Tuesday 21 September 2010

CV and Covering Letter - feedback from Careers Adviser

I sent my CV and covering letter to the Imperial College Careers Advisory Service and got some (good!) feedback as follows...
Your CV
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This looks really nice - it's well structured, well presented, looks good, easy to read and communicates all the relevant information. Well done. I'd only have some very minor suggestions that might enhance this.

1) You've put a line across the page each time before your heading, and you could consider using this line underneath your heading - the overall effect would be the same and it would still divide up your information into easily recognisable sections.

2) I'd also suggest losing the very heavy lines at the top and bottom. A very effective way for setting out your information could be to use your name (as you have) in the centre, but also centre all the other information, with your address in one/two line(s) followed by the other information. Sub-headings like 'email' or 'address' are not needed - this is self-explanatory.

3) for your Education section, consider losing the gaps after A-levels and GCSEs. Creating a different 'block' is making the eyeline jump across when reading.

4) Career History: this could be divided up into two sections: 'Technology Employment' and 'Other Employment' and then you could structure the work experience within these sections. Also, you need to add a job title for each of these entries and the place, e.g. city (or country). Consider moving some of this info to page 2, as you've got it all squashed up on page one leaving a big gap at the bottom of page 2. Aim for two well- balanced pages.

5) I would also suggest providing more information for your work experience. You've got one bullet point for Tessela - consider using another with a bit more info about what was involved in building this system - did you work on your own or in a team? Did you communicate with anyone - had meetings, liased etc. also, did you have a deadline to work to? Consider giving some insight into the transferrable skills you've used. Same with Argugrid. How did you participate- what did you do?

6) Teacher Training Agency - this is also a bit vague - what were your tasks? You were in charge of a team, but what did your team do? If you were in charge of teaching - did you teach yourself? Consider including planning lessons, developing excellent communication skills and interpersonal skills (?) - if appropriate.

7) Overall, aim for around 3 bullet points of info about your work - the reader needs to understand what you did, what was involved/e.g. how you did it and what you learned from that, e.g. skills developed. You've got plenty of space left at the bottom, so that's fine.

8) the last two sections could usefully be changed. Normally, it's SKILLS & TRAINING after your work experience. This is about hard skills, e.g. your IT skills and languages, also the first aid course, but could include driving licence or any other courses you've attended. For languages, give some indication about how well you speak/write Urdu, Punjabi and Arabic.

9) your last section could be Interests and Achievements. Consider using sub-heading to organise this information. You could use the information from your current skills/interests section and copy over the sports. Travel could be useful, but then state where you've travelled to, how long - mention development of language skills, adaptability and insight into other cultures, if you've travelled extensively. Make it useful for the employer.

Overall, this is a great CV - well done!

Your covering letter
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This is a great start, but could be expanded. Ideally you would also need to include some information about what you have to offer the company. You've talked about your degree, but you need to include information about your work experience, team working and communication skills - ideally making reference to the skills required for the role you're applying for and giving evidence - where have you used those skills already? The application is about what you have to offer them, so this is important. Your penultimate paragraph needs to give information about what you want to work for that company.

... Made changes accordingly. Didn't make all the changes. Might need to return to this later if job applications are not going well. Let's see.

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