Career Advice

Once you have found a job vacancy that you want to apply for, the top tips below will help you compose a covering letter and make the most of your skills, qualifications and experience as you compile a CV.

Career advice: covering letters

A covering letter is sent with either a CV or application form and is usually the first thing that is read, so while it isn’t hugely important in the total communication regarding a job, you can fall at the first hurdle if isn’t done properly.

As with any communication, a covering letter is an expression of your brand, i.e. you, so think about how you want to come across and what you want to convey.

Here are some guidelines which will help you to write a good covering letter:

· If sending by post, use good quality paper
· If sending via email, use tables without borders to keep the copy tidy and prevent it moving around or going onto a second page when sent to a different computer/operating system
· Create a headline with the job reference number and/or job title so that they are immediately clear about what it is referring to
· The letter should be short, to the point and clear
· If possible, find out the person’s name rather than putting ‘Sir/Madam’ and remember to use the correct sign off before your signature, i.e. ‘Yours sincerely’ if you use their name or ‘Yours faithfully’ if you can’t source their name and need to use Sir/Madam
· Use 12-point size copy and a normal, “non-wacky”, typeface
· Remember to check the spelling and grammar using spellchecker and have plenty of space rather than it feeling crowded. Use paragraph 1.5 lines in Word
· Refer to the advert/job specification and pull out the most salient points to refer to when you specify how you meet these criteria
· Unless you are asked to do a hand-written covering letter, create one using a computer
· Show enthusiasm for the job advertised and illustrate your knowledge of position/company
· Offer to provide additional information and make sure that you put your relevant contact details, i.e. a phone number that you can speak freely on and an email that is confidential to you. Put your contact details on the letter, either at the top of the page or in the footer
· Be positive and never be negative about your current employer or job, or your potential employer may fear that you will do the same in the future about them
· At the end of the letter, put Enc. and list what you are sending with the letter, e.g. a CV, references or an application form.

Career advice: Your CV

Your CV is a very important document. It is a summary of who you are, where you've worked, and it needs to convince the reader very quickly to read on beyond the first page and that you are worth investing more of their time in. Its main objective is to gain you an interview and its second objective is to give an initial impression of you as a brand.

As someone working in the marketing and communications field, remember the skills that you apply to brands can also be applied to yourself, so keep your objective in mind and create a strategy and plan for your CV.

In an ideal world, your CV would be targeted 100% to each individual job, but lack of time can prevent this.

A good CV:

Is no more than three pages in length
Its content and style is targeted to your target audience, i.e. the interviewer(s)
Its design/layout matches your target employer/profession, i.e. modern if modern, traditional if traditional
Says enough without saying too much
It needs to convey both what makes you different or better than your competitors, and give an indication about your ‘brand' character

Common mistakes on CVs

Putting the education section first
Not putting the most recent information e.g. jobs and qualifications first
Making it too long/wordy so the reader switches off
Having too much detail about what you do in your job, rather than how you've added value
Including references
Not giving enough thought to the design and font used
Lying/exaggerating your role

Tips to create a good CV:

Create a clear and consistent structure using tables/borders/different sized fonts or bold/underline/italics for headings
Put the key information on the first page, i.e. your name and address; paragraph summary about your years' experience and achievements and initiatives.
Unless you have under five years experience, put where you've worked and what you've done further back in a tidy format
Include training and other information such as hobbies to give a flavour of you the person
Don't repeat information - summarise your core skills
Think about what you want the reader to feel and think and then design your CV to elicit this response
Use action words and data on £ budgets, % increases etc to build evidence e.g. achieved, initiated etc
Get feedback from people you know and trust; recruitment agencies and interviewers can also provide useful pointers
If posting, use good quality paper; if emailing, send a PDF to keep the design intact.