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Candidates
It’s no secret and no surprise that the jobs market is fiercely competitive at the minute and may get even tougher in the coming months. With more people applying for every single vacancy, how do you make yourself stand out from the crowd every step of the way? We’ve pulled together some top tips for you:
This is key, as some roles are receiving hundreds, even thousands, of CVs for every vacancy. Taking the time to tailor your cover letter and CV is absolutely critical here. You may be applying for a large number of jobs and this can feel like a real chore, but think of the person on the other end, sifting through all those CVs and letters – they need something to really jump out at them. They’re probably only glimpsing at your documents, or using specific software to look for keywords, so it’s well worth adding in as many key words and phrases from the job description that relate to your experience as you possibly can, so one of them will stick.
How to write a great cover letter
CV writing for recent military leavers
Once your CV has made it onto the ‘possible’ pile, you’re already miles ahead of everyone else. That’s one of the hardest bits done. However, many recruiters, especially right now, are doing initial phone interviews. You may be contacted with a set time for a more formal talk, or they may call ‘for a chat’. It’s really important that you treat this ‘chat’ as a mini-interview and give them your best self. Keep your application and cover letter to hand – either printed or saved to your computer or tablet – so you can refer to what you said. Make sure you sound eager to talk and professional, even if they’ve caught you unawares.
The interview is the part of the process that most people get anxious about but really, by the time you’ve got here, the hard work is pretty much done. Only a very small number of people will get through to this phase, the recruiter is just making sure they’ve judged you correctly. At the current time, your interview is likely to be virtual, so make sure you have all the correct software, test that it works and then follow these tips:
Preparing for tricky questions
If you’re successful, then congratulations, you’ve really stood out from the crowd! But, unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. It can be hard to stay positive and keep going if you get a rejection, but there are opportunities to learn and improve that you can take advantage of.
Remember, we’re here every step of the way for you to help you translate your military skills into the perfect candidate for civilian roles. Drop us a line if you want to discuss your experience or any of the roles on our site.
