Slide 1 / Employment Workshop for Adults on The Autistic Spectrum
Welcome
Slide 2 / Session 2:
CVs & COVERING LETTERS
•INTRODUCTIONS
•GROUND RULES
•DO’S & DONT’S OF CV WRITING
•WRITING A COVERING LETTER
•EVALUATION OF WORKSHOP
Slide 3 / Ground Rules / It may be helpful to write rules up on a flip chart or on a white board. Or have a participant write down the rules onto a piece of paper. Add the rules to the ground rule slide at a later time.
The most important thing is that the group decide together what the rules of the group will be.
Some examples of possible ground rules:
Mobiles on silent
Confidentiality
Respect
Leave the room if you need to, always a welcome back (designate a place to go if they need to escape in an emergency for example a quiet corner in the hallway)
No discrimination based on gender, race, religion etc.
Slide 4 / CV MODULE
Slide 5 / Curriculum Vitae (CV)
•CV is an abbreviation for the words Curriculum Vitae
•A CV describes a written (typed) document outlining an educational and employment history.
•The term CV is regularly used in job vacancy adverts as a method of applying for a job.
•In America the term resume is widely used instead of a CV / Curriculum Vitae – latin words meaning “course of life”. In America the term resume is widely used instead of CV
Slide 6 / What do you need to include?
•Personal Contact Details (name, phone number(s), email address)
•Personal profile
•Achievements:- education & qualifications,
awards & memberships
•Employment & Voluntary Work Experience
•Explain any gaps in your professional history (dates where you were not working or studying.) / If the employer wants to progress your application it is important that you make it as easy as possible for them to contact you sometimes at short notice therefore give as many contact details (checking them for accuracy) as possible including a work contact number (if you are already working) and this would be convenient.
Achievements – mention things you did well in your past jobs which could be relevant to the job you are applying for or if you have achieved something outside work which is impressive such as the “youngest person in Wales to achieve something or the highest scoring ……. In the UK etc etc.
Employment history- only go back 10 years, if you have large gaps in employment or several gaps in employment try a skills based CV or a CV without dates completely. If there is a gap you can say “actively seeking work”.
Remember to start with your most recent job first and work backwards. Work history can include paid, voluntary, work experience or placement, helping out family or friends in their business.
Character reference should come from someone who has known you for at least 5 years.
If you are a young person who has n’t got much experience you could put your qualifications first and work history second, this is called a skills CV.
Should be a minimum of 2 pages
Contact details at top of the page. There is no need to put Curriculum Vita’s at the top. Ensure your name is bold and 14 size font. Font size of the rest of the document should be 12 in a font that is easy to read. Arial or times new roman are good ones.
You do not need to include your address!
The personal profile- use this to sell yourself, using the job advert as a guide to match your skills and abilities to the employer’s requirements. Maximum of 5/6 lines.
Slide 7 / What you don’t need to include
•Your date of birth, marital status, references or photos
•Information about your family, any issues either physical or psychological
•Detailed information about previous jobs which have no relevancy to your current application. / In order to prevent perceived or unperceived discrimination there is no need to include certain information such as age, disability, marital status, photographs etc.
Disclosing your disability:
Disclosing your disability in your CV is debatable. When to disclose is up to the individual. Some people choose to be up front and disclose their disability in their CV. If you choose to do this it is recommended that you explain how your disability makes you an exceptional candidate for this position for example you would be an excellent candidate for the job as a data entry clerk because your autism gives you a very strong ability to focus and attention to details capabilities. Highlight the positives and be prepared to discuss accommodations needed during the interview. You may consider to disclose in your profile.
Slide 8 / Types of CV
•Chronological
•Skills-based / Chronological - outlining your career history in date order, normally beginning with the most recent items (reverse chronological) . This is the "conventional" approach and the easiest to prepare. It is detailed, comprehensive and biographical and usually works well for "traditional" students with a good all-round mixture of education and work experience. Mature students, however, may not benefit from this approach, which does emphasise your age, any career breaks and work experience which has little surface relevance to the posts you are applying for now. highly-focused CVs which relate your skills and abilities to a specific job or career area by highlighting these skills and your major achievements. The factual, chronological details of your education and work history are subordinate. Skills-based work well for mature graduates and for anybody whose degree subject and work experience is not directly relevant to their application. Skills-based CVs should be closely targeted to a specific job.
