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Make the CVs that hirers want – get that interview! Michael Willoughby, Takooba Michael@takooba.co.uk Allow a couple of day’s work to complete your CV. It’s a very creative process and it helps to have a bit of time to reach into your past as you have to plunder it for examples. The CV and cover letter are the first stage(s) in landing your dream job. The key principles of job-hunting are:

A) Believe in yourself! B) It’s about them not about you C) You are marketing yourself as a product

1) What use is a CV, really?

To show that you are a good investment – and like all investments, you can make the company money. The most important thing to remember is that the job hunt is not about you, but about the company. It’s all about how you can help them – normally to make dosh! Put yourself in their shoes. Clear up all their doubts. Be what they want. The CV should suit the industry and include examples to meet all requirements. The “About me” section, cover letter and interview must all be tailored to meet the job. The specifications for these are communicated with an advert and follow-up emails written in a recognisable code. The company might miss some things out. When hirers are going through CVs, they only keep the ones that fulfil their checklist. Increasingly, software is used to root out CVs that have certain keywords. To repeat, your CV must meet the brief with the requested skills and qualities backed up with evidence. That’s how you get an interview.

2) Believe! Self-belief – or something that looks like it - is a must. You must sell your skills to the max if you want the job. That means writing and saying the things you need, without apology, contradiction or undercutting. Go to the limits of your self-belief and beyond. If you are not feeling a mite uncomfortable you are probably doing it wrong. Whatever they want, you’ve got it, squire, and you can prove it. Remember the passion you brought to the role “being ill so you could take a day off school”? That is how much you have to inhabit it. This is hard at first, but you have to learn your lines of the role of “successful job-seeker.”

3) Skills and Qualities The is the most important part of the job hunt comes with the skills and qualities – which is so important, I’ll shorten to S+Q. Skills are things you can do, such as selling Qualities are how you go about doing the things – ambitiously, for example.

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Clearly, a new hire is an unknown – a risk – so the more you can meet the requirements, the surer bet you are. In the company’s mind, the candidate that most impressively covers all the S+Qs is the lowest risk candidate. Where do you find these S+Qs? Start with the job ad…

4) Decoding the job ad [my seminar was aimed at fashion students but the same process applies to all industries...] See the job ad at the bottom of this handout. It’s a great example, because it’s so full of code words and is aimed at graduates. Let’s start with the skills it wants from successful candidates. re-colour prints, create new print designs and be able to put designs into simple repeat layouts. Design and

create embellishments, jacquards and various fabric patterns. Research and development of trends including key shapes, colour, print and fabric analysis, collate shop

research. Assist with preparation of presentation materials including trend boards, brand room set-ups and range

material when required. Assist with all areas of administration related to the print design function including seasonal brand files and

design cataloguing. Support Design Director with design related administration and tasks. Strong CAD photoshop(MAC) skills and ideally have some knowledge of powerpoint. We will give further

training in both these programmes. Be able to demonstrate good hand-drawing/painting skills and techniques with a feminine/floral bias and

an understanding of applique and embroidery. These skills should be extracted from the job ad and put into a Word document, each on a new line. You will be producing evidence for each one. Qualities are slightly more subtle. There are three tiers, really. Those explicitly mentioned, those that can be inferred from the ad, and those they have forgotten to put there. Here are the ones they mention: We are looking for dynamism, flexibility and a strong understanding of fashion brands, along with passion, enthusiasm, the ability to work well under pressure and a creative portfolio. Essentially you will need to be a confident communicator and your portfolio should indicate strength in original feminine and sophisticated prints and textile designs.

List these out in your Word document. What else is implied in the ad? What other qualities would an ideal student possess? This is a big company, so an understanding of brands and branding would be useful. They take pride in their work, so you should too. You’ll be working across several functions, so you’ll need to be organised…. and so on.

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Not every job ad is as good as this – sometimes they don’t know what they are doing, so you have to do it for them. If you think they have missed an S+Q, add it in. You can find lots of lists of skills and qualities online, but a decent one is here.

