Self Marketing: Applications, CV's and Covering Letters

Read through the Session 3 Presentation in the Resources Section. When you get to the Evaluating CV's exercise have a look at the 'Before and After' examples of CV's on Improving a CV.

Your CV is your primary personal marketing tool. In a competitive market it is essential that you create a winning impression at the earliest opportunity so your CV needs to impress. Your CV should always be accompanied by a covering letter. A covering letter should be used as a polite and professional introduction that specifically relates your attributes, achievements,and experience to a particular opportunity.

The application form is a sophisticated selection tool for employers, and many large organisations spend a great deal of time and thought in designing application forms to suit their needs. Ignoring them and sending off your CV instead will result in a polite request to use their form or no response at all, which you should take as a rejection for not following instructions.

Resources
Session 3 Presentation

Links
CV's and Covering Letters (Careers and Employability Service, University of Nottingham)
CV's and Covering Letters (Prospects)
Improving a CV (Careers Advisory Service, The Open University)
Application Forms (Careers and Employability Service, University of Nottingham)
Job Application Advice (Prospects)

References
This page uses an image from the Open Clip Art Library page "Devoir / Homework", which is available under the CC0 PD Dedication