CV / Resume masterclass

News | Published in The TES on 15 January, 2010 | By: Fiona Salvage

Everybody dreads doing it, but a well- crafted CV can open doors for you. Fiona Salvage helps you get the balance right 

CV basics

Your personal statement

On-line applications Published in The TES on 15 January, 2010

Rule 1: Keep it formal

Rule 2: Handle with care

Rule 3: Crack their code

Rule 4: Always keep a copy

Rule 5: Check the deadline

Rule 6: Quality not quantity

Rule 7: Avoid language barriers

Rule 8: Highlight your IT skills

Rule 9: Don’t forget to mention extra-curricular activities

Rule 10: Make the most of your personal statement

ONLINE ETIQUETTE: THE DOS AND DON’TS

• Don’t leave the subject line of your email blank.
• Don’t lapse into informality just because it is email. Use “Dear” not “Hi” and a formal closing greeting, not “thanks” or “best”.
• Don’t save your CV as “CV.doc” - rename the file to include your name.
• Do send the CV as an attachment, but make sure the covering letter forms the main body of the email.
• Do double check you’ve attached all the documents before you hit send.
• Don’t use a non-standard font. Do use a sans serif font like Arial that looks best on screen, which is likely to be how your CV is first read.
• Do remove the witty and hilarious signature line from your email.
• Do set up a new email account for job applications - keep the hilarious hotstuff@hotmail.com email addresses for the weekend.
• Do remember to check your new email address.
• Don’t add in personal details such as date of birth or marital status into your CV if it is to be emailed, as email is not secure.
• Don’t use images on your CV - it is unprofessional and unpredictable as different software programs may scramble images.
• Do check your “Sent items” or “Outbox” to make sure the email has been sent.
• Do make sure you have accounted for any gaps in employment history
 

Application Forms.

How to make your application stand out.  Published in The TES on 15 January, 2010 | By: Steven Hastings.

Partly adapted for International students (AC)

Jobs toolkit:  The application form. With the market the toughest it’s been in years, make sure you don’t fall at the first hurdle. Steven Hastings helps you stand out for the right reasons   Original paper headline: Apply yourself.

DON’T SAY - DO SAY

FIVE QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF BEFORE SENDING

WHAT EMPLOYERS LIKE TO SEE … AND WHAT THEY DON’T

• “I want applications that reflect the job advertisement. I’m looking for evidence that an applicant can be innovative, flexible and treat others as individuals.” “I want applicants to tell me what they’ve done in the past, and how, to give me a clear idea of what they’ll do in the future.”
• “I like to feel a candidate is seeking a job at our’ company and they should show that they have found out about our values.”
• “Applicants often write about what they hope to get out of the job, instead of what they can do for the business”
• “There’s nothing worse than an application that has clearly been written for a different job and then re-used.”
• “I don’t like it when applicants ‘creep’ in the letter by saying good things about the company. You don’t have to make me feel good about myself.”

Graduates look overseas as jobs dry up

With 70 applicants for every UK graduate job, could applying abroad be the answer? From Brussels to Beijing, meet the enterprising university leavers finding work overseas

Audio: Where can all the graduates go? 

  'Beijing is a bit like the wild west,' says UK graduate Jamie Foster. 'New companies are popping up every day.' Photograph: Alamy

For beleaguered graduate job hunters, the news just seems to get worse and worse. Figures released last week by the Higher Education Statistics Agency showed that about 10% of 2009 graduates failed to find work during the past year. As if that weren't bad enough, the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) this week released the findings of its biannual survey, showing an average of around 70 applications for every graduate job, with employers expecting to see a further 6.9% drop in vacancies this year – a forecast nearly four times worse than the AGR's own predictions just six months ago.

The AGR's chief executive, Carl Gilleard, points out that the depressing forecast reflects a fragmented graduate jobs market in which sectors such as finance are now showing high levels of growth, while others, including law and engineering, remain in the doldrums. "The important thing for graduates is to keep their ears to the ground," he says. "A snapshot survey of our members reveals that 30% haven't yet filled their vacancies."

Yet for those prepared to look farther afield, there may be a glimmer of hope from the increasing numbers of UK graduates who are successfully finding work overseas.

Nannette Ripmeester, a Rotterdam-based international careers expert who has worked in 17 countries, says the jobs outlook is not as bleak everywhere. "Within the European Union, the UK and Spanish jobs markets have been worst-hit, but other countries such as the Netherlands, and also newer member states like Poland, have not suffered as much," she says. "Outside Europe, think of Asia and places like China and Singapore, where jobs markets are considerably better."

Jamie Foster, 24, is a UK graduate working in Beijing, China. Having obtained a history and Chinese degree from Nottingham University, followed by a business master's from the School of Oriental and Asian Studies, he admits he "always had an eye on China", but his lack of success job hunting in the UK hastened his passage east.

"It's a bit like the wild west out here," says Foster, who arrived in Beijing in January after five months of applying fruitlessly to City financial institutions. "It's unlike any other country in the world. The incredible thing about Beijing, or Shanghai for that matter, is the number of new companies popping up every day."

Through CRCC Asia, a company that, for a fee, arranges internships in China for UK students, he undertook a two-month work placement in Beijing while at university. He found networking opportunities abundant and met the American start-up entrepreneurs for whom he now works full-time, helping to form private equity companies.

Foster says that while speaking a little Mandarin beforehand helped, a lack of local language need not be a barrier to finding work – although he warns would-be gold prospectors to expect a fast-moving, entrepreneurial environment rather than structured graduate schemes. "So many entrepreneurs come out looking to make a buck and they want graduates from the UK and the US who have the tangible skills to work in a business like that," he says.

