As the original beautiful world intern, my perspective is occasionally called for during intern recruitment. While I’m not an expert in all things HR, I have looked through enough CVs now to put a few tips together for aspiring beautiful world interns or anyone looking for their first job:
Impress us This, aspiring intern, is your time to shine!
1. Present yourself well
Your CV is an important first impression. Express yourself clearly in an easy to read structure; it could be the difference between an outright ‘No’ and a ‘Definite Maybe’. A decent layout and legible font size helps a lot.
2. Attention to detail
I can’t stress enough the importance of this point. Whether you’re applying for a fundraising marketing or a data analyst internship, great attention to detail is a must. A good way of showing it is to
check your spelling. I’ve lost count the number of differently-spelled versions of
curriculum vitae I’ve come across so far. Also, it does not pay to be overly reliant on Word’s spellchecker. To quote an example, I used to proof read annual report drafts in a previous life and spotted a few ‘good will arsing’ in the spellchecked copy.
3. Only include what is relevant
By this, I mean there’s no need to list every single grade you have from your GCSEs, as well as your A’ Levels and university degree, the paper round you had when you were 14 and the hobbies you had at school. Read the intern specification and decide which of your qualifications and experience deserves more elaboration on your CV. It wouldn’t hurt to specify the internship role you’re applying for, as well as your availability.
4. Tailor your CV
Show how you’re well-suited for the internship position and interested in working for beautiful world and the third sector in general. CVs that make no effort in doing so are a major turn off. Your CV should illustrate why you’re special but it wouldn’t hurt to make us feel special too, by finding out about us and showing you understand, and are genuinely interested in, a career in the sector we work in. The team at beautiful world will put a lot of effort into helping interns gain valuable skills and experience, so they want to know people that join for internships are serious too. Some aspiring interns gave us the impression they only wanted to bide their time until they get ‘real jobs’ in accountancy, law, business... etc. How’s that for special?
Don’t lay it on too thick In an attempt to stand out from the competition, these are some of the things aspiring interns have done that backfired spectacularly.
5. Misleading information
Some aspiring interns tried passing off something as work experience when it clearly wasn’t. It can be a Catch-22 situation, where employers aren’t willing to give you work experience when you don’t have any work experience. But lying on your CV, be it intentional or not, is never a good way to get your foot through the door. Projects you did as part of your study are interesting and relevant, and you should mention them, but you shouldn't attempt to pass them off as work experience.
6. Unnecessary name-dropping
Some employers are particular about which university their aspiring interns or employees come from. We’re not one of them. Starting the first sentence in your CV by stating you come from a ‘red-brick university’, gives us the impression that you think the name of your university should matter more than your qualifications, experience, passion and commitment for the sector and the work we do and can sound a bit elitist (not in a good way).
7. Incomprehensible jargon
Whichever industry or sector you go into, there will be some jargon used that is sector specific. Unless you know exactly what you’re talking about, don’t run the risk of using otherwise unfamiliar terminology that’ll only end up confusing those reading your CV. You also run the risk of getting it wrong and sounding silly. Try using plain, simple English to express yourself; it worked like a charm for some aspiring interns.
8. Too much information
Remember that a CV should make us want to find out more about you. Give us a reason to get in touch and set up a follow up meeting. If you spill your guts over 3, 4, 5...etc pages, we will assume that you have told us all we need to know about you and make a judgement call based solely on your CV. No aspiring intern, no matter how accomplished he or she is, warrants a CV that exceeds 2 pages. Remember you can send a nice covering email that says a bit more about you (not enough people seem to bother to write a tailored covering email, shockingly). The better CVs we’ve read so far have managed to bag follow up phone calls or meetings in 1 or 2 pages.
If you're an aspiring intern and job seeker, I hope you will find these tips useful and not be disheartened if you weren’t successful in either getting a role with us or with other employers. It can sometimes feel like you’re jumping through several hoops without much to show for it, to the point where you might even say, “I will be anything you want me to be, if that’s what it takes to get me the job.” The thing is, there are some quite simple things you can do to improve your chances of success considerably and, judging by some of the applications I've seen, some people don't seem to be aware of them.
My top tip? As clichéd as it sounds, whenever employers tell you to ‘Be yourself’, it is undoubtedly true. It’s the best way for any employer to decide if you might be a good fit with the people who work in the company, and also means you’re more likely to be happier working there.
So be yourself, then remember to do yourself justice in your CV, and you could be the newest addition to our happy and wonderful workplace or whichever one you dream of joining.
Rebekah
