Teach First Skills Session The Truth about CVs and applications

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Teach First Skills Session The Truth about
CVs and applications
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Agenda

• Graduate Marketplace
• Insight into Screening
• Assessment Preparation
• Example - Teach First Experience
• Example - Transferable Skills
• CV Covering Letter
• Application Forms
• Summary
• Questions Answers

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Graduate Marketplace

• Number of students receiving grade A at A-Level
  at highest levels
• Number of graduates receiving a 1st or 2.1 at
  highest levels
• Competition is fierce
• currently there are 3 graduates for every
  graduate job.
• Economic downturn and CREDIT CRUNCH!!
• Importance of CV / Application form cannot be
  underestimated
• - Primary purpose is to secure an interview
• - Must be well presented and clearly structured
• - No spelling mistakes!

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Insight into Screening

• What is an employer looking for?
• Right academic achievements capable enough to
  do the job
• Right set of skills, attributes and experience
  able to handle the work and responsibilities
• Right outlook share the companys value and
  goals
• The reality
• Employer will spend 1-3 minutes reading your CV
• Employer will have specific minimum requirements
  if its not stated, you may not get interviewed
• Employer will want to be clearly informed if
  its difficult to read, employer will be
  frustrated
• Employer will want to be impressed and engaged
  you need your CV to stand out
• The seesaw method employers will then weigh up
  postiviesnegatives on CV

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Assessment Preparation

• Assessment Preparation Activity
• Review your experience
• - Write down your life achievements in 5 mins!
  What have you done so far?
• - Catalogue achievements academic / work
  experience / social activities / other
• - Expand on these achievements skills and
  knowledge required for each achievement
• Research Employer / Job role
• - What does the employer do? What makes them
  different to their competitors?
• - What are their values? What are their
  competencies?
• - What does the job entail? What will you do on
  a day to day level?
• - What does the culture feel like?
• Study the companys recruitment website, history,
  and job specification

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What is Teach First?

• Unique 2 year graduate training programme
• Challenging and rewarding teaching experience
  real experience after 6 weeks of training
• Gain Qualified Teacher Status of the end of
  first year
• Innovative leadership development and management
  skills course
• Unparalleled internships, networking and
  coaching opportunities
• Exposure to over 90 prestigious supporters
• Making a real difference in schools that need it
  the most
• 3 Locations London, The Midlands North west

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Example - Teach First Experience

• The Teach First experience creates many
  transferable skills
• These will make you stand out from other
  Graduates and extremely employable to others
• Identify Transferable Skills
• What do you think?
• In 5 minutes, try to identify what transferable
  skills you could gain and why they are so
  attractive to an employer.

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Example - Transferable Skills

• Skills / Competencies that are developed through
  the Teach First programme
• Communication Negotiation Resilience
• Tenacity Planning Organising
• Problem Solving Innovation Creativity
• Calm under Pressure Leadership Initiative
• Agent of change Ambition Confidence
• Presentation Energy Coaching
• Motivation of Others Commitment Self Belief
• Humour Positive Outlook Support
• Judgement Humility Respect
• Empathy Teamwork Integrity
• Influencing Professionalism Adaptability
• Delivery Challenge Drive
• Flexibility Tolerance
• Mentoring Fast thinking
• Resourcefulness Decisiveness
• Discipline

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Transferable Skills What Employers Want

• Teach First Survey of Times Top 100 Graduate
  Employers
• What do they look for in their assessment
  process? Skills / Competencies included
• Teamwork Leadership Client Communication
• Commercial Awareness Company Awareness Responsiv
  eness
• Initiative Problem Solving Innovation
• Critical Thinking Creativity
  Task Management
• Ambition Confidence Adaptability
• Personal Effectiveness Influencing Integrity
• Thrives on Challenge Technical
  Ability Entrepreneurial
• Top 5 skills that the Top 100 graduate employers
  look for?
• - Teamwork / Communication / Problem Solving /
  Confidence / Creativity

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Showing evidence of the Top 5 skills that the
Top 100 graduate employers look for

• Spend a minute on each of the top 5 skills, and
  jot down your experience
• 1) Teamwork
• 2) Communication
• 3) Problem Solving
• 4) Confidence
• 5) Creativity
• How did you get on?
• Was it difficult, or did you think of a wide
  range of examples?

