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Archive for the ‘CVs’ Category
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
Top tips for your covering letter
- Most of your important information will be contained in your CV, but a covering letter gives you the opportunity to impress. Do not provide too much information—one page should suffice. You want to be short listed, so leave some things to discuss at interview.
- Be careful to personalise your letter so it does not look like a circular or junk mail. The reader must know immediately that you have not have sent this letter to another employer. I still receive the occasional generalised letter. It doesn’t impress me.
- Avoid the phrase "I am writing" in your opening paragraph, as this is obvious.
- Consider using the same font and address style for both your CV and your covering letter for a consistent, professional look.
- Tailor your answer carefully to the key words of the advertisement. Provide key examples of your achievements that relate to the key criteria of the position.
- Incorporate into your letter, terminology the employer has used in the ad, written job description, or in a conversation. Don’t forget to match THEIR NEEDS to YOUR EXPERIENCE and ABILITIES.
- Address the letter to a specific person. If the advert doesn’t say, ring the company and ask who to send the letter to.
- Don’t forget to put the job title at the top of the letter and reference number where applicable.
- Your letter should expand on your CV and complement your career summary, which you will adapt for each job you apply for.
- Find relevant achievements in your work history and quote one or two succinctly and colourfully. It’s fine if you have also included them on your CV.
These top tips are taken from my book: How to get a job in a recession.
Posted in CVs
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Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
The covering letter is as important as your CV and you need to take the time to create a letter that’s effective. So many people miss out on the chance to reinforce why they are right for the job. Their covering letter is either very brief ‘Please find enclosed my CV. I look forward to hearing from you’ or too vague and full of stuff that’s irrelevant.
I’ve been sent two covering letters to review this past week. The first one was handwritten and over two sides of A5. Perhaps this person doesn’t have a home computer but as she was applying for a job as an administrator, it does give an impression of being uncomfortable with new technology. The second one was typed and I’m sure the person who wrote it had thought it was likely to be effective but the problem was that it wasn’t focused on the actual job. When we spoke she admitted that she has a general letter she uses for each job she applies for so it isn’t properly targeted.
The best way to start writing your covering letter is to look at the job ad and person spec and pick out what is key. For example:
The Job Ad
As a Supervisor, you will report directly to a Sales Manager and will be responsible for the day to day running of a multi million pound turnover department and its Sales team within the store which could include: Cosmetics, Accessories, Childrens wear, Menswear, Womens wear and Home. You will drive the highest levels of customer service at all times and ensure excellent product presentation and availability.
Skills
You will be a positive, confident and proactive individual who has a passion for selling and retail. Strong commercial skills are preferable with the ability to make effective decisions. You will have excellent communication, delegation and time management skills as well as being a proven leader who can motivate and coach people to achieve. Numeracy and computer literacy skills are essential.
So a great covering letter would address these points. Following on from an initial introduction you then address the points that have been highlighted such as:
Key aspects of my background include:
· Customer service: Demonstrated within my ability to put the customer first, no matter what the current work priority might be. I offered to drop off products at local elderly residents houses if they were unable to visit the store and provided a community atmosphere where customers were actively invited for their input into product selection.
· Product presentation: A naturally keen eye for presentation, ensured products and faced-up stock were replenished. Identified counter lines & products relating to current media attention in an easily accessible and identifiable presentation making full use of professional POS Material.
· Passion for selling and retail: with seven years of retail experience, I love to serve customers and to offer great value and exceptional service, thus making a profit.
I’ll be writing more on CVs tomorrow. In the meantime you may like to look at the help I can offer via my website: http://www.amazingpeople.co.uk/cvs.htm
Posted in CVs
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Friday, October 9th, 2009
You’ve found a job that seems perfect for you, you send off your CV and keep fingers crossed you get short listed. You wait, and after a week or so you get the letter, but it’s the regret to inform you letter. What’s gone wrong? It may be nothing to do with you
Sometimes it could be nothing to do with you. It may be outside of your control. You may not get short listed because the job is already filled but the company policy is such that they have to go through the motions of an advert. The ad has been placed by an agency or head hunters to get people on their books. Sometimes organisational changes may mean there is no longer a need for the job to be filled and of course other candidates more closely match the employers’ requirements.
Review your CV
However, you may also like to review your CV and see if it could be improved. Ask yourself:
• Does every word help to make the pitch?
• Does it grab attention in the first 10 seconds?
• Are you providing specific examples and not just vague descriptions? Be sure to give details on what you have achieved and include quantifiable results where you can. Don’t just write “I have excellent communication skills” but instead write: “Wrote jargon free user guide for 10,000 readers and got excellent feedback”.
Your CV will only get a minutes attention, so you must make it stand out! So let’s take a few steps back.
Posted in CAREER MANAGEMENT, CVs
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Thursday, June 18th, 2009
I regularly tell clients not to lie on their CV as if they get found out they can lose their jobs. That’s what has happened to Mhairi Creanor, a primary school teacher who was so keen to get a job that she made up false references and forged signatures to get a job. She even made phone calls, pretending to be an old employer and giving herself a very positive reference. This was not once, but 4 times in all.
What let her down was the number of spelling mistakes in her references.
