Curriculum Vitae

To prepare for the process of starting to look for jobs, I started with updating my CV and uploaded it to topcv.co.uk to get feedback on what I could change to make it better. I feel that this was a nice opportunity to upgrade my CV as I have been thinking of doing it for a while. With the feedback I got it made me happy, but there were still several things I could change to make it even better. I believe I can make these changes to make a good visual presentation and writing of my CV.

On visual presentation and organisation, I needed to change the overall structure to better the first impression and treat it like my personal marketing tool. However, my use of bullets was good as it made it easy to read. On the CV writing section, I got feedback on phrasing my writing to more of what I have achieved rather than what I have done. I think this was good as I have never thought about it in that way before. This feedback will give me a chance to edit my CV and I will contribute positively with this to increase my chances for future job applications.

The feedback received was good as I can make my CV more interesting for potential employers. I assume the theory of selecting an applicant for a job starts with the visual presentation and writing skills, in addition to the cover letter. Not preparing your CV and make it up to date and concise might decrease you chances of being one of the applicants selected and often leads to no interviews (Harolds, 2013). Additionally, to beat other applicants, having a CV that catches the potential employers eye is what makes them decide which pile in the narrowing down process your application ends within (O´Dowd, 2023). This literature could help me getting a good experience when starting to prepare my CV and cover letter.

I have not updated my CV for a while, so I have learnt that it is important to constantly keep it up to date, gain knowledge into CV writing to make it catching for the readers, and have a good visual presentation and organisation so it is easily readable. To make my CV better, I will make an outline that I have available for when I am going to apply for jobs and edit what is needed. The knowledge gained from this experience will be used to update my CV from the feedback I have gotten. I will start writing my CV from the bottom and find a good outline that looks presentable. Additionally, I will write my CV with the feedback in mind to increase my CV writing skills.

 

Mock Interview

To prepare myself for potential job interviews, I have prepared for and done a “mock interview” to gain knowledge and experience and get critical feedback on my interview skills. It occurred over teams with a former colleague interviewing me. Overall, it went well but it felt odd as I knew it was not a real interview. However, I felt calm and relaxed at the time as I knew the interviewer, but I was thinking that I had to take it seriously as it will be a good practice for future job interviews. About the feedback gotten I felt a boost because of the good feedback. My feelings changed from calm to exited even though I got some critical feedback as well. I think the interviewer thought this was a nice experience as well as this is something that she must do in her current job. After the mock interview I felt confident.

The good feedback was that I seemed prepared for the hypothetical job applying for. I had my CV, cover letter, and the job application printed out. Additionally, I was well dressed and had good body language. My answer to the questions was done with confidence, however, they were not always as concise and sometimes a little hesitant which I also noticed as I dragged in other things not related to the question, which was not so good. Nevertheless, the mock interview went well because I had prepared for it in advanced. As I got feedback on concise answer to the questions, I need to remember to keep myself to the topic even though I felt I just showed engagement because of my passion. It could be explained with interest and engagement of topics you like, hence wanting to show this by talking and explaining to the interviewer to make it interesting (Hirschi et al., 2022).

I learned that before an interview, I should make a list of questions and answers that I am most likely to be asked to have a clear path and avoid babbling. Knowing this, I can now prepare differently for job interviews to improve my interview skills. I could have done it differently by doing some research on beforehand as I might have found this information earlier to take with me into this mock interview. I think this can help me with increasing my skill of answering concisely. Additionally, I will use this experience and knowledge gained when preparing for job interviews in the future. To improve my skills, I will make myself a note with the most important things to remember within a job interview: dress well, body language, print the documents needed, do research on the company on beforehand, and a list of questions and answers.

 

References

Harolds, J. A. (2013). Tips for a Physician in Getting the Right Job, Part II: The Curriculum Vitae, Cover Letter, and Personal Statement. Clinical Nuclear Medicine, 38(9), 721. https://doi.org/10.1097/RLU.0b013e31829ddfd6

Hirschi, Q., Wilson, T. D., & Gilbert, D. T. (2022). Speak Up! Mistaken Beliefs About How Much to Talk in Conversations. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 01461672221104927. https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672221104927

O´Dowd, A. (2023). How to create the perfect CV to apply for jobs. BDJ In Practice, 36(2), Article 2. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41404-023-1876-2