There are many awkward moments in life: having toilet paper stuck to your shoe; apologising to a mannequin when you walk into them after not looking up from your phone; wearing slippers to university! But have you ever wanted to ask an employer for a part time job and turned in your Year 10 CV? Or have you been in an interview and not known what to say? Or has your mentor asked for your LinkedIn username and you haven’t known what LinkedIn even is?! Now those are some awkward moments! And even worse, they could impact your career!

So, how does one avoid these problems? Well, my best advice for you is to get prepared! Your CV is the first thing employers look at and on average they spend 6 seconds (6 SECONDS!) looking at it! So if it’s full of spelling mistakes, has lots of distracting pictures or graphics, or simply has the wrong information – then your CV is going to end up in the bin! Some tips and tricks of how to avoid the horrible bin fate are:

• It should be no longer than an A4 page, two at a push!
• Include your contact details at the top so the employers can easily find how to contact you if they’re interested!
• DON’T include a picture, useless you’re applying for a modelling job!
• Include a personal profile – this is placed at the start of your CV and consists of a concise statement of all of your key skills and achievements!
• Include your education with the most recent first!
• List your work experience in chronological order, or include those most relevant to the job! Keep the description brief and include all of the achievements and skills you gained during the experience!
• References – you don’t need to include references, but make sure you put ‘references available upon request’!

 

Everyone finds interviews scary! So don’t worry if you’re nervous! Employers expect you to be! In fact, employers prefer a nervous interviewee that tries to answer all of the questions, than a cocky, over-confident interviewee who appears to not care whether he/she gets the job or not! My best advice is to first of all breathe, and remember that the people interviewing you are human too! They’ve probably been in your position before and understand that you’re terrified! Here are some more helpful tips!

• Remember it’s okay for you to ask them to repeat the question – they’d rather you ask to repeat the question than give an answer that doesn’t make sense!
• If you can’t answer a question, don’t make something up, but then don’t say nothing! For instance, if they’ve asked you what research you’ve done during your degree but you haven’t done any research, say that you have other skills that can be applied to research, such as time management or computer skills!
• Be presentable and professional! Don’t turn up to an interview in jeans and t-shirt!
• Be positive! Even if you screw up all of the questions, they might find your skills invaluable!
• Be clear and concise! It’s okay to stumble over your words but make sure the employers can hear you and allow yourself time to think of an answer!
• Have good body language! Fake it until you make it! If you’re not confident, pretend to be! Give a firm handshake, sit up straight, smile and retain eye contact! These “faking it” techniques might even convince yourself that you are confident!
• Tell yourself you can do this! It’s no good going into an interview if you think you can’t get through it. You are good enough and you can get that job!

 

LinkedIn isn’t new, but now employers are using it to find prospective employees and connect with other businesses. If you don’t know what LinkedIn is, it’s basically a professional social media. You make a profile that looks similar to an online CV, and then you connect with people who you’ve either worked with, been in university with or see as a potential employer! A great advantage of LinkedIn is that other people can recommend your skills! For example, if you’ve worked part time in a local café and state that you have great communication skills; the owner of the café can endorse that skill! It’s a great way to network online! So you can talk to employers even before you apply to their job! LinkedIn is a great tool for getting a job so make sure you’ve had a look at the website and set yourself up an account, it’s free!

Now you have lots of tips, you cannot be unprepared! So go out there and get that job!

 

By Charlotte Brindley | Careers Ambassador | YSJ