Step by Step Guide

Work's much more interesting when you're doing something you’re good at. Take time to think about your key skills and attributes and how you could use them at work.  Try our self assessment tools to help identify the roles best suited to you.

Make sure you consider how you're going to get to work –there's no use applying for a job the other end of the country unless you're prepared to relocate. Think about transport links, how long you're prepared to travel to get to work and what kinds of services you'll want nearby when you get there.

No two employers are the same and your search for work will be easier if you have a good idea of what kind of organisation you want to work for. Do you want to work for a small, local company or a multinational corporation? Would you rather work in the private or public sector? Or you might want to consider working for a charity or not-for-profit organisation.

Each kind of organisation has its own benefits and there are a number of factors to consider. Here are just a few of the questions you might want to think about to help you make your decision:

• What will the prospects for career progression be like? 
• What training will be offered?
• If it's a large organisation, will I have the opportunity to shine?
• If it's a small organisation, will my prospects be limited?
• What benefits are offered by the company?
• What will my colleagues be like?

Be realistic, but don't sell yourself short. Try and work out what salary you should be looking for and be prepared to look for jobs paying slightly below and slightly above that rate. If you're offered a job, you’ll usually have the opportunity to negotiate your salary to some extent.

Once you've decided what you're looking for, it's time to make sure your CV's up to scratch.

Your CV is a reflection of yourself, so you need to ensure that it looks professional and well laid-out. In particular, you should:

• Choose a clear, professional typeface to ensure that your CV can be easily read (e.g. Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman)
• Avoid typos or spelling mistakes, not only by spell checking but by proof reading your own CV, or perhaps asking someone else to proof read it
• Organise your document into clear headings (work experience, education) so that these can easily be scanned
• Order your experience and education into reverse chronological order to highlight your most recent experience

In general, your CV should be clear enough for an employer to scan and understand quickly.

Additionally, it should be easy to appraise your key skills and experience to determine whether you are appropriate for the role.

When writing your CV, you should aim to sell yourself as much as possible to a potential employer. To achieve this, you should describe yourself in terms that make you sound positive and pro-active.

Writing a CV can be a challenging task, with several potential issues. The most common CV issues are detailed below:

My CV would fill at least four pages

In many cases, it will be difficult (if not impossible) to fit all of your skills, experience and education into a two-page CV. However, when putting together a CV you should bear in mind that:

• Employers are most interested in skills and experience relevant for the job you’re applying for
• Your most recent experience and educational achievements will be more interesting to potential employers
• Shorter CVs will be easier to read and so your CV will be more likely to receive a proper appraisal

I’m changing careers

If you don’t have much experience in a role or are changing careers completely, you should still try to highlight your skills to an employer. An effective way of achieving this is by including a ‘Career Objective’ section.

This section allows you to describe what you’re looking to achieve in your next role, as well as highlighting any experience in a different field that might still be appropriate in the job you’re applying for. 

I’ve had gaps between jobs

Many jobseekers at some stage in their life have had a gap in their career, for travelling, whilst changing jobs or for a range of other reasons.

When including gaps on your CV, these can be covered in a number of ways:

• Travel and voluntary work should be included in the your skills and experience
• Gaps in work can be covered up by specifying years only in work dates rather than months and years

All of the jobs I’ve done have been very similar

If you’ve undertaken very similar tasks and responsibilities in all of your jobs, you will probably want to avoid noting down all of these jobs on your CV.

A solution to this is to simply provide a brief summary of your career history, with a more details section outlining the practical skills and experience you have gained from all of these.

This section is a good opportunity to highlight the skills you have matching the requirements of the job you’re applying for.

I don’t have many qualifications

If you don’t have many qualifications to include in your CV, you can still emphasis skills and experience you have gained in your work or elsewhere.

If a lack of qualifications is hindering your progress you could apply for part-time training, increasing your qualifications and demonstrating a willingness to learn to potential employers.

Alternatively, you might want to consider increasing your experience by undertaking some voluntary work.

