The UK Forestry Jobs Newsletter shares the best tips, news and featured jobs in the UK, from tree planting to director level.
Job hunting can be a lot of fun. You scroll through different jobs, find one you like the look of, your heart starts to beat a bit faster, your palms are a little sweaty (just me?)
You click the link and it says the dreaded words “Please submit a CV and covering letter to this address…” Your heart sinks. Time to dust off that old CV you wrote when you were 19 and doctor it a little to make it relevant.
But what if there was another way? What if you could write a CV that got you noticed and made your prospective employer sit up and take notice?
In the age of AI, many people turn to chat bots to write their CVs for them but that’s risky too. Chat GBT doesn’t know you or even what a CV is.
Here are my three tips to making your CV look authentic, interesting and distinctive.
Make it Authentic: One of the best ways to achieve this is to not have a robot write it for you. It doesn’t have to be a masterpiece of writing. A CV should be brief and relevant. A few bullet points per role spelling out your main achievements is fine. Avoid words like ‘dynamic’ or phrases like ‘good communicator’ - that’s like a big flashing neon sign saying ‘I didn’t know what to write’
Show, Don’t Tell: If you’re good at something, don’t say “I’m very good at lion taming”. Instead, go for “In 2005, I won the national award for ‘Best Young Zookeeper - Lions and Other Big Cats.” You’re showing the reader that you know your stuff and you’ve got a track record to prove it. Obviously you shouldn’t make stuff up (unless you are an award winning Big Cat expert)
Be a Circus Attraction: In the musical ‘The Greatest Showman’ the characters who have been part of the ‘freak show’ attraction realise that it’s their differences that make them human and unique - there’s even a musical number about it. Anyway, where am I going with this? If you want to stand out, you need to be different. Some job ads get hundreds, even thousands of applications. If you have an unusual hobby or interest or some achievement like “I’m a qualified sushi chef and enjoy freediving in my spare time.” then you’re going to stand out beyond the people who like ‘hillwalking’ and ‘reading’.
Do you have any CV hacks or tips of your own? Why not reply to this email and tell us.
Happy job hunting!
Jack
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Job Spotlight
In this section we highlight our favourite opportunity each week.
What?: Forest Craftsperson
Where?: Torlundy, North Scotland
How Much?: £30-31k + 28% pension + training
Forestry Fact Corner…
🌲 The Daintree Rainforest in Australia is the world’s oldest forest - some estimates are 130 to 180 million years old - that’s 100 million years older than the Amazon rainforest.