Category: Applications and interviews
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I was required…
I’m required to write this post as part of my job. How does this sound? Definitely not riveting. You’ll probably think that either I was coerced to write or that this is just something I do because I have to, not because I enjoy it. Very often I see in application documents “In this job…
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Tips for psychometric tests
Many larger recruiters use psychometric tests as part of their recruitment & selection procedure for graduate schemes and internships. The way they have been used and the types of tests have changed over the years but essentially they are trying to get the pool of applicants down to those who meet the basic criteria. Smaller…
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Recorded or videoed interviews – Tips and advice for preparing.
Telephone interviews have been popular with recruiters for many years now as a cheap way to speak to lots of candidates. Skype interviews started a few years ago and seem to be neither increasing or decreasing – it’s possible that problems with the reliability of the technology could be making recruiters think about different methods… This brings…
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6 steps to a perfect Cover Letter
By Jenny Sloan Most of us have come across CVs before, whether it was for a part time job or during a compulsory Careers module in school last class on a Friday afternoon. Cover Letters, however, are a little more daunting. There is so much great (and not so great) information online about how to…
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Situational Judgement Tests
Over the past few years, there has been a big increase in the use of situational judgement tests (SJTs) as a tool for selecting candidates for jobs. What are situational judgement tests? They are generally multiple choice tests, where you are given a scenario and asked to choose what you would do in that situation.…
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Strength based interviews explained
Just when you worked out what a competency based interview are they go and start with something new… Strength based interviews! Quote from an employer “Many candidates come to interview pretending to be the kind of person they believe we are looking for…My advice? Simply be yourself, because if you have to pretend to get a…
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Get into shape for internship and graduate job applications
Some graduate schemes may already be live but many will come online in September as will many internship opportunities for prefinal years. (Thats why it’s so busy in Careers at that time of year) So what can you do now to get ready? Do you know what type of roles you want to apply for…
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What is Commercial Awareness? What do employers mean by this?
So we hear this term banded about by employers or recruiters at fairs, online and in articles and even in class but what does it really mean and what do employers really want? It is not as complicated as it sounds, simply put commercial awareness is understanding the business as a whole that you are…
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Intimidated by long person specifications? Don’t be ! Tips to make it easier
So you see a vacancy listed and it sounds ideal – you open up the person specification and see the 3 pages of requirements and give up. Sound familiar? It’s quite common in the public sector (and some others) for job specifications to be very long. Do not be put off, it’s not that hard to break…
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I can’t do that job, can I? Time to locate your skills!
So you found a job advertised and it looks great, but then you looked at the job description and convinced yourself you would never be shortlisted because you don’t have the skills. STOP, BREATHE and start again. Every job has a list of requirements, some will be technical or knowledge based but many jobs require…
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