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Make the most of your Applications Advice appointment

By UCL Careers, on 25 September 2015

Are you applying for jobs, internships or postgraduate courses this term?CV

Our Applications Advisers can help you make your CV, application, or covering letter the best it can be. The adviser will review your draft from a recruiter’s perspective and give you tips and advice on how to improve it.

Applications Advice appointments are one of the most popular services we offer at UCL Careers. Fifteen minute appointments can go by pretty quickly, but there’s a lot you can do to help us help you and make the most of the time.

Have you booked the right type of appointment?

  • Make sure you’ve booked the right appointment. Applications Advice is for when you know what you’re applying for. You could be applying for a job, an internship, a postgraduate course or studentship, or you might be sending a speculative application.
  • If you don’t know what you’re applying for yet, it’s better to book a Short Guidance appointment. This appointment won’t focus on your CV – that’s because it’s a better use of time to leave the detailed work on your CV until you know what you’re applying for.

Before your appointment:

  • We have information sheets written by careers professionals on writing CVs, supporting statements, and covering letters, as well as other helpful topics like job hunting and internships. You can find all of our information sheets here on our digital library, Careers Tagged. Reading the relevant information sheet will give you a good understanding of the basics, so you don’t have to go over them in your appointment.
  • Print out your CV, application, covering letter or whatever you plan on sending to the employer AND the job description and person specification. If you’re applying for a course, print the description of the course. It’s easier for your advisor to read your CV/application this way and they might want to make notes on it.
  • We have computers and a printer that you can use at UCL Careers, so you can print here if you want. Leave at least 10 minutes before your appointment start time if you need to print things here.
  • Think about what you want to focus on. Is there something the employer’s looking for that you aren’t sure how to demonstrate? Is there something you aren’t sure whether to include or not? Make notes about your top concerns or questions so that you can prioritise these.

If you have a CV and a covering letter, you may not be able to cover them both in one appointment. But you can book another Applications Advice appointment if you want – there’s no limit on how many you can have overall, you just need to wait til you’ve had one appointment until you can book another.

– Linsey Chrisman, Information Officer, UCL Careers

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