Covering Letter & CV Basics
Aug 5th 2007, 5:08 am
#1
NZ ways is best ways :0)
Thread Starter
Joined: Oct 2006
Location: Christchurch, NZ
Posts: 1,109
Covering Letter & CV Basics
Hi all. I've been asked by a few on here about CV's and covering letters and the like for those of us who are applying for NZ jobs from the UK. If you've not got a clue where to start, and need some pointers then this may help out bit. It is by no means a thorough study or anything, but just to reassure you that it's not rocket science and by covering the basics you will see success.
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Right then, there are a few issues to address here. First off, your covering letter. You ALWAYS should have a covering letter, and this needs to tell whoever it is you are applying to what your current situation is, how good a match you are to the position, and what a great addition to their company you will be.
It is especially key for people in your situation because usually, as soon as an employer sees 'I need a job to get a visa' they switch off. You need to turn this around by adding specific time details in your application (even if not 100% accurate). An example would be: 'I see that this role closes at the end of August. If I was offered this position I could be at my desk in NZ by the 4th week of September' or whatever your case would be. Also, quite literally spell out your situation to them, and don't hide any areas that you feel you are weak. If an application says 'must have 4 years experience in XYZ' but you only have 3, then use your covering letter to say 'Yes, I am a year short in XYZ experience, however I do have ABC experience which is relevant to this job, and plan on adding to my XYZ experience by undertaking a course/ additional training/ mentoring' or whatever to make them see that you are deadly serious about the job.
Basically, use the covering letter to your advantage. The more a prospective employer gets the idea that you are coming to NZ regardless of whether they give you a job or not, the better chance you have as they realise that if they don't give you a go then a competitor most probably will. I have copied T's covering letter to give you a flavour:
BEGINS
Re: Application for Fixed Term Teaching Position, Year 0 New Entrant.
Who am I?
My name is XXXXXX, an enthusiastic, energetic and innovative UK educated Primary School Teacher with four years of classroom teaching experience. I have immigrated to New Zealand with my husband, and I am applying for this position in Avondale Primary School to begin my long-term teaching career in New Zealand, and to share my passion for teaching children with the Avondale community.
Why does your school need me?
Avondale Primary School needs me as I am experienced, I am flexible, I bring creative teaching ideas, I fill a classroom with enthusiasm, I encourage children to learn to trust in their developing abilities by offering a fun, safe and disciplined learning environment. I do all this not through necessity, or because it is ‘just a job’ – it is because teaching is my passion and my joy and quite simply: I love to do it.
What ‘extra something’ can I bring to your teaching team?
I am also outgoing and personable, and always make an effort to relate to my colleagues and peers in a mature and professional manner. For me teaching is just the start of becoming involved in a school community. I strongly believe that reaching out to parents via after school and weekend activities is an essential part of including them in their child’s education. To this end I am a keen volunteer in running and being involved in trips, sports, the arts, homework clubs and community activities.
Beginning Teacher? No Way!
From my job-searching to date across Christchurch, school Principals seem happy to label me a ‘beginning teacher’. I would like to state now that this is NOT the case. The UK and NZ curriculum are very similar and I am currently in the process of researching the differences and strengthening my knowledge where needed. I will also soon be attending the Maths Strategy course to assist me in the classroom. I use my teaching experience as a resource to draw on, often finding my own solutions to the problems I face, and am happy to share these with others. Am I a beginning teacher needing constant guidance? Certainly not. Experienced teacher rapidly finding her NZ feet? Definitely.
My name is XXXXXX, and I would love the opportunity to show you in person at interview, the skills and enthusiasm I have as a teacher that the enclosed words on paper can only hint at.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
ENDS
Now then, onto the CV. 6 page+ CV's have their place, and that place is when an employer has given specific criteria that must be matched, or evidence of achievements given, or 'what would you do?' questions given. Toni's CV was an epic 9 pages long, but it related to every single aspect of the 'essential criteria' listed by the school as being required by any potential candidates, hence it's length.
