It appears that many more accountancy and finance organisations are turning to the web to perform background checks on prospective employees. Gone are the days when employers relied solely on a candidate’s CV to build a profile of the individual. There are now so many publicly available sources of information, each of them accessible through a simple Google search, that employers can easily perform some rudimentary background checks.

See for yourself: just Google your name and see what information is available about you.

With so many people directly or indirectly publishing personal information on the web, either through: web sites, blogs or profiles on social networking sites, there’s a wealth of information available to anyone who needs to find out more about your background.

Much has recently been written about the legitimacy of using the web to profile employees, citing the Mullins case in the US, where it was alleged that a Mr. Mullins lost his job after his employer Googled his name and found that he had been fired from his previous two jobs. In fact, this case rests more on the issue that Mr. Mullins had 102 cases of misconduct rather than what was discovered through Google.

 However, this does highlight some important concerns: information about you (whether good or bad) is available on the web; once indexed, this information is often difficult to remove and, furthermore, employers are starting to use this information to better understand their employees and prospective employees. This becomes very significant for professional services organisations (e.g. accountancy practices, consultancies, legal firms) where their clients could perform similar checks on the consultants/ advisors who are assigned to them. 

For candidates we advocate a cautionary approach when publishing information on the web. Remember that on the web there are no boundaries between your personal and professional life; so before you add your real name to anything that you publish, be sure to evaluate the impact. The information you publish is likely to be available to all and may be there for a long time. 

For employers there are several factors to consider. Although these checks can provide some quick, basic background information, can you be certain that the information relates to the candidate in question? Names are seldom unique and you could be tracking the wrong person or mixing information about several individuals. Also, if you collate or store information from the web you may be contravening privacy or data protection legislation. 

The trend suggests that sooner or later most accountancy and finance organisations will use the web to check details of prospective employees. So candidates beware of what you publish on the web.

Running an e-recruitment service like Just4Qualifieds, we see a lot of CVs and resumes, and it still surprises us how candidates can get the very basics wrong. Many candidates fail to appreciate that their CV is the first real point of contact between themselves and a prospective employer. Candidates must regard their CV as a piece of personal marketing which has to engage recruiters and differentiate them from other applicants. A good CV is important for any role but it is crucial when applying for accountancy and finance positions.

This post aims to provide simple guidelines that will enable any candidate to review and refine their CV, so that they improve their chances of selection and progressing to an interview.

1. Target your CV to match the role
   Ideally you should rework your CV to meet the specific requirements of the role and prospective employer. In practical terms this may not always be possible but you should make every effort to alter your CV so that it matches and emphasises the key criteria specified by the employer in their role specification, in most cases this can be achieved within the profile at the head of your CV.
2. Basic CV structure
   Accountancy and Finance organisations are reasonably conservative in their approach so we would encourage you to adopt a conventional style and structure for your CV. The main sections that you must provide are:
   • Personal information; name and contact details (address, phone, mobile and home email).
   • Employment/ Work experience; detail all previous roles, specifying the previous employers, dates of employment, role titles, duties, responsibilities, achievements and skills acquired. Ensure that you highlight any key achievements and, where possible, target these to match the criteria of the role for which you are applying. Present these with the most recent first.
   • Education; your academic history and professional qualifications, including details of the academic establishments and the qualifications and skills acquired. Highlight any key achievements, e.g. first time passes, awards or prizes. Present these with the most recent first.
   • Additional skills; other skills beyond those already identified, for example IT skills, familiarity with Accountancy/ Finance systems, etc.
   • Activities and interests; identify personal interests that highlight a skill (e.g. leadership, team working, etc.) and present them in a way that will appeal to the reader
   • References; you do not need to provide details of your referees on your CV, simply state that references are available on request. However, you should ensure that you have confirmed with your referees that they are happy to be contacted.
     

     Note, the introduction of the UK Age Discrimination Act 2006 means that the information you should disclose on your CV has changed. You should take every effort to ensure that employers cannot discriminate against you as a result of the way information is presented on your CV. Therefore you need not provide any information that could lead to an employer determining your age - for example your date of birth or the dates associated with your academic history.

3. Get to the point and be concise
   When writing your CV you should bear in mind that potentially the recruiter will be reading through many CVs, so you need to make sure that you highlight your key skills and capabilities for the role in a concise and consistent manner. Many recruiters do not have time to go in detail through every part of your CV; their aims are to quickly reject those that do not fit. Large, verbose and rambling descriptions do not help them with their task and will be regarded poorly. You should identify key points that you want to emphasise and bullet point these with short and snappy statements. As a target try not to have more than six bullet points in each section.
   
4. Size is important
   The optimum size for your CV should be two pages, anything more and it looks too excessive and anything less looks like you have too little to say. If your CV exceeds two pages, try to reduce the following: reasons for leaving previous jobs, past salary information and details of jobs held more than 10 years ago.
   
5. Prioritise the content
   An implicit prioritisation is placed on the items in each section of your CV based on the order and the amount you write for each item. So, important items should appear early in each section and should be presented in greater detail. A mistake that candidates often make is to put everything down in equal measure; focus on your most recent and most relevant experience.
   
6. Don’t Lie!
   Remember that your CV forms part of your contract of employment and therefore must be truthful. Employers often independently check the details in CVs; if discrepancies or lies are discovered it could become a reason for an employer to end that contract or discard your application.
7. Check the grammar and spelling
   There can be no excuse for grammatical or spelling errors in your CV; in fact employers frown upon these types of mistakes and you should make every effort to ensure that you CV is clear of these. As a minimum you should use the spelling and grammar checking tools provided in word processing applications such as Microsoft Word, to initially check your CV; and then ask colleagues or friends to perform similar independent checks.
   
8. Presentation and layout do matter
   Although the content is crucial, the presentation and layout are also very important. A poorly presented CV may lead recruiters to believe that you pay little or no attention to detail, or worse, that you are unprofessional with your written work. The fact is that presentation is the easy part; there are numerous templates available on the web so there’s no real excuse - you can even download our CV template. The things to remember are:
   
   
   • don’t overcrowd your CV or use too small a font size
   • white space makes your document easier to read
   • colours should be kept to a minimum
   • photographs are unnecessary
   • use headings and bold typeface to emphasise key areas, but don’t overdo it.
     

Remember that a well constructed and presented CV can make all the difference in getting you an interview.

Look out for our next article on interview tips to help you get through the interview process.