What to cover in a letter?

Including a covering letter with your CV can demonstrate motivation, commitment and initiative. A covering letter gives you the opportunity to demonstrate your writing skills, and an extra chance to state why the recruiter should read your CV.

1. Presentation: Make sure the presentation of your covering letter is of the highest standard. Find out who the letter should be addressed to (if there’s no name on the job advert, then make the effort to ring the company and find out their name). Did you know 60% of covering letters and CV’s are addressed to the wrong person? Make sure you’re in the 40% that are right! Also, put the job title and reference number (if there is one) at the top of your letter, and avoid exceeding one page.

2. Content: Focus on the company rather than yourself. Read the advert thoroughly and try to mimic the terminology used within the advert and supporting information (job description and person specification). Make sure you match the aspects they’ve outlined as their ‘needs’ to your skills.

3. Structure: Open your letter by stating why you are writing, identifying the position you’re applying for and how you heard about the position. Next, explain what interests you about the job, and then focus on how their organisation would benefit if they were to employ you. State what strengths (skills and experience) you have and relate them to the job in question. Describe past achievements, relate them to the vacancy. Finally, refer the reader to your enclosed CV for further information and thank them for their time.

4. Detail: Include detail about the company. Show the reader you have done your research on the company, mention some of the organisation’s specific projects in your covering letter. For example, “An aspect of your organisation that really attracted me was the amount of projects you undertake within the community. The ‘EXAMPLE’ project really impressed me; the whole process seemed incredibly well structured with a clear vision. The results within the community are really inspiring. To see an organisation encourage residents to improve their skills and therefore further their prospects to that extent is very rare - and the thought of being involved in such an organisation is something that really appeals to me.”

5. Why you? Throughout the covering letter, you should be answering the question of ‘Why you?’. The whole purpose of the letter is to convince the recruiter that you are the right person for the job, and therefore they should read your CV and invite you for interview. Emphasis your positive assets, past accomplishments and personal qualities – remember to keep it in line with the potential employers needs.

6. Last few pointers: If you are sending the covering letter in physical format, make sure you print on a high quality paper. If, however, you are sending it digitally, include the covering letter in the main body of the e-mail and attach the CV as a document. Finally, get someone to proof read the letter before you send it off. Everyone makes mistakes – better to be safe than sorry!

Good luck!

Making application forms a breeze!

The vast majority of public sector companies ask candidates to complete an application form, rather than submitting a CV. This is primarily for equality and diversity reasons.

The essence of completing any application form is to express that you have the right skills and qualities for the position. They usually feature a range of different questions; from general questions about your personality and hobbies, to ones that focus on your education and past work experience. There will also be competency based questions. To help you tackle these forms in the best way possible, we’ve put together some advice…

1. When answering the more general questions, such as – “What do you do in your spare time?” – think about what the employer is looking for and how what you write may be perceived. For example, “In my spare time, I enjoy playing team sports and regularly play for a five aside football team” would demonstrate to the employer that not only do you work well in teams – but also that you pay attention to your fitness. Healthy staff = higher attendance rates.

Try to avoid phrases such as - “I enjoy socialising with my friends”. Most people do enjoy socialising with their friends, but chances are a recruiter would read through the lines and perceive you as unreliable.

2. Use questions based on education and past experience as an opportunity to highlight skills that you’ve developed as a result of these. For example, communication, time management, and leadership skills. If you lack similar experience, then be sure to indicate these skills as transferable.

3. Competency based questions – a lot of people struggle with competency based questions. People often over analyse the questions and think there is a right or wrong answer. The recruiter wants to see your ability to problem solve and use your initiative. Use this opportunity to show how you have resolved problems and what the experience has taught you. You should structure your answers using the CAR approach – context, action, result. Describe the context of the situation but try not to go into too much unnecessary detail. Focus on the action - what you did and what skills you used. Then explain the outcome, and what you learnt from the experience.

Here are some examples of competency based questions:

• "Please give an example of how you work in a team/how you have dealt with a difficult problem".
• "If your co-worker has missed a deadline, what would you do?".
• “Please describe a situation when you have used your interpersonal skills to help build relationships with others, shared knowledge and information to achieve the business goals.” 