If you are applying for jobs that simply say 'service engineer required' then this is when your 2 or 3 page CV is more the norm. The reason for this is that the employer needs to know 'can this person service machines?' , what machines can he service' and 'how long has he been servicing machines'. Once you've covered these points, the rest is all about 'can he fit in my team?', 'has he been sacked before?', 'can he manage staff?', 'can he cope with the NZ market?'. It is these questions that you need to answer in any CV, as they are the very basic requirements that an employer needs to make a decision. That decsion is - 'do I want to use 30 minutes or more of my time in interviewing this person?'. You need to make your CV show that the employer has plenty to gain - and possibly much to lose - by not giving you a chance. Once that decision is made, the CV's role is over, as it will not be looked at in depth again.
So. Key points: SPELLING - do not misspell ANYTHING in your CV. It will get binned immediately - and quite right too. Get family & friends to read it. Even better is to read it aloud yourself.
BREVITY - Waxing lyrical about this that and the other is all well and good, but the employer may not give two hoots and will soon get bored. So, make sentances short, precise and to the point - and the point is that is must all relate in some way, shape or form to the job being applied to. Again, read it aloud to people - you will see where waffle comes in and can cut it out quickly.
MAKE IT RELATE TO THE JOB - If you are applying to a wide range of work, then don't use the same CV for all jobs. You need to angle it to whatever the job most needs. If you are an administrator and you apply to 2 jobs - one is another administrator role, the other is a customer service role, then the CV needs to read differently for each, and focus on relating the aspects of the current job which show the ability to do the new job. So, if as an administrator you deal with customer enquiries every now and then when the usual customer service person is away on lunch you would now angle the application to say this and build on it. Expand on this and make it as much of the CV as the 2 pages of day to day stuff you do. Does that make sense? Yes, it is a lot of effort. But do you want the job or don't you? Do you want to move to NZ or don't you? Put the effort into this area, and you will see results - I promise you.
Finally - Qualifications matter to you in the UK as they are required for your EOI etc, but here it really depends on if you can do the job. So don't get too bent out of shape on saying that you have GCSE this and Level 5 that as chances are the employer won't have a clue what this means. So, a pretty standard CV would run as follows:
Name, address, personal information and contact details. Put in the 00 44 etc onto any phone numbers, along with NZ times when they can be called. e.g. Home 00 44 1702 467676 between 08:00 and 11:00 NZ time. Put email addresses etc.
Profile - a paragraph of 3 or 4 sentances about the current situation and what a great service engineer you are
Career History - in reverse order, detailing all positions, responsibilities, duties etc
Qualifications - again, in reverse order with most recent first
Interests - if they are interesting or relevant to the job. If your interests are reading and stamp collecting, and you are apllying for a sales role, leave them out. They will be laughed about, or pointed out. Mine were
References - if references can be contacted, then put them down along with contact numbers (as before) and email addresses. If they can't, or it is your current employment who don't know you are leaving, put 'provided on request'. For goodness sake don't put a bad reference down - I know you won't but you'd be amazed - many people do!
Finally finally, and only if you feel comfortable with it, stick a nice picture of you on the top of your CV. It is popular here, and certainly makes a CV stand out from the crowd. Even better if it is of you at work in an environment that is relevant to the job you are applying to. Do NOT do this if the picture is poor, out of focus, or if friends or relatives laugh when they see it. If they laugh, then so will prospective employers. Not good.
There is so much more to write about this, but I hope that it will help get some people started with applying for work, and wish you all good luck!
Cheers!
Wiz
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Right then, there are a few issues to address here. First off, your covering letter. You ALWAYS should have a covering letter, and this needs to tell whoever it is you are applying to what your current situation is, how good a match you are to the position, and what a great addition to their company you will be.
