Job help!!

Could anyone give any CV/ job application tips?
i’m going into year 13 and been applying to part time jobs for over a year and had no luck 😭 I don’t know where im going wrong?

Reply 1

MindMax2000

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by o.cal

Could anyone give any CV/ job application tips?
i’m going into year 13 and been applying to part time jobs for over a year and had no luck 😭 I don’t know where im going wrong?

What's in your CV?
What sort of work experience and professional qualifications do you have?
How have you been applying for work?

Reply 2

o.cal

Original post by MindMax2000

What's in your CV?
What sort of work experience and professional qualifications do you have?
How have you been applying for work?

My cv is split into sections for my personal profile (short paragraph talking about myself), key skills, experience (GP work experience placement, temp receptionist, ongoing care home volunteer), education (12 GCSEs and ongoing A Levels). I mainly apply directly through company websites where possible but i look on indeed to find the listings.

Reply 3

MindMax2000

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by o.cal

personal profile (short paragraph talking about myself)
Keep it to one sentence. It's not particularly important. Just point out what role you are applying for and why you are suitable e.g. An retail worker with experience in the charity sector seeking senior retail roles.

key skills
This is fine, so long you can back it up in your experience section

experience (GP work experience placement, temp receptionist, ongoing care home volunteer)
Looks good. Unless you want to work in a care home, I don't think the volunteering experience would help that much.
Did you want to study medicine after college?

education (12 GCSEs and ongoing A Levels)
Cool. What are your extra 2 GCSEs?
There are no professional qualifications mentioned, so I am curious to know what specific jobs you are applying for. Do note, for most of the junior level roles, your GCSEs generally don't matter. Maths and English Language tend to be the key GCSEs for basic numeracy and literacy, but the rest generally don't matter much. Even if you decide to do Level 3 apprenticeships in the STEM field, the key GCSEs are Maths, English Language, and the Sciences even by the pickiest employers. I have yet to see any employer requiring specific GCSEs in any other subjects.
A Level grades are important for careers that require NVQ Level 3 qualifications for degree apprenticeships, junior roles, or the like.

I mainly apply directly through company websites
This is fine. It sounds like they're large and medium sized companies. Again, I would be interested to know which jobs you're applying for.

but i look on indeed to find the listings.
Oh dear. If it's through indeed, it will likely mean:

you will get a lot of competition

recruitment agencies are typically for roles that are more senior (you won't get many junior roles)

if they are using recruitment websites, it usually means they have exhausted the other means of recruitment

I recommend networking your way in e.g. do you know a friend who is working in a company that you want to work at? Can they give you a recommendation? This is probably the most effective and efficient way in.
Have you tried applying speculatively for small and medium sized businesses? Usually the large companies expect you to go through a bureaucratic process, which can take ages and your CV can be lurking somewhere at the bottom of the pile of their to do list. It can sometimes take as long as 1 year for them to get back to you for a candidate that they needed in 1 month's time.

Format of your CV
Keep it crisp, clear, clean. Single type of font. Key thing is that the CV needs to be able to convey key information that the person reading it can pick up in 2 seconds (ideally 1). If it's cluttered, with numerous font sizes, font styles, and clumped together, it's going to be a lot more difficult to read - and even if you turn out to be the ideal candidate, your CV can end up in the bin because of this.

Should you use job applications, expect to apply to 100 vacancies, from which you get about 5 interviews, for 1 job offer (adjusted for the type of job, industry, whether you're in a recession/economic boom, etc.). It's a pain, but if you do about 10 applications a day, you should reach that goal within 2 weeks. Then depending on where the employer is based, how many applicants they have, and how big the company is, they can take anywhere between 3 days to a few months to get back to you (if they're serious).

I don't know if you want further information. If you do, I would probably need to know some of the specifics, as mentioned above.
If you want to try out any of the above to see if it makes any difference, feel free. I recommend trying something for at least 2 weeks to see if there is any difference though.

Reply 4

o.cal

Original post by MindMax2000

personal profile (short paragraph talking about myself)
Keep it to one sentence. It's not particularly important. Just point out what role you are applying for and why you are suitable e.g. An retail worker with experience in the charity sector seeking senior retail roles.
key skills
This is fine, so long you can back it up in your experience section
experience (GP work experience placement, temp receptionist, ongoing care home volunteer)
Looks good. Unless you want to work in a care home, I don't think the volunteering experience would help that much.
Did you want to study medicine after college?
education (12 GCSEs and ongoing A Levels)
Cool. What are your extra 2 GCSEs?
There are no professional qualifications mentioned, so I am curious to know what specific jobs you are applying for. Do note, for most of the junior level roles, your GCSEs generally don't matter. Maths and English Language tend to be the key GCSEs for basic numeracy and literacy, but the rest generally don't matter much. Even if you decide to do Level 3 apprenticeships in the STEM field, the key GCSEs are Maths, English Language, and the Sciences even by the pickiest employers. I have yet to see any employer requiring specific GCSEs in any other subjects.
A Level grades are important for careers that require NVQ Level 3 qualifications for degree apprenticeships, junior roles, or the like.
I mainly apply directly through company websites
This is fine. It sounds like they're large and medium sized companies. Again, I would be interested to know which jobs you're applying for.
but i look on indeed to find the listings.
Oh dear. If it's through indeed, it will likely mean:

you will get a lot of competition

recruitment agencies are typically for roles that are more senior (you won't get many junior roles)

if they are using recruitment websites, it usually means they have exhausted the other means of recruitment

