Covering Letters and CV Help
What's a CV? A Curriculum Vitae (CV) is a summary of your education, professional history, and job qualifications, for a prospective employer. This is usually also accompanied by a covering letter, which is where you give more information and try to get the prospective employer to take notice of your CV.
The following CV and covering letter advice will be invaluable to you, especially if this is going to be one of the first times you’re applying for any kind of job, be it part-time or full-time. If you've written a CV before, you might still be able to improve on it with some of our tips.
Some things are obvious but somehow you still forget to do it. That's why we've listed some useful tips and hints below. After all, it’s not worth having your application discarded because you made some silly typo error.
CV Help
- Keep your CV simple, no fancy fonts or colours. Choose a legible font and stick to black or if you must deviate, navy. Anything else looks childish.
- List things in a logical order, employees want to know what you have done most recently first.
- Use strong action words like 'created', 'developed' and 'organised' when describing your experience.
- If a job does not require a covering letter then make sure you CV has a short opening statement which explains a little about you and what you want from your job.
- Most importantly, get some one else to read it. It doesn’t matter how cheesy or how much of a suck up you sound like - that’s what CVs are - an opportunity for you to sell yourself. The person proof-reading your CV will understand that. You should know even one minor mistake will lessen your application if not make it completely dismissible.
- Please remember if you include your email address make sure that it is non offensive
- If you include your mobile number the answer phone message is clear. Employers don't usually like to be hit with a wall of sound or a funky answer message, your best bet is to leave it as your standard network operator’s voicemail message.
Application Forms
Some places won’t ask for a CV but give you a form to fill out. Most of the info will be stuff you’d include on a CV - education details, previous employment, and skills. They also tend to ask specific questions like why you want to work for them. Take time and think about the answer and although all employers appreciate honesty you can’t stick 'because I need the cash' as your answer!
Covering letters
Some places require a covering letter which should included. In your letter try to say:
- Where you saw the job advertised.
- Why you are interested in the position/what you could gain if you got the job.
- What you could offer them. This is the perfect opportunity to drop a line like ‘I’ve always been interested in your company/service you provide and feel I could...’
- Tell them what you’ve enclosed (if posting) or attached (if emailing) - ’I have attached a copy of my CV and completed application form’.
If you're are still stuck, young people are welcome to use the Connexion's public computers to compose and store CVs, with assistance from experienced staff and they can offer you guidelines to draw up your own CV.
Kingston Connexions Centre
Argyll House
23 Brook Street
Kingston upon Thames KT1 2BN
Email:kingston@cfbt.com
Tel: 0208 082 6840