Job Search Strategies

Effective Applications

The secret of making a successful application lies in seeing yourself through the employer's eyes and this starts by identifying what the employer is looking for and how you can provide it.

Graduate Skills Profile

Employers expect graduates to possess core skills regardless of their discipline (often referred to as Transferable Skills) in addition to skills that are specific to their subject of study. To learn more about skills gained though your course visit the Options with your Subject section of Prospects and click on your chosen subjects.

Student Employability Profiles is an excellent resource for you to gain insight into the skills developed through your specific degree programmes. It also includes a list of competencies and related questions that should be useful to you in preparing for interview.

Your Skills Portfolio

An excellent resource to assist you in building your skills portfolio can be found in the Windmills Interactive Programme. In addition print your own copy of the Windmill's Programme's Creating a Winning CV and complete the Skills Portfolio exercise. While this is an excellent publication to assist you in assessing your skills, the sample CV's are probably more appropriate to those with more extensive employment experience so we recommend that you use our templates (available on our Moodle site) instead.

Recruiters vary in their preference of application methods so you need to develop skills in the following:

• Application Forms
• Curriculum Vitaes
• Cover Letter
• On-line Applications

 

last reviewed: 22/9/2009

last updated: Tuesday, 22-Sep-2009 11:35:56 IST