What to Avoid when Writing the CV and Motivating Letter?
The documents sent to an employer, such as the CV and the motivating letter, are your business card. Basing on these you will be primarily judged and the recruiting official will decide whether to invite you for a qualifying interview. This is the reason why you should very carefully prepare the documents. The effort will specially pay off, because while making a few small changes you can send it to several different potential employers. Also you can use the motivating letter as your personal sample, implying specific changes and send it out for other possibilities of employment. If just once you will make the effort to properly write a good query letter, you will later profit repeatedly from the fruitfulness of your work.
Taking advantage of samples of the motivating letters which are commonly used may be very risky because your letter may become one of many. It is important not to send identical and used by others motivating letters to all companies where you are looking for the same type of employment. Therefore try to compose your own writings, based only on samples which you find on the internet or in advisory magazines.
The employer, while composing the ad, presents his requirements and it is good to meet his demands by using some of the descriptions he uses in the advertising. It’s a small trick, but may prove to be effective. Don’t copy exactly what is in the ad, but use it only as a support.
If you are not sure if you made any errors in style of writing or spelling, check it out in the dictionary or ask a friendly person for help in putting together Your documents. It also may prove to be useful to take advantage of checking the spelling and grammar in the printed text you are using as reference.
While writing the CV, try to brag about your good points, but avoid words which you are not sure of and wouldn’t feel comfortable saying them out loud. Show yourself from the best point possible, but avoid confusion of data disagreeing with reality.
When writing the motivating letter, don’t be afraid to use italics (slanted print), bold print and underlying. Bring out the most important elements using enlarged print. Your application should be written clearly and should be readable. It is better to bring out the most important information and leave out what is less important, to draw attention to the reader. Try to contain the CV and the motivating letter to one sheet of paper. Only if you have a very long and rich professional experience, you can allow for more pages.
Your picture on the top of the CV, actual and clear is also an element which will draw the attention of the person grading your application. The photograph should present a person smiling and self conscious and not a frightened high school graduate in clothing which was in style ten years ago. Taking an actual picture may prove to be a good investment. We judge other people according to how they look, and if the employer receives a large number of applications, he sometimes selects candidates by looking at the pictures and only afterwards he reads the contents of the letters.
Documents which you are sending should be well prepared as to the substantial contents and also done well technically. If you are sending a CV and a motivating letter by the traditional post office – make sure that the envelope looks good; print the texts on the best type of paper. If you are applying for a working position of an office worker, address the envelope with special care and put the stamps on straight.
After writing the CV and the motivating letter check it out again before sending it off. Make sure the given contacts are correct, divide the telephone number into smaller sections so that the caller would not make a mistake dialing your number. It would be ideal if a member of your family or your friend could also check the documents and tried to judge them unbiased, if the application invites itself to be read and if is the best advertisement of your person.
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