Covering letters, like CVs, will vary in content depending on the role you’re applying for and your own skills and experience. However, employers will generally expect to see the following information:

• Contact details (generally your address and phone number, as well as email address for online applications)
• Details of the job you’re applying for and where you saw this advertised (if not a prospective letter)
• A brief summary of your recent experience and what you have gained from this
• Why your skills and experience are suitable for the role (in response to the job spec where applicable)

To make your covering letter as effective as possible, we would recommend the following guidelines:

Address the letter to the right person

It may sound obvious, but when writing a covering letter you should always try to address the letter to the person handling job applications.

If you’re unsure of the right contact, don’t be afraid to call the company to ask for a name. After all, there’s no harm in showing initiative.

Keep it brief

Covering letters should be a summary of your CV, matching your skills and experience to the requirements of the role. As such, these should be kept as short and concise as possible, and certainly should not exceed one page of A4.

Refer to your CV

The covering letter should highlight the key points of your CV that will be of interest to the recruiter. Therefore, you should refer to experience and qualifications mentioned in your CV.

Match yourself to the job

Your covering letter should highlight the skills and experience on your CV that match the job requirements. Remember, employers use covering letters as a means of pre-screening applications, so you need to show that you meet their requirements.

Do your homework

Covering letters provide a great opportunity to show that you have thought properly about the job you’re applying for and have done some research. So, when explaining why you’re interested in the job role, try to show some knowledge of the company you’re applying to.

Explain gaps in work history

As your covering letter is a marketing document, you should highlight what you’ve gained from recent work history. If you’ve had recent gaps in work history, you may not have space to explain these on your CV.

So, your covering letter provides an ideal opportunity to explain what you were doing during the gaps, and sell any skills you might have picked up on the way.

Take special care to dress appropriately - most of the time smart business dress will be appropriate. In some rare occasions, smart casual may be appropriate but ensure you err on the side of smartness.

Make sure you are punctual – try to arrive at least 15 minutes before your scheduled interview time. If you are going to be late for any reason then make sure you inform the interviewer as early as possible.

 Some important points to remember:

• Don't assume anything. You will be evaluated on your answers, not your CV. Therefore, ensure you incorporate the relevant information from your CV in your answers.
• Pause a couple of seconds before you respond to each question, even if you know exactly what you want to say. Take this time to quickly plan your answer, this helps to avoid misunderstandings and produces much more concise answers.
• If you don't understand a question, ask for clarification. This is expected and is preferable to providing an unsuitable answer.
• If you need time to collect your thoughts - take it. When people are nervous they tend either to "draw a blank" or to babble. It is better to think for a few moments and make sure that your answer is doing you justice and that there is a point to what you are saying.
• Always expand. Never answer a question with a "yes" or "no."
• The interview is an opportunity for you to sell yourself. Don't be afraid to 'blow your own trumpet'. As long as you can back up what you are saying with examples which demonstrate that what you are saying is true, you are not bragging. Third party observations can also be mentioned. For example, "My last employer told me that I was promoted because of how I handled conflicts with clients."
• Be very positive. Don't complain about anything - from your former employer to the weather - and don't apologise for experience that you don't have. Just sell what you do have and let the employer decide if you have what he/she is looking for. Also, avoid negative words. For example, you would not say "I have a little experience...," you would say "I have experience..."
• Don't be afraid to repeat important points. In fact, it is a good idea to do this.
• In terms of your manner and body language, try to ensure the following - be confident, positive and look directly at the interviewer when you talk and listen, speak clearly, be enthusiastic and express a keen interest in the position, keep to the point and be concise and always be honest.

Interviews generally follow a set pattern. The interviewer will:-

• Tell you about the company and the job.
• Ask you questions to assess your abilities, personality and motivation.
• Ask if you have any questions.
• Inform you of the next stage of the process and when a final decision will be made.

The most important thing to remember is that the interview is a two way process. You are there to find out information about them as much as they are there to find out about you. This is your chance to find out information that isn’t in the job description and this can help you make an informed decision about whether you definitely want the job.

