#job tips
Right now, I’m sifting through 50+ applications for a new entry-level position. Here’s some advice from the person who will actually be looking at your CV/resume and cover letter:
- ‘You must include a cover letter’ does not mean ‘write a single line about why you want this position’. If you can’t be bothered to write at least one actual paragraphs about why you want this job, I can’t be bothered to read your CV.
- Don’t bother including a list of your interests if all you can think of is ‘socialising with friends’ and ‘listening to music’. Everyone likes those things. Unless you can explain why the stuff you do enriches you as a person and a candidate (e.g. playing an instrument or a sport shows dedication and discipline) then I honestly don’t care how you spend your time. I won’t be looking at your CV thinking ‘huh, they haven’t included their interests, they must have none’, I’m just looking for what you haveincluded.
- Even if you apply online, I can see the filename you used for your CV. Filenames that don’t include YOUR name are annoying. Filenames like ‘CV - media’ tell me that you’ve got several CVs you send off depending on the kind of job advertised and that you probably didn’t tailor it for this position. ‘[Full name] CV’ is best.
- USE. A. PDF. All the meta information, including how long you worked on it, when you created it, times, etc, is right there in a Word doc. PDFs are far more professional looking and clean and mean that I can’t make any (unconscious or not) decisions about you based on information about the file.
- I don’t care what the duties in your previous unrelated jobs were unless you can tell me why they’re useful to this job. If you worked in a shop, and you’re applying for an office job which involves talking to lots of people, don’t give me a list of stuff you did, write a sentence about how much you enjoyed working in a team to help everyone you interacted with and did your best to make them leave the shop with a smile. I want to know what makes you happy in a job, because I want you to be happy within the job I’m advertising.
- Does the application pack say who you’ll be reporting to? Can you find their name on the company website? Address your application to them. It’s super easy and shows that you give enough of a shit to google something. 95% of people don’t do this.
- Tell me who you are. Tell me what makes you want to get up in the morning and go to work and feel fulfilled. Tell me what you’re looking for, not just what you think I’m looking for.
- I will skim your CV. If you have a bunch of bullet points, make every one of them count. Make the first one the best one. If it’s not interesting to you, it’s probably not interesting to me. I’m overworked and tired. Make my job easy.
- “I work well in a team or individually” okay cool, you and everyone else. If the job means you’ll be part of a big team, talk about how much you love teamwork and how collaborating with people is the best way to solve problems. If the job requires lots of independence, talk about how you are great at taking direction and running with it, and how you have the confidence to follow your own ideas and seek out the insight of others when necessary. I am profoundly uninterested in cookie-cutter statements. I want to know how you actually work, not how a teacher once told you you should work.
- For an entry-level role, tell me how you’re looking forward to growing and developing and learning as much as you can. I will hire genuine enthusiasm and drive over cherry-picked skills any day. You can teach someone to use Excel, but you can’t teach someone to give a shit. It makes a real difference.
This is my advice for small, independent orgs like charities, etc. We usually don’t go through agencies, and the person reading through the applications is usually the person who will manage you, so it helps if you can give them a real sense of who you are and how you’ll grab hold of that entry level position and give it all you’ve got. This stuff might not apply to big companies with actual HR departments - it’s up to you to figure out the culture and what they’re looking for and mirror it. Do they use buzzwords? Use the same buzzwords! Do they write in a friendly, informal way? Do the same! And remember, 95% of job hunting (beyond who you know and flat-out nepotism, ugh) is luck. If you keep getting rejected, it’s not because you suck. You might just need a different approach, or it might just take the right pair of eyes landing on your CV.
And if you get rejected, it’s worthwhile asking why. You’ve already been rejected, the worst has already happened, there’s really nothing bad that can come out of you asking them for some constructive feedback (politely, informally, “if it isn’t too much trouble”). Pretty much all of us have been hopeless jobseekers at one point or another. We know it’s shitty and hard and soul-crushing. Friendliness goes a long way. Even if it’s just one line like “your cover letter wasn’t inspiring" at least you know where to start.
