Sell yourself with a perfect CV

As a graduate, a CV is the first step of selling yourself to a prospective employer.  Therefore you should always bear in mind that the presentation of your CV is very important, especially when you are planning to get your message across quickly and to increase your chances of getting a job.

When starting to write your CV, it’s crucial to be aware of the fact that employers only focus on the first half of page when they first get in touch with your CV. So you should plan your writing beforehand and do your best to demonstrate you are the perfect person for the role.

Here are some quick tips for writing a good CV:

• Keep a clear and balanced layout, so employers would be able to skim and scan it
• Use paragraphs for your achievements, but keep them short and specific
• Use bullet points to identify your responsibilities and skills
• Tailor your CV and make it relevant for the company you are applying for
• Make sure you have an accurate spelling and grammar
• Use simple and clear language
• Use 3^rd person instead of 1^st person
• Keep your CV brief, up to maximum 2 pages

To have a good presentation of your CV, you should divide it into specific sections, including:

• Personal statement – should be two or three sentences about who you are, what your key competencies are and what is the type of work you are interested in. When writing your personal statement, try to avoid general words such as “team player “or “hard working”, as they will not make you stand out from the crowd
• Work history – start with your most recent job and don’t forget to include any relevant work experiences, such as internships or volunteering
• Education background – include all your relevant schools and do mention individual works you’ve done, as long as they are relevant for the position you are applying for
• Interests and achievements – This section gives a more personal touch to your CV nevertheless it’s better to tailor your interests and make them relevant for the job you are trying to get
• Other skills – such as languages or IT skills
• Don’t forget to include References available upon request at the end of your CV

As a final tip, as much as you want to impress your potential employer, do not be tempted to lie in your CV! Employers will figure out if you are lying and you can miss the opportunity of getting the job you desire.

 

Internships. Why not work for free?

By Cristina Istrate

More and more graduates are realising that a degree is not necessarily followed by a high salary and success. The reality is that graduates are likely to be surprised when they realise that they have nothing that employers ask for in a recruitment process. What is the solution to this problem? Graduates need to find their own avenues to gain employability skills and to get into paid work.

One of the most popular entry routes into jobs for inexperienced graduates is to get unpaid internships. But this issue is currently very controversial, as concerns have been raised that unpaid internships are just a way for companies to exploit graduates and use them as free labour. This may be true but, if you can’t get a decent job as a graduate, would you prefer being underemployed to interning in the area you are interested in?

The truth is that graduates are in a catch 22 situation. They need experience to get a job but they can’t get jobs to get experience! Tricky situation! But from my point of view, internships are great opportunities to get valuable work experience. Not only can interns benefit from formal training within the company, but they can also and develop the skills on the job. Also, working in a company can help you plan your future career. If you’re not sure about the direction you want to go, why not try it out and see if it’s for you?

Internships can also be a great opportunity to develop your network and meet people from the field you are interested in. But let’s face it, a very important reason for partaking in an internship is to get something palpable on your CV and having some real examples to back up your “hire me because I’ve got potential” speech.

As graduates, we don’t usually warm to free labour; we have far higher expectations of ourselves as highly educated fresh machinery!

Newsflash! Nobody offers you a job just because you’re a graduate. Employers want employees, not just graduates. If you have no demonstrable experience I think internships can definitely be one solution to turn to.

 

 

 

 

Basic rules when using networking in your job search

Networking is an important part of any job search. It is the process of establishing contacts for the purpose of gathering information, communicating your career goals, seeking advice, and obtaining leads on jobs. Unsurprisingly, the larger your network is, the more likely you are to be successful.

Networking helps you access the “hidden job market.” Experts estimate that as many as 80% of jobs are never advertised but are found through leads and referrals from personal connections.Why is this the case? Most people – even hiring managers – are more comfortable working with someone who is referred by a trusted source.

We ALL have a network, be it classmates from school, work colleagues or even family and extended family. It’s all about utilising your networks to your own advantage and be aware of some basic rules when it comes to this type of situation. For instance, body language communicates a vast amount about a person and therefore can greatly influence the outcome of a networking situation. Significant importance is attached to the messages people send through their non verbal communication and therefore sending the right messages is imperative for your business success.

Here are some tips for being conscious of your body language whilst meeting someone:

• Turn your body towards the person you are speaking to. This shows respect and interest in the other person. You “open the door” and invite him to talk freely.
• Have an open posture. The most important is that you are aware that an open and relaxed posture invites people to talk and enables you to pay closer attention. In many courses you learn not to cross your legs or arms when listening to someone. This is a sign that you are not open to the other person. You can use this as a control mechanism: crossing your arms or legs could be a good signal for you to check whether you are still giving your full attention to the other person.
• Make eye contact frequently. But don’t exaggerate. How would you feel if somebody is staring at you the whole time? Or the opposite: a person who doesn’t look you in the eye, doesn’t come across as a self-confident person. Or seems to hide something. In any case, this is not someone you eagerly want to include in your network. Don’t exclude yourself from other people’s networks.
• Nod. This doesn’t mean that you nod to agree, but to show that you’re listening to what the other person is talking about.
• Be calm. Don’t fidget, don’t play with things in your hands. Playing with a pen or tapping with your foot against the table is an annoying distraction.
• Put the other person at ease. Allow the person space and time and give them “permission” to speak. Our posture, our expression it all makes a huge difference. Relax, and let the other person relax as well.

