At Telstra Associates, we help candidates prepare for interviews, essentially I encourage candidates to be themselves, to communicate what they have achieved in their career to date clearly and concisely and by advising them on Competency Based Interviewing (CBI) techniques. CBI techniques are designed to qualify a candidate's answers by giving real life examples of their work experiences rather than typical standard generic answers. Candidates must be able to demonstrate how they have added value in their previous roles both on their CV and in an interview.

Typically, the five key areas covered in Competency Based Interviews are: organisational awareness; communication; teamwork; innovation and time management.

Two key things for a CV are its chronology and context. There needs to be a logical progression in terms of the moves a candidate has made. A client will always look for logical moves from job to job and business to business. If a CV demonstrates an illogical career path, it will most likely put a question mark in their minds.

An initial paragraph that effectively gets across a candidate's personality and provides a brief synopsis of their skills and achievements is also an advantage. Generally bullet points are the easiest way for a candidate to advertise their previous skills and experience and will be much easier for a client or potential employer to read.

We will always send any candidates who need help with CVs example documents to look at and give ideas as it is always tricky writing a CV for the first time in a while.