UKEC-Graduan Career Fair 2010

When you submit your CVs and Cover Letter to the UKEC-Graduan Career Fair, they will be forwarded to all the participating companies. From there, if your submission is selected, you will be contacted to have an interview session with them. Hence, the first impression companies will get of you will be from your CV and Cover Letter.

Here are some tips on writing CVs and Cover Letters. This is just something for you to refer to and the UKEC does not give any warranty on accuracy, completeness, and assurances on the information provided.

Here are our Top 5 CV tips for you though…

1. Get it done early: Do one in your first year and get it checked by your careers service, they will tell you what needs to be improved. Once you have it done, it won’t be so much of a chore in your second year when your marks actually count and you have a lot of things to keep you occupied.
2. Make sure it is no longer than 2 pages, if space is a problem then play around with the margins to fit it all in, also don’t list all your GCSEs just give a summary including your Maths and English grades (i.e. 4A’s, 3B’s, 3C’s including Bs in Maths and English)
3. Use a fairly standard / boring font like Arial or Times New Roman, you may also want to convert your CV into a PDF so that you can guarantee it looks the same on anyone’s computer, and won’t lose formatting.  We use a free programme called Cute PDF to convert our Microsoft Office documents to PDFs.
4. Instead of just listing your work experience, write a description then state what you learnt and how it will help your future employment. Even the most mundane jobs will teach you a lot of transferable skills that recruiters are looking for.
5. It’s a skill that doesn’t come naturally to some of us, but sell yourself, make the most of what you have done. It’s a competitive market out there, so if you don’t sell yourself someone else will sell themselves better and take the job.

Sections of a CV

a) Personal Details

• Full name — you can use your name as a heading, especially if space is at a premium
• Address — both term time and holiday addresses if relevant, with dates you are at each location
• Telephone numbers — including any mobile number
• Email address
• Date of birth — it is usual to include this. However 2006 legislation means employers cannot discriminate against applicants on the basis of age. Speak to a Careers Adviser if you need more information.
• Work Permit — If you are an international student and have permission to work in the UK it might be to your advantage to write ‘No work permit required’.

Tip: Make this section as small as possible to give more space for the more important sections later on.

b) Education

• University — Give the name of your university, dates attended, and the title of your course. End of year grades are important but you should also add information about modules studied, your project work or dissertation and the skills you have developed through these aspects of your degree.

Tip: This section can be tailored to the area of work you are seeking. For example, if you want to get into Human Resources, highlighting a module on Organisational Behaviour would be relevant.

• Give the name of your school or college, dates attended and list your qualifications.

Tip: to save space, do not list all your GCSEs; give your overall grades and only include the individual breakdown for the key subjects.

c) Work Experience

• This is one of the most important sections of your CV.
• Make the most of placements, holiday or part time work. Don’t omit jobs just because they sound basic or mundane — the fact that you got one shows initiative.
• Try to include between 3–5 examples of your work experience
• List your experiences in chronological order, with the most recent first.
• Describe the most relevant and interesting aspects of your employment but also add the skills you used or developed during this time.

d) Skills

• This section gives you the opportunity to highlight relevant skills. It is useful to sort the skills into different categories, for example Languages, IT Skills and Other Skills.

e) Interests and Activities

• Don’t give a list, provide some evidence. If you have a mix of interests, for example sport and music, group all your sporting interests together under a sub-heading. An interest which supports your job application might add weight to your application.

f) References

• You need at least two referees: one should be someone who can comment on your academic experience and performance, the other should concentrate more on character, personality and non-academic skills (perhaps a former employer or family friend).
• Give the title, name and full address, telephone number if possible, email address and indicate the referee’s status and relationship to you. Ask permission before quoting anyone as a referee. This is an opportunity for you to ensure your referee is informed about the applications you are making. Give each referee an up-to-date copy of your CV. That way they will be better able to expand on what you have said and emphasise the most relevant aspects of your character and experience.

Tip: If space is at a premium just write “references available on request”

Tips for writing a CV

These tips apply to general CV writing. In a few very specialised cases (the performing arts or modelling, for example) they may not apply entirely. But you won’t go far wrong in following them as a starting point.

