Spotting the job of your dreams is a pretty exciting moment. Actually securing it is rather more challenging.
It’s always good to know what employers really want to see from your CV and application.
Here’s some cold, hard advice from Maximum Media‘s Niall McGarry – the founder of the likes of JOE, Her, and HerFamily (that’s us!).
1) A cover letter is non-negotiable:
In this day and age, it’s incredibly important. I see people put a lot of work into a university degree… and then they just get careless applying for the actual job.
A cover letter is also a great opportunity to distinguish yourself from other people.
Not everyone will include a cover letter – but if you get a good one where an individual has researched your business that’s massive.
If someone has written a really good cover letter; I’m excited. I want to be excited about meeting someone if I’m interviewing them.
2) Get creative:
It disappoints me now when I see a Word document for a CV. Really, I’m expecting to see a graphically-designed CV; a PDF.
I’m expecting to see creativity and a strongly-worded cover letter that excites me about potentially meeting this individual.
Because if you put a job spec out there and you get 100 applications – a lot of the CVs look very similar. So visuals are great.
And really, why would you want to hire someone who has laid-out their CV in the exact same way as everyone has?
3) And finally…
Passionate is a horrific word – but you hear it everywhere. Please don’t tell me you’re passionate about the role. Please!
You’re passionate about getting paid… that’s what you’re passionate about!
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