I’ve had a CV for part-time jobs since high school so I knew
what the general format should look like. However, I suspected that when
applying for graduate jobs the bar probably needs to be raised a little! I
certainly came away from the talk with a few ideas for improving my CV, like
starting it off with a personal profile, or a little paragraph about my general
career objectives. Also, it makes sense to list my academic achievements in
reverse date order, so that the most recent and most relevant come first, but I
probably wouldn’t have thought of it. And I didn’t know that two pages is
considered plenty – and some companies apparently request just one! Being an
English student, rambling is in my nature, so this I could find tricky.
The session then moved onto application forms – my worst
nightmare! I’ve filled in a few for graduate schemes and the worst thing is how
much time they take to fill-out when the chance of being accepted to the next
stage seems so small. The lecturer recommended keeping a copy of your answers
in a word document so that if another company asks exactly the same question you
can just re-use them. It’s a simple tip but I hadn’t thought of doing that, so
I will in future. And keeping a copy of your application means you’re not
panicking in the interview about what you wrote on the application form and
whether your interview answers will match up – bonus!
I also came away comforted in the fact that, when the time
comes, I can take my CV or application form to the Careers Service and they
will look over it for me. Whilst my friends/parents are always happy to do this
for me, having an expert eye could be even more beneficial.
Although it has been helpful to think about my CV, right now
I’m just going to get my head down and pretend I don’t only have 13 weeks of
uni life left!
Emily (Student Blogger)
If you missed the talk, why not take a look at our online applications talks and DVDs.
1 comment:
Good advice-do hard work first then rest comes easy-cut and paste ideas useful. And also mean cant use old student excuse -im too busy and stressed to apply for jobs!
Post a Comment