Current Undergraduates

Approaching Employers and Self-presentation

Finding information and working out a strategy are the relatively easy parts of obtaining the experience. Presenting yourself favourably and in a manner that will interest employers is more difficult.
At the foot of the page are some alternative approaches to CV writing.

Keep in mind what you are a looking for. If it's a summer job, your technical skills and knowledge are of more interest than a long list of your sporting or extra-curricular achievements, which may have been relevant when you were applying to your College.
Try and target your efforts and use named personnel wherever possible.
Any Cover Note that you write should state clearly who you are, what you want, when you want it, why they should take you and how they can contact you. Be business-like and stick to the point.
Your CV should present your personal details, academic record, current studies, any skills and abilities that you have, any measurable personal achievements and lastly hobbies and interests. I've collected some really bad examples which have been given a makeover to try and help you to eliminate basic errors.

Its always difficult to analyse yourself that's why some people spend a small fortune asking other people to do it for them, however whether it is a cv, cover note or interview below are some of the issues you need to address:

It is important that you present the type of information that the potential employer requires to be able to make a decision as to whether to pursue his/her interest in you or not. Below is a list of some of the things they would like to know:

The biggest assumption that students make is that busy employers are familiar with the course content of the CUED degree, or if they are not, they have the time to go and look it up. Make sure you insert a short summary of your course with particular emphasis on the practical elements. I have some slot in templates for the CUED course for Year 1 and Year 2

Many CVs that are presented include much information which is of little or no use to employers. You may be quite proud of the fact that you are in three different orchestras or have represented your school, college etc at a sport, however, for the purposes of finding a summer vacation job it is sufficient to know that you actively pursue interests other than engineering.

One of the most frequent mistakes is to use too much space on your GCSE results and virtually nothing on your current studies. Students in the past have even omitted to mention they are studying Engineering!

Information should always be presented in reverse chronological order i.e. the things you have done most recently at the top and in greater detail. Employers are more interested in what you are doing now than what you were doing four to five years ago.

Should always be avoided in a CV. Bullet points should be used, and are useful as they force you to distil your thoughts more precisely.

The concept of transferable skills is a vital job-search technique that all job-seekers should master, though the concept is especially important for career changers and college students. What are transferable skills? Simply put, they are skills you have acquired during any activity in your life -- jobs, classes, projects, parenting, hobbies, sports, virtually anything -- that are transferable and applicable to what you want to do in your next job.

More websites on CV preparation

Prospects Website UK Careers web site run by the central team for UK Careers Services, so neutral sound advice from the Prospects people.

Cambridge University Careers Service has a wealth of expertise in this area. Tap into it.

Telephone Canvass

The next stage may be that you want to follow up your messages to employers and I have some notes on Telephone Follow Up so that you can find out what stage your application has reached.