Flash Gordon wrote:
> Leo Fellmann wrote, On 15/05/07 21:37:
>> Flash Gordon wrote:
(...)
>>> It's a bit difficult at your age since, in general, people your age do
>>> not have much experience. However, any work experience, even if not
>>> related (including paper-rounds etc) should be included since they
>>> show you can hold down a job.
>> In this case we have a month writing a re****t on wooden house
>> construction at some (presumably) prestigious engineering school with a
>> very long name. I was thinking that should be ***ed up a bit.
>
> Yes, that is a potentially good one. What was being written about is
> less im****tant (but obviously needs to be mentioned in sufficient, but
> not too much, detail) than holding the job for a month, communications
> skills shown by getting and holding the job, the responsibility that was
> placed on the person etc.
Ok. I'll see about expanding that then.
(...)
>> < Obviously details of education. Any possibly
>>> relevant or interesting extra-curricular activities, especially if it
>>> includes places on committees, captain****ps etc (could include reading
>>> Prouste depending on the type of job). Keep it down to 2 pages, some
>>> of the people having to read it are busy people and will not read a
>>> long CV. Well, 3 pages as a maximum.
>> It's one page at the moment :)
>
> Good. That means you have space to fill out on im****tant things.
>
>> Problem is the extra-curricular activities, as they're mainly along the
>> lines of "enjoy looking at Picassos". I'll see if we can get some
better
>> stuff in.
>
> It can be used to show breadth of knowledge, a degree of culture and
> even (even if it is not true) maturity. Something like, "I have been
> studying 20th century art in my spare time with a particular interest in
> Picasso. I am most interested in his (whatever) period and regularly go
> to art galleries to see his and other works."
Problem is that it's _just_ stuff like that. It'd be best to get some
captaincies of debating teams on or something like that, but I'm getting
this sort of rather miffed "aren't my hobbies good enough then"
impression.
(This is probably why people I know who're doing MBAs are so keen on
extra-curricular associations).
The scary part is that what I got has already been looked at by another
friend; I shudder to think of what it was like before. Probably listed
all the philosophy essays she's written.
>> Is the "Languages" section something that can be played on? She's
>> apparently not that bad at Spanish in addition to English.
>
> Yes, languages are a good thing and all should be listed with an
> indication of the degree of fluency.
Hopefully she has some sort of test score for Spanish then.
>> Do you have any advice for motivational letters? In Switzerland you
tend
>> to write about how much you're interested in the job and in France you
>> tell people how wonderfully suited you are for the job. I'm fairly sure
>> the latter wouldn't go down well anywhere but France, but I'm also
>> unsure anyone anywhere reads them in the first place.
>
> Generally in the UK the covering letter states what job you are going
> for and why you are the right person for it.
Ok. Current one's probably okish then, although it could do with a bit
of a rewrite.
>> The job's at a company that does consumer panels, incidentally.
>
> OK, so some emphasis on people skills would be a good thing.
Yup. She does mathematics tutoring, which probably counts towards that.
[summer]
>> I guess I'll just start driving lessons instead and get some serious
>> studying done.
>
> You could also do some serious work on some open source projects. This
> would give you something real to point prospective employers at later.
Yes, that's a possibility too.
But I have less time then usual, so between getting a driving license
and revising for exams in september.. who knows? I'm writing some stuff
for an open source project at the moment as part of a course and if that
goes well, I might hang around it a bit.
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