Gutted I've not had an interview, and not sure why

Evilm

athensgeorgia wrote: »

All this advice is much appreciated, keep it coming.

DOB - put it on or leave it off?

At the moment I have marital status on there, leave it on or take it off?

DOB - either. Doesn't matter as your education shows your age and they can work it out anyway. A lot of people will say to take it off to avoid "discrimination" but it won't really make a difference.

Marital status - take off.

Regarding : "Entering the information into a PC"

This really underplays your computer skills and looks a bit naive. What kind of information and what system? You can use a type of system here but should be clear (Like "entering customer billing information into the Accounting System (System name)" or something). Otherwise it says nothing - you might have just made a list in Word!

Employers like to know what systems you have already used and are trained on which I see none of.

Also Legal Secretaries still usually need to do Audio Typing so I don't see a reference to that on there. It should be referenced alongside a Words Per Minute (WPM) typing speed.

Take your references off. These days you do not even need to write "references available on request" as it is assumed that someone who finished school in 1997 will have some references. They will request them or you can have them on another piece of paper which you can give to agencies and keep with you.

The fact you can only reference 5 GCSE's (1 of them being a D) in a time when students were usually taking 10* doesn't look great. (*I know, I finished secondary school the year after you and did 11 - 1 I did only get a D on too)

I'm assuming that your work experience section gives more detail of where you have worked but you've removed that for privacy? If it does that's fine. If not it gives me no idea what kind of work you've done except that its customer facing and that you had to do a Food Certificate for it.

To be honest this isn't the CV I'd expect from someone your age either. This is a starter/20-22year olds CV not a 30 year olds CV. I'm not really sure how to work it over to make it more 'older' though.

Apologies for the criticism, I hope it helps.

athensgeorgia

WestonDave wrote: »

And in the real world, employers will find ways to avoid employing women who they think are about to disappear off on maternity leave! In a small organisation without regimented recruitment scoring systems, choices of interview candidates or actual employees comes down to gut feel of the person recruiting so proving discrimination is very difficult - although if you were the only 35 year old married female on your course and all the others got interviews.....

Unfortunately I wasn't, the ages vary from 18 to late 30's. I'm thinking my boring 'cover letter' didn't help along with my lack of qualifications, seeing as though everybody else on the course has done at least one more year of college. I applied the very same day our lecturer told us about the opportunity whereas everybody else waited a week maybe I was too eager.

anamenottaken

athensgeorgia wrote: »

Finally managed it, I've copied and pasted so it's not as neat as the actual CV:

Education

Egerton Park High School September 1992 - July 1997
Egerton Street
Denton

Hyde Clarendon College Basic Food Hygiene Certificate
Clarendon Road March 1998 Don't include this unless it is relevant to the job
Hyde


Tameside College ILEX Level 3 Legal Secretary Beaufort Road September 2011 - Present
Ashton-under-Lyne

Qualifications

G.C.S.E Maths Grade B GCSE not G.C.S.E. - just as you wrote in post #1 Mathematics - consistent with spelling out Literature

G.C.S.E English Literature Grade B

G.C.S.E English Language Grade B put English Language first or second in the list - in the world of work it is more valued for itself

G.C.S.E Geography Grade D

G.C.S.E Business Studies Grade C

Basic Food Hygiene Certificate relevant to job?

First Aid Certificate which one? First Aid at Work (the 4-day course one)? Include as can be valued by an employer

ILEX Level 3 Legal Secretary Proofreading Certificate Is this a stand-alone certificate?

Work History

April 2004 - Present that's a long time to be a trainee or are you managing supervisors/trainees? - if you have actually progressed within the organisation show this with more than one job title

Supervisor/Trainee Manager
Duties include:

Answering the telephone
Entering the information into a PC
Handling money - amount?, how? why?
Liaising with customers and drivers - to what purpose?
General admin duties including filing and faxing
Supervising up to 7 staff members
Staff training - what aspects?
Addressing customer complaints - resolving?
Reprogramming PDA’s plural is PDAs

Personal Profile

I am an outgoing, happy and positive person. I am a hard worker, willing to get involved and get my hands dirty when necessary. I am also loyal and dedicated, especially to any tasks given to me. I am not satisfied until a task is completed to my best ability. I am eager to learn and wish to progress and improve to my utmost potential.

