if it is primarily responsibilities or achievements based. If it is not already achievements-based, make sure it is before you send it in to employers!

10) Important skills buried at the bottom

Some otherwise good CVs handicap themselves by listing important skills at the bottom – say, computer skills. It should go without saying that the skills most relevant to the job you want should be listed top, front, and center in your CV. Read over your CV a few times and put yourself in the position of a busy, beleaguered HR person. Would your job-specific skills jump out to them? If not, re-arrange your CV so that they will.

11) Lack of bullet points

As alluded to earlier, scanability is essential to creating a good CV. One of the most critical elements of scanability is the use of bullet points. Do not make the mistake (which many applicants do) of writing everything in as a “wall” of text, hoping that whomever reads your CV will painstakingly peruse your every word to extract the important parts. They will not. That being the case, be sure to use bullets early and often!

12) Listing references directly on the CV

You should list your references on a separate sheet of paper or, ideally, only provide them when asked. Including them within the CV itself only adds bulk (which makes it more tempting to rush through) and does you little good, since references will only matter if and when the employer decides to interview you and advance the process beyond the CV-reviewing stage. When in doubt, leave the references out!

13) The “more is better” mentality

An article listing the 100 funniest CV mistakes says that one woman divided her CV into acts as though it were a play: ie, Act 1 of the CV, Act 2 of the CV, etc. We realise this is rather extreme and ridiculous, but it’s telling because of how many people (albeit less dramatically) adopt a “more is better” approach with their CVs. This is absolutely false. In fact, research would probably show that CVs are read less often in proportion to how large they are. Whenever possible, try to include only the essential details necessary to convey your main point.

14) CV sent as an attachment without you knowing how it’ll look

We’ve all been there: you send something out as an e-mail attachment, only to have it look different (sometimes drastically) on your recipient’s computer than it does on yours. This can be disastrous if the random factor and chaos of the Internet messes up your CV’s formatting or bullets! Luckily, this need not become an obstacle. Before sending your CV via e-mail, simply “test” send it to a few of your friends and verify how it looks on their computers. If it looks as it does on your computer, send it to the employer. If not, find out why and fix it.

15) Passive-aggressiveness

Not every job applicant has the benefit of writing a CV with a sparkling job history. Some have been fired numerous times or been involved in conflicts with bosses at one or more jobs. There is a strong tendency among such people to demonise their ex-bosses in the CV, blaming them for their own failures. But while you might think this makes you look better, it rarely has this effect. Rather, most employers will read something like “I only got fired because my boss was an unrealistic manager” and imagine themselves being in that boss’ shoes someday. You will be seen as a “problem-person” and probably ignored. The far more effective and mature approach is to simply acknowledge any past difficulties you may have had and exude an honest, sincere willingness to put those things behind you.