We’re seeing more conversations, more interviews and more hesitation. This isn’t about blame, it’s about clarity. A cautious market needs clearer conversations from candidates, employers, and recruiters alike.
A great portfolio won’t save a weak CV, and a great CV won’t save a weak portfolio. This week alone, we’ve seen some incredibly strong designers held back by avoidable basics: • CVs that list software but don’t explain how it’s been used on real projects • Portfolios with beautiful imagery, yet no context such as role, stage of project, or responsibility, • Applications that don’t align with the CV and portfolio (job titles, dates, or project scope don’t match). Your CV tells us what you’ve done. Your portfolio shows us how well you’ve done it. Studios expect both to work together, not compete. If you’re actively looking, it’s worth spending the extra hour tightening both. It genuinely makes the difference between “interesting” and “let’s interview”. If you want a 2nd opinion, feel free to reach out to me with both! ccolley@planningrecruitment.com #arc h itecturejobs #interiordesignjobs #architectlife #designcareers #recruitmentinsight
By Kirsty Sibbald A comment a candidate made in a recent conversation has been playing on my mind. When speaking about how their search has been going outside of our efforts, they advised they were applying to what they can see on LinkedIn but not bothering with some as they had hundreds of applications. It got me thinking, hundreds? We get a lot of applications yes, but hundreds? Rarely. But they were right, many adverts do show as "over 100 applicants" including jobs we have advertised. But what applicants don't know is that the number of applicants sent to the job poster is often much less, therefore, there is less competition than LinkedIn suggests! As an example one job we posted on LinkedIn stated there were over 100 applicants, but in reality, I only received 74 of those. LinkedIn auto-archives candidates who don't meet the essential job criteria such as holding the required UK work visa. If you see a job you want to apply to and have the relevant experience, DO NOT let the number you see on here put you off applying, because you can bet that number is significantly less. I see EVERY application. We can't respond to all, but if your application is a strong fit, we will ALWAYS follow up.
​In today’s society everyone has access to Social Media posting their life online. Any comment, opinion, picture or video shared reflects on you as a person and can be easily found by current and future employers. Companies will employ a search online as part of their screening process and any remark made in the heat of the moment might come back to haunt you. Ensure that there is no adverse information about you online. ​​Follow these tips below. ​Clean up your act. What to do if you have bad press? Removed all negative statements, videos or pictures from any social media. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Flickr, forums, company websites etc… (Usually they allow you to delete or hide comments. If not, contact the service provider and ask for the information to be removed). If you have been tagged in any pictures or conversations that you would not want public, ask the person who posted it to remove the tag. Ensure your privacy settings are positioned to the strictest level i.e. only friends and family. Paint the right picture How do you want to be seen? The right public profile will support you in your future growth, so nurture how you are seen. Only post positive remarks Always think twice about what you write or authorise to be seen. Pictures/Videos - Would you be happy to show them to work colleagues? Comments would you say them to your employer? Add statements that demonstrate your experience, knowledge and insight into the industry. Timing – Avoid posting in core working hours. Often sites will time/date stamp. Status – How do you want people to perceive you? Recommendations – Only asked for referrals when you have performed a good job and ensure it is from senior management. A peer adding a recommendation will only dilute what you have done, rather than carry weight. Don’t be upset with a person if they decline to recommend you. Sometimes this can be their company policy or perhaps concern about their ‘public face’. Think about what groups you are in or what your interests say about you? Schmoose, Network, Interact Proactively give intelligent, well thought views of the industry. Channels to utilise could include to tweet, update status, comment on industry articles (such as BD online), blog, forums etc… Pursue recommendations – you will not get them unless you ask Link to influential people in your industry Be associated with all major industry events 5. Key Points Protect your reputation Keep up to date with what is being disclosed about you and act accordingly. Only reflect information in a professional and intellectual manner. Become someone who’s views, comments and opinions count and are sought after. Above all use Social Media to sell you. Agency Representation When you are ready to move jobs the agency(s) selected to represent you is crucial to how you’re perceived in the marketplace. If you register with a number of agencies you run the risk of your CV being sent to the same client on a number of occasions. This only reflects desperation and often a client will disregard your application to avoid a dispute over which agency has ownership. Select one agency to take you professionally to marketplace in the outset. You can always expand this to 3 agencies after a few weeks if you are not getting the desired outcome. You should have:- Control over who is being approached on your behalf. Trust that an expert is representing you A strong relationship your agent 
