Help with CVs, Cover Letters, and Applications
Highlighted resource - CV360 - optimise your CV
CV360 scores your CV against more than 50 checks and you get instant, detailed feedback so you can optimise your CV and significantly boost your chances of getting to interview.
If you need help or advice with application forms, CVs, Covering Letters, or your LinkedIn profile, this page outlines the various ways we can help including appointments, events and resources.
If you need help with an application for postgraduate study, visit our 'Help with applying for Postgraduate Study' page.
Events
CVs and Job Application Skills events - Including Focus On Cover Letters, Creating a Successful CV and Application Forms events and Webinars.
LinkedIn events - including LinkedIn webinars and LinkedIn Lab.
CVs
My Career Zone Digital has resources to help you create a great CV.
Example CVs - 1 page, 2 page and part time.
Prospects has a number of example CVs for different scenarios along with guidance about Video and Creative CVs:
Read Prospects' CV guide to find out more about how to format a CV, what to include, and advice about how to fill the gap left by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Target Jobs has example CVs and CV advice.
Helping you optimise your CV for humans and machines with CV360.
CV360 scores your CV against more than 50 checks that commonly trip up an ATS, annoy a hiring manager or get your CV deprioritised. You get instant, detailed feedback so you can optimise your CV and significantly boost your chances of getting to interview.
If you have never created a CV before, why not use the CV Builder.
Postgraduate Researchers CVs and applications - there is information about preparing applications on this ELE course for both academic and non-academic roles.
Cover Letters
Do you need help with writing a cover letter? Take a look at our example cover letter.
Writing an Effective Cover Letter looks at the purpose of cover letters and why they are important, summarises how to structure your cover letter, includes cover letter examples, highlights some of the pitfalls, challenges and common errors in cover letters, and provides advice about writing cover letters for jobs aboard.
The Prospects Cover Letter guide has information about how to write a cover letter, what it should include, plus review cover letter examples.
Target Jobs has cover letter templates and advice.
Applications
Writing Effective Application Forms summarises how to structure your application forms, as well as some of the pitfalls, challenges and common errors.
Find out how to write a successful job application, review example questions and answers, and learn more about speculative job applications.
Target Jobs provides advice on how to complete application forms.
The STAR approach – Situation, Task, Action, and Result can be used to answer situational questions on an application form or in a job interview, e.g. “Describe a time when you….” or “Give an example of….”
Good and bad application form answers provides examples of how to respond effectively to application form questions.
When you’ve found a job or internship to apply for, it’s essential that you do your research. This is an area that you may be tempted to rush, but lack of background knowledge is one of the main reasons why recruiters will reject an application. Short guide to researching the job you are applying to.
CV and Job Application Blog Articles - This link will take you to the CV and Job Application Blog page. On this page there are lots of blogs on how to impress in cover letters as well as tips on how to use social media to impress future employers.
When applying for jobs, whether these are part time positions, or a graduate scheme, you will likely be asked for references. To find out how you can ask someone to be a referee (plus who it would be best to ask) take a look at our short guide to references.
My Career Zone Digital has a number of e-learning resources to help you create or improve your CV or cover letter. It also has resources to help write job applications.
Our podcast covers a range of careers topics such as:
Webinar Recordings
The Craft of Writing your CV - Join Rachel Coombes, Employability and Careers Consultant, for this 20 minute webinar which will look at the three main areas to help get your CV up to scratch.
Effective Application Forms - Join Rachel Gaunt, Employability and Placements Adviser, for a guide to writing effective application forms.
The Key Features of an application form - If you have never completed an application form before, tune in for this quick guide to online application forms.
How do employers shortlist applications? - Hear from Sarah Blunt, Employability and Careers Consultant, about how employers shortlist applications.
Application form advice in 60 seconds - Hear from Rachel Gaunt, Employability and Placements Adviser, for her quick tips for writing application forms.
How to write a great cover letter - Hear from Sarah Blunt, Employability and Careers Consultant, for her top tips of how to create a great cover letter.
Making the most out of your LinkedIn profile - 5 top tips to help you boost your LinkedIn Profile
Appointments
You can book an appointment with us to get your CV, cover letter, application form, or LinkedIn profile checked. You can contact us via the Live Chat icon at the bottom of this page, or you can phone us on +44(0)1392 724493 (all campuses). For any other enquiries, you can email us at careers@exeter.ac.uk.