Neil Chowings, managing director of Work Group, a Hong Kong-based recruitment firm, says that while the Chinese graduate recruitment market has massive problems of its own – with 30% of university leavers annually unable to find jobs – UK graduates can bring something unique to China's rapidly growing economy. 

"There's a huge shortage of innovative, entrepreneurial, free-thinking graduates in China," he points out. "Culturally, it is still a very controlled government state. Workers are not used to voicing their own opinions, which is where foreign graduates tend to do better."

Opportunities in China are not confined to financial whizzkids, either. Akram Shalabi, 23, studied for a mathematics degree at King's College, London, followed by a law course at BPP law school. Last summer he undertook a two-month internship in international law in Beijing. "I was applying for law training contracts in the UK and I wasn't getting any," he says. "I thought, why not go to China and enhance my CV?"

After returning, Shalabi still found it difficult to break into a UK law firm, so decided to study for a master's in mathematics at Cambridge University. Now he is going back to Beijing later this month to teach maths at university there, while keeping an eye out for suitable openings with law firms.

He thinks it is quite feasible for graduates to find work in China and has been astonished by the quality of experience on offer. "What really surprised me is how UK graduates have real credibility, which you don't have here," he says. "On my internship I was given real responsibility, not just making tea or doing photocopying. I chaired meetings and I even held a press conference. I experienced things you probably wouldn't experience in five years in your career in the UK."

Closer to home, the change of government looks set to herald new graduate opportunities in a rather unexpected overseas location. William Hague's comments last week about increasing the UK's representation at the European Commission's Brussels headquarters delighted senior British EU officials who had been anticipating a further distancing of relations from the new foreign secretary, hitherto renowned as a eurosceptic. 

"In our last main recruitment competition for graduate administrators, the UK made up only about 1.7% of applications, which is incredibly poor in relation to its population," says David Bearfield, director of the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO), which recruits EC staff. "We're not allowed to recruit by nationality, but we want to work with the UK government to see how we can dramatically increase the number of applications."

EPSO mainly recruits graduates with language skills for jobs as translators, conference interpreters and lawyer-linguists. Bearfield says that in response to Hague's olive branch, the EC will seek to establish itself with UK universities and careers services as a genuine graduate destination. "We believe we have a really attractive and unique career offering," he says.

Charles Gittins translates documents into English – mainly from Greek, Estonian and five other official EU languages – at the EC's English language department in Brussels. "Seven is kind of average," he says. As much as anything, he enjoys the mixed international working environment. "You go to the canteen and you can hear all the 23 official EU languages being spoken."

Drawn to the work and the political surroundings, Gittins decided to apply to the EC after completing his degree in modern languages at Oxford. After passing the written and oral parts of the EC's recruitment competition, he was then put on a reserve list for potential vacancies. It took two years from his first test to being offered a job, "and I was one of the quickest", he jokes. But the good news for those interested is that the process has now been streamlined considerably.

Bearfield admits that the necessity of speaking two other languages (one of which must be French or German) has historically been a sticking point for many UK applicants to the EC. But he says the first round of the competition – which until now has had to be completed mostly in a second language – has changed, so the bulk is in English which, it is hoped, will encourage more British graduates to apply.

"We hope to work more and more with the UK government on schemes like the Fast Stream, which has just been brought back," he says. "I think there's been this perception in the UK that the EC just offers awful, bureaucratic jobs, but nothing could be further from the truth. They're brilliant, exciting careers where you can really make a difference."

Nannette Ripmeester points out that in the long run, working abroad can make you more employable at home. "Once the jobs market picks up again in the UK, which it will do eventually, international experience gives you something extra when applying to your home jobs market," she says.

And while moving abroad can seem like a risk, particularly to far-flung destinations such as China, for Foster the rewards on offer easily make up for it. "I'm getting exposure to $100m deals," he says. "I'm dealing with the kind of figures I wouldn't touch in a UK investment bank for five or 10 years. Frankly I wouldn't have dreamed of this six months ago."

Five tips for finding work abroad

1. Be focused. It might sound obvious, but having a specific goal in mind will help focus you. "Either look for particular sectors, companies, or countries," suggests international careers expert Nannette Ripmeester.

2. Consider work permits/visas. This may not be a problem if you're heading to the EU, but for other countries it's essential to check with the relevant embassy or consulate. Agencies can help with this process – expect to pay for the service, though.

3. Brush up on your languages. Obviously a grasp of local languages is a big advantage in mainland Europe, "but UK graduates are lucky in that English is still the lingua franca of business," says Ripmeester. Chinese employers might want you to take a crash course in Mandardin – but they may even sponsor you if they like what they see.

4. Be culturally sensitive. "Almost more important than not speaking the language is the way British workers often forget jobs markets differ in other countries," says Ripmeester. "For example, employers may not place such value on things like your hobbies as they might in the UK." So do your homework and show you understand the locals before you apply.

5. Think tactically. Do you know people who already live where you're heading? If so, ask them to put the feelers out on your behalf, and if possible take advantage of their hospitality (but don't overdo it). And network as much as possible, both before you go and while you're there. A personal recommendation can be invaluable in any culture.

Links and resources

Eurograduate Vacancies and country-specific tips for working in Europe

European Personnel Selection Office Careers portal for the European Union

Kompass Worldwide company search engine, useful for speculative applications

Europages European company search engine, also useful for speculative applications

British Chambers of Commerce Worldwide UK trade missions around the world