This has led not to being struck off the teaching register for 12 months.
You can read the story here:
Posted in CVs
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Monday, May 4th, 2009
I help my clients to create CVs that stand out, and they need to! Recruiters get literally hundreds of CVs for each application and your CV gets barely 30 seconds attention before it is put into the pile to review more closely or the one closest to the bin.
Read a great article by The Brazen Careerist – How To Craft A Remarkable “Purple Cow” Resume where she compares a resume to the Seth Godin concept of a purple cow, something that gets everyone talking about it. Some of what she writes about is sound good practice, to discuss achievements rather than details on roles and responsibilities but even that can look like a boring, safe layout.
I love the way she suggests alternative layouts
- A mind map around accomplishments
- A slide show of accomplishments
- Putting your details on a cereal box – excellent if you are going for a creative role.
- A CV which focuses on references from clients/customers
I regularly suggest that clients start a work related blog, but have yet to have a client with the courage to do one. She suggests the same, and also to include interview samples. I think this is a great idea – have a link from your CV/application to a web site where you answer typical questions. It also means you can add details of your work – pictures, reports, lots more to bring your CV to life and show why you are the right person for the job.
Posted in CVs
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Monday, March 16th, 2009
I recently spoke to somebody who said that they don’t have a CV and had nothing to put on a CV if they had to construct one.
Even a school leaver has things to put on a CV. I think what she was concerned about was what to write down when she hadn’t done paid work for 10 years whilst she was a full time mum.
But she had lots that she could note – being a homemaker brings lots of transferable skills including organisation, conflict resolution, financial management and more. Plus there’s the involvement in charities and voluntary organisations. There’s also probably scope to refer to hobbies as well!
What could be helpful is to think of the job that interests you, find out the key requirements and personal characteristics for the job and use that to help you identify examples from you life.
Think about all the people who you need to relate to; all the problems you have solved, your organisational skills. I’m sure you will find many examples from your life.
Posted in CVs
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Saturday, January 17th, 2009
I’ve been reading yet again about video CVs – more companies are coming up that think that this is the way to get your message across, however, I don’t see how it can work for sifting – short listing is done very quickly and I could have gone through 10 CVs in the time it takes to watch a video.
It also can be seen as discrimination against those who aren’t as photogenic and so if the video is short there is little time for an interviewer to warm to you if you don’t make a brilliant first impression.
You can read my previous comments on this at
Posted in CVs
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Thursday, November 27th, 2008
With Woolworths going into administration it is a difficult time for their staff, wondering for how long they will have a job. If a buyer is found they are highly likely to close some stores.
But Woolworths have looked in difficulty for a while. With so much competition, how did Woolies respond – by increasing their product lines and so selling lots of different things but not enough of anything?
So you could buy DVDs and CDs but their line wasn’t as comprehensive as in HMV.
So many other products, like children’s clothes could be bought cheaper in the major supermarkets.
Then they diversified into selling mobile phones, a highly competitive market and I wouldn’t have though they had a big enough market share to buy as cheap as the major phone companies.
So how does this help you, the job searcher?
Have a good look at your CV. Are you a bit like Woolies, showing how much you can do but not enough depth on anything?
I’m working with a client at the moment who has a background in catering management, retrained to become a legal executive and is now, following redundancy, looking for a new career. Her CV was a combination of the catering and legal work, and neither really focused on the new area she wants to move into.
So we are now focusing all her work experience onto the new career path, and emphasising the education that supports this, and deemphasising her hotel and catering qualifications. It’s not just about discounting this though. Her HND covered a lot of business topics, so we’ve listed them. All is looking so much better.
So you may be thinking of a number of different jobs to apply for, but do make sure that each application is clearly focused on one specific job.
Want some help? Do get in touch.
Posted in CVs, Client Stories, JOB SEARCH
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Thursday, November 20th, 2008
It’s getting harder to get a job, but there are still jobs available, you need to do everything possible to make yourself stand out from the rest.
That means that your CV, covering letter and every way you make contact with your potential new employer is as good as it can be.
But some people send off their applications even though they know they could be better. I had an email today from someone who said
“I know my CV isn’t the most desirable as I have a mixture of short term roles. I also think I let myself down on the cover letter”
It’s all about how you position your CV and letter. Short term jobs are not necessarily a problem, but it does depend what you have done and how you describe this.
A covering letter should be focused on the job being applied for but too many ramble and bear no relationship to the job being applied for.
It’s such a waste of time to let an application go forward when you know it could be better. That’s why people will work with me as they know I can help them to present themselves well, and to create a great impression at interview.
I can never comment without actually looking at a clients CV, letter and the relevant job ad, but the money spent on an hour or two working with me can prove very helpful.
Posted in CVs, JOB SEARCH
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Monday, November 17th, 2008
Faking your CV can have drastic consequences, so don’t be tempted.
I read in the paper that the boss of the Las Vegas casinos empire – MGM Mirage has stepped down as chief executive once errors in his CV were spotted. There was a story in his Wall Street Journal questioning the authenticity of his MBA qualification.
It might be tempting to make some changes but if you are spotted you’ll lose your job. So much better to be honest!
Posted in CVs
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