Skills Matrix??? help

[sybrows]

Hi all

I am having a busy day of finding new employment and have found the ideal role which is via an agency in the London

Junior 1st/2nd Line Technical Engineer

I have mailed over my CV and the agent is interested but wants me to put together a skills matrix .... I have a viable amount of skills for the role but how to catagorise them ....he has asked for a matrix on a scale of 1-5 for each bit (discipline)....

a few Q's?:

How to catagorize it ......what headings do i include???

Do I embellish each one or save it till the end and then surmise the lot ???

Do I aim it at the job description (as this is an agency) or do the lot ?


Any advice would be mucho appreciated

Cheers panickingly

BrOw

[b0redom]

Best off asking them directly - give em a call. Agencies all suck tbh. It's likely that their end customer has requested that they do this, and they can't be bothered, so they passed it on to you.

Tom

[sybrows]

I hear ya. the guy is lazy but tbh it may have been the layout of my CV. I want it to show the things I am profficient in but at the same time show that it is a junior role and want to learn on the job and try to achieve my long term goals etc


Si

[b0redom]

Probably best to tailor direct to the vacancy and then at the bottom, put - I also have skills in ............ blah blah blah

Having been on both ends of the process - hiring and being hired, it's how you come across at interview providing you tick all the technical boxes.

Tom

[sybrows]

I just really want to get to the interview as this role is right up my street...I am just not happy with the setup here though as I am giving a numbered credit to things which are v tricky and I don't feel as if it is giving a good example of what was done to achieve the number and also how much I know is left to learn to gain a 5 on the BrOwey scale !!!! lol

[chicken]

Aim it somewhat at them, you don't want it to look like you're sole interests just happen to match the job 100% but you also don't want to be diluting your key skills with things like "I can keep a hackey-sack in the air for 15 minutes"

I did a matrix of "Skill, Last Used, Experience" for example "MS Office, Currently Used, 10+ Years" for my CV.

[sybrows]

Well I just called the guy to try and glean exactly what kind of level of depth he would like me to go into ??.(you can imagine starting to explain your level of proficiency in virtual smtp mail protocols and dhcp forward and backward lookup zones in this document [thats what i was doing]) and he sounded very simplistic about it all ( he is an agent I know) but he just said I should give a rundown of the main points ...but still i'm thinkin that if employers are looking for these key skill areas it is quite an important factor to get it right!

ah well I have to email it over to him by the morrow morn, hopefully all goes well!!!!

btw any other tips or anything are much appreciated as this is quite a cushdie job if I get it...

cheers again

Si

[b0redom]

Sort out your grammar and spelling ;-) Also don't worry if you don't get it - it'll be good experience for your next interview.

Spam all of the agencies to death - I recently wrote something in PERL which autospams all of the agencies with my CV. Got to love that napalm approach!

Good luck!

Tom

[Taz]

I agree with some of the other comments.

We have to maintain a skills matrix annually at my company and also a professional CV. Here's an example template off the top of my head:

Communications Skills
- Written
- Languages
- Presentation
- Training
- Motivation
- etc.

Technical Skills
- Networking
- Operating Systems
- Applications
- Web
- Databases
- CRM
- Troubleshooting
- etc.

Business Skills
- Management
- Sales
- Presales

I hope you get the idea. Be realistic. On a scale of 1-5, 1 could mean you've heard of the subject, 5 could mean you're a leading authority on the subject (eg. have published books/interviews to the media/research fellow).

Break each area down into specifics (eg. Technical Skill-->Applications could include MS Office, Photoshop, payroll packages etc, Networking could include TCP/IP, SNA, routers (hardware), etc.).

It's better to be concise, specific and anecdotal as this means more to a potential emploer than a general score with nothing to back it up. Converesly, too much detail into a specific area will mean little to someone reading your CV/skills matrix if they don't understand the subject.

I see a lot of CV's for my company and most are massively embellished. We actually take up references and check out qualifications. Around 30% of applicants don't actually have the qualifications that they state on their CV's (in my experience).

As has already been said: ensure that your spelling and grammar are 100% accurate. There is nothing worse than reading a CV in txt speak! Also, it's very tacky to include a mobile number (unless this cannot be avoided). Always use a landline on your CV (where possible) and provide a mobile number at your interview.

We rate people skills as highly as technical skills. Most technical skills can actually be learnt but it's more difficult to learn people skills!