Summer Work

leaveiton

Hi, sorry if this should be in another thread, but I just have a few questions relating to getting work for the summer and wasn't sure where to put them! I'm in 6th year at the moment and would like to get a job during the summer before I go to college. There are a few things I want to know about before I go out looking.

First of all, I'm not really sure how to format my CV. I remember getting templates handed out to us when I was in 4th year, but I've seen so many variations that I'm not really sure what should be on it. At the moment, I have my personal details at the top (Name, address, telephone number), then my educational details with my Junior Cert results, and a section for previous work experience. I also have a section for achievements, and one for interests, but are these really necessary on the CV? I've seen different opinions on this, just want to make sure.

I've never had a job before, so in the previous work experience section I've just put in the 2 different placements I did while on work experience in 4th year, with a short description of what I did there. After that, I put in another small section on other voluntary things that I've been involved in in school (teaching the elderly how to use computers, teaching sport to young children, things like that). Is all that okay to say for previous experience, or should I add/take away anything?

Referees is another thing I'm unsure about. I could get a reference from my school, but I wouldn't know who else to ask if I needed a second one.

Finally, when should I start applying for summer work? My intention is to just print off a load of CVs and cover letters and drop them into places personally. The midterm is coming up in two weeks, is that too early?

Any help is appreciated, thanks

aine92

If you're applying to corporate companies like Next, Dunnes etc, they'll all be taking CVs online in kinda mid to late April. I work in Next and I'd advise you to subscribe to the email alerts because then you'll know where and when a job pops up and you can apply immediately!

Apart from that, I'd say its never really too early to start handing them out, personally I would have started in March-ish, but if you hand a CV now, I wouldn't hesitate handing another one in later on in the year, no harm for them to see you're dedicated!

I don't know if its still about but when I did the LC a few years back, I did LCVP and there was this website http://lcvp.slss.ie/ and it gave LOADS of great tips on CVs and stuff, I still use the exact one I made up for the LC LCVP exam and I've had no problem with jobs so far so I reckon once you make up a really good base CV, you can use the same one forever and just tweak it as time goes by.

Best of luck :-)

leaveiton

Thanks for the reply! That's a great idea about subscribing to email alerts, I never would have thought do to that, thanks!

Thank you for the link to that website too, it's very helpful!

phonejacker

how do you ask nicely and professionally a manger for a summer job ? lets say you went into a hotel looking for a summer job. u go to reception and ask for the manager and the manager then comes then you say 'hello my name...' then what??

keepkeyyellow

Go and google careers with paddy power they're looking for 8 hour part time betting assistants from feb to sept wouldn't hurt

leaveiton

Sorry to drag this up again, but I have a few more questions.

I'm really not sure how to format my cover letter! I'm going to be printing off a lot of CVs and handing them in everywhere, so I was going to write a fairly generic cover letter but tweak it for each company that I'm applying to. However I don't know who to address it to - is it okay to just put Dear Sir/Madam, or what exactly should I do?

Another question, when I'm handing the CVs in, should I put each one in an envelope? If so, what should I put on it - my name and what I'm applying for, or the company's name?