Advice and tips for people applying for jobs

yep - i have had to read CV'S lately and binned a fair few for your reasons.
Can i just say that unless you want to waste your own time do not send more than 2 pages - cut out waffle - the "conference attended" section is a waste of space. I would much rather see someone spend time and energy on listing what they see as their attributes and my gain for hiring them is. Tailoring a cv for the job is a must.
 
A friend is looking for "an experienced manager to run an off licence". Fairly straightforward I would have thought. Some of the cvs handed in just list name, contact details, work experience and hobbies - no mention of any experience in either management or with off licences! One person even had experience in retail but didn't link this back to how it would apply to running an off licence. I think it is very important to tailor each application to the specific job advertised. And to emphasise anything that might be useful. And if you don't have any relevant experience at all to say something in the cover letter about how you've always had an interest in the area.
 
hi everyone

I recently applied for a school secretarial job and have been lucky enough to get an interview. (had a tailor made letter and cv!!!!).

The problem is that I have a holiday booked for last week of June first week of July.

I feel that I should mention this, with an I hope it doesnt disqualify me sentence, but have been advised not to until I am offered the job as it may go against me.

The problem is that I would prefer to be upfront and honest about it.

I cant cancel or change the holiday as we are taking my parents and meeting an aunt of mine whose husband died last year and they are all so excited about it!

What should I do?

Thanks!
 
I don't understand? Is the interview date clashing with your holiday?

If it isn't, just do the interview as normal; there's no reason for you to mention holidays until you have accepted the job offer and your new employer wants to confirm your start date. At which point you say I will be available to start on xxth of July, simple as that.
 
Hello,

There really needs to be some form of regulation or perhaps a "name and shame" website available, where everyone can see how recruitment agencies are behaving, what individual experiences have been like etc.

One particular Dublin based agency has recently run an advert for a position which is for a small, but very high profile employer, who are not actually hiring. The role in question was filled approx 8 months ago. The Dublin based agency claim it's a mistake and the role should not have been advertised, but the same mistake has appeared on their own website and two independent jobs websites. While I cannot prove it, I am quite sure this is not the first time they have advertised positions that are not available.

Another Dublin agency has recently advertised a role, but while three telephone messages have been left for the recruiter named as the point of contact, there has been no returned call over a period of approx 5 days (despite the telephone number being left each time with a receptionist, voicemail being available etc.).

Both of the above are well established, well known recruiters. In each case, it's relatively senior staff at the recruitment agency in question, who are involved.

I am sure there are good and bad agents everywhere, but until something is done (perhaps by the industry itself), the recruitment business is going to continue to have a very bad name.
 
My problem with recruitment agencies is that they don't understand the industry I am in. There have been many occasions over the years when we have looked to staff through agencies and not once have they found suitable people. If you don't know a product then you can't sell it properly. That applies to service providers as well as everyone else.
 
I agree it's a good post. Apologies this will be a bit random, but I have a job.

I receive in excess of 50 C.V's a week for 'a position' in your organisation. What position, is it a nurse, a doctor , a cleaner, a typist..... who knows? I don't have the time to decide for you.

Nor do I have the time to ring you to hear very flexible but once you're hired you would prefer a Monday to Friday 9-5 job. Please stop telling lies.

If you want to insert a cover letter, don't insert a cover email with a totally different paragraph to your cover letter. This means the C.V., the cover letter and email has to be printed down. This means someone has to read all of these, I'm not big on cover letters/cover emails btw.

Please just send in a well written C.V.

I was taught that you need to have two spaces after a full stop and one space after a comma. I don't get too bothered about a small grammar/spelling mistakes (we all rely on the red line too much) because you can't be cutting off your nose to spite your face.


That said the lack of paragraphs drives me insane as it makes it much harder to follow/read. I put that down to the twitter/text age we live in.

To the OP, you will be receiving C.V's from people who really don't want the job, but want to show the SW they are actively looking for work. One of the reasons I get so many C.V's is we acknowledge all C.V's.

Other things that wing me up:

My health is excellent, everyone thinks that.

I am hard worker, everyone thinks that.

Recruitment companies, they would sell their granny 2 or 3 times over. The better ones admits to that. I am happy that in my 15 years of recruitment, I have never met one of them for lunch/dinner to discuss my recruitment needs.

That's what I like application forms.
 
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becky said:
I was taught that you need to have two spaces after a full stop and one space after a comma.
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Double spacing only came in with, and largely went out with typewriters. Common advice to older job applicants is to avoid using the double spacing they learned on typewriters where they don't want to give away their age.
 
Here's another one....

I've recently been told that CVs are now to be written in the third person, is that correct ?
 
ssm said:
hi everyone

I recently applied for a school secretarial job and have been lucky enough to get an interview. (had a tailor made letter and cv!!!!).

The problem is that I have a holiday booked for last week of June first week of July.

I feel that I should mention this, with an I hope it doesnt disqualify me sentence, but have been advised not to until I am offered the job as it may go against me.

The problem is that I would prefer to be upfront and honest about it.

I cant cancel or change the holiday as we are taking my parents and meeting an aunt of mine whose husband died last year and they are all so excited about it!

What should I do?

Thanks!
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I don't see the need to mention it at interview, unless you are asked. If so, tell the truth.
 