• Can you tell me more about the company?
• Can you describe my area of responsibility?
• Is this post a new or existing one?
• What are the promotion prospects?
• Is there a clearly defined career path?
• Do you run any training schemes?
• What type of clients do you deal with?
• Will you be holding second interviews?

Having set out your minimum, expected and dream salaries, you’re now in a position to consider where you might have some flexibility on this. Namely, the benefits package.

Whilst take-home salary is clearly important, there are other elements to consider. For example, your prospective employer might offer health care, a generous pension, stock options, free gym membership or flexible working options (e.g. flexi-time).

The next step is to consider how much flexibility you’re willing to offer for all of these benefits. This will take into account the monetary value of these benefits, but you should also consider some of the lifestyle and time-saving benefits.

For example, flexible working hours might allow you to spend more time with your family, whereas company pensions will mean you don’t have to organise your own pension scheme.

You’re now at the stage where you know what you should be earning, and what room you have for negotiation. So it’s time to start negotiating your offer.

Your prospective employer is likely to have a figure in mind for your salary, but don’t simply accept or reject the first offer.

Initially, you should ask whether there is flexibility on the salary dependent on the experience and skills of the applicant. Also, remember to ask how often this salary is likely to be reviewed – taking a lower salary will be more acceptable if there will be regular salary reviews.

With the salary band stated by the employer, now is the time to start comparing it to your initial salary expectations.

If the salary is below your minimum expectation, you will probably want to explain that the offer is below what you were expecting. You’ll also want to explain why this is – perhaps because you can’t afford to earn less or because you are already earning more than they are offering.

If the package is around your expected salary, you will still want to negotiate. Explain that you may be worth more than market rates, due to your experience, knowledge or qualifications.

In the event of being offered your dream salary, you will probably want to discuss room for future growth in earnings and career development. Remember, although this is your dream salary, as you progress your expectations are likely to increase.

For any of these scenarios, you should never flat out refuse a salary straight away. You should state that you ‘need time to consider the package’, giving you and the employer time more time to consider your options.

There are clearly a number of considerations when deciding whether to accept an offer from an employer.

Whilst salary is important within these, you will need to take into account other considerations such as benefits, working hours, work culture, the job itself and room for career development.

If the salary is not what you expected, and is not compensated by additional benefits or career development, you should say so. If this is not then reviewed by the employer, you’ll probably need to accept that the job wasn’t right for you and move on.

Remember, if you’ve done your homework, you should know what you’re worth and make sure you earn that in your next career move.

If you’re a loyal employee and you’ve done a good job, the chances are your boss won’t want to see you go. The most likely way an employer will try and make you stay is by offering you a pay rise either equal to or above what you’ve been offered in your new job.

You should take any counter offer seriously and carefully consider how you would feel about staying in the same job but with a better salary. This may help remind you of the other reasons you have for leaving and help you make your decision.

Employers may also try and lure you into staying with the promise of promotion and increased responsibility. Again, you should think carefully about what this means but don’t forget that you’ll be working in the same organisation, with the same people and probably under the same boss.

Whatever the length of your notice period, you’re legally obliged to work it, unless your employer is willing to waive it. If you have a written contract of employment, you should find details of your notice period there, otherwise, you should allow between two weeks and a month.

It’s easy to imagine your last few weeks as a time to relax and stop making an effort, but this is seldom the case. You’ll probably have plenty to keep you busy, finalising any outstanding work and ensuring you properly handover your responsibilities.

What’s more, being seen to make the effort right up until your last day will ensure your reputation as a professional and reliable employee remains intact. And you never know when you might deal with your employer again: one day they may be your client.

Finally, make sure you allow time to say goodbye to everyone and swap contact details with as many colleagues as you can. Moving jobs is a great way to extend your network and you may find you see some of your colleagues again sooner than you think.

Last of all, don’t feel guilty about resigning. Feel good. Working is a business arrangement and moving jobs is part of that arrangement.

Whilst others may think you’re resigning from a perfectly good job, you’re the one in control of your career and only you can decide which direction it should take. If resigning from your job will bring you closer to meeting your goals, then it’s a legitimate step on your career path. Just remember to tread carefully.