Finding and applying for the perfect job

Finding the perfect job is by no means easy, and it would be premature to hand in your notice without having anything lined up. It's a competitive world out there, but thankfully the internet has made it far easier to find (and hopefully bag) that perfect career move.

In the old days the best way of looking for work would be through help wanted signs or through newspapers. Both of these were unreliable and competitive - afterall, if a job has been advertised in The Guardian or The Times, you can bet your boots that there's already hundreds of applications. No matter how qualified or undoubtedly gifted you are, those are tough odds to beat. Nowadays, the internet makes it easy. There are hundreds of job sites out there ranging from the generic to the specific. While it is a good idea to browse the general ones if you have no idea what you're wanting to do, it really helps to use that as a way of narrowing down your options.

Let's say you want to do copywriting. A daily search on some of the big sites for 'copywriter' will no doubt find some jobs, but keep an open mind of the way things can be phrased - the less obvious ones will, as a general rule, have less people seeing them and thus less applications. For example, if you're wanting a copywriting job then searches for 'content writer', 'copy writer', 'writer', 'editorial', 'editor' and 'proofreader' may all provide job options you hadn't seen before.

Likewise if you have your heart set on an industry you want to work in, then it makes perfect sense to look for niche job sites catering to your area of expertise. The general sites like Monster don't cater so well for these so look around and see what you find. It's amazing the niches you can find, with sites catering exclusively to everything from online travel jobs and careers in the video game industry.

If you get into the habbit of checking the sites that are right for you every day, and applying to the jobs that you're qualified and sound interesting, it's only a matter of time before you get invited for interview. Providing that your CV is sound...

Firstly, there are some details you must always include - CV staples as it were:

Personal Details

If you don't know what to put here, then you may as well give up! The usual stuff: name, address, phone number, email address (make sure it's serious looking!), website (again, if it's serious enough), driving licence. You know the drill.

Education

Put your most recent qualification at the top, and work backwards from there becoming less detailed as you go back to save space.

Work Experience

List your work experience, most recent first (in case they're skim-reading). Make sure to include all the pertinent details - name of employer, job title and what your role involved. Outline your achievements here, and don't be afraid to sell yourself!

Interests

This may seem redundant as information goes at first, but ensuring you have interests outside of work is important in ensuring you're a fully rounded individual who will get along with the current staff! Of course if you can include things which will translate into the working environment all the better (e.g: captaining your ice hockey team will show excellent leadership qualities), but the key here is to make yourself stand out from the prose as a real and interesting person.

Skills

Ability to squash beer cans against your forehead, though impressive, aren't really appropriate here. A knowledge of a foreign language, a knowledge of coding or experience of graphic design are.

References

Two people as referees will usually do the trick - your current employer would be nice, and maybe someone from your university if its still relavent. Otherwise a character reference from a family friend, or former employer might do the trick. Make sure the people you nominate are willing to be your references if required - quite often, employers simply never get around to contacting them anyway, but you can't rely on that!

Now that's a lot of data, and here's the rub: recruiters won't have time to go through a 10 page document outlining how you ended up in the interview room from your birth 28 years ago! You need 2 pages tops, don't let it go over! For that reason, it may be prudent to cut out some of your education (who cares if you got 9 GCSEs if you have a degree from St. Andrews?) or work history (do they really need to know you worked a summer at McDonalds when you were 15?).

Above all it needs to sell you, so don't be modest. On the other hand keep it proffesional and don't boast. If you want to make more of a personal impace, the place to do that is within your covering letter...

So, why do you need a covering letter if you've already got a CV telling them who you are? Well several reasons: 1. It seperates you from the other applications, 2. It allows you to inject (slightly) more personality into your application and 3. It's another chance to sell yourself to the company!

Keep it formal, but there may be some room for some linguistic flair - especially if the job will involve a lot of writing.

The letter should begin with the job you're applying for and where you heard about it. You should then emphasise the points from your CV that make you the ideal candidate and conclude (keep it short!) by stating you are available for interview and look forward to hearing from them.

One last point - it helps to find out the name of the person who will be dealing with your application. In a large corporation, it may be a human resources person, while a small company may involve you writing to the managing director directly. Phone up and find out - this makes you look keen and will ensure that your application heads straight to the desk of the person that matters.

Good luck!