Week 11: RealWORKS

Reflections

This week we explored the realms of job recruitment through Falmouth’s employability team and their RealWORKS system. Of the many courses and tutorials within RealWORKS, we were tasked with completing the Art of the Approach course to explore CV building, improving your social media presence and the recruitment process. I thought I was relatively well-versed in this field, having secured many entry-level and professional positions in the past; however, I gained a much deeper insight and am so pleased to have access to these resources.

It surprised me that most businesses use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATSs) to vet CVs before a human has set their eyes on them. In the past, I’ve been subject to virtual aptitude and behavioural tests pre-interview, so was well aware of these technological practices. With that said, it never occurred to me that widely used ATSs could shatter my chances of a human ever even seeing my application. I also learnt that ATSs favour Microsoft Word documents over the PDF format I’ve always used for CVs. This shocked me as the very name of PDFs (Portable Document Format) would suggest cross-platform versatility. As such, I’ll be changing this from now on and utilising the .doc format.

Part of the course covered the different types of CV one might consider, for example, chronological, skill-based, technical or student/graduate. I’ve had various jobs over the years, covering different industries, professions and levels of responsibility; therefore, this exercise was particularly useful in identifying how best to demonstrate my skills and experience. Historically, I’ve found it challenging to know what to include on my CV, let alone fit it onto one page; therefore, the suggestion of having a master CV to tailor depending on the job was reassuring, and I will do this in future. The course reiterated the need to quickly and concisely communicate your skills and experience with minimal formatting and on one page. I endeavour to achieve this going forward; however, I’m acutely aware of the time I’d need to invest in getting to that stage. As I’m not currently job hunting, I intend to implement these suggestions in future but am so glad to have gained this knowledge early on in my career.

The closing modules of the course looked at applying for and being rejected from potential jobs. I’ve never been in a position where I’ve applied for hundreds of jobs and had to keep track of their progress. However, I can certainly see how this is possible and have heard many people describe their past experiences. With that in mind, it was suggested that keeping a spreadsheet of the jobs you’ve applied for is a good way of keeping track and knowing which stage you’re at with each. I couldn’t agree more with this and consider it an invaluable tool to ensure efficient time management and maintain lines of communication with potential employers. Furthermore, I was thankful to learn of some coping mechanisms and strategies upon having an application rejected. After investing so much time in applying for jobs, it can be demoralising to receive one rejection after another. However, we were invited to view this in a positive light by considering rejections as a sign of progress and value. Each rejection could essentially be accounted as an investment that would pay off upon receiving a job offer. I admit that this seems an optimistic take on rejections, but I appreciate the potential benefit and am strangely excited to put it to the test.