It’s really important to be well-prepared for an upcoming job interview, but how can you prepare if you have no idea what you’re going to be asked? While we’re not psychic, we do have a pretty good idea of what most employers are trying to find out during the interview process. Employers will tend to focus on how you can benefit their company, so be sure to include this as a main theme within your answers.

We’ve gone to three of our departments and asked our experienced managers what they like to test applicants on. So, if you’re looking for a career in sales, customer service or administration, have a look at these possible questions that could crop up to test your knowledge:

• Sales Manager

Why do you think you would be an asset to this business?

Your in-depth knowledge of the business could come in handy here. Stay positive and focus your specific skill set to the company’s current aims or needs as well as what the job role will expect of you.

Why should you be chosen over the next candidate?

Focus on what sets you apart from others rather than repeating the answer to the previous question. Although you don’t necessarily know the other candidates, try to include unique qualities about yourself.

Why do you want to work here?

Try to be specific; focusing on why this company is unique to others you may have applied to. Have they had a recent marketing campaign that inspires you or can you see an area of improvement that you think you would be perfect to handle?

• Client Response Manager

What do you think you’d bring to this company?

Relate your answer to the specific job role and industry. Working in customer service, you need to focus on your ‘people skills’ i.e. good communication, friendly and much more. Focus on your past experience and personality.

We’re seeing candidates with quite similar skills, what puts you above the rest?

Focus on your unique skill set and potentially include real life examples of how you’ve demonstrated the exact skills you’re listing.

What were your targets at your last role?

Not all roles will involve specific targets so if not, focus on targets that you would set yourself and strive to complete. This will show off your conscientious personality and ability to work on your own initiative.

• Office Manager

What do you want to do and achieve in your next role?

This can be a really tricky question if you haven’t prepared beforehand. If this is an entry level role, you can discuss how you want to implement the knowledge you learnt throughout education into real life situations and further your experience within the industry. Or, if this is a step up the career ladder describe what career path you want to make for yourself and how you want to keep developing and learning new skills.

What parts of your job do you like and would want to continue doing in your next role?

Think about key skills here, did you enjoy the responsibility of making your own decisions or working within a team?

How would your boss and friends describe you?

Ask them, but maybe twist their words slightly to ensure you create the best impression. “Lively” or “energetic” could create worries that you’re going to be too chatty and unfocused, whereas “organised” and “friendly” can sometimes be too general.

What does it take to make a good <insert job title>?

This is why it’s important to know the job specification like the back of your hand! Try to explain why each skill would benefit the work listed within the job role.

Interviewers can ask any question they like, so unfortunately, you can never be fully prepared. However, practising the answers with a friend or family member beforehand will help you to impress with your responses.

For more CV, application and interview advice, visit our Career Centre.

Comparing January – March 2013 with the previous three months, the number of people in work has fallen by 43,000 to 29.71 million with the employment rate now standing at 71.4%, according to ONS.

This fall contrasts the number of job vacancies available, with February – April 2013 findings showing that the number of jobs advertised reached its highest since December 2008. This finding falls in line with our own.

Comparing January 2012 to January 2013 statistics, we saw an increase of nearly 1,400 more jobs listed on our site while the total number of job applications has increased by over 127%.

Source: Office for National Statistics

Every school is different, but the majority of them have very similar structures and timetables. The teacher usually reaches school between 7.30 and 8.00 am and makes sure all preparation is done for the day’s lessons. This includes photocopying pages, marking work and completing lesson plans. Teachers have a responsibility of care for their young students; therefore they cannot leave a classroom with students in if they are the only adult, as they most often are. Because of this it is vital that actions such as using the toilet and gathering classroom stationary are done before the class arrive!

Registration takes place around 8.30am, and depending on the age of the child, parents may turn up with them with queries for the teacher. The teacher often has to handle answering questions from parents at the same time as supervising the class, which can be quite a struggle at times. Once registration is underway the students are marked as being present and receive any important information, which is usually in the form of letters.