I recommend networking your way in e.g. do you know a friend who is working in a company that you want to work at? Can they give you a recommendation? This is probably the most effective and efficient way in.
Have you tried applying speculatively for small and medium sized businesses? Usually the large companies expect you to go through a bureaucratic process, which can take ages and your CV can be lurking somewhere at the bottom of the pile of their to do list. It can sometimes take as long as 1 year for them to get back to you for a candidate that they needed in 1 month's time.
Format of your CV
Keep it crisp, clear, clean. Single type of font. Key thing is that the CV needs to be able to convey key information that the person reading it can pick up in 2 seconds (ideally 1). If it's cluttered, with numerous font sizes, font styles, and clumped together, it's going to be a lot more difficult to read - and even if you turn out to be the ideal candidate, your CV can end up in the bin because of this.
Should you use job applications, expect to apply to 100 vacancies, from which you get about 5 interviews, for 1 job offer (adjusted for the type of job, industry, whether you're in a recession/economic boom, etc.). It's a pain, but if you do about 10 applications a day, you should reach that goal within 2 weeks. Then depending on where the employer is based, how many applicants they have, and how big the company is, they can take anywhere between 3 days to a few months to get back to you (if they're serious).
I don't know if you want further information. If you do, I would probably need to know some of the specifics, as mentioned above.
If you want to try out any of the above to see if it makes any difference, feel free. I recommend trying something for at least 2 weeks to see if there is any difference though.

I'm applying for retail and food industry part time roles that could work around sixth form (i.e. mainly weekend jobs), but there aren't many in my area so applying for 10 jobs a day would be impossible unfortunately. I look on facebook every now and then to find local business listings too but ones that fit me are rare.

How do i back up my skills? can i just put something along the lines of 'gained from GP roles/care home role' - how much detail do i need to go into since it cant be too cluttered

Reply 5

MindMax2000

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by o.cal

I'm applying for retail and food industry part time roles that could work around sixth form (i.e. mainly weekend jobs), but there aren't many in my area so applying for 10 jobs a day would be impossible unfortunately. I look on facebook every now and then to find local business listings too but ones that fit me are rare.
How do i back up my skills? can i just put something along the lines of 'gained from GP roles/care home role' - how much detail do i need to go into since it cant be too cluttered

I'm applying for retail and food industry part time roles that could work around sixth form (i.e. mainly weekend jobs)
Junior roles in retail and food/catering aren't particularly demanding in terms of what they want.

Typically, if you can work specific hours and you are OK around customers, you're usually more than OK. I think it's more of a fact that you don't know anyone working in these places to introduce you to the jobs i.e. networking.

Retail is known to be more difficult to do and more difficult to secure a role, partly because more people demand those sort of roles than those in catering. If you don't know people who work in those shops, you might be having a harder time than most getting jobs at retailers.

For small/medium sized food establishments, you typically can drop off your CV and they will get back to you in a week. If you know people who work there, you're more or less can bag the job (assuming you can actually work).

One of the things about retail and catering is that they don't like restricted hours. Whilst I understand that you can only work weekends because of college, I would try to be more flexible about when you can or can't work e.g. during school hours if you get free periods for the rest of the day. For catering in particular, the busy periods tend to be Friday and Saturday evenings; Sunday isn't really that busy.

I look on facebook every now and then to find local business listings too but ones that fit me are rare.
Try Google Maps and walk around town in person. They tend to help a lot.
Not many small or family businesses advertise themselves on Facebook (they should, but they don't).

How do i back up my skills?
The sort of skills that would really stand out to retailers and caterers would be something along the lines of:

•

High customer satisfaction ratings/feedbacks

•

Being able to carry multiple plates

•

Experience using industrial dishwashers

•

Served up to 10 tables at once

•

Well versed in over 20 different cocktails

•

Merchandising and shop window display experience

The standard stuff like:

•

Interacted with customers/customer service experience

•

Experience doing till totals and end of day banking

•

Served drinks

•

Took food orders

•

etc.

... don't particularly excite people, since most people who apply for such jobs have something along those lines (usually).

If you are applying for jobs in catering, I would recommend getting one of the following:

•

Hygiene certificate Level 2 (not 3, unless you want to take your line manager's job) if you want to work in the kitchen

•

Personal License Holder - if you are at least 18 years of age and want to work behind a bar

In most cases, I would try to dress up your CV and make your experience from the GP office and receptionist roles as relevant to the roles in retail and catering as much as possible (try to draw out "transferrable" experience under each role e.g. experience handling customer complaints, independently opened office, negotiated with suppliers; then list the key ones under key skills). I won't expect this to amount to much because the roles are not entirely relevant to retail and catering, and you would likely get competing candidates with more directly relevant experience.
However, once you have dressed up the CV to the best of your ability for each type of role, I would then try to network as widely as possible to see if someone on the inside can help sort you out a job. If the area you live in is as small as you say, it shouldn't take you long to find the people who work in all of the local companies.

If you are old enough to get a driver's license and you have access to a car, I would do something similar further afield in neighbouring towns/cities and villages. I know people who live in towns, but had to travel as far as 10 miles into neighbouring villages to find work. It's not uncommon.