Make sure you use examples, and focus on your own actions rather than that of a team. Use a variety of situations rather than focusing on one area – for example your studies or your previous job positions. Avoid any negativity and use power words such as "succeed", "committed", and "confident". Finally, remember to stay truthful throughout the whole application process.

Good luck!

Housing Jobs provides organisations with the tools to create a discrimination free recruitment process, including the ability to create on-line application forms and restrict viewing. For more information, or if you're a job seeker seeking a role with an organisation that promotes equality and diversity, please visit www.housingjobs.org.uk

It takes two to tango!

It's very well preparing answers for intervew questions, but a job interview is a two-way process. Preparing questions to ask at the interview will not only potray initiative, but also give you a more thorough vision of what the company are like to work for.

We've put together some examples that might come in useful...

• How would you describe the responsibilities of this position?
• How would you describe a typical working week in this role?
• How many people are in the team that I'll be working with?
• How would you describe the company culture?
• What are the prospects for growth and advancement with the company?
• Are there regular performance reviews?
• What do you enjoy the most about working here?
• Are there any other questions I can answer for you?
• When can I expect to hear from you?
 

Don't ask them all, and be careful not to ask anything that has already been covered in the interview - otherwise they'll think you've not been listening!

Good luck!

How to get a job through social media...

Nowadays, people use social media for lots of different aspects of their lives – socialising, shopping, for educational purposes and informational purposes, so it’s not surprising that companies have started using social media to recruit as well. We’ve put together some tips to help you source your next role through social media.

·        Don’t just search for jobs – search for people. Websites such as LinkedIn allow us to search for companies and it's employees. It provides you with direct access to the HR manager. You can also use it for research purposes when you do bag an interview.

·        When someone thinks of twitter, they probably won’t think of it as a place to find your next job. However, several companies have twitter accounts dedicated entirely to their recruitment team – plus recruitment companies are always tweeting their positions. Search specific hash tags to find live vacancies. Some examples are, #jobsearch, #jobseeker, #vacancies. Or try industry specific hash tags such as #housingjobs or #publicsectorjobs

·        Several companies have Facebook fan pages with a dedicated job search tab. The HousingJob Facebook page has a job search application whereby you can search through live vacancies without leaving the website.

·        Subscribe to blogs – a lot of people don’t realise that blogs are the number 1 social media tool. A quick google search will provide you with a vast range of blogs on every topic you could imagine. Look for industry specific blogs, as well as ones based on job seeking and HR matters.

Be careful not to focus all your efforts solely on social media though – you should do the above in conjunction with more traditional methods to make sure you’ve got all bases covered.

Men = women?

A recent article on personneltoday focuses on the results of research conducted by recruitment consultancy, Robert Half. The research has found that more than three-quarters (78%) of HR directors believe that male employees do not have an advantage over females within the workplace.

The survey, completed by 180 HR directors, also found that half of those who did think that there was an imbalance between males and females at work believed that family commitments were responsible for this difference.

Respondents also identified a lack of promotion opportunities (42%) and the desire to maintain a good work-life balance (36%) as key factors behind the difference in men and women’s professional development.

Phil Sheridan, managing director of Robert Half UK, commented: “While it s encouraging that over three-quarters of HR directors don’t view men as having an advantageous position over women in the workplace, more needs to be done.

“Companies should regularly review their succession and remuneration plans to ensure that women are treated fairly and equally, with policies to take into account their family and personal commitments.”

Previous research by Friends Life found that more than half (55%) of women believed that there would still be a significant pay gap between men and women in 2020 and 53% thought that they would still be facing more barriers than men to secure senior roles.

The Equality Act 2010 states that it’s unlawful for an employer to discriminate against you because of your sex. The Act covers the following aspects of employment:

• recruitment
• employment terms and conditions
• pay and benefits
• training
• promotion and transfer opportunities
• redundancy
• dismissal

Equal terms – equal pay refers to where men and women whom work for the same employer, are doing one of the following, they are entitled to the same terms in their employment contract:

• the same or similar work (like work)
• work rated as equivalent in a job evaluation study by the employer
• work of equal value

Pay secrecy clauses in employment contracts are unenforceable if you are trying to find out if any difference in pay is connected with a 'protected characteristic', for example sex.

If you think you are being discriminated against, visit the direct.gov website for further advice on what to do next.