Lessons will kick off around 9am, and depending on the structure of the school, the teacher will either remain in their designated class or be allocated different classes throughout the day. Whatever the room, it is important that the teacher has the correct work with them in order to run effective lessons. Time keeping during lessons is essential. In most schools a bell will sound to mark the beginning or end of a lesson; however teachers must plan the time inside these bell rings well to maintain considerable learning is achieved.

Lessons continue throughout the morning with a short break at approximately 10.30am. Teachers are often on duty during this time, meaning that they are supervising the children in the playground. When they are off duty, their time is usually spent catching up from the morning’s lessons and packing away classrooms. More lessons follow after break time, and before they know it, the lunch bell rings.

Lunches take place at around 12.30pm for no longer than an hour and are usually spent organising the afternoon’s classes, with a quick bite to eat when possible. They will occasionally be in charge of looking after the students who have been kept in for detention, or helping with lunchtime activities. Every now and then when the workload reduces teachers get the luxury of sitting with their colleagues in the staffroom for most of lunch. Once the lunch hour is over, there are usually no more breaks in lesson time until the end of the day. The school day normally ends at 3pm and if the children are younger the teacher is responsible for taking them outside to meet parents.

Once the last parents have collected their children, the working day is not over for the teacher. They will spend time planning lessons for the next day and marking work from previous days. In addition, meetings and after school clubs are held which often need teachers’ attendance. Teachers will often go home well after 5pm, and continue working late into the evening and even at weekends.

Whilst teaching jobs use up a large amount of a teacher’s time, the work is immensely satisfying. Teachers get used to a fast paced environment, with days that fly by. If you feel teaching is for you but you have no experience, view our teaching assistant roles which will give you a head start in the teaching industry.

• Overview of a Day in the Life of a Teacher

07:30 – Arrive at the school
08:00 – Prepare for the day’s lessons
08:30 – Registration
09:00 – Morning lessons begin
10:30 – Short break
10:45 – Mid-morning lessons
12:30 – Lunch break
13.30 – Afternoon lessons
15:00 – Home time (for the children)
15:30 – Marking, planning and meetings

For more job tips and advice visit CV-Library’s Career Centre.

TIRA has been attracting some big names and established businesses since it launched in December last year and CV-Library is the latest to do so.

They will join the TIRA team as a sponsor of the project and primary sponsor of TIRA’s Recruiter TV channel alongside APSCo and Smart Recruit Online.

The TIRA team will be working alongside Amanda le Gros, CV-Library’s Marketing Executive and Lee Biggins, Managing Director, who will be contributing to the monthly bulletin.

Content marketing continues to be the fastest growing trend in marketing circles and the TIRA team of 10 experts and guest contributors are attempting to position themselves as the ‘go to’ community for free expert advice, delivered through a series of monthly educational articles and online workshops.

Mark Stephens, the founder of TIRA and a founding partner at the F10 Group said of the new alliance with CV-Library: “the addition of CV-Library is reflective of the ambitions we have to work in partnership with the industries’ leading organisations to create a ‘free to access’ recruitment community that is dedicated to the generation of educational content, practical advice and useful free services that are relevant to both in house and agency recruitment. We will continue to focus our efforts on topics such as recruitment strategy, marketing, PR, social media, branding and of course, technology.

“CV-Library is one of the most proactive companies operating in the recruitment space and its ability and understanding of the market have enabled significant growth in recent years. They have a lot of knowledge and experience to share and their own dedicated audience that we can reach out to. In my meetings with Amanda and Lee it was evident that they totally get what we are doing and our combined efforts will be beneficial to both parties.”

Lee Biggins also commented on the new alliance saying: “we’re pleased to announce our new relationship with the Technology In Recruitment Alliance. Supporting TIRA alongside some of the other leading service providers is a positive step for the recruitment industry and their free to access community will provide recruiters and employers with another great resource for expert knowledge and insights. Moving forward it’s important for the industry to work together to share what we’ve learnt, and ultimately support and educate growing businesses with the services we offer.”

The TIRA alliance consists of 10 resident experts, 16 company sponsors and more than 60 industry leaders in their Ask An Expert feature panel.

You can access the TIRA community here.

There is much debate about the definition of the cloud.

Put simply, cloud computing is hardware and software resources that are delivered as a service over an internet-based network.

Remote services are entrusted with a user’s data and software, and users are given access to application software and databases.

