Antylles was created out of the need to get some great thinkers together to work on some of the world’s most wicked problems in some of the most fragile and/or conflict-affected situations.  We are in essence a curated network of professionals who have come together to share our professional passion and expertise.

Our network spans the globe and our experts come from many different walks of life, so this rough guide has been designed to answer some of your basic questions when considering our firm.

About us

Founded on a handshake, Antylles is a trusted public sector governance and performance advisor to donor and beneficiary governments and international organisations.  We advise civil service leaders, publicly elected leaders, and political, security and donor policy leaders.  We achieve extraordinary results by working cohesively together – along side our clients – to focus on solving the most wicked national public sector and development problems.

The aim of our work is to:

• Improve senior-level decision-making
• Improve the effectiveness of aid and development programmes
• Strengthen local institution’s performance, accountability and transparency
• Empower locally-led service design and delivery

You can read more about us here.

Whom we look for

We are a flat, highly networked, expert-driven public sector management consulting practice.  So to make our business work, we look for exceptional people who can thrive in hyper-dynamic, high-pressure (and sometimes insecure) environments.  While people have many redeeming features, we like to see four attributes in our people:

• “True believers” in development work
• “Trusted advisors” on a mission to learn continuously and generously help others
• “Entrepreneurial spirit” to take ownership of problems and create value for the client
• “A passionate life” outside of work

You can read more about whom we look for here.

The recruitment process

Our recruitment process is pretty straight forward. Depending on the urgency of the recruitment, the process could take as little as 1-2 weeks. Obviously if we are not recruiting for a specific role, the process may take longer while we wait for the next round of interviews for rosters.

1. Submitting an application to us
In order to start the process, just tell us a bit about yourself and copy the text of your CV into our application form.  No need to fill out any templates at this point.

2. Review
The Directors of the firm will review your CV as soon as humanly possible and let you know if we are keen to do an interview.

3. Interview & check references
When the time is right, we will hold an interview to determine your suitability for a particular position and/or for our pool of experts. We will also ask for some professional and personal reference to contact.

5. Deploy or roster
Successful candidates will either deploy or be rostered on our pool of experts, but more on this later.

Important documents and templates you will need during the process

Before we start, it’s worth letting you know what you will need for this process to work for you:

• Now, just get your CV into plain text format (no formatting)
• Now, also identify a professional reference for each recent key role that reflects your expertise
• Later, we’ll ask for a 1 page CV template for the roster
• Later, we’ll also ask for a 1 page functional requirements resume (or a donor specific template) if we are responding to a proposal

Some tips and tricks to help you prepare for the application and interviewing process

Every organisation has its recruiting nuances.  The problem is most organisations play a shell game and expect you to guess what they want to see.  So, to make it a little easier on you, we thought we might share some The tips and tricks for our process:

1. Tips and tricks for submitting your application to Antylles

At this point in the process, we just want to categorise your profile by asking you some simple profiling questions in 2 areas: (1) professional skills and experience, (2) regional experience and language skills.

All you will need to do is complete this step is a copy of your CV (in plain text format). That’s it. No need to email or upload your CV or do up your CV in another template. We’ll ask for that later when we start to get more serious.

2. Tips and tricks for getting your CV short listed

Once we receive your application, we will promptly review it and let you know if we are keen to explore working together and add you to next batch of interviews.  Normally we can get back to you in about 2 weeks depending on our workload.  But just in case we don’t, please do drop us a line at iwanttowork@antylles.com to give us a nudge.

We’ve notice in our careers as consultants there is a metric tonne of advice out there on how to write a CV – some good, some bad.  So here is what we encourage you to consider:

• Make your CV an extension of your personality.  Avoid a boring fact sheet of what you were responsible for, focus instead on what you achieved, what value you created for your boss / client / beneficiary (see here on how to write an achievement-based CV).
• Of course it goes without saying, we need to see that your experience complies or exceeds the requirement of the terms of reference, job description or consultant pitch we give you.

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HINT: any sentence in the job description that says “required”, “mandatory”, “will” or “shall” is a requirement.  Any sentence that says “preferred”, “desirable”, “should” or “may” is a nice to have and when all things are equal these qualities may put you ahead of the other candidates.

• Keep is short. Distill your deep experience and expertise into a succinct and clear statement on why you fit the requirements.  In an age where the information super highway has created an information super traffic jam, a simple statement such as an on-message 1-2 page CV is like a breath of fresh air and will stand out.
• However, don’t cram it in. You’ve probably read books or listened to pod-casts praising the 1-page Cv as a divinely inspired form of recruiting.  We are not religious about it at this stage in the process, but here is a hint:  make sure all your key information is on the first page – for example, contact details, profile, key skills, education, languages –  then, if necessary, let your chronological work history flow onto the second page.
• Answer the exam question.  In the case of a particular donor requesting a CV to be presented in their format (for example the European Commission), it is critical that we are compliant in this request.

HINT: Remember, at this point in the process, we are reviewing CVs to find those that peek our interest and make us want to learn more about you in an interview.  While a CV is a good opportunity to tell us everything you have done and achieved in your career, remember to keep your CV focused on the requirements in the job description.

When the time is right, we will hold a round of interviews to determine your suitability for a particular position and/or for one of our rosters of experts.  At this point we will ask you for a one page CV in our format to give you a chance to showcase your expertise in a particular area.

When it comes time to submitting a CV or resume document to us, your formatting will be a consideration (check out how poorly formatted CVs impact recruiters in this study tracking the eye movement of recruiters scanning CVs). We will also ask for a professional reference for the key projects or roles you put forward to showcase your experience.

4. Deploy or roster

Successful candidates will either deploy or be rostered on our pool of experts.  More on this later in the process.