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 have included.
- 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.
As a hiring manager, fuuuuck, man. This is fucking good advice. Also I do not give a shit if you won a writing competition in the sixth grade.
One of my favorite quotes about writing. Don’t hoard. Give it now. (Image by @bucketsiler)
Ooh, this is such an amazing prompt opener. I wish you would write a fic where Jyn and Cassian stay up all night together for some reason. Curious how you’d write them sleep deprived but also together.
Thanks so much for the prompt!
Here goes…
“There has never been ‘permanent peace’ in human history. But, there have been plenty of ages with decades of peace. In short, my hope is, haughtily enough, for a few decades of peace in the future.” – Legend of Galactic Heroes
2 ABY, Felucian Jungle
When they started, they tried to be smart about this. They reasoned that if they had to be walking through the night, their best bet was to pace themselves, stay alert for rancors and gelagrubs and troopers, and reach the tiny port by daylight before the last transport off planet for months. With the imperial presence on Felucia what it was, the Alliance couldn’t risk sending in another ship for them.
Of course, they originally meant to make the journey during the day, but after a scuffle and hasty retreat from their last place of residence (involving a bartender with an eye for bad credit lines, the head of an amateur militia, and a very angry tee-muss), they were delayed and had no choice but to walk through the night.
Jyn supposes the one advantage is that it’s much cooler at night, and she feels somewhat more energized without the humidity of the day closing in around her.
But that’s the only advantage. Hiking through the jungle in the dead of night is mostly just miserable, their headlamps bobbing ahead at the never-ending path to the spaceport, always too many klicks away.
The plan at first is to rest every two hours, but the trail turns steep ten minutes in and they find themselves stopped after one, breathing heavily and swatting at flies.
“How’re your ribs?” she said. She turned her head so her lamp is on Cassian’s face, hoping he won’t lie if she can see him. She’s right, or maybe he decides it’s not worth it at this point.
“They hurt.” He shrugs and his hand creeps up to rub the right side of his chest, where the tee-muss clipped him in the village. “But I don’t think they’re broken.”
“Good.” Jyn nods and turns away, hoping he won’t ask–
“Your shoulder?”
“Nothing’s broken.” Not a lie, but she definitely pulled something, or several somethings. It throbs with every step and doubts she’ll make it through the night without any sort of painkiller, but she won’t admit that yet.
Cassian accepts her answer and settles his gaze on the trail ahead. “Ready to continue?”
Jyn re-adjusts her pack. “Whenever you are.”
When they stop at hour two, Cassian actually puts down his pack and leans against a tree, adjusting the clothes sticking to his skin.
Jyn bounces on her heels with impatience. “Ugh, don’t do that. Then I’ll put down my pack and sit down and then I’ll fall asleep.”
He looks up. “You’re tired?”
“No more than you are.” She glares. It’s the middle of the night and they’re walking through the woods. Of course she’s exhausted. “Come on, let’s just keep going.”
“If we don’t pace ourselves, we won’t make it in time.” He takes measured sips of water from his canteen and makes no move to pick up his pack.
“Fine.” She lets her pack slide to the ground, grunting as the strap slides off her bad shoulder.
Of course, Cassian notices. “Are you sure you don’t need something for that?”
“I’m sure.”
“Jyn.”
“I’ll need it more later,” she snaps.
Cassian’s lips press together in a thin, disapproving line, but he doesn’t say anything.
They stand in silence for the next few minutes, taking small sips of water and catching their breath.
ask meme
tagged by @cynical-harlequin
Rules: Tag 9 people with excellent taste (if you want because I don’t like pressuring people)
Colours I’m currently wearing: purple, blue
Last band t-shirt I bought: I think Dar Wiliams, back when I was in high school. As far as I know, it’s the only one I’ve ever bought. (Actually my mom bought it for me, does it still count?)
Last band I saw live: Other than “Whoever was playing at the local summer festival” I think the last band I went out of my way to see was Las Cafeteras (and I get to see them again in 2019!!!)
Lipstick or chapstick: Chapstick
Last song I listened to: Do My Thing – Estelle
Last movie I watched: Howl’s Moving Castle (and now I want to read the book again).
Last three TV shows I watched: Black Lightning, The Good Place, Patriot Act
Last three characters I identified with: Eddie Brock, Eleanor Shellstrop, Chidi Anagonye
Books I’m reading right now: listening to So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo on audiobook, reading A Girl Like That by Tanaz Bhathena as an ebook, reading Our Mothers’ Sore Expectations by Dr. Kehinde A. Ayeni as a physical book. (And I’ve started reading other books but I put them down because three books at a time is already pushing it.)
tagging @cats-and-metersticks if you want to, and anyone else if you want to, no pressure. (I think the other people I would tag have already answered.)
What would Aragorn have done if that one dark seat at the back of the Prancing Pony was already taken?
If you think Aragorn wasn’t sitting there for hours hogging that table just to make an entrance, I don’t know what to tell you.
my utopia
The drag queen from this photo has spoken up about the photo.
I won’t speak for all liberals, but I’d like to see a future where it isn’t a big deal for a woman in full modesty garb to sit next to a drag queen in NYC. It’s become a bit of a sensation, but her and I were just existing. The freedom to simply be yourself in a sea of people who aren’t like you is a freedom we all deserve.
The central irony is that this isn’t some hypothetical future–it’s just present day reality. This is a picture of two ordinary people going about their normal lives despite how haters want to politicize it lmao. So the underlying message is not “future liberals want” it’s “people conservatives want to eradicate”
the underlying message is not “future liberals want” it’s “people conservatives want to eradicate”
The freedom to simply be yourself in a sea of people who aren’t like you
Rebellions are built on hope 