5) Back it up with evidence! Anyone can lay claim to having these S+Qs – but you have got to prove that you do. It might sound obvious, but most peoples’ CVs read like a string of buzzwords (“committed team-player”) with no evidence at all. Do not make this most common of errors, or you will end up in the bin! One of the reasons people do make this error is that it seems to painful and hasslesome to winkle out your examples – but it must be done. So, take your list of S+Qs in Word and cast your mind back through your work, study and play history and find occasions when you demonstrated this attribute. For example, you might have practiced your sewing ability when creating the end-of-year project. Your internship might have involved you working with a sense of pride towards compiling a mood board or other research (you wouldn’t necessarily need to say you did this with a “sense of pride,” you’ll just be implicitly including it it as something of importance to the company.) Find examples for as many of the S+Qs as you can. You’ll have to use your imagination! Your future employer understands that you’re just starting your career. Conveying a sense of ambition in putting together a collective to create a portfolio might not be the same as getting a promotion, but the spirit is the same. Can’t fill them all in? What about A-level projects you are proud of? Work with clubs and societies? Items you have created for friends? Try and get as many S+Qs evidenced as possible. You’re nearly there Now, the final (ideal – it’s not always possible) formula for the CV is the “problem-solution-result” approach which you should apply to all of your examples for maximum effect. The solution is how (why) you have used your attribute. The result is why you kicked ass – numbers help. So, “teamed up with fellow students, a make-up artist, and photographer to create a portfolio we could use to showcase our work. As a result of sending the portfolio out, I gained a three-month internship at Sarah Blackstock Fashion.” You can feel the satisfying nature of this sentence. You are demonstrating several attributes here: your design work, your goal-orientedness, your ambition, your ability to work in a team, your problem-solving skills. What’s more you are showing you know how to think about the type of issues you will encounter in the workplace. A clearer example might be, “designed a man’s suit for my end-of-year portfolio after researching ancient Japanese No theatre costumes. Gained a B+ for using original sources to create an on-trend yet creative outfit.” You can really add as many descriptive elements as you need here to plough through those S+Qs. Try and pack as many as possible into each example you find. Here we have checked off: research, creativity, originality, excellence. Don’t forget your student jobs. You are going to have to put those in in order to leave a gap-less CV. So you should mine all your tasks for S+Qs. Be careful not to sound absurd, but do make sure you give a good and accurate account of what you did day-to-day.

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For example, you didn’t just “serve customers” at McDonalds, but “worked as part of a team to take orders and serve food with outstanding customer service to make sure the customers’ needs were fully satisfied.” You also handled money, and solved problems (think of one). So you now can check off teamwork, responsibility, positive attitude, awareness of requirements of job. The other reason that working this way is so important is that it primes you for the job interview, where your answers should follow this formula where at all possible.

6) Tie the work experience section together Now it’s simply a question of creating the record of employment from your first job. There are plenty of template CVs online for you to follow. Whichever format you go for make sure that you are consistent about how you list the job title, employer, location, dates to and from, including formatting. Then you give a short intro to your job duties – two or three sentences, then set the bullets under each position, making sure to include as many S+Qs as possible with examples in the P+S=R format.

7) The “About me” section

People often ask “do I need a new CV for each job application”? The answer is yes – but with a caveat. You should have saved a list of bullets for each job (in a separate document) that you can draw upon depending on what the job asks for. This is useful when you are looking for a job in a different industry – i.e. if you need to look for a retail job, you will need to fulfil different S+QS – they are unlikely to care about your pattern-cutting skills in a restaurant. BUT the About Me section should be written individually for each job. This provides a welcome to your CV. It portrays you as someone who is READY, WILLING, AND ABLE to do the job – to “hit the ground running.” It says,”here I am – how can I help?” Briefly touch on your experience and what got you to where you are – ready to do a job in this sector (you are looking for a job in fashion) and say why in terms of how you want to use your skills to a company’s benefit. “I am a skilled and creative fashion graduate eager to devote my skills to a top fashion house in an entry-level position.” Then briefly mention the top S+QS you think they are looking for in a few sentences showing how you went about doing so. “I have recently completed an internship at Paul Domage’s atelier where I supported the launch of the winter collection by using my research, pattern cutting and administrative skills.” You are ready for the next challenge – to HELP. “I am now keen to develop my skills in the service of a designer, hoping to share my excellent eye, drawing ability and openness to cultural influences as I learn what it takes to become a full-time fashion employee.” The about me section is just a few sentences long.