Order and content

You won’t go far wrong if you include the content detailed here in the order outlined below. The key is to give the most relevant information first, and follow on with less important information, or information that will be used later by the reader.

1. Your name (typically centred in larger letters as a heading)
2. Telephone number(s) and email address (on the next line under your name) – the employer will, you hope, need to find this easily and quickly
3. A profile of you as a potential employee, drawing out your best assets (usually factually, in bullet points or short sentences)
4. Your education history from secondary school onwards, including your major qualifications, most recent at the top
5. Your employment history, in reverse chronological order, outlining:

a. Employer’s name
b. The job you did
c. The dates
d. Your responsibilities
e. Your achievements

6. Personal details, including:

a. Professional qualifications
b. Relevant post-education training received
c. Other relevant facts (such as the possession of a full, clean driving licence, language skills, generic IT skills)
d. Your postal address (on one line)

Each of the sections (profile, education, employment history, personal details) should have a heading. Numbers 4 and 5 (education and employment history) should normally be reversed once you have some post-education work experience – remember, the most important information should come earlier and this can change as you go through your career. Later on your, as your career progresses (though not in academia, of course) education can even be condensed to a single line in the personal details section. At this stage much of your early career might be condensed very considerably as it is no longer very relevant to what you will be applying for.

It is important to ensure that you review a standard CV each time you send it out to make sure it is still correct, reflects the current situation and that all the information is relevant to the job for which you are applying. Remember, it is not necessarily important to include everything for every application.

Notice specifically what should not be included:

1. The words or heading curriculum vitae – it is obvious what the document is, so don’t waste the space
2. Your address at the top of the page – it is not necessary, and is a distraction if you place it there
3. Any mention of references – they are not needed at this stage and the employer will ask for them when they are require
4. Anything more than a line or two about your interests and hobbies, unless you know that it will be especially relevant. If you are short of space this should be the first information to be taken out entirely
5. Repetition of any information – this is both unnecessary and irritating to the reader
6. Headers, footers and page numbers (or any other extraneous information such as document namesor version numbers)
7. Page borders, title pages, binders, covers
8. Reasons for leaving previous jobs
9. Salary information
10. Irrelevant information
11. Negative information
12. Photographs

And don’t forget, this document is all about what you have already done, not what you are predicted to do or hope to do in the future. Such matters should be reserved for the covering letter.

Format

Follow generally-accepted typographical conventions:

1. Use a serif font for body text and, perhaps, a sans serif font for headings
2. Do not underline headings (or anything else) – use bold text or a different font size for headings

Because space is so tight, you will sometimes have to place several pieces of information on one line (for example, company name, job title, dates), separated by tabs. This may offend your sense of what looks good, but don’t worry about it – it is entirely conventional and makes good use of space.

Do not use esoteric fonts (such as script fonts or Comic Sans), coloured text, boxes of any kind, tables (even those that do not have borders around them), drawn lines, borders or any other fancy embellishments. Just don’t – they are distracting, can ruin the layout, and many readers will find them irritating. The last thing you want to do is irritate the reader.

Make sure there are no spelling mistakes, colloquialisms, grammatical errors or punctuation errors. Don’t rely on your word processor’s spelling checker to spot these – get the document checked by someone you can trust. Do not fall into the common trap of capitalising common nouns such as subject names. Make sure that your columns and tabs are all aligned as you intend.

Don’t tell any lies. After you are employed you can be fired if the employer finds out that you have lied on your CV. And being caught out in a lie at the interview is likely to be fatal to your chances. You’d be surprised how many recruiters personally know the man you are claiming to have worked for previously – it is a very small world in recruiting. And many are not averse to ringing these contacts for an impromptu discussion about a candidate. In any event, most employers will formally follow up references in writing.

Make sure there is a reasonable amount of white space on the document. This makes it easier to read – and you do want it to be easy to read and understand, don’t you?

If you are sending or delivering your CV in hard copy format, use a good quality paper rather than ordinary photocopy paper, though avoid card or coloured or embossed paper.

Style

Make strong, brief, condensed statements (excluding personal pronouns) such as “Successfully implemented a system to blah blah…” in preference to “I successfully blah blah…”.

Do not make unsupported statements (such as “I can/am able to blah blah” or “I have blah blah&#8221 . It is much better to demonstrate what you can do by outlining where you have previously done it (and with what success).