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Interviews are structured conversations through which the recruiter is trying to find out if you are a suitable candidate for the role and the organisation. As such they form an extremely important part of any job application process. Whatever other methods are being used to select candidates, recruiters always ask applicants to attend an interview before a job is offered. ​Central to the interviewing process is the employers’ need to answer 3 key questions: Can you do the job? Will you love doing the job? Will you fit in? The interview is a two-way process and so ideally, these are questions you should also be asking of yourself to help you decide whether or not to take the job if it is offered to you. This blog will show you how to prepare for and handle job interviews confidently and boost your chances of getting the job you want. In particular, we will be looking at: The main types of interview that you may encounter Getting ready for the interview – preparation is the key Examples of typical questions and how to be ready for them Important “Do’s and Don’ts” for good interview tech nique ​The main types of interview Panel interviews: Employers conduct panel interviews, whereby a number of recruiters interview together. Panels may consist of only two people but can constitute as many as four or more. The secret here is to remain as relaxed as possible and try to include all of the panel members when replying to questions. Technical interviews: these may include very specific questions relating to knowledge of a particular area of Architecture, UK Building Regulations or CAD, for example. The emphasis is likely to be upon exploring factual knowledge. Thorough preparation is needed. Technical interviews could include taking tests as well. Telephone interviews: these are used in the early stages of an application process but could occur at any point. As the name suggests, they are conducted over the telephone but in most respects can follow the format of a standard interview so prepare well beforehand. Remember, that, as you cannot see the interviewer, it is important to speak very clearly and ensure that you make or take the call in a place where you will not be disturbed. You can also prepare simple notes to use during the discussion. Mind maps work well as they allow for your thoughts to be organised clearly and concisely. Getting ready for the interview “If you fail to plan you plan to fail!” Good preparation is absolutely essential for any interview and there are some steps you can take to get ready for the big day: First – do your research & prepare Read material on the company website. Find out if the company has been in the news recently and why. Check out the company / organisations’ website, broadsheet newspapers, relevant professional journals and professional bodies. Useful information to find out about includes projects and services, turnover, locations of offices, history and culture of the company. Review your application. Think about why you want the job and how your skills, knowledge and experience match against the requirements of the job. That is to say, what can you offer the employer? Prepare your portfolio to reflect your best and most relevant work at the front. The best presentation you will ever give is about your work. How are you going to present it? What you are going to say about each example? How are you going to sell your soft skills such as communication, leadership & management etc..? Start to prepare some questions you could ask at the interview – it is highly likely that you will be given the opportunity and it is important to have something to say here. Asking questions creates a favourable impression and will enable you to understand more about the role. If the interview involves a CAD test, ensure you practice your skills beforehand. Re-read your CV to remind yourself of dates and details to discuss. Second – don’t overlook the basics. Make sure you know where you are going It seems obvious but make sure you plan out your journey in advance and allow sufficient time to reach your destination without getting flustered. Late arrival can convey a very poor impression! If any problems occur during the journey to the interview and you may be running late, telephone the employer to let them know of the problem. Do not arrive late without letting the employer know first! By arriving a little early you can get some of the sense of what the organisation is like, relax and concentrate on mental preparation for the interview. Try not to arrive too early as this could increase any feelings of anxiety. Third – dress code What you wear and how you look are essential elements to whether an interviewer gains good first impression of you. This means you need to invest time in making sure you look good. Check company websites for information on what to wear. If in doubt you could always ask. Try to wear something that you feel comfortable in and that gives you confidence. Dress: a suit is generally acceptable. Preferably this should be worn with a shirt and tie (men) or a shirt / smart top (women). Make sure your shoes are well polished! Presentation: a well groomed look is important. Hair should be neat and if your hair is long, it should be tied back if you know you might be tempted to fiddle with it during the interview. Jewellery: try and avoid large, conspicuous earrings, rings, necklaces or bracelets. Piercing and tattoos: if you do have any facial piercing(s) – choose a stud that is neat. We suggest tattoos should be covered. Make-up: keep it simple – nothing too strong or overpowering. Likewise, avoid strong fragrances as these can elicit emotional responses which may not always be positive. During the interview Body language Body language (sometimes referred to as non-verbal communication) is very important. The way you come into the interview room, shake hands and the way you sit can suggest interest, confidence, nerves or even boredom. An open stance i.e. not crossing legs or arms, leaning forward to indicate interest is considered the best approach. Smiling is essential in striking up and maintaining rapport with the interviewers throughout an interview. It conveys confidence and may help you to not look like a victim! Be careful of waving your hands around too much. Eye contact Good eye contact is an excellent way of conveying your interest in the job. Looking down, or at anything other than the interviewer, can make you appear disinterested or insincere. Maintaining good eye contact can help you gauge the interviewer’s reaction to what you are saying (to see whether you should be expanding on your answer or winding your answer up). With panel interviews, the best advice is to look at and answer the person asking the question, with a glance from time to time at the other interviewers to include them in your reply. Show confidence This is often easier said than done, we know, and it is natural that you should feel nervous. However, you need to show you can manage any anxiety. If an employer is looking for someone who can cope with pressure then the interview is a good guide for them. Don’t go to the other extreme and seem too laid back, act naturally as employers are looking for individuals, not clones, so there is no one way to get it right. You may be required to shake hands with your interviewer either at the beginning or end of your interview. A confident handshake is one way to create a favourable impression so if you are unused to shaking hands, a practice run with