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Some tips for my students about cvs and interviews

As requested by some of my students I'm setting out a few ideas here about cvs and interviews. Please note all the usual caveats - I don't claim expertise or accept liability and of course I have been in breach of these tips myself in the past! This is a big subject and I can't set out all aspects of it here but of course I am happy to assist any of my students with specific queries. Consider everyone's suggestions and decide what works for you. Anyway with all appropriate disclaimers my tips are as follows -

Applying for jobs

Don't start work until you are the end of your studies - taking on full time employment can mean that your course never gets finished

Put together a good general cv

A good general cv should be written firmly from the viewpoint of how it is going to read to an employer. It might look like this:

Personal details - name, email, mobile phone, address, date of birth, nationality are fairly standard. I'd suggest that you use a fairly sober email address based on your name and initials- I have seen job applications by people with email addresses like criminal@... and getrichquick@.... - some employers are not so hot on that kind of thing
A short section summarising what your career objective is / what you want to contribute to the employer
A section setting out your skills and experience - not in excruciating detail of course but in understandable and clear terms
Education - in reverse chronological order, ie most recent first (ie your current one - "Candidate for X Degree"). There is no excuse for not being absolutely clear about what qualifications you have (or are a candidate for) and what grade, and what the awarding institution was or will be.
Employment, again in reverse chronological order. State not just what your job description and responsibilities were but also what you achieved.
Interests - a couple of sentences rather than a couple of paragraphs is normally what is involved here.
Referees - choose referees of appropriate standing. Give your referees a copy of your cv in advance and make sure they are going to be positive about you (see separate page on how to organise a reference here.

Now read the ad and revise your general cv

Some people send out the same cv each time and use the covering letter to respond to the particular job ad. I think that this is a mistake. You should lose no opportunity to hammer home the fact that you have absorbed what the employer is looking for, and that you have the communications skill to demonstrate that you can meet his or her requirements. In other words, taking your general cv as a template each time, create a specific, re-written cv for each job. Make it obvious to the recruiter how you meet the requirements as set out in the job ad. This means firstly reading the ad carefully.

Some Dos and Don'ts -

Remember that in any job with a lot of applicants your CV is not necessarily going to be scrutinised in minute detail. You have to make a good first impression to avoid being thrown out summarily.
Your recruiters are humans not robots so you should make efforts to sell yourself to them rather than expect them to work out what your CV is all about.
Bearing in mind that your recruiters are not robots, please use readable type, e.g., 12 point. Also use headings, bold for subheadings etc. A large block of undifferentiated 10 point text is offputting.
The really important information should be on the first page if possible. By really important I mean showing that you qualify for the job per the ad, plus your best 1 or 2 selling points.
Do make sure your document is properly laid out, material is tabbed consistently and your CV is correctly punctuated. Otherwise you may be summarily rejected.
Do err on the side of putting in information rather than leaving it out. A lot of recent graduate CVs for research jobs are 2-3 pages so in that context 1 page looks very slight. On the other hand too much information packed tightly together looks overwhelming, especially if it is not too relevant. Find an appropriate balance.
Try to avoid a feeling that the CV is "thin" or lacking in detail - give relevant information as long as it is actually relevant. Lots of white space may be bad if it contributes to a "thin" feeling.
Do address the requirements of the job ad. Thus if the ad requires (say) a 2.1 degree, don't just list your individual subjects, percentages or place in the class - state clearly that you got a 2.1 or 1st as the case may be. You may be disqualified if you just provide a list of subjects where you got 70% in each without stating that you were awarded a 1st class honours degree (this is not a hypothetical example). If nothing else such a CV demonstrates an inability to read and apply simple instructions.
Do stress the items most relevant to the job and minimise the items less relevant. Don't put down 9 lines about your part time bar work and 7 lines about your research degree (this is not a hypothetical example).
Details about your Leaving and Junior cert are unlikely to be of much interest so ideally leave it out or else deal with it as briefly as possible.
Don't refer to yourself in the third person.
When talking about your job history, focus on your achievements and skills developed, not just on what tasks you carried out.
Do make sure your CV and covering letter are tailored to the job. A letter addressed "to whom it may concern" or that refers throughout to "your organisation" suggests that you are a time-waster who is sending out CVs wholesale.
If you have got exam results but have not got your degree conferred, state what the results are.
If anything significant happens after you send in your CV (e.g., you get exam results 1 week later) just write another letter to the recruiters giving an update. Don't assume the recruiter is going to chase you up to see how you got on.
Don't use a very experimental format for your CV.

If called for interview, find out all you can about the job

Everyone knows they should do this but not everyone does it effectively. Do your homework and you will impress. If necessary ask the HR department that calls you for interview what they can tell you about the detail of the job. This applies particularly in large organisations. In smaller ones, bear in mind that inquiries beforehand may be creating work for the person who is doing the recruiting (as opposed to someone else), which you want to avoid of course.

Doing the interview

Don't worry about being nervous - all good interviewers make allowances for nervousness.
Everyone knows you should double check the time and get there comfortably in advance.
The small things like eye contact, shaking hands on arrival and departure, if appropriate to do so, thanking the recruiter(s) for their time, are all still important.
Don't engage in nervous behaviour like clicking pens or folding papers.
Contrary to some people's beliefs you can put too much work into your appearance for an interview. You can also put too little. Either can be a negative with some recruiters. Conservative-leaning, well-fitting clothes are usually a safer bet.
If you have followed the tips so far, answering questions will come naturally. Like the cv, the interview is a chance to demonstrate what you can do for the employer.
Of course, listen to the questions and answer them but then use them as a springboard to say what you want to say.
Be positive, at this stage the recruiters like you to some extent by having given you an interview.
When asked for your own questions, have something prepared. Be careful about asking questions that suggest you have a lot of requirements in terms of pay and conditions. Make sure you know what you are doing and that your questions are going to be well received. If in doubt sort out your requirements at a later stage.