What not to do when applying for a job via email!
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008Last week we offered the opportunity to have your CV re-written specifically for banking and finance. In order to get the chance of having your CV rewritten, all you had to do was email a CV and tell us:
- The job role or sector that you want to work in
- An explanation of why you’re right for that particular role
- A quick explanation of what makes you different from all other candidates.
- A short history of your career or job search so far.
What percentage of respondents do you think answered all the questions?
90%? 80%? 60%? Believe it or not, only 50% of respondents actually gave answers to the questions. The other 50% have been rejected and missed out on the chance to have their CV rewritten. This kind of thing makes life much easier for recruiters (as they can immediately reject about 50% of applications for reasons such as the following. If you’re applying for jobs with no success, you might want to watch out for any of these mistakes:
- Not reading to the end of the advertisement - it seems that the 50% who didn’t answer the questions only read as far as the email address, and then immediately sent their CV to this email address. Don’t be too hasty when you see a good job opportunity - make sure it’s appropriate for you and that they’re not, for example, requiring 5 years experience on a trading desk when the only ‘trading’ you’ve ever done was on eBay!
- Not naming your CV after yourself - when I want to read your CV I’ll save it on my computer. Pretty soon I’ll have a thousand files named ‘CV.doc’ and yours will be lost among them! (On a similar topic, make sure you never send them your ‘CVupdated (McDonalds removed).doc’!
- Applying for the wrong job - your chances of getting the job are less than your chances of winning the lottery if you apply for a finance job with a CV that starts ‘I am seeking a career in fashion’.
- Not being able to find the full-stop key: its really difficult to read if theres no full stops or capital letters or pauses for breath its ok to txt your best mate like this but wont help you get a job offer but by the way the button you need is just below the letter ‘L’ ;~)
- Sending just your CV - Without exception, if you can’t be bothered to write a few words in your email and simply send a CV, your CV will be deleted. Would you walk into a shop, hand in your CV without saying a word, and then walk out without saying goodbye? Or would you engage in a little chat and try to make a good impression? (Luckily only one person made this mistake - but the next shortest email was just 5 words (excluding the word ‘Hi’)).
- Not signing off with your name and email - I don’t want to have to open up your CV just to find out who you are. Add a signature with your name, email and phone number (and maybe current place or work or university) to the bottom of every email and you’ll come across like a true professional.
- Setting a poor first impression - make sure that your ‘from’ name on your emails start with Capital Letters. You can usually change this under ‘My Account’ in your email account. If the first thing they see when receiving your email is that you can’t be bothered to add capital letters to your own name…well, you can see why the ‘Delete’ key on a recruiter’s laptop is usually the most worn!
It is easier to see these mistakes when you’re on the recruiting-side of the desk, rather than making the application yourself, but I hope this short article makes everyone aware of the kinds of standards and attention to detail that you need to start displaying if you are serious about working in the finance sector (or, for that matter, any sector).
Unfortunately, if you were one of the 50% who didn’t answer the questions, you’ve missed your chance this time, but I hope that the checklist above will help you in avoiding the same mistakes again.
For the other 50% who did answer the questions, we’ll hopefully have a treat for at least one of you next week. As mentioned before, if we choose your CV for a makeover, we’ll let you know before we publish it on the blog (and we’ll remove your contact details or anything personal).
And if you’ve managed to read to the end of this, you can still apply to get your CV remade, but make sure you read this post first!
Good luck with future applications!