a friend is recommended. Have questions to ask the interviewers What do you think will be the major challenges facing this company over the next 3 years? What role would I be expected to play in the first team I am assigned to? Money Discussing Money at an interview can be a delicate conversation. You want the job, but with the right package. What salary you say at interview is often the salary clients expect to pay and negotiation is difficult after that point. Undersell yourself will result in a low offer and oversell could mean no offer at all, as you’re automatically priced out of the job. The interview should be focused on your skills, abilities and desire to do the job, but hey you are under pressure and the interviewer wants an answer, Here are a couple of options: Let the recruitment agency deal with money and point the interview back to them. Give a salary range - ensuring you will accept the lowest figure if offered! Ask the interviewer "based on my skills and abilities where would I fit in your salary structure" Disability disclosure The decision whether to disclose a disability to an employer is often a personal one and may be based on a number of factors such as the nature of the disability and the demands of the role being applied for. Disabilities can be disclosed before, during or sometimes even after interviews but may also be disclosed during parts of the application process. Decisions about this are largely a matter of judgment. If disclosing disabilities, always do so in a very positive manner, explaining any assistance that may be needed. It is important to answer any direct questions from the employer fully and honestly. Feedback Seek feedback from the employer if you are unsuccessful – it will enable you to address any weaker areas and build on your strengths to help you to perform more effectively at your next interview. ​ After the interview Be aware of your surroundings. Do not light up a cigarette or vape near the office or in the car park, you do not know who is watching you. Do not call someone and talk about the interview until you are clearly away from the building, you do not know who is listening. Call your Agent. As soon as you are in a position where you can talk call Planning Recruitment for a full debrief. This demonstrates interest in the job and we will want to hear from you before speaking with the client on our scheduled call. Finally some ‘Do’s and Don’ts’ to help you when preparing for interviews Do: Make sure you have done your research before the day. Be able to explain why you want the job. The employer is likely to ask. Be able to explain convincingly what you can offer the company in terms of your skills, attributes and experience. Think about some of the strategies you would use in response to competency based and similar questions. Make sure you have examples of evidence you can quote in support of your claims. Provide evidence for your answers from all aspects of your life – degree, employment history, interests, clubs and societies, positions of responsibility. Spread your answers around! Be prepared to talk positively about previous employers and why you left. Don’t: Make false claims regarding your ability; don’t exaggerate your role in a team or claim an ‘amazing’ ability to do something. Indulge in flattering the reader about their organisation e.g. ‘I want to work for the number one Architectural Practice in Europe’. Sit in silence. If you don’t understand a question ask for it to be clarified. Interrupt the interviewer(s). Talk negatively about a previous employer. 
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Avoid common resume mistakes that put you out of the race before it even begins. What’s that old saying? “Opportunities don’t come knocking on the door?” Well, in today’s world of e-recruitment, that may not strictly be true. With the likes of LinkedIn, CV-Library, BD4Jobs, and Archinect at our fingertips, it is now easier than ever to make yourself available to recruiters and employers who will bring opportunities to you. But are you making yourself seen above and beyond the competition and to the right people? Claire Colley, Director & Founder of Planning Recruitment specialists in Architecture and Interior Design Recruitment, draws upon her 20+ years of experience recruiting for the Design industry, and gives her advice on how to be seen, in the enduring post-lockdown workscape of e-recruitment. This blog will highlight the common mistakes job seekers make when marketing themselves online and teaches you how to optimise your CV ensuring you are seen every time by specialist recruiters with the best opportunities. What does the post-lockdown work world look like now? It’s unprecedented. In the twenty years I have worked in the architectural recruitment industry, I have never seen anything like it. Employers and candidates have opportunities available to them like never before. With hybrid and remote working, and virtual interviewing and onboarding, it is now perfectly feasible to work for a company outside of your normal commutable area, without having to relocate. Which means that when candidates search online for jobs, the opportunities that are returned to them are more varied, wider reaching, and more abundant than ever before. But the opposite is also true. For each position available, candidates are no longer just competing with those qualified for the role who live in the area or will relocate. The competing talent pool is now national, global even. Therein lies a new challenge for those searching for their dream job. How can they stand out in a seemingly infinite pool of qualified candidates? To answer that, it’s important to understand how employers and recruiters find suitable candidates. How do employers and recruiters search for candidates? Popular e-recruitment platforms like LinkedIn, CV-Library, Indeed, BD4jobs in the UK, and Archinect in the US, enable recruiters and employers to search thousands of resumes almost instantly. It’s an incredible advancement compared to when I started in architectural recruitment in 2001 – I remember when we used to fax CVs to our clients! As recruiters, we have gone from having a respectable but comparatively limited pool of active registered candidates to, today, having hundreds of potentially suitable candidates for each role. In an industry where reactivity, quality and speed are critical, we need an efficient way to sift out unsuitable candidates in favour of those that meet the role and client requirements. That’s where Boolean search comes in. What is Boolean search? All recruitment agencies, job boards, CV search engines, and even client online portals use