Effective CV and Cover Letter
description
Transcript of Effective CV and Cover Letter
May 9, 2010
© 2010 Deloitte Vietnam
1. Planning your application
2. Creating your CV – Do‟s and Don‟ts
• Common structure
• Good first impression
• Do‟s and Don‟ts
3. CV Contest 2010 - some observations
Key points
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• Don't just sell what you have, sell what the buyer needs! So it is important to
look for the information about the company and position you are applying for.
• Be selective about who you send your CV to;
• The employers are looking for the most suitable candidates, not the best;
• Do understand yourself so that you can match your strengths with employers‟s
requirements
‒ Managerial qualities: leadership, planning and organizing, persuasiveness
‒ Professional qualities: Specialist knowledge, problem solving, analytical skills,
communication skill, writing skill
‒ Entrepreneurial qualities: commercial awareness, creativity, strategic thinking
‒ Personal qualities: interpersonal sensitivities, flexibility, resilience, personal
motivation, trustworthy
A CV is a selling document
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Understand the employer’ expectations
Attitude
Knowledge
Skills
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Understand the selection process
Offer
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Objective at each selection stage
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To identify candidates
with suitable knowledge
and skills
To identify candidates
with relevant skills
To identify candidates
with right attitude
By checking if:
• Educational
background is relevant
to the role;
• Applicant has logical
thinking;
• Applicant‟s English is
acceptable ;
• Applicant understands
about the company and
the job requirements.
By checking if:
• The applicant can apply
theories to solve real life
cases;
• The applicant „s English
level is correct as
assumed from the first
round;
• The applicant has
appropriate IQ and EQ
indices.
By checking if:
• The applicant has
suitable appearance,
gesture, emotion etc.
• Knowledge, skills and
attitude are tested at the
same time
• Note: Requirements will
be different depending on
each role‟s requirements
Screening Test Interview
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• Cover letter:
‒ A letter sent to Human Resources Department if not otherwise specified in the
recruitment notification
‒ Subject line: indicating the position you are applying for
‒ Content: showing your interest in the company and the position as well as
your career objective
• CV:
‒ Part I: Personal information
‒ Part II: Education and Training
• Including achievements and professional training, if any
‒ Part III: Working experience
• Including achievements (if applicable)
‒ Part IV: Additional skills and competences
• Any other skills (computer, research, design, etc.)
• Language proficiency: only include if highly developed
• References: do not list too many
‒ Part V: Declaration
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• Cover letter: should be concise, straight to the point and short
‒ Key words and phrases relating to the job need to be included
‒ Try to get inside the mind of the reader by the tone of your writing
‒ Remember: Many recruiters will look for reasons to screen you out, so the
objective of cover letter is to keep yourself in within the first 30 seconds.
Creating a good “first impression”
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• CV: should be presentable, reader's friendly
‒ Information: ranked from essential to additional
in accordance with reader's priority
‒ Length: be mindful of cultural characteristic (US,
UK, Europe, Vietnam, etc.)
‒ Experienced recruiters can tell a lot about you
after just 1 minutes of scanning though your CV.
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What can recruiters tell about you by reading your CV?
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Good quality paper
Clear layout
Easy, readable
written English
Explain complicated
subjects simply
No spelling mistakes
Relevant
information
Appropriate
qualifications
Business-like,
organized
Communication and
writing skills
Concise thinker
Showing respect to
reader
Good judgement
Qualified to do the
job
Your CV Personality interpretation
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• Be yourself:
‒ Remember that you may be asked about anything or everything you have
included in your CV.
‒ All employers are looking for trustworthy employees, so misleading
information is dangerous for your future career path
• Develop your personal style: it's not what you say, but the way that you say it will
differentiate you from the crowd.
• Contact information:
‒ Essential to inform which contact is the most reliable to reach you
‒ Full address is useful
‒ E-mail address should be as business-like as possible
Describing yourself
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1. Ask yourself:
‒ Does this CV sound like me?
‒ Is my English clear and easy to understand?
‒ Have I provided all the information required for that
position?
‒ If I were the reader, would I feel like selecting this CV?
2. Check carefully, word by word
3. Ask for reviewer‟s opinions
4. Print out, using good quality papers and proper,
presentable A4 envelope
5. Check address on the envelope and send out.
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DO’S
Identify your short-term and long-term
career objectives;
Be honest when analyzing your skills;
Identify key achievements which are
relevant to your application;
Be creative in your approach in your CV,
but follow the basic structure;
List the latest events first (parts II & III);
Run grammar and spell check function
but remember that not all mistakes will
be eliminated;
Ask some experienced friends or
lecturers to review your CV and cover
letter and advise on word usage.
DON’TS
Set unrealistic targets
Include unnecessary details about
temporary jobs, unless really relevant
Undervaluate or over valuate your
achievements
Use too many specialist terms or overly
formal language in your CVs
Use lengthy and complex sentences
Use fancy typeface unless it‟s a design
position
Waste space – it‟s OK if your CV is only
one page long
Some Do’s and Don’ts for fresh graduates
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Irrelevant information or experience
Wrong concept about HR, such as “reducing labor cost by contract
negotiation” (?)
Experienced in marketing, media, IT => HRE?
Career aspiration was not shown clearly in many CVs
Some focused too much on academic achievements without highlighting
career objective
Majority, both in HR and Auditor applications, did not show which career
path they would want to pursuit,
Presentation problems
Background color
Usage of paragraphs and spacing
Inconsistent format: Margin, alignment, font size, layout
Most of applications for Auditor position have problem of non-user friendly
or unclear format
English: spelling and grammatical mistakes
Remember: CV is NOT an essay
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• All CVs showed great efforts – some are
really good and thoughtful
• Majority of CVs had clear structure
• Many have spent time decorating their CVs
and some were very impressive
• Remember:
1. This is only a students' contest – more
for learning purpose. So failing the
contest does not mean that you would
be unsuccessful candidate in real life
2. Practice makes perfect – this is the
chance to improve your CVs before real
submission
3. All of you are the winners today!
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