Slide 9 / Preparing a CV
•Use your Personal Skills Grid from the last session.
•Your CV should be typed not handwritten
•Companies will produce a professional CV for you for a fee
•Many free CV templates available on the internet
•Libraries have access to computers and the internet for free. Small charge for printing a CV or covering letter. / Can be costly if produced by a professional company but may be worth considering if your own product is not resulting in any interviews. There are however many “professional” CV templates available on the website which you can use for free. These will often give you a professional looking CV which once you have adapted to include your own personal information look no different from the fee paying type. .
Slide 10 / Preparing a CV
Places you can get help:
•National Careers
•Enterprise centres
•Job Clubs
•There is help available in many local places.
•Many free CV templates available on the internet
•Libraries have access to computers and the internet for free.
•Small charge for printing a CV or covering letter
Slide 11 / Preparing a CV (continued)
•Restrict length to 2 pages of A4 paper & use the best quality paper you can afford if sending or handing out your CVs to potential employers.
•Tell the truth on your CV
•Check for spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.
•Get someone you know to read through it and get their opinions. They may see errors or inconsistencies that you have missed. / Employers often receive hundreds of CV’s for each job vacancy so many are discarded superficially if they are not visually pleasing or run to many pages which will take time to go through. One or two A4 pages is considered the maximum required (unless specified in the advert). If you do not tell the truth on your CV you will be found out when employers probe further by asking supplementary questions based on information in your CV. This will be a disqualifying factor whilst if you tell the truth about something which you may feel would go against you quite often the reverse happens. Even if you are not found out at the interview stage and get the job but have failed to disclose something which is later discovered you may well be dismissed on this basis. Ensure you check or get someone to check your CV for you before you send it out. Someone else may spot errors you do not.
Slide 12 / Preparing a CV (continued)
•Try using alternative layouts to focus on different areas of experience or skills
•Update regularly
•Ensure when you send your CV as an attachment by email you call it something memorable with your name in the title to make it easier for the recruiter to be able to identify it easily.
•Ensure you have a professional email address for them to use not a quirky or ironic email for example
/ In order to make the CV stand out and look visually pleasing you should try different layouts to see which looks best. Update your CV regularly so that if you attend a training event or gain some additional experience or qualification it is included in your CV. Ensure your email address is professional and allows the potential employer to find your information quickly i.e. have your name in the email address. You may wish to have a specific email address which you use solely for job applications.
Slide 13 / CV Preparation for your first job
•After leaving school, college or university your CV will mainly consist of your educational background, achievements or awards you obtained.
•Don’t forget to include something that may give you an advantage in your job search i.e. any involvement in a leadership capacity within the student union or support group?
•Any part time jobs in the evening or on the weekend or a paper round? Did you help parents with their business? / If you have any employment experience at all include this in your CV. Although have undertaken a part time job for example in the catering industry or undertaken a paper round may seem irrelevant when seeking your first main job the fact that you have shown the skills necessary to be employed ie reliable, and motivated to get up and be on time and effective ie delivering papers to the right addresses on time, being courteous to patrons in a retail catering business environment will show an employer that you already have these skills.
This could demonstrate to an employer certain leadership skills or achievements which would be of benefit in the role. Involvement in a group or student union could demonstrate to an employer certain leadership skills or achievements which would be of benefit in the role. Did you work in your parent’s shop or help them with the computer or book-keeping?
Slide 14 / What to do with your CV
•Send (email or post) CVs & relevant covering letters for jobs you want to apply for to the details listed in job vacancy advertisements in newspapers or online.
•Speculative - Send your CV (email or post) to prospective employers or companies you would be interested in working for with an appropriately worded covering letter.
•Upload your CV on the universal job match site link / Find out the name (& title) of the person you should send them too as this will have more success than sending out a CV & covering letter to an unnamed person. In addition to the universal job match website there are many other internet job sites you could use such as Indeed, Monster, totaljobs, jobmanji, careerswales or Walesonline or recruitment agencies such as Reed, Acorn or professional sites such as linkedin. Follow up after you have sent out your CV. If you don’t hear anything back from them within a reasonable period of time it would be quite acceptable to make a phone call to enquire about your application.
