LSST Luton Hosts CV Workshops from Total Jobs
By Sianat Mahmood, Career and Employability Officer at LSST Luton, Article Date – 26th October 2023.
Our Total Jobs CV skills workshop event took place at LSST Luton on 19 October 2023. We were honoured to have Julian Linsell, a visibility product specialist at Total Jobs-Milkround, who travelled all the way from Portsmouth to join our careers team at Luton. Our Career Coordinator, Foteini Meleti, was also present on this day to assist our Luton campus in optimising their engagement with the career department, particularly in relation to the Total Jobs event.
The event was a masterclass for students who wanted to develop skills for career planning and improve their CVs. Julian, who himself had taken different career pathways after university, shared his insights with the students at Luton. He also provided specialised guidance on CV excellence, which made the students more informed about employability skills. They understood the relevant skills required to take them forward after graduation.
Julian explained that the term “blind CV” refers to a CV in which most personal details, like the applicant’s name, gender, age, or other identifying information, are removed. This practice is especially relevant in modern recruitment, where many CVs go through automated systems rather than being initially read by a human recruiter.
Julian shared that nearly half of the organisations employing graduates intend to increase their hires in the next 12 months, indicating a consistent demand for graduate and early career talent. He also spoke about Career Ready, a UK-wide social mobility organisation with a mission to empower people to overcome socio-economic barriers. Career Ready specialise in providing individuals with key skills, improved confidence, and the social capital to navigate the world of work.
Furthermore, Julian discussed the various career paths graduates can pursue and highlighted important websites such as Milkround, the largest graduate job board in the UK. It’s worth noting that there are multiple other job boards dedicated to graduate recruitment.
In addition to these resources, LinkedIn is a valuable platform for networking with other companies, allowing individuals to learn more about their company culture, workforce, employee benefits, and job vacancies.
Julia presented some advice on salaries. He explained considering the current financial concerns of both jobseekers and employees, it’s crucial to ensure that salaries are fair, transparent, and competitive with industry and market averages. Employers might want to consider offering one-time payments until the salary review season.
Julian’s main points were to tailor your CV for each job application, use action verbs, quantify achievements, keep it concise, proofread, maintain consistent formatting, and keep it honest.
I was impressed with how eagerly the students engaged with the workshop. All students were fully absorbed in the information provided and wanted to continue enhancing their knowledge. I was also amazed at how attentively all the students listened to Julian.
Overall, the workshop was a great provision for our Luton campus. We were delighted to have Julian there to deliver an exceptional workshop for our students. We would love for him to come back to our campus and provide more exceptional workshops.
Remember seeking professional advice can be beneficial if you’re unsure about your CV’s quality so please feel free to contact me at sianat.mahmood@lsst.ac for additional CV support.