In The Learning People’s case, this access is granted through a web browser, but other cloud applications can also be accessed through a mobile app.

Ultimately, the underlying principles of cloud computing is converged infrastructure and united services.

So what are the benefits?

• Applications are centrally hosted, meaning updates can be released without users being required to install new software.

• 24-7 access to all data.

This means that a user has unlimited time accessing assignments, resources, and projects from a variety of locations.

In a company environment, this encourages more diverse, and therefore often more fruitful collaborative approaches.

• Another benefit of cloud-based products is that they make sharing, real-time association, viewing, and joint editing of different media projects, possible and engaging.

As advocates of cloud based learning, The Learning People are able to offer their students continuous access to their learning courses, so that they can study at their own pace, and in their own way with a plethora of Skillsoft resources available to them.

No matter what stage you are at in your search for jobs, seeking career advice will be of great assistance. Whether you are at the start of your job search and looking to spruce up your CV to appeal more to employers, or you have secured an interview and you’re not sure how to prepare appropriately, our Career Centre can offer guidance. We don’t stop at the interview stage; we even offer advice to candidates who have been offered a job opportunity, giving them 5 Top Tips on Your First Day in the workplace along with other useful suggestions.

Are you looking for more specialised graduate information? At CV-Library we are passionate about giving graduates the best job advice possible. This is why we have detailed articles aimed specifically at graduates in our Graduate Tips and Advice section. These pages give graduates advice on the next steps to take, such as; how to organise a CV that may include multiple years of studies but little work experience, and appropriate graduate salaries.

For individuals looking to work in a more hands-on industry, including construction, engineering and property, CV-Library can recommend career advice from Project Resource, specialists in professional recruitment. Project Resource offer a bespoke recruitment service based around their job seekers’ needs, with career advice tailored to the specific job direction of their candidates. Visiting their career advice pages will be of great benefit to you if you are looking for opportunities in commercial management, project controls, design management and design engineering, to name a few.

In brief, sticking with CV-Library will be the best career decision you could make. With access to the best career advice, whether it is on our site or a strong recommendation from us to another site, you are in good hands.

1. If you are in a stable financial position, consider doing an internship.

The majority of large publishing companies offer internships to individuals looking to get into the business. While interns are usually paid very little, if anything, the experience can act as a long term investment – it will significantly boost your chances of finding work afterwards. If the work is unpaid, remember this will not last forever; many publishing professionals started out with unpaid work experience! The experience can act as an invaluable eye-opener to the industry, giving you a greater understanding of key roles inside publishing.

2. Apply for jobs without publishing experience.

In spite of the previous point, while direct experience is a definite plus for any job, do not feel discouraged from attempting to join the industry due to a lack of experience. More often than not, your previous work or academic experiences will have given you transferable skills that will help ease you in to the industry. Any experience in copywriting, proofreading or promoting through social media will be applicable, along with a number of other skills. Make sure you emphasise these similarities you hold and demonstrate that you are aware how they relate to the specific role. Be prepared to start low down the publishing ladder; getting your foot in the door is the best way to climb.

3. Specify an area in publishing that appeals most to you.

For larger companies especially, publishing is split into multiple departments, and it is important that you can distinguish between them and understand the different roles. Departments can include (but are definitely not limited to) Editorial, Sales, Publicity, Finance and Human Resources. For a full list, view the Major Departments in a Publishing House. If you are set on working in a publicity department, make sure you have a basic understanding of the other sectors, and how they all mesh together.

4. Don’t create boundaries for yourself.

The majority of individuals attempting to break into the publishing industry want to work within general or children’s fiction. While there is nothing wrong with having a dream goal, don’t ignore other areas of publishing such as educational writing because of this. Jobs in fictional literature are limited, and it is important to keep your options open. In addition, be aware that the industry changes with the times; digital publishing is flourishing, and with it eBooks, web, audio and video literature are becoming more popular.

5. Make sure you do your research.

When applying for a position, find out the company’s bestselling titles, and if possible, read through some of them. Show that you have a basic understanding of the types of literature they publish and the authors they work with. Showing passion in the product is important, simply stating “I love reading” will not be enough! Be prepared to discuss your favourite books, and what makes them stand out to you. If you can talk passionately about work the company has been responsible for publishing, this will certainly act in your favour.

