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Register yourself everywhere you can. High street and spe-cialist sector recruitment agencies, as well as online job websites are a must. Start with www.tiptopjob.com – we have over 80,000 vacan-cies listed at any time – but also look at the myriad of other recruit-ment sites such as Monster.co.uk, Jobsite.co.uk and Totaljobs.com. |
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Scour newspapers, both national and local and specialist sec-tor publications, for vacancies. Know which days the job pages in the nationals focus on your chosen sector. Buy your copy early in the day and get your application in as quickly as you can. |
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Draw up a list of target companies, and cold call them. It may seem like a daunting prospect, but given the current economic conditions, companies are looking to make savings wherever they can. If they have any vacancies coming up and they already have your details and CV on file, it could save them the cost of using a recruitment agency or placing an advertisement – this puts you ahead of the competition. |
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Withdraw or limit access to all of your social networking pro-file pages. As invasive as it sounds, some companies will do a background check on you and images of your latest drunken con-quests will not be beneficial to the cause. |
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Research is absolutely vital. Find out absolutely everything you can about the company, their business and employees. Know and understand their sector and hint at that understanding in your application – this will intrigue them and make them want to know more about you. Check out their website, and those of their main competitors. Google them. The more research you do, the better understanding you will have of their business; use this in your application and you will stand a better chance of getting an interview. |
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Make sure your application goes to the right person, and flat-ter their ego. Telephone the company and find out who to write to, and what their job title is. If its not an HR department but instead is an individual (often the MD) then do a bit of research on them personally – a Google search can throw up bits of information that may be useful. Demonstrating that you know about conference they spoke at, or an article they wrote will convince them that you have done your homework and are someone worth talking to. |
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Get to know their employees. How do they dress? Where do they hang out? It may sound a bit like espionage, but hang around the offices after work and find out what they do – is there a post-work drinks culture, a 5 a side football team, a gym culture? Don’t be afraid to network – a casual conversation with an employee in the pub can glean incredibly useful nuggets of information that could make all the difference. |
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Make your CV stand out from the crowd. To impress a po-tential employer you must demonstrate an understanding of corpo-rate style. Again, research will stand you in good stead. Look at their website, and pay close attention to the layout and written style. Try to make your CV reflect this – a funky informal style may not get you far with a very traditional accountancy firm. It goes without saying, I hope, that you should make sure that you spell check everything you send and that it is clean, clear and well laid out on the page. Incredibly, over 50% of CVs and covering letters received by employers and recruitment agencies contain spelling or grammatical errors, which instantly consigns them to the scrap heap. If your written English is not that great, find someone to help you. A job application containing such basic errors will only irritate a potential employer, and portray you as being sloppy, slapdash, or stupid – none of which will help you to get an interview. |
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If there are gaps in your CV, make sure that you provide a proper explanation of these with your application. A potential employer will think the worst if you leave large periods of time unaccounted for. |
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You will need to supply contact details of at least two refe-rees with any job application. At least one of these should be a recent employer, with another person, preferably someone older than yourself and a professional, to vouch for your good character. Make sure that you prime your referees beforehand, explaining the details of the job(s) that you are applying for, so that they can tailor what they say about you to make you sound like the perfect candidate. |
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Never, ever send a standard covering letter or email to a po-tential employer. It is lazy, and shows lack of imagination and effort on your part and is often the fastest route your CV can take to the nearest bin. |
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NEVER include your photograph on your CV – it is just a no-no. You do not want to put up any possible obstacles as people can be turned off very easily. |
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The ideal number of pages for a CV is three. People do not want pages of waffle, neither do they want something that is too limited. Just facts of what and where you have been in a précis form. They will ask you to expand if they want to know more. |
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Never rely on a potential employer to return your calls or emails. Far too many times I’ve heard a disappointed job seeker saying “I emailed them but I never heard back.” Success goes to the persistent – if you don’t hear back, pester them but within reason. No one wants a stalker! Always follow up emails and letters with a phone call to make sure your correspondence has been received. |
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If you really want to make an impression, deliver your appli-cation by hand. It takes a confident, committed individual to do so, which will earn you their instant respect. Ensure you mark the envelope “Personally delivered”. Also, unlike a phone call or email, someone will have to speak to you. Just make sure you look and sound presentable (see “interview success” rules). While you are there, ask very nicely and politely if anyone has the time to talk to you for a few minutes about the company. The worst that can happen is that they will say no. |
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If your application is rejected prior to the interview stage, find out why. Ring them up and ask for feedback. Ask if they might consider you for some (unpaid) work experience instead; your persistence may reap rewards and you may have better luck next time. |
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If this is your first or second job then consider doing work experience as a way of getting a foot in the door. If you are already working for an employer, for free, and they like you, they may well keep you on as and when any paid vacancies arise. |
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If you have experience and been working for some years and jobs are hard to get, then why not offer a two week free probation-ary period to prove your worth. But do ensure that you get a full Contract of Employment stating the trial period will be used to decide if you are a suitable candidate. |
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Apply for any job going in your chosen company or sector, including those for which you are over-qualified. Taking a more junior position will put you ahead of the competition when more senior roles come along – you will hear of vacancies before they are advertised externally, and if you are doing a good job, you stand a good chance of being promoted. Hiring or promoting internal candidates is almost always a cheaper option for companies than advertising or using a recruitment agency and its often a good company policy to promote from within. |
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