I am about to apply for a job and really want to make my application as good as I can as employed opportunities in this field are VERY rare.
I had a MASSIVE career break with my children (my eldest has just taken his GCSEs!) but need to work full time in the future due to now being single again. I have done some retraining to enable my career change.
It seems to me that CVs have changed a lot while I was out of the workplace. I am in the process of redrafting mine as follows:
- a profile/statement - I have drafted this and I think it usefully explains my current position and ambitions but I'm not sure if that is the right thing.
- qualifications/education - I am including everything but thinking about supplying extra detail for the recent and relevant stuff to give emphasis
- section on my other activities (volunteering and hobby) related to the area I want to work in
- Career History - I plan on pruning this section so that I have 3 bullet points for each job focusing on skills rather than responsibilities as the jobs themselves are not in the same area and frankly feel like ancient history (to be honest I can't remember much about some of it!)
This is an entry level professional job but as there is a clerical element it specifies a minimum typing speed, which I don't have (Obviously I plan to work on this), can all recent graduates type? Am I showing my age by never having bothered too much about this in my earlier (professional) career? How quickly can I go from 30 wpm to 55 wpm?! So far I have not included anything about typing in my application, would I be OK to leave it out and (hopefully) tackle any questions at interview?
I haven't decided whether to include details of referees on the cv or put "references available on request", I don't know if it matters?
The application is online with the opportunity to upload a cv and enter a message, I see this as the equivalent of the covering letter so I will try to sell myself at this point.
Is there anything else I should have thought about?
I applied for a job last year and put a lot of effort into my application but didn't even get an interview. It is a job I could easily have done but I assume they had other applicants with more relevant experience. I have more obvious directly relevant qualifications for this one and really want to give myself the best chance.
Can anyone offer advice?
Many thanks for reading.