Boolean search. It is a rule-based search structure that enables us to pinpoint only those resumes with the very specific set of skills, experience, and qualifications that match the role. CV search engines are great, but there is a caveat. As with most technology, the output is entirely dependent on the input. Boolean search is completely reliant on effective and quality keyword indexing and we are seeing an increasing number of candidates with the right skills and right experience for jobs, being overlooked because of simple errors they are making when uploading their CVs or creating their LinkedIn profiles. It means that they just aren’t coming up in searches, even for roles they would be perfect for. How can people give their CVs the best chance of being found? CV search engine software scans your resume for keywords. If your keywords cannot be indexed or are absent, then you will not come up in searches and you will miss out on potentially great opportunities. The first thing to check, and the issue we see coming up the most with architectural and creative professional’s CVs, is the file format. If the search software cannot scan your CV file, then it cannot index your skills and experience. Your resume is essentially invisible.” What format is best for a CV upload? Search software can struggle to scan CVs that: Are in a PDF format. Have imagery on. Are password-protected. I recommend that you produce your CV as a Word document and upload a password-free, picture-free version. You can send us your PDF format with your project images on, as this is the format that we will use when presenting you to clients. Our best candidates have both versions. As a rule: think PDFs and pictures for people, but a simple Word format for software. Keywords tips for CVs. In a system designed around keyword search, they’ll be no surprise that my next tip is get your keywords right. Be descriptive and detailed. The more descriptive words you have on your resume or profile, the more chances you have of appearing in employer and recruiter searches for relevant positions. Make sure your CV and profile are a detailed representation of you describing your experience, responsibilities, and achievements for all the projects you’ve worked on. Include the sectors you’ve worked in, and what roles you’ve played at what stages. Make sure your keywords comprehensively describe your relevant skills, qualifications, training courses attended, and software and applications you’ve used. Include your previous job titles, how you describe yourself, and what your key, soft and core skills are. Make sure your keywords are spelt correctly. A human can determine what you meant despite your misspelling, but software will simply ignore it and eliminate you from searches that you should have been in. Use standardised terminology. You may have worked in companies who used non-standard language for your industry. If you think this may be the case, look up job specs, CVs, and the profiles of people who do your role. Pick out the standard terminology and add it to your resume and profile. Include acronyms and long-text. Include acronyms or abbreviations and be sure to also spell them out in full. You don’t know which version the recruiter/ employer will enter into their search criteria, so it’s best to have all bases covered. Repetition. Search software not only indexes the presence of keywords but also the frequency. The software determines that the more times the same keyword is identified, the more experience that candidate has in that area. Then, CVs rich in that keyword will return as more relevant in the search results, appearing closer to the top. Therefore, don’t be afraid to repeat your keywords. Use the personal profile to highlight your skills, qualifications, experience, and accomplishments and to get an extra keyword count in. Now you have your comprehensive, killer keywords all indexed correctly and you’re coming up in plenty of searches. The next stumbling block we see all too often is the absence of contact details. What contact details should I include on my CV and LinkedIn profile? As a minimum, include your name, email address or contact number, and where you live. If you make yourself easy to contact, then you will be contacted more often. Remember, whatever time it takes for a recruiter to get hold of you is time your competitors are being submitted for the job you may want. Why do I need to include my address on my CV? It may not seem important in the current workspace to include your postcode. And you may think that by excluding it you will be considered for all roles. But, some roles are still geographically dependent. When we search for candidates for these roles, we add a radius criterion to the search. For example, we may only want candidates within a twenty miles radius of our client’s office. If you have no address details on your CV it doesn’t mean that you will come up in all searches, it means that for all the searches that include a geographical radius element, you will come up in none. Your perfect role could be a couple of minutes down the road from you, and without your postcode on your CV you may never know. Is there anything else I can do to stand out against all the other CVs? Thousands of recruiters and employers are running searches on CV-Library and LinkedIn every day. Every working minute, candidates found on these platforms are being contacted for roles. Many are roles that haven’t been advertised yet. My final tip, to give yourself the best chance against your competition, is to keep your profile and CV fully up to-date and complete. Imagine finishing a training course one day, updating your resume in the evening, and being contacted for an exciting opportunity the following morning by someone who just happens to need your new set of skills. The sooner you update your CV the sooner you leave the competition behind. Get help from the experts. Once you have made your changes, send your optimised CV to ccolley@planningrecruitment.com with ‘Optimise’ in the subject line and the team at Planning Recruitment will happily run your new & improved Architectural CV through our database and let you know how visible you are in searches. Final Thoughts. Employers reportedly spend an average of eight seconds reviewing a CV. Whilst this review-time is longer for Recruitment Consultants, they are still sifting through hundreds of resumes at a time. Help yourself to be found by following the tips above. Because, once you have your descriptive, well indexed, up-to-date CV and LinkedIn profile, you should be able to just sit back and relax as employers, recruiters, and opportunity comes knocking at your door.
