Employment Tips

Here are some short tips to help you when applying for a job.

• How to Prepare an Expression of Interest Letter

  This is your chance to put the best version of yourself forward, but be truthful about yourself. Keep the letter (or email) short and tailored to the job vacancy. You should be describing the skills, knowledge and abilities you have and how and what you have done that makes you the best person for the job. Keep this to about 1 or 2 paragraphs (100-200 words) to catch the interest of the recruiter/hiring team. Your application is being screened with hundreds or thousands of others. Check for correct formatting, grammar, spelling, names, terminology and salutations. Badly written letters or emails can ruin your chance of being a successful applicant by at least 95%.

• How to Prepare a Curriculum Vitae (CV)

  In Latin, this means ‘course of life’. It is a short-written summary of your career, qualifications, and education during the course of your life. On the other hand, a Resume is a shorter version of a CV.

  The basics include your name, contact information, education, skills, and work experience. In addition, a CV can include, professional associations and licenses, awards, community service, languages spoken and other information relevant to the position you are applying for. If applying for an international job posting, then Citizenship information may be required as well as date of birth, marital status may be required. Provide only if this is necessary in the country you are applying for.

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• DO
  • Keep it short and simple.

    As a guide, two or three pages is sufficient with dates of work, education and brief summary each job duty. An experienced person with over 10 -15 years of work experience, will insert information like tertiary education or courses, but High School or Primary education is not necessary. For a person with less than 10 years, more information would be required in detail about the job and the tasks. Educational and professional qualifications will also need to be well detailed. Keep the information relevant to the job requirements in the advertisement.

  • Be Aware of Font size and formatting

    Keep the font and sizing neat and tidy. Stay with one type of font and two font sizes; one for main headings and another for paragraphs. Keep to black and white and keep it simple, yet professional. Avoid multi-coloured, decorations, patterns and borders. Numbering and bullet points shouldn’t exceed five because you should keep to key or main areas of information, pertaining to the job requirements.

  • Maintain Order

    Insert information like work experience, education, courses, seminars etc in chronological order and make headings for these, and then insert when they happened in date order. Always put the most recent at the top and oldest at the bottom. Dates should be written in Date/Month/Year ie: 14 February 2000 or 14/02/2000. A location like city and country should be inserted for the work experience and courses/educational areas.

  • Keep to your Strengths

    Your strengths and skills, knowledge, abilities should be stated to maximise your impact. This means if you lack the work experience, then you should lead with your educational qualifications and other skills and abilities in this area.

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• DON'T
  • Apply for jobs that do not match

    Recruiters/hiring teams are seeking the best or closest match. If you do not match or meet any of the requirements, your application will be removed. Check that you have the minimum level of education, skills and training listed before applying and use the job advertisement against your CV as a checklist.

  • Forget your Cover Letter

    This is the same as the Expression of Interest letter and captures the immediate attention of the recruiter/hiring team. If a cover letter is not asked for, you should still send one.

  • Put too much in the CV

    Keep the information relevant to the job. There is no need to write everything you ever did, but also do not cut out too much.

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• The Interview

  Bring your best YOU.

  
  • Be Prepared

    Prepare by knowing about the job. If this is your first time at a new job, research about what the job entails by talking to a few people who may have done this job before or reading on the internet. Parents, friends, relatives in your community are a wonderful help.

    Prepare yourself for the interview. A professional image at the interview shows that you care about yourself, your potential employer and your future. Take the time to groom yourself well from face, hands, clothing/accessories, shoes and even your documents. Clothing should be modest. Remember “first impressions are lasting impressions”, meaning that the first time you meet someone, you’d like them to have a good impression of you and for it to be long lasting. If you want to be well prepared, you could ask a friend to role play an interview session with you to practice your replies and your body language.

    
  • Be authentic

    Meeting new people can be fun, but also nerve racking. During the interview, we want you to be comfortable and be yourself. If you are asked for an example or to describe a situation; a useful tool to use in your reply is the S.T.A.R method. Describe the Situation, what the Task was, what Action was taken and what the Result was. Be prepared to describe technical details that show your ‘know-how’, but also be open to discussing your hobbies, special talents and even a topical world issue. If you don’t know or are unsure, it’s okay to say that too or say that you are unsure, but you can also attempt an answer. At the interview, we welcome your questions about the type of work, the people in your team, pay and benefits, working hours, as well as our customers, workplace culture and training programmes. Asking these questions will help you decide whether we are an organisation that you would like to join.