Believe it or not, university graduation season is fast approaching us. For those whose academic journey is about to run its course, they are likely thinking, “how can I find a job for the first time?”. The job market is very daunting, but knowing key information about what to include in a CV and efficient job interview preparation, will equip you to break into it.
Obtaining a university degree used to just about guarantee successful career opportunities ahead; however, these days, more is required of you to land the job you desire, or even one that simply pays well.
You can seek advice from the career adviser on your campus for tips to help you find your first job. Additionally, you may go to career fairs, which are also referred to as job fairs or recruitment events.
Both of these options are really helpful for accessing job leads, but then comes the real challenge of landing a job. The application and interview processes are vital, and can be quite extensive. You cannot enter the job market blindsided and at the very least, need to know the basics of what is a CV and what to include in a CV.
Although career advisers proofread resumes and cover letters, many still feel as though they have been thrown into the deep end all alone.
You, on the otherhand, could use Superprof and its wide range of advice and guidelines for job interview preparation, exactly what is a CV, how to format your CV and even how to write thank-you notes.
And yes, it is important that you write them!
Look no further than Superprof to hold your hand along the way.
How To Compile a Resume
Your Resume, or résumé for using the word's original French wording, should essentially be a description of your educational background, employment experience, along with your extracurricular activities and passions.
What is a CV?
Nowadays, practically everyone uses the terms CV and resume interchangeably, but they are not the same. So then… what is a CV?
A CV, or curriculum vitae is a much longer document than a resume that details numerous aspects of your life.
You may notice this in job advertisements; one job may require a resume while the other calls for a CV.
If you are a university student about to graduate, simply state your program of study, any practical experience you may have obtained, as well as any extracurricular activities that you participated in.
Employment experience is often lacking in students, which may prove problematic when drafting your first CV. You'll be stuck figuring out what to include in a CV if you have very little or no industry experience.
If you’re still unsure what to include in a CV, reflect on if you have volunteered before. If so, you may list your volunteer work, even if it's in no way associated with the position you're applying for. At the very least, it demonstrates that you have a good work ethic and a deep connection to the community.
If you've never been employed or had the chance to serve as a volunteer for any sort of organization, you’re likely stressing out over what to include in a CV and asking the question of “How can I find a job for the first time?”. You may then commence your CV with a brief explanation as to why you haven't earned any work experience yet.
With the question of what is a CV now being resolved, you will now be able to implement the greatest writing methods for a brilliant and noteworthy resume. Additionally, keep reading for more tips to help you find your first job and do the right job interview preparation.
What To Write In a Cover Letter
Getting a job involves quite an extensive amount of writing: making your CV, filling in the job application... let alone your cover letter!
Even if you have provided all of the necessary details on the application form along with additional data in your CV, you must still create a letter that fills in the gaps between the pieces of data those documents tell the hiring managers.You truly need to sell yourself.
For example, you will never see a checkbox on the job application that questions, “Did you come across our company through research? Y/N”. You will also not see a section that allows you to express exactly why you want the job.
That is the type of message that instead goes into your cover letter.
Essentially, a cover letter serves the same purpose that eye contact and a firm handshake hold when meeting interviewers for the very first time. It conveys that you are a deserving job applicant, since you have been interested in their business and have taken steps to demonstrate your interest and willingness.
When questioning, “how can I find a job for the first time?” , it basically comes down to leaving your prospective company in awe of you. You need to be determined in persuading your potential employer that you both already share similar links, which is what you will have to simply state in the letter accompanying your CV.
Along with knowing the tips to help you find your first job, knowing how to write your cover letter will help you land a a job interview …
How to Tweak your CV and Cover Letter for Various Jobs
Unless you only want to apply for one job at a time, you will need a variety of CVs and cover letters.
That being said, you can't send the identical resume and cover letter to Company ABC for a position in their quality control division that you used to send to Company XYZ for a position in Research and Development.
Both your CV and cover letter must be tailored to the position that you're wanting. Secondly, your CV needs to be well-written in order to warrant more than a quick check.
When you are new to the job market, you may not have much information about previous employment and your work ethic to provide just yet; nonetheless, whatever it is that you already have needs to be skewed to match the requirements for the position at hand.
A cover letter stating that you work well in a team (which is backed by a CV indicating that you have participated in team sports) will simply not be necessary if you are applying for a job that requires you to operate independently.
To complement the job's needs, you could instead highlight that you frequently took the reins when playing team sports; perhaps you coordinated a new rotation of players or formed new plays.
That even helps you sound like a prospective managerial candidate!
Explore all of our useful tips for tweaking your documents to fit the specifications for any of the jobs that you apply for…
Useful Job Interview Preparation
There is no question that if you have the appropriate CV and cover letter, you will be given the chance at a job interview. However and, the interview will very likely take place over the phone, if not in person.
Don't let out a sigh of relief yet! Even if the interview is over the phone, you'll still have to do a great deal of preparation. You need to be mentally, physically, and emotionally prepared for the interview.
You might believe we're actually raising job interviews to the same level of preparation required for a marathon. Certainly, you are welcome to believe this; nevertheless, if you do not approach about interviews from this same prospective, you may be astonished at how difficult the interview process truly can be!
You've already poured your efforts into your CV and cover letter it is assumed that you did well enough to advance you towards the next step - job interview preparation. Under no circumstances does this interview guarantee that you've landed the job!
Before doing an interview, you should learn and practise the following interview skills: active listening, communicating effectively, thinking critically, and exhibiting confidence.
You may do all of this and go above by arranging mock interviews with your friends and family. Far better, you could film these practise interviews in order to assess and enhance your performance.
Job interview preparation for an interview done over the phone or face-to-face, would be far easier if you went in there already knowing some frequently asked interview questions…
Interview Questions and How to Effectively Answer Them
“Tell me a bit about yourself.”
This simple question thwarts interviewees more than any other, and it is frequently one of the first you will confront during an interview.
That is one of the most frequently asked interview questions, and successfully answering it requires knowing what the person asking you it would want to hear.
"Why do you want to work here?" is another unnerving question; what is it that the recruiter would like to know? And, more significantly, what would your response say about you?
Every interview question belongs to one of two groups, with behavioural questions being the most potentially sabotaging.
Your prospective employer understands how to analyse seemingly benign queries like "Why do you want this job?" to indicate the extent of your passion for the business and how well you could fit in.
Situational interview questions, on the contrary, are designed to assess your strengths and problem solving abilities by presenting a circumstance and asking how you would manage it.
As you can see, it is best that you study these job interview questions, perform one or two practise interviews, and prepare for an interview with the same zeal that you did for your university lectures.
Lucky for you, Superprof has compiled a bunch of probable interview questions and answers into one easy to read article…
How to Write a Thank You Letter
We stated in the opening of this article that you must write a thank-you note following your job interview.
We tricked you. You are not really required to compose a thank-you note.
However, if you don't, you'll miss an important phase of the hiring process and miss out on an opportunity to strengthen your commitment to the position and the business.
Despite the fact that many career advisers highlight the effectiveness of a thank-you note, according to an Accountemps survey, just under a quarter of job candidates write one.
How about you let us include you in that minority?
Sending thank-you notes to your recruiter is not the same as writing a thank-you letter to your grandmother; for a start, the tone and greeting would be very different!
To bring closure to your initial question of “how can I find a job for the first time?”, the last of our tips to help you find your first job, would advise you on writing a post-interview thank you letter…
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