Searching for publishing jobs? Find hundreds of opportunities here.

CV-Library will be taking over stand 531 in order to meet new businesses, catch up with current clients and demonstrate how we can support the recruitment needs of growing companies. CV-Library’s database of over 6 million CVs is an indispensable resource for many of our current clients, and we are always looking to engage with new businesses. As well as the CV database we will demonstrate the job posting facilities we offer, our dedicated account management and our extra products, including bespoke targeted eShots.

But we’re not content with just manning a stall, CV-Library’s Sales Manager, Mike Powell, is excited to be holding a presentation exploring how job boards can help businesses find the right staff when going through expansion. Mike, who has been CV-Library’s Sales Manager since 2006, is an expert on how job boards can benefit businesses financially as well as saving time during the recruitment process. Mike is eager to share his knowledge with companies looking to grow.

For small businesses, the Business Show is a great event to learn about how to approach the issue of expansion. However, larger businesses shouldn’t be put off; attending the exhibition will be useful for all companies due to the sheer number of businesses with a presence. The exhibition opens networking opportunities like no other, and every business has the potential to learn and improve. Guest speakers include massive business names including Facebook, Ella’s Kitchen and one of BBC’s very own dragons, without forgetting CV-Library!

The exhibition is taking place on Thursday 6^th and Friday 7^th June 2013 at the ExCel, London. Tickets are free of charge but there are only limited spaces available, so complete the online registration form before spaces run out.

View the full list of seminar speakers here. If you attend the exhibition, don’t forget to stop off at stand 531 and say hello to the CV-Library team!

10 Downing Street Publishes IOR Hiring Guide Prime Minister David Cameron’s enterprise adviser Lord Young published his second government report entitled ‘Growing Your Business’ at 10 Downing Street on Monday 13th May. The report highlights how important it is for small businesses to know how to hire effectively. In an attempt to boost employment, Downing Street asked the Institute of Recruiters – IOR – to write a simple guide highlighting 10 essential steps to hiring your first employee, which was published by Downing Street along with Lord Young’s report. At the start of 2012, 95.5% (4.6 million) of private sector businesses in the UK were micro firms (0–9 employees). Micro businesses together accounted for 32% of private sector employment (7.8 million) and 20% of private sector turnover.

Lord Young states in his report: ‘I have engaged extensively with the Institute of Recruiters – IOR – to understand how we can help employers manage these risks effectively and provide the confidence they require to recruit the right people with the right skills. This has resulted in a new guide, Your First Employee – the essential 10 step guide which addresses the confidence and decision-making issues involved in hiring and managing staff.’

The IOR is very clear on its message to business – hiring is a real route to growth. To further promote the concept of ‘hiring to grow a business’ the IOR is now looking to turn the guide’s 10 essential steps into a set of business workshops that it will take around the country, free of charge for employers with the support of other bodies and associations.

Azmat Mohammed, Institute of Recruiters Director General added: “A central theme of the IOR has always been to educate business in the concept that hiring is a route to growth. Our partnership with government on programs such as ‘Business in You’ will help us get this message out to business. The report is also useful for large companies who are sat on a cash pile of £720 billon of funds, not being invested in employment due to a lack of confidence in the economy and growth prospects, which we need to do something about.

“We therefore urge recruiters to get involved in sharing (with their clients and contacts) the concept that hiring is a real route to growth for a business, and growth can be created by instilling confidence in a market. Lord Young’s report is a great tool to share with clients who are not hiring, to help boost their confidence in what they could achieve by using some of their cash reserves to hire for growth.”

Lord Young’s government report entitled ‘Growing your Business’ can be viewed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/growing-your-business-a-report-on-growing-micro-businesses

CV-Library contributed to the IOR’s micro business guide entitled ‘Your First Employee – the essential 10 step guide’ and it can be viewed at: http://www.theior.org.uk/your-first-employee-essential-guide.

CV-Library is an official IOR member and we offer all other members some exclusive discounts, find out more here: http://www.theior.org.uk/cv-library