Is your application letting you down?

It’s a competitive world out there and as a result, I would expect to see job candidates trying hard to impress in their applications. But even in these difficult times, it is quite common to see candidates making basic mistakes which will ensure they do not make the short list. 

While it is amusing to read that a candidate has excellent time management skills as she has to balance her studies with an active social life, this may not be the best way to impress the selectors. Neither is being an ‘excellent active listener’. This seems to crop up a lot – is there an online CV site promoting this description? 

Here is a list of some easy-to-avoid mistakes:

Spelling mistakes 

Spelling and grammar. Spelling and grammar. Repeat after me until you are bored. Check your letters and CV. Check again. Ask someone else to read them for you, to check again. Use spell-check for goodness sake: that is what it’s there for. Applications containing spelling mistakes and dreadful grammar will go straight onto the reject pile. Regular mistakes include:

• using the plural when the singular applies. For example, ‘Government’ is singular. So often people will write, ‘the Government are bringing in new legislation later this year....’ Please don’t do this: it makes my head hurt.   
• Which brings me neatly to the next one: using the capital letter spray gun. Capital letters are for the beginning of sentences, names and proper nouns.  Lawyers are particularly bad at this: they love making the claimant and defendant into proper nouns. Stop it, please!  
• The grocer’s apostrophe. No, no, no. Mind you, even Sainsbury’s (?) makes this mistake. I try not to look at the signs as I walk along the aisle selling “CD’s”.

Apply for the right job  

... not the job you wish you were applying for.  

No covering letter with a CV 

Where the job advertisement asks for a CV rather than completing an application form, it should never be sent in without a covering letter. This document is vital to bring your application to the selector’s attention. It is your opportunity to show that you know something about the company you are contacting and to highlight the most pertinent aspects of your CV. No covering letter? Your CV may well go straight onto the reject pile.  

Generic CV
There is no excuse these days for having a generic CV, which you then send out with all your applications. It is so important that you read the advert, the job and skills specifications and then ensure that your CV covers all of them. Even if you lack a particular skill, you should refer to it, explaining why you think you can still do the job. You never know: that skill may be a rare thing among all the applicants and your candid assessment of your abilities may be just what we are looking for. 

Strange fonts
This may seem unfair, after all, it’s the content which counts, right? Wrong. Anyone who sends in an application printed in a strange typeface will be viewed with suspicion. Why have you done that? Can you be trusted to write sensible, professional documents or will you be signing off emails with lols or xx? We selectors may well think you are not the level-headed person we are looking for.

At the interview

Find out about the firm before you get to your interview. I am always amazed that some candidates appear to have not even had a cursory glance at the company website. In answer to the question, so why do you want to work for us, it is not enough to say, “well I quite like the law....” 

... and don’t be late
It’s not always possible to do a trial run to the place of interview in advance, but Google Street View is the interviewee’s friend. My employer’s office is off the beaten track and we have had anguished calls from interviewees who have followed their sat-nav and found themselves the wrong side (really) of the railway track – able to see the office, but barred by a two-metre high fence. It takes no more than five minutes to find most places using Google and the Street View option means you can ‘walk’ up and down the street and find out exactly what the location looks like. I never go anywhere important for the first time without doing just that.

Finally, good luck! Be yourself and don’t forget to clean your shoes before you head off to your interview...

Are you being heard? The perils of working on the train

Sometimes, I’m a bit nosey. Especially when I am on the train with an hour or two to kill. If I’m on my way to a meeting, I can read my notes, and do some work along the way, but always, in my line of work, ensuring that I keep those notes and work to myself.

Not everyone is the same though: I am always amazed by the number of professionals who are quite happy to discuss their clients’ cases or other confidential information on the phone in a crowded train carriage. I am also amazed at how careless some people are with the papers they spread around the train table as they work during the journey. 

As I said, I’m a bit nosey and if there are papers on the table in front of me, I’m going to read them. I’m also good at reading upside down, so that won’t stop me either. (It’s a handy skill which I’ve used many times in the past). I’ve read business plans, marketing briefs for well known brands, listened in on the details of a very interesting contract dispute (and privately disagreed with the advice being given) and sat through a thorough bollocking being administered on the phone to some hapless junior back in a distant office. 

So, I wasn’t that surprised to find that sometimes people get caught out. The British Medical Journal reports that a consultant forensic psychiatrist who discussed a patient’s medical report with a colleague on a crowded train could be disciplined. The Court of Appeal quashed a High Court injunction which had prevented the Mental Health NHS Trust from convening a disciplinary panel to hear allegations of breach of confidence against the psychiatrist.

The main allegation was that the psychiatrist had the patient’s report on her lap and discussed it with a colleague when the two doctors were passengers on a train in November 2010. Opposite them happened to be sitting the head of secure services policy at the Department of Health. She did not speak to the psychiatrist at the time but later wrote a letter to the patient's hospital, outlining details of the incident, indicating that the patient’s name was clearly visible.

The psychiatrist admitted reading the patient’s notes on the train but said that she had not realised that his name could be seen. She also admitted dictating two reports on the train but she said that she had ensured no other passengers were close by.

Lord Justice Pill, delivering the leading judgment in the Court of Appeal said that a patient’s right to confidentiality “is fundamental in the health service and must be respected by doctors and other staff.”

And that goes for lawyers and other professionals too. When on the train, do not forget where you are: keep your files out of sight and confidential conversations for another time. 

Don’t spill it, zip it.