Use strong, active verbs such as “implemented”, “achieved”, “planned”, “initiated”, “developed”, “launched”, “improved” where relevant – avoid the wishy-washy. You must, however, back up your claims with events or numbers.

Do not write essays. There should be no paragraphs or mini-essays at all.

Avoid industry jargon unless you know the reader can understand it.

Avoid a naïve style of writing – you are trying to impress in the world of adult work and the phraseology should reflect this.

Examples of CV:

http://www.ratemyplacement.co.uk/articles/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/rmpcv1.pdf

http://www.ratemyplacement.co.uk/articles/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/rmpcv2.pdf

Cover Letter

This should always accompany a CV. It is designed to entice the recipient into reading your CV and not just throwing it away.

As a general rule of thumb

1. MOST IMPORTANTLY — Do your research on the company and the role and make sure your Covering Letter is actually relevant and specific to the role. The Covering Letter needs to be tailored, it is very obvious if a general Covering Letter has been sent around.
2. Keep it to one page, and around 300 words
3. In standard letter format, include your address in the top right and the recipient address in the top left.
4. 3 or 4 paragraphs is all you need:

• Paragraph 1 – Introduce yourself (university and course), which job you are applying for and where you heard about the job
• Paragraph 2 – Introduce why you are interested in the role and begin to say why you think you are suitable
• Paragraph 3 – Expand on why your skills and experiences make you suitable for the role
• Paragraph 4 – A final paragraph summing up and finished with a nice statement, for example, “I look forward to hearing from you.”

What NOT to do…

1. These may seem obvious, but most of the Covering Letters I see have some of these mistakes in them, and they are a sure fire way of getting your CVbinned. As you have done most of the hard work, don’t let it happen to you for something that takes 2 minutes to check and change.
2. Spelling and Grammar, make sure it is all spelt right (including the name of the company, we see loads of CVs where they will spell the company wrong) check and double check and get someone else to check your application.
3. Don’t just forward round a generic Covering Letter, it is very obvious when the role is for Sales and the Cover Letter says the student is interested in Marketing. If you do forward it on, remove the FW: in the subject line too…
4. Make sure the format of the document is easy to open, not everyone has the new Microsoft Office so avoid a .docx file. Again, a PDF may be useful here.
5. Make sure all attachments are attached.

Tips for writing a covering letter

This advice applies to the situation in almost any industry. However, there are a few specialist situations in which the case might be different (the performing arts spring immediately to mind), in which case you should take specialist advice from within that industry.

Tell the reader that you are writing to apply for a job, not that you are interested in applying. And be specific – do you want a summer internship, a permanent position, a vacation job, a contract position, or are you enquiring about future employment possibilities?

State that you are enclosing (or attaching, if it is an email) your CV.

Make a point of mentioning how you learned of the opportunity – mention the advertisement (including the name of the website or publication), agency or whatever, including any reference number.

It might also be appropriate to mention the name of anyone who suggested that you write a speculative letter.

The main task of the covering letter is to entice the reader into looking at your CV before they throw it in the bin. It is the first document that will be read, in all likelihood, and it must, therefore be very well written and tailored specifically for that employer and opportunity.

It should be obvious that it must be flawless in terms of spelling and grammar, and should be written in an easy-to-read mature style. Avoid buzzwords and convoluted or clever-sounding words and phrasing.

Always highlight what it is about you and your background – education, skills, experience – that is relevant to the position you are seeking. Again, be specific and use examples to demonstrate what you are claiming. You might expand on something in your CV here.

Always make sure that you provide (and/or refer to) any information that has been specifically requested and is not appropriate to include in the CV. This might include your availability for interview (which should always be mentioned in any event), or an enclosed sample of your work. In general it is not appropriate to include anything that has not been requested, and do not expect to receive back anything that you do send.

Always state that you can be contacted (and how) in the event there are any queries with the information you have provided.

The whole letter should be brief – never more than a single side of A4 paper – and 300 words is a good guideline to aim for.

Always try and write to a specific individual, and style the letter appropriately and conventionally.

Do not include (unless specifically requested):

• Your age or date of birth
• Your current salary
• Your salary expectations
• Any mention of references
• A photograph
• Any amusing anecdotes