We’re seeing more conversations, more interviews and more hesitation. This isn’t about blame, it’s about clarity. A cautious market needs clearer conversations from candidates, employers, and recruiters alike.
A great portfolio won’t save a weak CV, and a great CV won’t save a weak portfolio. This week alone, we’ve seen some incredibly strong designers held back by avoidable basics: • CVs that list software but don’t explain how it’s been used on real projects • Portfolios with beautiful imagery, yet no context such as role, stage of project, or responsibility, • Applications that don’t align with the CV and portfolio (job titles, dates, or project scope don’t match). Your CV tells us what you’ve done. Your portfolio shows us how well you’ve done it. Studios expect both to work together, not compete. If you’re actively looking, it’s worth spending the extra hour tightening both. It genuinely makes the difference between “interesting” and “let’s interview”. If you want a 2nd opinion, feel free to reach out to me with both! ccolley@planningrecruitment.com #arc h itecturejobs #interiordesignjobs #architectlife #designcareers #recruitmentinsight
By Kirsty Sibbald A comment a candidate made in a recent conversation has been playing on my mind. When speaking about how their search has been going outside of our efforts, they advised they were applying to what they can see on LinkedIn but not bothering with some as they had hundreds of applications. It got me thinking, hundreds? We get a lot of applications yes, but hundreds? Rarely. But they were right, many adverts do show as "over 100 applicants" including jobs we have advertised. But what applicants don't know is that the number of applicants sent to the job poster is often much less, therefore, there is less competition than LinkedIn suggests! As an example one job we posted on LinkedIn stated there were over 100 applicants, but in reality, I only received 74 of those. LinkedIn auto-archives candidates who don't meet the essential job criteria such as holding the required UK work visa. If you see a job you want to apply to and have the relevant experience, DO NOT let the number you see on here put you off applying, because you can bet that number is significantly less. I see EVERY application. We can't respond to all, but if your application is a strong fit, we will ALWAYS follow up.
​In today’s society everyone has access to Social Media posting their life online. Any comment, opinion, picture or video shared reflects on you as a person and can be easily found by current and future employers. Companies will employ a search online as part of their screening process and any remark made in the heat of the moment might come back to haunt you. Ensure that there is no adverse information about you online. ​​Follow these tips below. ​Clean up your act. What to do if you have bad press? Removed all negative statements, videos or pictures from any social media. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Flickr, forums, company websites etc… (Usually they allow you to delete or hide comments. If not, contact the service provider and ask for the information to be removed). If you have been tagged in any pictures or conversations that you would not want public, ask the person who posted it to remove the tag. Ensure your privacy settings are positioned to the strictest level i.e. only friends and family. Paint the right picture How do you want to be seen? The right public profile will support you in your future growth, so nurture how you are seen. Only post positive remarks Always think twice about what you write or authorise to be seen. Pictures/Videos - Would you be happy to show them to work colleagues? Comments would you say them to your employer? Add statements that demonstrate your experience, knowledge and insight into the industry. Timing – Avoid posting in core working hours. Often sites will time/date stamp. Status – How do you want people to perceive you? Recommendations – Only asked for referrals when you have performed a good job and ensure it is from senior management. A peer adding a recommendation will only dilute what you have done, rather than carry weight. Don’t be upset with a person if they decline to recommend you. Sometimes this can be their company policy or perhaps concern about their ‘public face’. Think about what groups you are in or what your interests say about you? Schmoose, Network, Interact Proactively give intelligent, well thought views of the industry. Channels to utilise could include to tweet, update status, comment on industry articles (such as BD online), blog, forums etc… Pursue recommendations – you will not get them unless you ask Link to influential people in your industry Be associated with all major industry events 5. Key Points Protect your reputation Keep up to date with what is being disclosed about you and act accordingly. Only reflect information in a professional and intellectual manner. Become someone who’s views, comments and opinions count and are sought after. Above all use Social Media to sell you. Agency Representation When you are ready to move jobs the agency(s) selected to represent you is crucial to how you’re perceived in the marketplace. If you register with a number of agencies you run the risk of your CV being sent to the same client on a number of occasions. This only reflects desperation and often a client will disregard your application to avoid a dispute over which agency has ownership. Select one agency to take you professionally to marketplace in the outset. You can always expand this to 3 agencies after a few weeks if you are not getting the desired outcome. You should have:- Control over who is being approached on your behalf. Trust that an expert is representing you A strong relationship your agent 