It is especially key for people in your situation because usually, as soon as an employer sees 'I need a job to get a visa' they switch off. You need to turn this around by adding specific time details in your application (even if not 100% accurate). An example would be: 'I see that this role closes at the end of August. If I was offered this position I could be at my desk in NZ by the 4th week of September' or whatever your case would be. Also, quite literally spell out your situation to them, and don't hide any areas that you feel you are weak. If an application says 'must have 4 years experience in XYZ' but you only have 3, then use your covering letter to say 'Yes, I am a year short in XYZ experience, however I do have ABC experience which is relevant to this job, and plan on adding to my XYZ experience by undertaking a course/ additional training/ mentoring' or whatever to make them see that you are deadly serious about the job.
Basically, use the covering letter to your advantage. The more a prospective employer gets the idea that you are coming to NZ regardless of whether they give you a job or not, the better chance you have as they realise that if they don't give you a go then a competitor most probably will. I have copied T's covering letter to give you a flavour:
BEGINS
Re: Application for Fixed Term Teaching Position, Year 0 New Entrant.
Who am I?
My name is XXXXXX, an enthusiastic, energetic and innovative UK educated Primary School Teacher with four years of classroom teaching experience. I have immigrated to New Zealand with my husband, and I am applying for this position in Avondale Primary School to begin my long-term teaching career in New Zealand, and to share my passion for teaching children with the Avondale community.
Why does your school need me?
Avondale Primary School needs me as I am experienced, I am flexible, I bring creative teaching ideas, I fill a classroom with enthusiasm, I encourage children to learn to trust in their developing abilities by offering a fun, safe and disciplined learning environment. I do all this not through necessity, or because it is ‘just a job’ – it is because teaching is my passion and my joy and quite simply: I love to do it.
What ‘extra something’ can I bring to your teaching team?
I am also outgoing and personable, and always make an effort to relate to my colleagues and peers in a mature and professional manner. For me teaching is just the start of becoming involved in a school community. I strongly believe that reaching out to parents via after school and weekend activities is an essential part of including them in their child’s education. To this end I am a keen volunteer in running and being involved in trips, sports, the arts, homework clubs and community activities.
Beginning Teacher? No Way!
From my job-searching to date across Christchurch, school Principals seem happy to label me a ‘beginning teacher’. I would like to state now that this is NOT the case. The UK and NZ curriculum are very similar and I am currently in the process of researching the differences and strengthening my knowledge where needed. I will also soon be attending the Maths Strategy course to assist me in the classroom. I use my teaching experience as a resource to draw on, often finding my own solutions to the problems I face, and am happy to share these with others. Am I a beginning teacher needing constant guidance? Certainly not. Experienced teacher rapidly finding her NZ feet? Definitely.
My name is XXXXXX, and I would love the opportunity to show you in person at interview, the skills and enthusiasm I have as a teacher that the enclosed words on paper can only hint at.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
ENDS
Now then, onto the CV. 6 page+ CV's have their place, and that place is when an employer has given specific criteria that must be matched, or evidence of achievements given, or 'what would you do?' questions given. Toni's CV was an epic 9 pages long, but it related to every single aspect of the 'essential criteria' listed by the school as being required by any potential candidates, hence it's length.
If you are applying for jobs that simply say 'service engineer required' then this is when your 2 or 3 page CV is more the norm. The reason for this is that the employer needs to know 'can this person service machines?' , what machines can he service' and 'how long has he been servicing machines'. Once you've covered these points, the rest is all about 'can he fit in my team?', 'has he been sacked before?', 'can he manage staff?', 'can he cope with the NZ market?'. It is these questions that you need to answer in any CV, as they are the very basic requirements that an employer needs to make a decision. That decsion is - 'do I want to use 30 minutes or more of my time in interviewing this person?'. You need to make your CV show that the employer has plenty to gain - and possibly much to lose - by not giving you a chance. Once that decision is made, the CV's role is over, as it will not be looked at in depth again.