Leo said:
Double spacing only came in with, and largely went out with typewriters. Common advice to older job applicants is to avoid using the double spacing they learned on typewriters where they don't want to give away their age.
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I have used MS Word from 1997 and it has been 2 spaces after a full stop for me and 1 space after a comma. This is how I have written any text for academic or professional purposes.

Chronological CVs showing college and employment periods are obviously the real age indicators.
 
Advice from a cynical person approaching full retirement:- Before you issue any covering letter, CV, etc if you have any contacts anywhere within or without the company in which you intend to work use them. Other applicants who can, will. Do not believe in fair play, best person for the job, etc. It's the Contacts, Stupid!

If you are naive enough not to take the above seriously, well best of luck to you.
 
STEINER said:
Chronological CVs showing college and employment periods are obviously the real age indicators.
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Wonder does that vary from industry to industry, 99% of what I see in IT use chronological order, including every grad or recently qualified applicant.
 
For me it's about putting a bit of time and thought into the cv and cover letter depending on the job. I'm not overly concerned about direct relevant experience, but look at the job descriptions and the skills they ask for (as long as they aren't that awful HR/Management/Business nonsense speak). When giving a brief overview of your work experience focus in on the aspects of your job that match or relate to the skills they're asking for (even if in a slightly different environment).

It'll depend on the field you're applying for, but I prefer work experience first and a concise overview of each job that shows application and practical skill development and use of the skills I'm asking for.

Academic qualifications can be at the end and just bullet points. On this I'm more interested in post grad learning relating to skills and job. Plus if you've gone through college, I'll assume you did ok in school, so don't need leaving cert or school details. The outside interests...I'm not bothered or interested to be honest, but I know some employers are.

For the cover letter, again shortish...about three paragraphs if you can, but give a bit more detail and colour to the work experience and how it matches skills I want and the job.

Tailoring the cv and cover letter shows you've read the detail and done some research about the job rather than just firing out generic cvs, but also highlights your competence for the role rather than just being another in the pile with the same qualifications and similar work experience.

One last important thing...get the cv and cover letter proof read if you can. Please. When dealing with piles of applications, its easy to come up with reasons to reject people and get the pile down a bit. Bad grammar, etc, it just gives us a chance to put you in the no pile. The application is your first chance to get my attention and impress, you wouldn't turn up to an interview in a tatty track suit, so put the same effort into smartening up your cv and letter to be well -written and relevant to the job.
 
Agree with tailoring the CV. Also provide a short summary at the start. Don't focus on qualifications unless you are a first or 2nd jobber or unless you are stressing how you have kept your skills up to date. Focus on what you have delivered. Make any management speak appropriate and be careful with jargon, don't assume the person reading it can understand it. If I can't understand it, it goes in the reject pile.

Check your Twitter and Facebook feeds and make sure nothing inappropriate is in there, if the company is serious about you, they may check. Likewise update your LinkedIn profile
get previous colleagues to recommend you on there (every little helps). Check your voice mail, I rang someone to offer him a job once, his VM was rude and foul mouthed so instead of a job offer he got a PFO. I'd lost confidence in his professionalism

Research the job, the company and the person interviewing you.
 
thedaddyman said:
Check your voice mail, I rang someone to offer him a job once, his VM was rude and foul mouthed so instead of a job offer he got a PFO. I'd lost confidence in his professionalism.
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Are you Roy Keane ?
(As the manager of Sunderland, I believe, he rang up a player to check see if the player (MOTD occasional panellist) would play. The call went through to voicemail ..... 'WHAAAAAATSAAAAAPPPPPP?' ['What's up?']. Roy hung up without leaving a message and reported later that you couldn't take seriously someone with that kind of voice-mail !)
 
Agencies and career coaches vary with what they say the CV should have. I have met with a good career coach recently. Chronological CV is fine, just with a job from 10-30 years ago, a one-liner is sufficient, especially if you have had multiple jobs or roles since then. Functional CV which omits dates and highlights your relevant skills to the organisation and your qualifications is an ok option also. Strictly 2 pages. Its all about your skills and how you can add value to the employer. Transferable skills and adaptability are important as well as a cultural fit between employee and organisation.

CVs or application forms may not be read by a person in large organisations. The HR software will search for keywords and the applicant needs to hit those buzzwords mentioned in the job spec to even reach human eyes.
 
Latrade said:
Plus if you've gone through college, I'll assume you did ok in school, so don't need leaving cert or school details.
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I never put my school results cos I was a mature student which is just as well as my Leaving cert was atrocious.
 
elcato said:
I never put my school results cos I was a mature student which is just as well as my Leaving cert was atrocious.
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LOL. Mine was quite good, its just it was so long ago! no A1, B1, plain old A/B/C etc

I had a public sector interview recently and I had to "fill out a form" for the interview and page 1 needed my leaving cert subjects and grades which after several third level and professional qualifications I struggled to remember the relevant details. Saddo that I am, I still have the handwritten results from the school on results day to assist me.

I never mention my LC year or LC or my school on my CV.

I am aware of a tech company that requires a minimum 2.1 preferably 1.1 degree in maths/finance/physics etc, at least 450 LC points and breakdown of such from graduates or maybe even developers with little experience, as if a 2.1/1.1 wasn't proof of academic record.
 
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