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Interviews are structured conversations through which the recruiter is trying to find out if you are a suitable candidate for the role and the organisation. As such they form an extremely important part of any job application process. Whatever other methods are being used to select candidates, recruiters always ask applicants to attend an interview before a job is offered. ​Central to the interviewing process is the employers’ need to answer 3 key questions: Can you do the job? Will you love doing the job? Will you fit in? The interview is a two-way process and so ideally, these are questions you should also be asking of yourself to help you decide whether or not to take the job if it is offered to you. This blog will show you how to prepare for and handle job interviews confidently and boost your chances of getting the job you want. In particular, we will be looking at: The main types of interview that you may encounter Getting ready for the interview – preparation is the key Examples of typical questions and how to be ready for them Important “Do’s and Don’ts” for good interview tech nique ​The main types of interview Panel interviews: Employers conduct panel interviews, whereby a number of recruiters interview together. Panels may consist of only two people but can constitute as many as four or more. The secret here is to remain as relaxed as possible and try to include all of the panel members when replying to questions. Technical interviews: these may include very specific questions relating to knowledge of a particular area of Architecture, UK Building Regulations or CAD, for example. The emphasis is likely to be upon exploring factual knowledge. Thorough preparation is needed. Technical interviews could include taking tests as well. Telephone interviews: these are used in the early stages of an application process but could occur at any point. As the name suggests, they are conducted over the telephone but in most respects can follow the format of a standard interview so prepare well beforehand. Remember, that, as you cannot see the interviewer, it is important to speak very clearly and ensure that you make or take the call in a place where you will not be disturbed. You can also prepare simple notes to use during the discussion. Mind maps work well as they allow for your thoughts to be organised clearly and concisely. Getting ready for the interview “If you fail to plan you plan to fail!” Good preparation is absolutely essential for any interview and there are some steps you can take to get ready for the big day: First – do your research & prepare Read material on the company website. Find out if the company has been in the news recently and why. Check out the company / organisations’ website, broadsheet newspapers, relevant professional journals and professional bodies. Useful information to find out about includes projects and services, turnover, locations of offices, history and culture of the company. Review your application. Think about why you want the job and how your skills, knowledge and experience match against the requirements of the job. That is to say, what can you offer the employer? Prepare your portfolio to reflect your best and most relevant work at the front. The best presentation you will ever give is about your work. How are you going to present it? What you are going to say about each example? How are you going to sell your soft skills such as communication, leadership & management etc..? Start to prepare some questions you could ask at the interview – it is highly likely that you will be given the opportunity and it is important to have something to say here. Asking questions creates a favourable impression and will enable you to understand more about the role. If the interview involves a CAD test, ensure you practice your skills beforehand. Re-read your CV to remind yourself of dates and details to discuss. Second – don’t overlook the basics. Make sure you know where you are going It seems obvious but make sure you plan out your journey in advance and allow sufficient time to reach your destination without getting flustered. Late arrival can convey a very poor impression! If any problems occur during the journey to the interview and you may be running late, telephone the employer to let them know of the problem. Do not arrive late without letting the employer know first! By arriving a little early you can get some of the sense of what the organisation is like, relax and concentrate on mental preparation for the interview. Try not to arrive too early as this could increase any feelings of anxiety. Third – dress code What you wear and how you look are essential elements to whether an interviewer gains good first impression of you. This means you need to invest time in making sure you look good. Check company websites for information on what to wear. If in doubt you could always ask. Try to wear something that you feel comfortable in and that gives you confidence. Dress: a suit is generally acceptable. Preferably this should be worn with a shirt and tie (men) or a shirt / smart top (women). Make sure your shoes are well polished! Presentation: a well groomed look is important. Hair should be neat and if your hair is long, it should be tied back if you know you might be tempted to fiddle with it during the interview. Jewellery: try and avoid large, conspicuous earrings, rings, necklaces or bracelets. Piercing and tattoos: if you do have any facial piercing(s) – choose a stud that is neat. We suggest tattoos should be covered. Make-up: keep it simple – nothing too strong or overpowering. Likewise, avoid strong fragrances as these can elicit emotional responses which may not always be positive. During the interview Body language Body language (sometimes referred to as non-verbal communication) is very important. The way you come into the interview room, shake hands and the way you sit can suggest interest, confidence, nerves or even boredom. An open stance i.e. not crossing legs or arms, leaning forward to indicate interest is considered the best approach. Smiling is essential in striking up and maintaining rapport with the interviewers throughout an interview. It conveys confidence and may help you to not look like a victim! Be careful of waving your hands around too much. Eye contact Good eye contact is an excellent way of conveying your interest in the job. Looking down, or at anything other than the interviewer, can make you appear disinterested or insincere. Maintaining good eye contact can help you gauge the interviewer’s reaction to what you are saying (to see whether you should be expanding on your answer or winding your answer up). With panel interviews, the best advice is to look at and answer the person asking the question, with a glance from time to time at the other interviewers to include them in your reply. Show confidence This is often easier said than done, we know, and it is natural that you should feel nervous. However, you need to show you can manage any anxiety. If an employer is looking for someone who can cope with pressure then the interview is a good guide for them. Don’t go to the other extreme and seem too laid back, act naturally as employers are looking for individuals, not clones, so there is no one way to get it right. You may be required to shake hands with your interviewer either at the beginning or end of your interview. A confident handshake is one way to create a favourable impression so if you are unused to shaking hands, a practice run with