Having joined this module in January, I was pleased to discover the first assignment was a covering letter and CV. As a breeding bird field ornithologist, all the positions offered for this year are advertised in late December / early January.
I saw this position advertised on Next Generation Birders Facebook page in late December, and immediately knew I had to apply for it :http://uglosbioscience.wordpress.com/skomer-island-ra/ . Originally there was no application deadline, and also no date of posting, so I applied for the job within 2 days of seeing the advert.
CV writing process
My voluntary history and academic qualifications were perfect for the job, but getting all of these into an easy to read format, and on to 2 A4 sides was a big challenge! Having attended a careers department CV workshop in November, I knew what needed to go into a CV, but this didn't make the process any easier. I wrote about 5 or 6 different CVs with different formats in the end. I sent the one I liked most to my sister, who works for Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, and has had many years experience of CV writing. She gave me some very useful feed back.
My voluntary history and academic qualifications were perfect for the job, but getting all of these into an easy to read format, and on to 2 A4 sides was a big challenge! Having attended a careers department CV workshop in November, I knew what needed to go into a CV, but this didn't make the process any easier. I wrote about 5 or 6 different CVs with different formats in the end. I sent the one I liked most to my sister, who works for Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, and has had many years experience of CV writing. She gave me some very useful feed back.
Eventually I produced something I was very happy with, and also a good covering letter, and sent them off to Dr. Matt Wood at Gloucester University on 3rd January.
Waiting period
I didn't hear anything back until the 13th January (a nerve wrecking wait), when I received an email saying I'd made the short-list! This was great news. By this point he'd made the official CV deadline the 27th January and said that I wouldn't hear from him until after this date. However, I received another email on the 21st saying that he wanted a Skype interview on Wednesday 29th.
The interview and offer
This interview went very well indeed, and after Matt received my final reference, he rang me at 3pm on the 30th to offer me the position !!
This interview went very well indeed, and after Matt received my final reference, he rang me at 3pm on the 30th to offer me the position !!
Although my voluntary history and references won me this job, I think it was my strong CV that got his attention. By writing several CVs in different ways (bullet point, wordy, skills based, chronological work history based) I was able to immalgimate all my favourite parts into one, very solid CV. I then used the covering letter to state why I was interested in the job, discuss my personal attributes, and put in some anecdotes that I wasn't able to fit into the CV but were relevant to the position.
All in all, it was a successful CV and covering letter and I'm over the moon to have got the position. I start on 15th April and will be paid to watch birds for 4 months on Skomer!
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