 

Body language in an interview

How you act in a graduate job interview is important: it’s part of creating the ideal package. Practise some body language techniques today so that you stay cool in the interview hot seat.

Whether you like it or not, everyone decodes the signals they receive from the body language of others, both consciously and unconsciously. In graduate job interviews it’s natural to feel nerves, but you can master them and get your body under control if you think ahead.

Sitting pretty: how to sit

The handshake often gets all the attention, but other aspects of body language can cause equal worry. For example, how should you sit?

The suggestion of TV body language expert Robert Phipps (of Trisha Goddard Show fame), is to ‘change position throughout the interview; move around in the chair; mirror or match the other person from time to time’. This type of action eases you out of stage fright and stops you getting stuck. However, try to keep your movements smooth and avoid fidgeting.

Quick tips

• Smoothly change your seating position throughout the interview.
• Keep your posture open – avoid crossing your arms.
• Use smooth hand gestures to emphasise key points.

Keep your posture open at all times. Crossed arms suggest a closed and defensive position, so practice sitting so that your hands are comfortably rested one on top of the other, or one on the arm of the chair and the other one in your lap. Steer clear of interlocking your fingers as you might never peel them apart again if nerves kick in.

Hand gestures can aid communication

Hand gestures play an important role in communication, helping you emphasise or reinforce key points and words. Using right hand movements while you talk signifies that you are giving out information, while left hand gestures indicate your readiness to receive information. Open palms show openness and honesty.

Again, try to keep your actions smooth, measured and natural. Don’t overdo or force hand gestures or you risk distracting your interviewer or worse, smacking them in the face by accident.

Read the interviewer’s body language

Body language is, of course, a two-way process. In the same way that interviewer reads (consciously or unconsciously) how you move and act, you can read their body language too.

Look for positive or negative movements. Nodding, leaning forward, and tilting the head to one side are all positive indicators: your interviewer is interested and attentive. Arms crossed, tapping on the table, fiddling with nails or staring into the middle-distance could mean that things aren’t going so well.

Practise your moves and get into your comfort zone

Start thinking about how you want to come across in advance of your graduate interview and practise some good moves before the day. Be aware of how you sit and of any little ticks that come to the surface when you’re under pressure (hair twiddling, hand wringing, eyebrow rubbing, nose twitching…).

It’s difficult to completely stop habits you have formed over a lifetime, but having a plan for how you can casually stop these habits cropping up prevents them from being interview showstoppers..

Likewise, practise adopting your open posture and using smooth hand gestures in your daily life, for example, when you’re talking in seminars, responding in discussion groups and sitting in lectures.

 

Where to job hunt?

In the current tough job market, graduates can have difficult times in finding the job they desire. There are different ways in which job vacancies can be found, such as networking, graduate job sites, organisations’ websites, national newspapers and periodicals or general job sites. However, the effectiveness of each method can vary, according to how well you know what do you want to do.

If you know the area you want to get into, you should be aware that some of the national newspapers concentrate their coverage of certain work areas on particular days of the week:

• Daily/Sunday Telegraph – general vacancies and graduate positions
• Financial Times - banking and finance
• Guardian/Observer - creative, marketing, media, sales, education (including TEFL and postgraduate courses), public sector, engineering, IT
• The Independent - IT, science, engineering, media, legal, finance, education
• Times/TES/THES/Sunday Times – most sector vacancies
• Target Career Guides and www.targetjobs.co.uk – guides covering a range of career areas, eg IT Business, City & Finance, Property. These are usually available to take away from the Careers Service from Michaelmas Term.
• World Careers Network (WCN) – WCN operates a comprehensive web-based career and vacancy guide, which is comprised of permanent jobs and work experience opportunities worldwide. They offer an e-mail alert service to respond to your nominated areas of interest, a brochure request service and an online applications centre.

Jobs that are not advertised at all

Advertising job opportunities can be a lengthy and costly process for employers, and in many sectors they would prefer to simply hire someone they are already confident can do the work, without advertising the position. There are many ways for you to put yourself forward to employers, to be this person who “is in the right place at the right time”.  It is estimated that the unadvertised job market is 1.5 times bigger than the advertised market. Work Experience and Volunteering provide you with the best opportunity to prove your abilities to an employer, and these opportunities often lead to paid employment. Networking is a great way to find out about these opportunities, altough is a slow process, as it requires buliding effective relationships. Speculative applications are also a good way to market yourself and your skills to employers who may not be currently advertising so that when a vacancy does become available they already have you in mind.

Jobs that rarely come up

However there are some fields of work – advertising, public relations, journalism, broadcasting, international development, arts administration, think-tanks etc. – which have always had a very small number of vacancies and where competition has always been intense. Work experience and speculative applications are often the only way to carve out opportunities for you. You will have a huge advantage once you have relevant work experience; in many areas it is essential.