a friend is recommended. Have questions to ask the interviewers What do you think will be the major challenges facing this company over the next 3 years? What role would I be expected to play in the first team I am assigned to? Money Discussing Money at an interview can be a delicate conversation. You want the job, but with the right package. What salary you say at interview is often the salary clients expect to pay and negotiation is difficult after that point. Undersell yourself will result in a low offer and oversell could mean no offer at all, as you’re automatically priced out of the job. The interview should be focused on your skills, abilities and desire to do the job, but hey you are under pressure and the interviewer wants an answer, Here are a couple of options: Let the recruitment agency deal with money and point the interview back to them. Give a salary range - ensuring you will accept the lowest figure if offered! Ask the interviewer "based on my skills and abilities where would I fit in your salary structure" Disability disclosure The decision whether to disclose a disability to an employer is often a personal one and may be based on a number of factors such as the nature of the disability and the demands of the role being applied for. Disabilities can be disclosed before, during or sometimes even after interviews but may also be disclosed during parts of the application process. Decisions about this are largely a matter of judgment. If disclosing disabilities, always do so in a very positive manner, explaining any assistance that may be needed. It is important to answer any direct questions from the employer fully and honestly. Feedback Seek feedback from the employer if you are unsuccessful – it will enable you to address any weaker areas and build on your strengths to help you to perform more effectively at your next interview. ​ After the interview Be aware of your surroundings. Do not light up a cigarette or vape near the office or in the car park, you do not know who is watching you. Do not call someone and talk about the interview until you are clearly away from the building, you do not know who is listening. Call your Agent. As soon as you are in a position where you can talk call Planning Recruitment for a full debrief. This demonstrates interest in the job and we will want to hear from you before speaking with the client on our scheduled call. Finally some ‘Do’s and Don’ts’ to help you when preparing for interviews Do: Make sure you have done your research before the day. Be able to explain why you want the job. The employer is likely to ask. Be able to explain convincingly what you can offer the company in terms of your skills, attributes and experience. Think about some of the strategies you would use in response to competency based and similar questions. Make sure you have examples of evidence you can quote in support of your claims. Provide evidence for your answers from all aspects of your life – degree, employment history, interests, clubs and societies, positions of responsibility. Spread your answers around! Be prepared to talk positively about previous employers and why you left. Don’t: Make false claims regarding your ability; don’t exaggerate your role in a team or claim an ‘amazing’ ability to do something. Indulge in flattering the reader about their organisation e.g. ‘I want to work for the number one Architectural Practice in Europe’. Sit in silence. If you don’t understand a question ask for it to be clarified. Interrupt the interviewer(s). Talk negatively about a previous employer. 
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Avoid common resume mistakes that put you out of the race before it even begins. What’s that old saying? “Opportunities don’t come knocking on the door?” Well, in today’s world of e-recruitment, that may not strictly be true. With the likes of LinkedIn, CV-Library, BD4Jobs, and Archinect at our fingertips, it is now easier than ever to make yourself available to recruiters and employers who will bring opportunities to you. But are you making yourself seen above and beyond the competition and to the right people? Claire Colley, Director & Founder of Planning Recruitment specialists in Architecture and Interior Design Recruitment, draws upon her 20+ years of experience recruiting for the Design industry, and gives her advice on how to be seen, in the enduring post-lockdown workscape of e-recruitment. This blog will highlight the common mistakes job seekers make when marketing themselves online and teaches you how to optimise your CV ensuring you are seen every time by specialist recruiters with the best opportunities. What does the post-lockdown work world look like now? It’s unprecedented. In the twenty years I have worked in the architectural recruitment industry, I have never seen anything like it. Employers and candidates have opportunities available to them like never before. With hybrid and remote working, and virtual interviewing and onboarding, it is now perfectly feasible to work for a company outside of your normal commutable area, without having to relocate. Which means that when candidates search online for jobs, the opportunities that are returned to them are more varied, wider reaching, and more abundant than ever before. But the opposite is also true. For each position available, candidates are no longer just competing with those qualified for the role who live in the area or will relocate. The competing talent pool is now national, global even. Therein lies a new challenge for those searching for their dream job. How can they stand out in a seemingly infinite pool of qualified candidates? To answer that, it’s important to understand how employers and recruiters find suitable candidates. How do employers and recruiters search for candidates? Popular e-recruitment platforms like LinkedIn, CV-Library, Indeed, BD4jobs in the UK, and Archinect in the US, enable recruiters and employers to search thousands of resumes almost instantly. It’s an incredible advancement compared to when I started in architectural recruitment in 2001 – I remember when we used to fax CVs to our clients! As recruiters, we have gone from having a respectable but comparatively limited pool of active registered candidates to, today, having hundreds of potentially suitable candidates for each role. In an industry where reactivity, quality and speed are critical, we need an efficient way to sift out unsuitable candidates in favour of those that meet the role and client requirements. That’s where Boolean search comes in. What is Boolean search? All recruitment agencies, job boards, CV search engines, and even client online portals use