Slide 15 / Time for a quick exercise:
Look at the CV example. Correct any errors that you see within the document. / Each participant will need to have the document titled “Spoof CV for Exercise” Have participants make corrections to any errors presented in the document. They can work alone or in groups.
Review the document and corrections together as a group.
Here are some of the answers some are more obvious than others….
Curriculum Vitae not needed at the top
Put first name and last name at the top
CF62 8PX
Either put a land line number or don’t put anything at all
Format the mobile number correctly
The email is too personal. Use a professional one.
“Proflie” Should be in bold
Correct grammar mistakes in the profile. Take out the word “most” in the profile. Knows should be Know.
Take out “ I like” where it says people I like.
“ Key Skills” needs to be in bold. The skills listed are redundant but it would be a personal choice if you wanted to keep them there.
Work history section sdoes not need to be in bold
The work history section needs to be re-formatted
The way the dates are formatted should all be the same.
You need to list the skills for the Bike repair job
Under Office work job who is Dave? Do not include names of people as we don’t know who they are.
Taks should be tasks
“At home looking after kids could be re-phrased to give it a bit more value. For example- Stayed at home to raise children.
More skills need to be added under the carpentry job
Training should be in bold and is spelled incorrectly
This section needs to be formatted
No personal names
Office work NVQ has no date
Additional information section is not needed. This could be a section for Other interests and hobbies if you wish.
References- you should always have references and make the statement “references available upon request”.
Slide 16 / COVERING LETTER MODULE
Slide 17 / What is a Covering Letter?
•Accompanies CV to a potential employers.
•Typed
•1st thing an employer sees & can impact upon their interest and get them to read your CV. / 1st thing an employer sees in a job application so can impact upon their interest and get them to read your CV. Is also used in areas when applying for places which are limited and need to make decisions about filtering who is accepted and who is rejected i.e. if applying for Duke of Edinburgh Award place. For example if a training establishment or specific school i.e ballet school is offering training a number of places where the vacancies available are less than the number of people requiring them. Should be typed unless exceptionally the job you are applying for requires evidence of good handwriting for the job and may ask you to complete by hand.
Slide 18 / Types of Covering Letter
•1st - In response to a job advert
•2nd - Speculative – when no job vacancy exists
•Format of the Covering Letter - within certain job sectors there is a need for a standard, conservative style for sectors, such as business, law, accountancy, retail / In response to an advertised job vacancy in a newspaper, specialist publication, on a company’s website or specialist recruitment website. This is the most common use of a covering letter.
Speculative covering letters are used if you would like to work for a specific company or in a specific industry you may wish to approach them to advise them of your interest in working for them, in the event that a job vacancy will arise, and give yourself a potential advantage by having them already know of your skills and abilities and interest in working for them. Depending upon the circumstances by submitting your Covering letter and CV in advance it may save the company time and money in advertising and going through a recruitment process, although in practice even though you may be lucky in being considered when a vacancy becomes available, it is usual for the job to be advertised anyway to offer the organisation the widest amount of candidates from which to select and also to counter discrimination issues. Also depending upon the efficiency of their administration practices and systems they may have mislaid or forget about your speculative application as and when a vacancy occurs. Generally therefore it may be worth doing in addition to applying for specific vacancies. Most conservative type institutions such as the Civil Service and Financial and Banking institutions generally like to see a formal block style letter (not indented) although this policy does not seem to be as essential as it has been in the past.
Slide 19 / Covering Letters - Aim
•Should be original in the content to make the recipient interested.
•Be creative in your delivery.
•Should include statements that indicates that you understand what the job entails / There is no absolute correct way to produce a covering letter although there is general agreement in its composition and in practice there is a certain format to follow in producing a covering letter. However there are many examples on the internet of instances when somebody has drafted a Covering Letter which has been interesting, creative, original and contains an individual approach to the covering letter which has resulted in them getting an interview and the job on offer. It is important however that regardless of the individual nature of the letter and the creativity involved that the employer is assured from what you write in the covering letter that you understand the nature of the job and the work required by the successful candidate. Failure to make this clear, regardless of how interesting you make the Covering Letter may mean that your CV is discarded.
Slide 20 / Covering Letter Aim (cont’d)
•
Should highlight your main skills relevant to the specific job on offer.
•The Cover Letter should complement the CV