So. Key points: SPELLING - do not misspell ANYTHING in your CV. It will get binned immediately - and quite right too. Get family & friends to read it. Even better is to read it aloud yourself.
BREVITY - Waxing lyrical about this that and the other is all well and good, but the employer may not give two hoots and will soon get bored. So, make sentances short, precise and to the point - and the point is that is must all relate in some way, shape or form to the job being applied to. Again, read it aloud to people - you will see where waffle comes in and can cut it out quickly.
MAKE IT RELATE TO THE JOB - If you are applying to a wide range of work, then don't use the same CV for all jobs. You need to angle it to whatever the job most needs. If you are an administrator and you apply to 2 jobs - one is another administrator role, the other is a customer service role, then the CV needs to read differently for each, and focus on relating the aspects of the current job which show the ability to do the new job. So, if as an administrator you deal with customer enquiries every now and then when the usual customer service person is away on lunch you would now angle the application to say this and build on it. Expand on this and make it as much of the CV as the 2 pages of day to day stuff you do. Does that make sense? Yes, it is a lot of effort. But do you want the job or don't you? Do you want to move to NZ or don't you? Put the effort into this area, and you will see results - I promise you.
Finally - Qualifications matter to you in the UK as they are required for your EOI etc, but here it really depends on if you can do the job. So don't get too bent out of shape on saying that you have GCSE this and Level 5 that as chances are the employer won't have a clue what this means. So, a pretty standard CV would run as follows:
Name, address, personal information and contact details. Put in the 00 44 etc onto any phone numbers, along with NZ times when they can be called. e.g. Home 00 44 1702 467676 between 08:00 and 11:00 NZ time. Put email addresses etc.
Profile - a paragraph of 3 or 4 sentances about the current situation and what a great service engineer you are
Career History - in reverse order, detailing all positions, responsibilities, duties etc
Qualifications - again, in reverse order with most recent first
Interests - if they are interesting or relevant to the job. If your interests are reading and stamp collecting, and you are apllying for a sales role, leave them out. They will be laughed about, or pointed out. Mine were
References - if references can be contacted, then put them down along with contact numbers (as before) and email addresses. If they can't, or it is your current employment who don't know you are leaving, put 'provided on request'. For goodness sake don't put a bad reference down - I know you won't but you'd be amazed - many people do!
Finally finally, and only if you feel comfortable with it, stick a nice picture of you on the top of your CV. It is popular here, and certainly makes a CV stand out from the crowd. Even better if it is of you at work in an environment that is relevant to the job you are applying to. Do NOT do this if the picture is poor, out of focus, or if friends or relatives laugh when they see it. If they laugh, then so will prospective employers. Not good.
There is so much more to write about this, but I hope that it will help get some people started with applying for work, and wish you all good luck!
Cheers!
Wiz
Aug 6th 2007, 6:30 am
#2
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Jun 2005
Location: Timaru, NZ
Posts: 484
Re: Covering Letter & CV Basics
Thank you Wiz'n'Ton for such a comprehensive thread about CVs! I may just be in touch with Toni soon - will have to start applying for teaching posts for next February - and I certainly need to do something about my CV (it is nowhere near up to Kiwi standard!!!).
Good luck with the job Toni - have you started yet?
Best Wishes,
Debbie.
Good luck with the job Toni - have you started yet?
Best Wishes,
Debbie.
Aug 6th 2007, 6:49 am
#3
NZ ways is best ways :0)
Thread Starter
Joined: Oct 2006
Location: Christchurch, NZ
Posts: 1,109
Re: Covering Letter & CV Basics
Hey Debbie, how's things with you and yours? T doesn't start 'for real' until next week, but is doing a fair bit of prep this week, along with a training course that she has tomorrow so it is all good at present. Not a great start today - The Sigma of Much Beauty spat the dummy this morning and broke down as she went in to work for a morning's supply. T = not amused. Anyone want a second hnd car....?