8) Other stuff As mentioned, follow UK-format CV templates. Details at the top. About me. Chronological work history, making sure not to leave any gaps. If there is a work gap, find something (anything) useful you were doing in this time. If you were travelling you were learning something. If you were unemployed, you were seeking jobs and (hopefully) doing some kind of pro bono, voluntary or internship work. If you have worked on and off during periods of unemployment, put the to and from date and say “worked a series of temporary jobs as I searched for work in the xx sector,” then list them out as bullets. After that there comes the education section. Make sure you include any parts of your education that included activities you can mine for relevant S+Qs. Depending on space, you can go back to GCSEs or just to A-level.

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Other skills should include the keywords (software or qualifications) that employers search for in CVs. Avoid things like “shopping,” or “reading,” and especially “socialising,” as these mark you out as someone who can’t see what employers are looking for. CVs should be less than TWO pages. Somewhere someone got the idea that they should be one page long, but including examples for all of the S+Qs that hirers look for in an average job will push you over that. It’s a CV not a lunch menu.

9) The cover letter Once more with feeling. Each cover letter should be written individually for each job along the same principles as the CV. Repeating yourself is to be encouraged so that employers find what they are looking for. The cover letter is a kind of a brief version of the highlights of your CV written to the hirer with as much enthusiasm as possible, remembering that it’s about them – this is how you can help them. Remember you are applying to THAT COMPANY AND THAT ONE ALONE. It’s very important to make them feel special. SO, incorporate something unique about how you can help the company based on your research. For example, perhaps they are expanding in Europe (press release) and you speak German. This shows you know who they are. You should start out saying where you saw the job when you realised you were the perfect candidate- that is the general tone of the cover letter. You are the person I’m looking for! You just need to tell them why. And you know how to do that – with your S+Qs. The structure of your cover letter is – “you are looking for x, I have done y.” In fact, I have gotten job interviews just bulletting out my letter just like that. However, you will probably want to break up the rhythm so it reads a bit better. However, over the single page of the cover letter, you should recap your relevant experience extracted from your CV. If you go through all these steps you WILL get a job interview unless the job is heavily over-subscribed. Good luck!

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The CV that hirers want – Michael Willoughby

Sample job ad – Jacques Vert

Fashion Print/Textile Internship (August 2014 -Feb/Aug 2015) Jacques Vert is one of the leading British Fashion Houses which trades via its websites and from over 1000 High Street outlets in the UK, Eire and Canada. We provide outstanding premium womenswear across a diverse mix of eight unique brands: Jacques Vert, Planet, Precis, Windsmoor, Minuet, Kaliko, Eastex and Dash. Jacques Vert takes pride in creating original and exclusively designed product.

Fashion Print/Textile Internship (August 2014-Feb/Aug 2015) - The Role The role provides a fantastic opportunity to work within a vibrant and energetic fashion house. The candidate will work across several functions within this large and experienced design team, giving them the ability to gain new skills and a foundation in their chosen field along with an excellent understanding of the design function within a successful British fashion house.

Working across all eight brands the candidate will be required to re-colour prints, create new print designs and be able to put designs into simple repeat layouts. Design and create embellishments, jacquards and various fabric patterns.

Research and development of trends including key shapes, colour, print and fabric analysis, collate shop research.

Assist with preparation of presentation materials including trend boards, brand room set-ups and range material when required.

Assist with all areas of administration related to the print design function including seasonal brand files and design cataloguing.

Support Design Director with design related administration and tasks Fashion Print/Textile Internship (August 2014-Feb/Aug 2015) - The Candidate

The candidate will need to be enrolled ideally on a degree course studying for a Printed fashion textile qualification.

We are looking for dynamism, flexibility and a strong understanding of fashion brands, along with passion, enthusiasm, the ability to work well under pressure and a creative portfolio. Essentially you will need to be a confident communicator and your portfolio should indicate strength in original feminine and sophisticated prints and textile designs.

Strong CAD photoshop(MAC) skills and ideally have some knowledge of powerpoint. We will give further training in both these programmes.

Be able to demonstrate good hand-drawing/painting skills and techniques with a feminine/floral bias and an understanding of applique and embroidery. The internship would best suit a printed textile student from a fashion background.

A professional – ‘can-do’ attitude with a common sense approach to problem solving and a confident communicator both visually and verbally.

Be flexible and practical with task management and with an ability to work under pressure. An enthusiastic individual happy to work in a strong team orientated environment. If you feel you have the potential to fulfil this role, we would love to hear from you.