Boolean search. It is a rule-based search structure that enables us to pinpoint only those resumes with the very specific set of skills, experience, and qualifications that match the role. CV search engines are great, but there is a caveat. As with most technology, the output is entirely dependent on the input. Boolean search is completely reliant on effective and quality keyword indexing and we are seeing an increasing number of candidates with the right skills and right experience for jobs, being overlooked because of simple errors they are making when uploading their CVs or creating their LinkedIn profiles. It means that they just aren’t coming up in searches, even for roles they would be perfect for. How can people give their CVs the best chance of being found? CV search engine software scans your resume for keywords. If your keywords cannot be indexed or are absent, then you will not come up in searches and you will miss out on potentially great opportunities. The first thing to check, and the issue we see coming up the most with architectural and creative professional’s CVs, is the file format. If the search software cannot scan your CV file, then it cannot index your skills and experience. Your resume is essentially invisible.” What format is best for a CV upload? Search software can struggle to scan CVs that: Are in a PDF format. Have imagery on. Are password-protected. I recommend that you produce your CV as a Word document and upload a password-free, picture-free version. You can send us your PDF format with your project images on, as this is the format that we will use when presenting you to clients. Our best candidates have both versions. As a rule: think PDFs and pictures for people, but a simple Word format for software. Keywords tips for CVs. In a system designed around keyword search, they’ll be no surprise that my next tip is get your keywords right. Be descriptive and detailed. The more descriptive words you have on your resume or profile, the more chances you have of appearing in employer and recruiter searches for relevant positions. Make sure your CV and profile are a detailed representation of you describing your experience, responsibilities, and achievements for all the projects you’ve worked on. Include the sectors you’ve worked in, and what roles you’ve played at what stages. Make sure your keywords comprehensively describe your relevant skills, qualifications, training courses attended, and software and applications you’ve used. Include your previous job titles, how you describe yourself, and what your key, soft and core skills are. Make sure your keywords are spelt correctly. A human can determine what you meant despite your misspelling, but software will simply ignore it and eliminate you from searches that you should have been in. Use standardised terminology. You may have worked in companies who used non-standard language for your industry. If you think this may be the case, look up job specs, CVs, and the profiles of people who do your role. Pick out the standard terminology and add it to your resume and profile. Include acronyms and long-text. Include acronyms or abbreviations and be sure to also spell them out in full. You don’t know which version the recruiter/ employer will enter into their search criteria, so it’s best to have all bases covered. Repetition. Search software not only indexes the presence of keywords but also the frequency. The software determines that the more times the same keyword is identified, the more experience that candidate has in that area. Then, CVs rich in that keyword will return as more relevant in the search results, appearing closer to the top. Therefore, don’t be afraid to repeat your keywords. Use the personal profile to highlight your skills, qualifications, experience, and accomplishments and to get an extra keyword count in. Now you have your comprehensive, killer keywords all indexed correctly and you’re coming up in plenty of searches. The next stumbling block we see all too often is the absence of contact details. What contact details should I include on my CV and LinkedIn profile? As a minimum, include your name, email address or contact number, and where you live. If you make yourself easy to contact, then you will be contacted more often. Remember, whatever time it takes for a recruiter to get hold of you is time your competitors are being submitted for the job you may want. Why do I need to include my address on my CV? It may not seem important in the current workspace to include your postcode. And you may think that by excluding it you will be considered for all roles. But, some roles are still geographically dependent. When we search for candidates for these roles, we add a radius criterion to the search. For example, we may only want candidates within a twenty miles radius of our client’s office. If you have no address details on your CV it doesn’t mean that you will come up in all searches, it means that for all the searches that include a geographical radius element, you will come up in none. Your perfect role could be a couple of minutes down the road from you, and without your postcode on your CV you may never know. Is there anything else I can do to stand out against all the other CVs? Thousands of recruiters and employers are running searches on CV-Library and LinkedIn every day. Every working minute, candidates found on these platforms are being contacted for roles. Many are roles that haven’t been advertised yet. My final tip, to give yourself the best chance against your competition, is to keep your profile and CV fully up to-date and complete. Imagine finishing a training course one day, updating your resume in the evening, and being contacted for an exciting opportunity the following morning by someone who just happens to need your new set of skills. The sooner you update your CV the sooner you leave the competition behind. Get help from the experts. Once you have made your changes, send your optimised CV to ccolley@planningrecruitment.com with ‘Optimise’ in the subject line and the team at Planning Recruitment will happily run your new & improved Architectural CV through our database and let you know how visible you are in searches. Final Thoughts. Employers reportedly spend an average of eight seconds reviewing a CV. Whilst this review-time is longer for Recruitment Consultants, they are still sifting through hundreds of resumes at a time. Help yourself to be found by following the tips above. Because, once you have your descriptive, well indexed, up-to-date CV and LinkedIn profile, you should be able to just sit back and relax as employers, recruiters, and opportunity comes knocking at your door.