I can navigate the internet with ease and have extensive knowledge of Microsoft Office including creating databases and spreadsheets. I have some experience in audio typing. Delete "some" - it is a poor qualifier and, unless things have changed a lot in the last few years, working as a legal secretary is going to need a lot of audio work

Interests

I have recently joined a gym. In my spare time I like to spend time with my family and friends. I also enjoy swimming, reading and cooking.
Please omit interests unless you are really not able to fill the space with anything better. If you do put interests then think whether spending time with family and friends is going to be of interest and say what type of thing you like to read (train timetables (I knew someone who did), biographies, or whatever) or cook.


And then references. Don't include referee details on your CV

When applying for legal work, put your eventual qualification as one of your bullet points in your short personal profile ahead of your work experience.

t0rt0ise

Sometimes employers look at the covering letter and if it simply says here's my CV or similar, it gets deleted. The covering letter should be a few paragraphs explaining why you want the job and what you have to offer. It's equivalent of the blurb bit on an application form.

sarahg1969

marybelle01 wrote: »

Far be it from me to come across as the grammar police or anything else...

It should be "which you have recently discussed" or "which you recently discussed" (the latter is better), not "that".

'That' is actually correct in this instance.

The OP is applying for 'the job that was discussed with her mentor'.

The alternative would be that she applying for 'the job', which was discussed with her mentor.

They mean different things.

The OP's version was right.

Kynthia

It's been about a decade since I did my CV. :-)

I do remember that when I was applying for my first permanant job after graduating from university, it was for an admin role in a lighting company. I included in my covering letter why I wanted the job, why I felt I would be good at it and then I discussed how I'd done my final year project on comparing the lighting systems in my local libraries. Even though this wasn't strictly relevant to the position I was told it was a major plus point and contributed to me getting an interview and then the job. It showed I wasn't sending out the same thing to every employer and it made me stand out.

All a potential employer has is your covering letter and CV. They also have a lot of them. It's hard work but do everything to make them impressive and interesting. Sell yourself, blow your own trumpet and include important details. Don't be too bland, make it relevant and detailed. Make it so they know your skills and a bit about what you're like. Make it do everything it can to get you an interview, then there's a whole new set of skills.

Acc72

There has been some good advice, however I do feel that we have gone off on a tangent / skirted round the issue.

The OP has said that EVERY single other student who applied got an interview (although I don't know how many people that is).

Unless everybody is assuming that all other applications were spot on and the OP was not selected for some kind of CV gramatical error / faux pas then the OP needs to understand why they were not selected.

Again, I would suggest the first port of call to be the course lecturer who may be able to offer some feedback - ideally gained from the employer.

athensgeorgia

I think whats bothered me the most is that everybody on the course has no experience in this sort of environment including me. I thought this would be my opportunity to step in to a law firm because let's face it any real job advert is asking for experience whereas this employer having approached college knows we're all new to this.

I think what's got me down even more is the fact that I have a full time job as well as college and I'm really trying whereas all the others are 'school leavers' or SAHM.

I've rejigged my CV and I must admit it looks so much better. I've even emailed the law firm asking for feedback, I know it's only a day later and I might seem overzealous but I thought what can I lose? The worst thing would be them not replying.

Acc72

athensgeorgia wrote: »

The worst thing would be them not replying.

I don't think that you will get a reply (not one in writing, certainly not from a law firm !).

At best you will get a generic "thanks for your interest .... large volume of candidates ..." etc. etc. which will not answer the question as to why you were the only one who applied from your course who did not get an interview (how many people applied from your course).

I hope that this does not sound harsh as I am genuinely trying to help.

Please speak with your tutor to try and get get off the record verbal feedback.

There is no point just getting "an answer", you need the real reason so at least then you know, can move on and hopefully be better prepared next time.

athensgeorgia

Acc72 wrote: »

(how many people applied from your course).

9 applied out of a class of 13.