The ICAEW Guide to Successful Job Search Episode 5: CVs that stand out and impactful cover letters
Your CV has less than 30 seconds to make an impression on a prospective employer. In the fifth podcast of The ICAEW Guide to Successful Job Search series, host Simon Gray, FCA, explains how to make sure your CV or resume gets their attention.
To create the ICAEW Guide to Successful Job Search, ICAEW worked with Simon Gray, author of ‘Super Secrets of Successful Executive Job Search’ and founder of Career Codex, in addition to experts from across the recruitment and business world to share their knowledge of how to find and secure the job you want.
In Episode 5, ‘CVs that stand out and impactful cover letters’, Gray discusses the power of a good CV and cover letter, and provides his top tips on how to make sure yours have the wow factor.
“Just as a movie trailer highlights the key elements of a film you’re considering watching, your CV shouldn’t tell your life story, but instead contain enough relevant information to grab the interest of the reader,” he says.
Gray explains why it is important to write your CV from scratch for each position and shares his steps to writing a stand-out CV and cover letter.
In this podcast Gray is joined by:
- Sally Adams, Acting Chief Financial Officer at Electrocomponents Plc;
- Andrew Clark, Finance Director at Costa Enterprises; and
- Jonathan Firth, Managing Director Michael Page Finance.
Episode guide
You can listen to the rest of the series on icaew.com or on iTunes:
| Episode | Title | Date available |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Getting started on your successful job search | |
| 2 | The job market environment | |
| 3 | The psychology of job search success | |
| 4 | The importance of planning |
|
| 6 | Getting in front of decision makers | 11 March 2016 |
| 7 | The power of networking | 18 March 2016 |
| 8 | Positioning yourself online | 25 March 2016 |
| 9 | Delivering a first-class interview | 01 April 2016 |
| 10 | Handling the offer and negotiation stage | 08 April 2016 |
Meet the experts
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Simon Gray Career Codex
After starting his career at KPMG, Simon Gray, FCA, has spent more than 15 years working in recruitment. In 2013, following the publication of ‘Super Secrets of the Successful Jobseeker’, Gray set up Career Codex which offers training to jobseekers on how to take a different strategy to their job search and stand out from their peers. His latest book, ‘Super Secrets of Successful Executive Job Search’, was published in July 2015.
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Sally Adams Electrocomponents
Sally Adams joined global engineering parts distributor Electrocomponents in 1996. Listed on the London Stock Exchange, Electrocomponents has operations in 32 countries and an annual turnover of more than £1.2bn.
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Andrew Clark Costa Enterprises
Andrew is Finance Director of Costa Enterprises, (part of Whitbread Group). He started his career at KPMG where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant and as a Corporate Treasurer. He spent a year in audit before moving to Corporate Restructuring where he spent five years advising banks who had invested in companies which were underperforming.
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Jonathan Firth Michael Page Finance
Jonathan Firth has 20 years’ recruitment experience in the UK, with the last 10 years at PageGroup. While the majority of his career has been in finance recruitment, his experience at PageGroup includes assisting with building their search business and running their legal recruitment business across the UK.