Job Applications

If you have just entered the job market, then nothing is more valuable than a good understanding of what your potential employers are looking for in a new employee. The first introduction your potential employer will have to you is the CV that you send in, so perfecting this should be the first step you make into the employment market. To do this you should learn what exactly can help convince somebody to offer you an interview. Remember that the person reviewing your CV will probably only give a cursory looking over of it, so padding it out with useless information should be avoided. This doesn’t mean that you should only provide strictly useful information, as they may want to get a greater grasp of who you are as a person.

To do this while avoiding padding out your CV with useful info can be difficult, but writing a covering letter which goes into greater detail than simply “Please find enclosed my CV” is a great solution to this problem. With your actual CV you should focus solely on being brief and factual about your qualifications and previous experience, plus any other relevant information. With your covering letter, what you need to do is provide information about who you are as a person, what has encouraged you to look for work in the field your applying for, what motivates you, etc. This doesn’t just allow you to go off and write a five page essay about yourself; you should always limit it to a maximum of one page. Depending upon the type of job your applying for, and the competition for the position, you should reduce the size accordingly. You should also remember to write a unique covering letter for every job application, with as much personalisation as possible. As you have a size limit, you should remember to be clear and concise. If nothing else, writing a covering letter is good practice for this.