Right, prepare for an ex-Employment Adviser rant: currently recruiting for a Communications Officer for First Give charityjob.co.uk/jobs/communications-officer/359953 We have had lots of applications (around 20 so far) from people whom I am sure can communicate and are very able... the problem is they dont know how to write a CV and certainly have no idea how to write a good cover letter. Only two out of the 20 cover letters make any link between the skill set of the candidate and our charity. Only two. These are the only two (and neither of these does it brilliantly) who make any attempt to make us feel as if they want to work for us, rather than simply want to work. Many of the rest of the applications are just cut and paste. We have had cover letters for other jobs, we have had CVs saved and dated 2012 or as Charity CV or as Research and Policy - this makes me feel like they are not necessarily focused on a career in the third sector. Now, I get that people apply for multiple jobs at the same time... but I should feel as if my job is the most important to the candidate.... I blame the candidate for a lack of thought... I blame the system for a lack of meaningful employability training of young people and also creating an environment of desperation where people feel as if they have no choice but to apply for any job that is going, whether it is in their field or not. We need to invest in our young people, we need to show them how to make applications. The problem is that the employment advice centre run to targets and that means that people are just sat down to write a CV and choose from a list of skills and a template cover letter... then the person is pushed out the door without being told how to make changes to their CV to reflect a job description, or how to link a cover letter to the job they want....thank god for Nova New Opportunities. As ever, targets encourage shortcuts... in employment advice, in health and in education... streamlining and targets do not encourage better value, they encourage dilution of quality... and the ripple effect is that of young people aimlessly applying for jobs, not receiving honest feedback because people are too pressed for time, or too scared of getting sued for this or that... the young people then become disillusioned, frustrated and turned-off. If you got to the bottom, leave a comment... I would be really interested in opinions or personal experience.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 14:50:45 +0000
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