Nov
24
If you don’t have a degree and you worry about how this will look on your CV, then don’t worry, because you will be able to create a really good CV, even if you don’t have a degree. But you need a CV because lots of online recruitment agencies will want you to post a CV online, so you can’t put off writing one forever!
Due to the fact that so many people have a degree these days, employers are now often looking for different skills and attributes. They want people who can show creativity, assertiveness willingness to learn and the ability to apply themselves. So instead of thinking ‘Oh I haven’t got a degree, so I am unemployable’ think about what you have got. Do you have any hobbies or interests that you can include on your CV? Hobbies that demonstrate creativity could include painting, sketching, sewing, crafts, card making and so on. If you don’t have a creative hobby, start one, but make sure that you include it on your CV.
Don’t lie on your CV, but include other experience apart from education. Do you belong to any groups? If so include these on your CV. Have you undertaken any voluntary work? Do you care for pets, or have you done babysitting? If you have children of your own, then include some of the skills that parenthood brings, such as coping with responsibility, organisational skills etc. Even if you don’t have children, but run your own house, then this also brings with it budgetary skills etc.
Include whatever work experience you have, even if it is not directly related to the field of work that you wish to enter now, since employers may be looking for someone who will be willing to try their hand at everything and they like people who are forward thinking and willing to embrace change, so include statements like these to help make your CV stand out from everyone else’s.
Finally, use a spellchecker to ensure that your CV has no spelling errors and that it does not contain any grammatical errors. Then when your CV is finished you will find that any recruitment agency you approach will probably be very impressed.
Nov
24
Create a Better Covering Letter
Filed Under Applying For Jobs | Leave a Comment
When you send in your CV to a company or a recruitment agency, then you should include a covering letter, explaining that you have included your CV and that you hope they have a position for you to apply for or that they will keep your details on file if they do not etc.
The covering letter is the first thing that an employer or recruitment agency will see, so you need to make sure that it presents you in the best possible light. You need to ensure that yours is a little bit different from all the others that employers see, injecting a little of your personality into the letter, but don’t go over the top when it comes to being funny.
First of all make sure that your covering letter is polite. This may seem obvious, but often the letter is presented in terms of the applicant doing the employer a favour. If this is how your covering letter reads, then it may well end up, with your CV, being filed in the bin!
Always ensure that your letter has no spelling errors and that it reads well. If you are unsure about this, then ask a family member or a friend to read it for you and tell you whether or not it is well written. The letter should be quite warm in tone, but also relatively formal. You are not sending a text to a friend: you are enclosing your CV, which is an important document.
Make a brief reference to your CV in the letter and highlight some of the main skills, experience and work experience that you have. Be brief and do not simply copy chunks from your CV. The covering letter should be a way of summarising your experience and just drawing some positive attention to you, not giving chapter and verse of your history to date.
Finally, if you are posting a hard copy of your CV and covering letter, then remember that it may need extra postage, due to its size or weight, so take it into the Post Office and ensure it has the correct postage attached!
Nov
24
Scared of Change?
Filed Under Career Change | Leave a Comment
Are you sacred of change? Are you stuck in a dead end job with little or no prospects of promotion or even a pleasant work environment? Have you lost all your confidence and feel that dreadful though your current position is, it is certainly better than taking positive steps to getting a new job?
Well, if you are then you need to think very carefully about just what is scaring you? Is it rejection or the fear of rejection? Do you feel worried that a new job will be as bad as this one? Or are you scared that you may actually realise your true potential? After all, if you stay in a dead end job, then you could have been anything, if only you had moved. You could have been a brain surgeon, rocket scientist or celebrity chef, but you just never got round to moving on.
But you could move jobs and find out that you will never be a brain surgeon or rocket scientist and that the world will never rock to the rhythm that you create. Yet on the other hand, you could try a new job and find that you enjoy it, that you get on with your colleagues and you no longer wish to be a brain surgeon or whatever. You may simply find that you are contented with your life and you have achieved a really good balance between work and home.
And isn’t it better to have tried something new rather than just stay stuck where you are? After all isn’t that part of the human condition? We need to adapt and to change or else humankind would still be living in caves, hunting daily for food.
Even if you apply for something and don’t get it, you can still learn from that experience and go on to get another, better opening, so there is nothing to be lost from trying to secure a new position. You may even enjoy the new challenge!
So don’t give up hope of getting something better. If you don’t feel that you have the confidence to radically alter your career just at the moment, then why not sign up with a recruitment agency, so that they can match your skills with available positions, thereby giving you that little extra boost of confidence. Then just enjoy the process of change, rather than being scared by it!
Nov
24
Interview Phobia
Filed Under Interviews | Leave a Comment
Many if not most people are really scared of interviews. Ok we have all seen people who arrive for interview and seem to ooze confidence, treating the whole process as if it is just a case of breezing in, having a chat and then breezing out again. But these people are definitely the minority: most people find the whole process daunting. But to some people it is more than daunting, it is absolutely petrifying and they have a genuine phobia about interviews and this can hold the back in life!
So what do you do? Stay terrified and just hope that people offer you a job, or take action to help yourself? Well the second option will definitely be the most productive! First of all prepare for interviews. Research the company, think about what questions they will ask you, try to have some answers prepared so that you can be less nervous when it comes to the actual interview day.
Plan what you will wear and make sure that it is clean and ironed the day before interview at the latest. Then bear in mind that an interview is as much about you interviewing them as them interviewing you: after all, you may not like them, so think about what you want to ask them and what questions you will put to them.
Breathe deeply on the morning of the interview to calm you down. Always take a breath in, for a count of 8, then hold for a count of 6, then breathe out to a count of 11. The out breath has to be longer than the in breath. This slows your heart rate down and calms you down. Sometimes it is hard to believe this, but it is proven that this is the case.
Remember that you have many skills to offer and although you feel scared and have a sense of fear and anxiety about interviews, remember that this is about work, it is a job; nothing personal, so don’t treat it as being personal.
Finally, it may also be worth setting up some informal interviews with representatives from a recruitment agency, who may be able to help you secure that perfect job, whilst honing up your interview skills at the same time!
Nov
24
Do You Hate Your Job?
Filed Under Career Change | Leave a Comment
Do you wake in the morning with a sense of dread about what lies ahead of you? Do you feel that you are almost invisible at work and that no-one listens to you or pays you any attention? Perhaps you feel undervalued at work?
There are lots of ways in which work can get you down and there are lots of different people giving different advice about how you can defend yourself or how you can speak up for yourself and make sure that your working conditions get better.
But there are times when it has to be said that all the meetings, agreements, plans or changes in the workplace simply will not make any real difference and if you feel this way then it is probably time to start looking for a new job.
Often people may experience bullying at the hands of the office bully and part of them thinks that the bullying should stop and that they will not leave their job. This is of course true, but sometimes, it is important that you do what is right for you and if that is leaving the office bully to it and going off to pastures new, which potentially will be much better, then so be it, leave the weak bully and sign up with a recruitment agency and get yourself a better job.
Some people may say that is cowardice. Some people may say that it is wrong to leave bad behaviour unpunished. But if you are waking up each morning with a sense of dread and fear about work, then it is time to go before they sap all your energy and confidence. You are worth more than being subjected to someone stripping you of your spirit! So reach for the stars and leave the petty bullies to their petty games.