spring clean your cv

I like it when the daffodils are blooming, and the blossom is covering the trees. It seems to awaken the "spring cleaning" gene that's usually buried deep. But luckily spring cleaning doesn't have to be just about de-junking those piles of "stuff" that have accumulated over the past few months. It's also a time to think about new opportunities - and start to make them happen.

Your CV is a lot like the computer you wrote it on: it is proficient enough, but will be out-of-date within a year. Because the world of business is so rapidly changing, your CV, just like your PC, needs to be upgraded regularly in order to meet its newest demands. And if the basic model is too old-fashioned to cope with the upgrades, it’s best to throw it out and get a new one, with all the latest new-fangled additions.

Making the decision to have a radical CV overhaul is the easy part. Knowing where to start is slightly more difficult. Do you begin with the skills you most recently attained, or with your fifteen-year-old exam grades?

The answer is: neither. Because before you rebound into writing your next CV, you are going to create a personal Career Data Bank. This stockpile of skills will act as a stepping stone between CVs, which you can add to as your career and CV requirements change.

Creating your Career Data Bank

You can now do this online, in a format that you can reuse again and again. Get your i-portfolio at www.iviva.com and you've got a permanent record that you can access from anywhere, and easily add to.

• On a piece of paper, begin a brainstorm, in whichever format you like. Scribble down, using your last CV only as a reminder, the:
• skills
• attitudes
• knowledge

that you have acquired or used at work.

• With each skill you note down, remember to include examples of its use, and the results this use yielded. Be indiscriminate. Throw anything down that you think a prospective employer may find relevant.

• When the time comes to apply for new jobs, this will be your one-stop-shop for CV renovations. From your Career Data Bank, you will be able to pick and mix from your collected skills, attitudes and knowledge in order to create a focussed profile that will match the job’s candidate specifications.

• Do this now, even if you’re not looking for a new job. If you do, it will be much quicker to create focussed CVs in the future - and speedy CVs are vital if you stumble across a job opportunity close to the closing date.

Leap into your future (UK)

COMPETITION

Striding Out is looking for ten young dynamic people
....with fresh, unique, high growth business ideas,
...who are ready to take the leap and turn their idea into a reality!

The Big Leap competition aims to energize and prepare ten young entrepreneurs ready for business. The participants are taken on a six-month journey to turn their idea into a reality with the help of a package of support, including interactive training, one to one coaching and a network of peers. The training is to be held in the comprehensive Business and IP Centre at The British Library.

At the end of the six months, the participants will create a comprehensive and professional business plan. The plans are submitted for judging and the three finalists with the most impressive plan will be put forward to investors.

Last year's winner, Cath Conway described the experience as "Fantastic. The sessions were very interesting and all the topics are essential for our business plan" She has also found it as a good place to network and has build friendships with other participants, as they share their ideas and are able to help each other. "We're quite lucky being in the Big Leap Competition, because we are able to interact with the professional advisors and get more in-depth information". Cath has gone on to secure investment readiness support from Trapezia Capital through the competition.

The Competition is kindly sponsored by The British Library and UK Skills, organiser of the Skills Challenge - the UK's premier set of skills competitions for students, trainees and employees. Registration is open until 16th March 2007, and the competition runs from March to September 2007.

For more information please visit:

www.stridingout.co.uk/competition.php

tips for memorising pins

So how do remember the increasing PIN numbers and numeric passwords that are now part of our everyday lives?

Create a sentence in which each word has the same number of letters as the number to be recalled.

So, to remember 413563:

Have (4) a (1) hot (3) curry (5) before (6) tea(3)