Careers

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Careers Employment Service

• CVs and Covering Letters
• Heather Christie
• February 2007

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CVs and Career planning

• Effective Applications Marketing
• DOTS Model
• Practical Exercise
• Targeted CVs Checklist
• Covering letters
• Useful resources
• Workshops and employer presentations

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Marketing whats your message?

• How would you advertise this car to males age
  18-25?
• What are the key messages you would use?
• What would be different if your target audience
  was female age 30-45?

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The DOTS Model a process for personal and
professional career development
Where am I now? What do I have to offer?
What is out there? Where do I want to be?
Action, review and development.
How do I get there?
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CV Workshop Exercise

• Task Working in groups of 2 or 3
• You have four CVs to critique (give constructive
  feedback)
• For each CV
• What are your first impressions?
• What are the strengths?
• What are the weaknesses?

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Feedback Jane Bradshaw

• Positive
• Clear headings
• Degree good description
• Industrial placement evidence provided
• Negative
• Large chunks of text difficult to assimilate
• Use of skills based section and activities to
  provide evidence of appropriate skills

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Feedback Jennifer Rogers

• Positive
• Clear headings
• Use of a targeted section relevant skills and
  experience
• Well balanced
• Negative
• Large chunks of text under skills difficult
  to assimilate, repetitive language
• Use of other skills and activities to provide
  evidence of appropriate skills

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Feedback John Cheung

• Positive
• Well balanced and presented
• Useful work experience
• Negative
• Relevant work experience is on second page
• Large chunks of text - could be broken up to
  make it easier to pick out relevant information

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Feedback Brashir Patel

• Positive
• Initial impressions are favourable
• Clear headings
• Work experience skills listed
• Negative
• Packaging of information is this the best way
  to market skills?
• Use of a template - uniqueness?

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Targeted CV checklist

• visual impact professional image 2 sides A4
• consistent design alignment, spacing, fonts
• recent and relevant information on first page
• structured, clearly presented and easy to read
  use headings to guide your reader
• show that you possess the qualities and skills
  required - emphasise the most relevant
• use powerful language action verbs
• attention to detail check for errors and
  spelling mistakes!

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Issues for mature students

• Issues
• Quantity of information and experience
• Gaps
• Non-traditional pre-degree qualifications
• Varied experience
• Perception of employers?

• Suggestions
• Recent and relevant,
• Cluster similar experiences
• Ordering
• Be aware of possible negative stereotypes - show
  wrong
• Date of birth - page 2 or omit
• Be confident about your experience

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Electronic CVs uses and tips

• Uses
• To respond to an internet job
• To display on an internet recruitment database
• To create your own web pages
• Tips
• Follow instructions carefully (could mean using
  standard typefaces and specific codes)
• Ensure skills are stated explicitly

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Different CV styles

• Chronological - most recent first
• Skills based
• Hybrid
• Creative
• For Creative CV examples see
• Creative CV Guide produced by
• Surrey Institute of Art Design

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Getting started

• Carry out a skills audit
• What skills have you developed as a result of
  work experience?
• What skills have you gained from your course?
• What skills have you gained from other aspects of
  your life ie membership of clubs and societies,
  team activities, family life, your community

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What do I have to offer?

• Course representative
• represented fellow students, liased with staff,
  negotiated key changes to level 2 timetable
• Backpacked round Europe
• trip required great deal of organisation, tested
  my ability to plan and budget due to limited
  amount of money, to time keep only had a month
  to travel in and had to reach certain
  destinations at certain times
• Sales Assistant
• developed communication skills through customer
  interaction and dealing with queries in customer
  service department, developed supervisory skills
  through helping to train new members of the team.
  Worked under pressure on food section where speed
  was essential to maintain good business standards

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Social/Recreational activities

• Stamps
• Insects
• Reading

• Drama
• Motorsports
• Rugby

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Social/recreational interests

• Entrepreneur buys and sells
• Journeyed to Mt Kenya on insect expedition
• Frequent visitor of secondhand bookshops and
  enjoys reading and finding old manuscripts

• Stamps
• Insects
• Reading

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Getting started

• Identify your key message/messages
• Research the organisation you are applying to?
  Make sure you have a clear idea of what they are
  looking for?
• Work out how you match up against these
  requirements. Think about your evidence ..
• Decide in what format you wish to present your CV
• Get your CV checked

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Covering letters (1)

• The covering letter is as important as the CV
• Try to write to a named individual using correct
  initials and job title
• Include any relevant details in your letter that
  are not covered in your CV
• Type the letter, unless it stipulates that the
  letter should be hand written
• Use a business style and be concise, 3 4
  paragraphs on one side of A4 paper
• Use the correct form of valediction -Yours
  sincerely or Yours faithfully

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Covering letters (2)

• Responding to an advertisement - use your
  covering letter to emphasise the qualities you
  have to offer, ie explain why you are suitable
  for the position
• Mention something about the organisation that
  indicates why you want to work for them
• A sample covering letter

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CVs - Useful resources

• How to write a CV - University of London
  (Reference copy in Careers Employment Centre)
• The art of building windmills - Dr Peter Hawkins
  (Reference copy in Careers Employment Centre)
• AgCAS Booklet - Making Applications (2005) (Free
  copies available from the Careers Employment
  Centre)

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Careers Employment Service

• STEP programme project based vacation work
  experience www.step.org.uk
• Search for specialist recruitment agencies
• http//rec.bucksnet.co.uk/search

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Contact details

• Careers Employment Service
• Purple Door
• University of Portsmouth
• 28 Guildhall Walk
• Portsmouth PO1 2DD
• Tel [phone]
• www.port.ac.uk/careers

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Careers Employment Centre

• Information free literature reference material
• Careers programme of workshops
• Graduate recruitment directories
• Online Services
• Duty advisory sessions individual guidance
• Organised employer events and workshops

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Purple Door Recruitment

• New service available for UoP students and
  graduates
• Offers variety of voluntary, p/t and f/t
  positions
• Can also help with work experience and placements
• Vacancies www.port.ac.uk/lookup
• Email purpledoor.recruitment_at_port.ac.uk
• Tel [phone]