CVs and Cover Letters Rules and guidance for creating professional CVs and cover letters

Consider this… How important do you think your CV and cover letter actually are when you apply for a job? Last year the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) annual summer survey showed that leading UK employers received an average of 85 applications per job. Employers will usually interview 4-6 people for each vacancy.

General rules for your CV: Think about who will read it and what they are looking for. Be brief and to the point, bullet points and lists for skills rather than long sentences and paragraphs. Tell it like it is! - Say who you are, what you’re doing now and what skills you have, what qualifications you have achieved and at what level/grades. What have you done? - Make sure your work history highlights your suitability for the job, if your job title doesn’t say it all, then you can briefly describe the key duties/responsibilities you had. Don’t pad! Don’t add things just for the sake of it. Set it out well - Keep it to two sides of A4, don’t drop the font size to cram more in - just be selective with what you include. Space the content well and leave plenty of white space around the text.

Personal Details: Include your full name, address. Include your mobile and home telephone numbers. Include your address IF it is suitable. Use the address you check most regularly unless it’s something that is likely to create a bad impression of you to a potential employer – if so create a suitable one to use for job hunting. Personal Profile: The Profile is optional but you can use it to add one or two sentences which sums you up.....e.g. I am an hardworking school leaver who would like a career in (the work area you are applying for). I am keen to work in... (say something about the job or company)..... This should be tailored to the role in question. To put it simply, every time you apply for a new job, you will need to write a new personal statement, which should be tweaked to match the job description.

Education: List your qualifications from most recent to earliest and give the name and address of the school/s where you achieved them. If you don’t have your results yet you should give predicted grades. Give your subjects and grades accuratly (an employer will check your actual certificates at interview). Skills: Team Work Skills e.g. Sporting Teams, Team Projects, Group work for subjects, Drama Groups etc. Communication Skills e.g. Presentations, mixing well with adults and other young people, voluntary work, written communications Reliability e.g. Full attendance at school, positions of trust in school such as Prefect, good timekeeping, part time work, etc. Responsibility e.g. baby-sitting, part time job, helped out at school events, organised an event, etc. Organisational Skills e.g. balancing social life with school, organising a coursework timetable, organising events out of school etc. Interpersonal skills - when dealing with people

Work Experience: List your work from most recent to earliest. Provide the contact details for previous employer so that a future employer can contact them. When giving details of the job, try to link it to the skills asked for in the job you are applying to; e.g. being part of a team. Most people have done some 'work' even if they did not get paid for it. Think about it: school work experience, helping family or neighbours, things that you may have done in school or college such as helping out with an open day, school event, showing visitors around, working in the school library etc. Other Information: Add details of anything else that you have done that could be useful for the job; e.g. passing a first aid course or getting an award for attendance

Hobbies /Interests: These show that you are a well rounded person and can be as relevant as the jobs you have done as they show the sort of person you are. Give 3 examples of how you spend your free time. Don’t include things we all do anyway, e.g. socialising with friends/family, watching TV References: You will usually be expected to give 2 references. One should be your last employer or the school (normally the head teacher) The other should be someone else who can say positive things about your work or personal qualities (this should not be a close family member).

YOUR TASKS 1.Create a CV using the guidance in this presentation and the example provided 2.Create a cover letter using the template provided You can do this for any one of the following: – a part-time job you want to apply for now – for the sort of job you would like to apply for after 6 th form/university – for the John Lewis job advert from your tutor (not a current job vacancy)