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Showing evidence of the Top 5 skills that the Top
100 graduate employers look for

• Spend a few minutes discussing these experiences
  further with a partner. Consider
• If you have enough evidence to form the basis for
  a competency style question for each skill
• What else you can do to increase your skills in
  these five areas
• Would your evidence form enough of a basis for a
  ½ hr 1 hr interview?

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Curriculum Vitae

• Structure Content
• Personal Details Name, contact details, etc.
• Education Qualifications Degree back to
  GCSEs. Always state most recent qualifications
  first.
• Work Experience / Responsibilities
• Notable Achievements / Relevant Skills /
  Interests / Extra-Curricular Activities
• Tips for writing a CV
• CV must be clear / focused / relevant spelling,
  grammar and punctuation must be correct
• CV must never be in colour, or on coloured paper
• CV must not be more than 2 pages long - standard
  typefaces (Arial / TNR) font size 9 or above
• CV must be in a clear order (dates / duration),
  with sections and headings clearly marked
• CV must make sense following your progression
  and experience. Do not leave gaps
• CV must be targeted to the company and focused on
  the skills needed for the job
• Never send a generic CV an employer will spot
  this easily

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Covering Letters

• Structure and Content
• Introduce yourself in terms of your current
  situation
• Explain why you are making the application
• Provide a personal statement that demonstrates
  drive and suitability for the role
• Highlight your key skills, experiences and
  attributes which are relevant to the role
• Conclude the letter with a friendly Look forward
  to hearing from you
• Tips for writing a covering letter
• Do not repeat your CV
• Use it as a chance to align your skills with what
  they are looking for
• Be positive and write a new letter for each
  application
• Avoid spelling or grammatical errors as employer
  will be assessing verbal written skills
• Letter must be interesting to read tendency to
  become long-winded and lose focus
• No more than 1 page with 3 / 4 justified
  paragraphs of short and simple sentences
• Address to a particular person (ring up and get
  correct name / job title)
• Align your address to the RH margin and the
  companys to the left
• Once completed, get someone else to read through
  to check for errors

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Application Forms

• Before you fill out an application form
• Research Employer Company information and
  selection criteria
• Research Yourself Academic achievements /
  skills / experience etc
• Try and understand what an employer wants from a
  question (tells you how to approach the answer)
• Tips for completing an Application Form
• Read entire form before you start and
• Responses should be clearly laid out and ensure
  all instructions are followed
• Link your answers to what you know the employer
  wants in an employee and give evidence
• When describing a situation be clear how it
  arose, what your role was and the outcome
• Do not assume employer will read between the
  lines explain motivations what and why
• Do not under sell yourself but be honest when
  dealing with qualifications and experience
• Keep things clear and concise cut out
  irrelevant information
• Ensure you have completed all relevant sections
• Once finished, check for grammar and spelling
  mistakes
• Keep a copy as it will be used in your interview

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Summary

• Competition is fierce current market means it
  can be very tough to get the role that you want
• Employer wants to know you have the right
  academics, skills, attributes, experience and
  personality
• Employer has to be informed, impressed and
  engaged or no interview
• Make sure you spend a decent amount of time when
  making an application its very clear who
  hasnt!
• Assessment preparation is vital Identify what
  makes you unique / Do your research
• CV Covering Letter Primary purpose is to
  secure an interview
• - Clear / Focused / Relevant with NO spelling
  mistakes
• Application Form
• - Research employer yourself / Understand
  what an employer wants from each question

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Interested?

• Teach First is currently looking for 460
  graduates to join the Class of 00

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Please fill out our feedback form!

• Feel free to email me at
• ccawthorn_at_teachfirst.org.uk with any further
  questions you have about the programme, or stay
  behind for a quick chat.

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• Questions Answers