CV Archives - Mantex

presenting yourself successfully in writing

If you’re applying for a job, you need all the help you can get. This book is a guide to maximising your chances. CVs and Job Applications is a manual of practical advice and useful tips on how to design your CV and write successful job applications. It focuses on preparing your application and presenting yourself in the best possible light. To do this you will need to think carefully about your own skills, interests, and aptitudes – then match them carefully to companies who are looking for people like you.

The guidance notes Judith Leigh offers are completely up to date, with advice about locating companies’ web sites and email addresses, plus tips on investigating their policies and recruitment methods. Follow her advice, and it might help you land that job.

On writing your CV you should know that you have sixty seconds to make your pitch – because that’s how long you will have to impress your potential employer. The guidance notes help you to plan and write your CV carefully with no mistakes.

She covers tricky issues such as how to deal with gaps in your career (periods of unemployment for instance, or years raising children) as well as how to fit your entire career, personality, hobbies, and work history onto what might be as little as two pages.

There’s a chapter on writing covering letters and how to tailor their contents to maximise your chances, plus notes on how to fill in application forms.

Then what if your application succeeds? The next stage is an interview, and there are guidelines on how to prepare yourself and deliver your best performance on the day.

The book ends with some sample CVs, job applications, and covering letters, plus notes on the language of job adverts.

This is the latest title in a series of short beginner’s manuals on communication skills from Oxford University Press which have proved very popular. The emphasis is on compact, no-nonsense advice directly related to issues of everyday life. If you do need to apply for a job in writing, this book will help you to make a good impression.

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Judith Leigh, CVs and Job Applications, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004, pp.144, ISBN: 0198606141

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develop your key self-promotion and marketing tool

This is a cheap and cheerful guide to producing an effective CV (curriculum vitae). Writing a CV that Works is suitable for complete beginners who may not have written one before, or for intermediate users who might want to develop their existing CV beyond merely a list of their previous jobs. It starts off with the reasons why you need a CV and why you should view it as a marketing tool rather than just a life synopsis. This is followed by advice on how to identify your own skills and achievements. Paul McGee introduces four case studies of typical adults wishing to seek, change, or improve a job. Then comes the meat of the matter – how to write the most persuasive account of yourself without fibbing or distortion.

The secret is to spell out all your skills and your achievements in a positive manner. He offers templates which you can use, as well as some good tips for presenting any qualifications or training in the best possible light. Moreover, he doesn’t shy away from the problem of what to do if you haven’t got any qualifications.

He discusses the three main types of CV – chronological, functional, and targetted – and how to organise the information it contains. If you’ve never created a CV before, you’ll be glad to see that he analyses several practical examples, showing their strengths and weaknesses. He also offers suggestions for how they could be improved.

He includes valuable advice on how to analyse job advertisements, and how to compose the covering letter which will accompany your CV. Then comes the part most people find very difficult indeed – Cold Calling, or applying for jobs which haven’t been advertised.

Then finally the picture is rounded off with advice about preparing for and succeeding in an interview. You’ll still need to do a lot of preparation before you get to this stage – but this short guide will help you through each part of the process.

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Paul McGee, Writing a CV that Works, Plymouth: How to Books, 1997, pp.128, ISBN 1857033655

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