I've just finished reviewing a few dozen CVs and Covering Letters. Almost all of them were awful! Candidates - I beg you - make this easy for me! I have been given a fixed set of scoring criteria and you've given me a 2,000 word essay on your life, loves, and hopes for the future. I've only got a few minutes per candidate to read, digest, rank, and score each application. Here's my 100% guaranteed method for maximising the impact of your cover letter. Address the selection criteria. …
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I was recently asked to look at some advice for new graduates entering the workforce. It was the usual mix of helpful, obvious, and trite. You know the sort - tailor your application to the job specification, make sure your CV is spelled correctly, don't give up, etc. In the middle of it, was this doozy. "Put your application in a gold coloured envelope so it stands out from the crowd!" This struck me as… unusual advice. But I checked against the Twitter hive mind. Terence Eden is on M…
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I hate writing CVs. But I love reading them. I recently had the chance to review applications for some fairly senior positions at work. I'd like to talk about some of the common - and downright weird - mistakes people make on them. I promise you these are all real - only lightly adjusted for privacy. Hopefully they'll help you realise that even senior people make mistakes. Bring your whole self to work... but not like that! A candidate with the email address of "ChunkyFudgeLover@....."…
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I regularly get contacted by recruitment consultants. Even though I'm very happy in my job right now (Hi Boss!) I usually don't mind being contacted. However, after having just had a particularly disturbing encounter with a recruiter, I thought it might be worth stating these rules up front. These are personal to me - but I expect they apply pretty broadly to most people. Don't email my work address. Tell me who your client is up front. Don't lie to me. Don't alter my CV.…
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