And seriously, if you have any friends that do any kind of hiring or have any involvement with that side of things, ask them to look at your CV with a big red pen and brutal honesty. I do this all the time, and the most important thing I do is making it so their CV doesn’t read exactly like that of every other person who took the same ‘how-to-get-a-job’ class in school. If your CV has a paragraph that starts with something like ‘I am a highly motivated and punctual individual who–’ then oh my god I AM ALREADY ASLEEP.
Very good post thanks for this.
Excellent advice for building and submitting job application documents.
This is the first good resume advice post I’ve seen on this site. Much better advice than the “lists of active verbs to use” and “here are resume templates”. Follow this advice.
Just remember that every place is different. This is only one person and their point of view. That said, very excellent advice.
I honestly get a little miffed when people try to put all colleges on the same level and say that it doesn’t matter where you go to college…
OF COURSE IT MATTERS.
If an employer is choosing between two candidates who are EXACTLY the same on paper but one attends Yale (for example) and the other attends a “non-target school”, realistically who do you think they would prefer?
To the people who try to say all colleges are the same: You are being oblivious. I get that people come from different backgrounds (hell, I’m first-generation American & my parents never attended college!) but please don’t discredit people’s accomplishments. Getting into college is an accomplishment, getting into a highly competitive college is an even greater accomplishment. Stop taking away from people’s accomplishments and instead focus on how YOU can better your application.
At the same time, while I personally believe it does matter where you go to college, WHAT you do in college is also important. College is what YOU make of it. If you attend Yale and don’t participate in any organizations and barely pass your classes, um….? Versus a student who went to a small state school who was president of an organization and achieved a 4.0 GPA? I’d hire the latter student, for sure.
Anyway, what if someone went to Yale? Maybe it does make them more marketable. Instead of grouching about it, figure out how you can make YOUR application better than theirs. School name isn’t the ONLY thing employers look for. You cannot change others, only your own mindset. Don’t focus on others, focus on your own growth and what you can do to expand yourself.
What do I think? Self-marketing and branding yourself is HUGE.
Here are my tips to everyone (regardless of whether you attended a “target” school or not):
- Create a website. Include links to your resume, an “about me” section, a contact section etc. You want this website (or your LinkedIn) to be the first thing that pops up if anyone googles you. YOU take control of what people think of you. You really want one of the first Google search results to be from your high school newspaper days where you quoted that you liked the football game? Or do you want to change the narrative and be in control of what’s out there?
- Quantify your accomplishments!!!!!!!!! I mean, I absolutely hate pretentious, braggy folks but um, this is different - quantify your accomplishments on your resume and website. Context is everything.
- NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK. Regardless of what school you attended, there are HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF ALUMNI OUT THERE!!! Having a connection like “Hi I went to CSULB” or “Hi I went to Harvard” is such an EASY opener. People are very prideful of where they went to college and love to help fellow students. Seriously, that “.edu” email is your golden ticket! Use it!
- Join a professional organization. Let’s say you went to a non-target school and you don’t have as many resources as people who went to a target school. Join a professional organization like American Planning Association (example) and instead of saying what college you went to, you say you’re in APA. Now you have a TON of possible fresh connections you can make!
- Do personal projects on the side. Anything that is related to your dream job and that you think can give you an extra boost.
TLDR; EVERYONE (regardless of what school they attended) needs to be on their A-game, get involved on campus, get good grades to maximize their recruitment process. Those who attend “non-target” schools may need to have more initiative and put in more effort (recruiters may not have these schools on their lists, for example), but IT’S NOT THE END OF THE WORLD. THE MOST SUCCESSFUL INDIVIDUALS AREN’T BASED OFF SCHOOL NAME BUT IT’S BASED OFF THEIR INITIATIVE AND AMBITION. (College choice can be indicative of this but not always, obviously.)