She's currently at a friends getting her hair done in preparation for a night out tonight to celebrate our 2yr wedding anniversary. I am meant to be making myself (even more) beautiful
but after 2 minutes I realised that this just wasn't possible and so have cracked open a bottle of wine to accompany a surf on expats. Just don't tell her OK?!
No worries re the teaching CV - T will do the dirty on it no worries. Good luck, and speak soon,
A
She's currently at a friends getting her hair done in preparation for a night out tonight to celebrate our 2yr wedding anniversary. I am meant to be making myself (even more) beautiful
but after 2 minutes I realised that this just wasn't possible and so have cracked open a bottle of wine to accompany a surf on expats. Just don't tell her OK?! No worries re the teaching CV - T will do the dirty on it no worries. Good luck, and speak soon,
A
Aug 6th 2007, 7:41 am
#4
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Jun 2005
Location: Timaru, NZ
Posts: 484
Re: Covering Letter & CV Basics
Happy anniversary! Have a great evening.
Aug 6th 2007, 12:01 pm
#5
Forum Regular
Joined: Apr 2007
Location: Limbo Land
Posts: 136
Re: Covering Letter & CV Basics
Thanks for the heads up on CVs and covering letters. This thread has now been earmarked for when we start sending out job apps in earnest.
Hope you had a good night out celebrating.
Hope you had a good night out celebrating.
Aug 6th 2007, 12:19 pm
#6
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Feb 2005
Location: Tyneside for now. Soon to be Welly!
Posts: 418
Re: Covering Letter & CV Basics
Of course I read this just AFTER sending out a CV 
Looking through I dont think I've made any glaring mistakes though but
Looking through I dont think I've made any glaring mistakes though but
Aug 7th 2007, 2:44 am
#7
Forum Regular
Joined: Aug 2007
Location: New Zealand (best place to be)
Posts: 80
Re: Covering Letter & CV Basics
BORRING
Aug 7th 2007, 4:00 am
#8
`
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 38,611
Re: Covering Letter & CV Basics
Brilliant thread Wiz.
So many people worry and wonder about CVs.
Happy Anniversary.
Hope you both had a good fun evening.
So many people worry and wonder about CVs.
Happy Anniversary.
Hope you both had a good fun evening.
Aug 7th 2007, 7:13 am
#9
NZ ways is best ways :0)
Thread Starter
Joined: Oct 2006
Location: Christchurch, NZ
Posts: 1,109
Re: Covering Letter & CV Basics
Cheers folks. We had a lovely time thanks, and here's to many more years and plenty more beers 
Aug 7th 2007, 9:13 am
#10
Forum Regular
Joined: Jun 2007
Location: Hamilton NZ
Posts: 101
Re: Covering Letter & CV Basics
We are getting CVs here and have had some really bad ones.
Why do people send out CVs with spelling errors?!? Just had a guy who wrote several times what his reasons for living were, we assumed it meant reason for leaving but he didnt make it to the interview stages
Why do people send out CVs with spelling errors?!? Just had a guy who wrote several times what his reasons for living were, we assumed it meant reason for leaving but he didnt make it to the interview stages
Aug 7th 2007, 9:35 am
#11
NZ ways is best ways :0)
Thread Starter
Joined: Oct 2006
Location: Christchurch, NZ
Posts: 1,109
Re: Covering Letter & CV Basics
Incorrect spellings = immediate filing in the B 1 N. No excuse.
I saw the best CV yet today - and on telling him this he said he'd had it done by a professional firm. I was interviewing him in person at the time - show's how well it worked! I will ask the guy who's it is if I can take all personal stuff off it and post it up here, as it'll be a great guide.
Oh, and you know the whole 'picture on the front' thing? Well I saw a classic 'how NOT to do it' example today. Ugly man + ugly wife, front and centre. All it did was make me giggle - still at least I have remembered him I s'pose!
