Applying for apprenticeships

Applying for apprenticeships by Michael Cheary Not sure what it takes to secure a great apprenticeship?With roles on offer with some of the world’s most forward-thinking and well-known employers, getting your foot in the might be easier than you think. It’s all about the execution.To help you maximise your chances, here are some of our top tips on how to apply for an apprenticeship:Find a role that suits youFirstly, if you want to get onto an apprenticeship scheme you need to do your homework.Take some time to really think about the industry you would like to work in, as well as who you want to work for.Workplaces vary hugely, from those with small premises and only a handful of staff where everyone knows everyone else, to large companies with several sites around the country. Both have their advantages, so think about what type of working environment which suits you best.Are you looking for a more intimate role with a smaller company, where you’ll be one of just a few apprentices? Or does the buzz of a bigger company which has a larger apprenticeship programme and may even run their own training programme in-house, work better for you?Think about locationOnce you’ve figured out the work you would like to do and the type of employer you would like to work for, its time to see what opportunities may be available in your local area. A good place to start could be your local council.Many councils throughout the country operate government-sponsored schemes which connect inexperienced workers with local employers via apprenticeship schemes.Youll also find them advertised at your local college, on the Governments apprenticeship website, and also on more traditional job sites which may offer a wide range of apprenticeship vacancies.Set yourself apartJust because apprenticeships are in high demand (with as many as 22,000 vacancies live at any one time across the country), dont be fooled into thinking getting a place is a mere formality â€" it isnt.If you really want to boost your a pplication, theres nothing wrong with giving the employer a call or sending an email to ask about the apprenticeship scheme they are running. By demonstrating an eagerness to understand more about what is involved in the apprenticeship scheme itself you stand yourself apart from other applicants.Indeed, many big employers of apprenticeships, such as Travis Perkins, Speedy, EE, Amey or Tui for example, will be more than happy to discuss this with you â€" after all, you could be just then person they are looking for.Above all else, learn how to sell yourself to an employer. Understand what employers are really looking for in an apprentice, and what challenges they face. Once you know the skills they need and their ambitions for the company, you’ll be able to tailor your application accordingly.Get your CV sortedOnce you’ve got a good grasp of what’s required for the apprenticeship you’re applying for, you can then put together a CV which focuses on your achievements and releva nt skills.Make sure you attach a covering letter with it too â€" a strong, well-written cover letter can go a long way to helping your application stand out from all the other applications an employer receives.If you struggling to tailor your application towards your apprenticeship, don’t panic. Our free CV template and cover letter template will help you nail the content.Then all thats left  to do is click ‘Apply’…Feel like an apprenticeship is the right option for you? View all available apprenticeships now.Find a job What Where Search JobsSign up for more Career AdviceSign up for moreCareer Advice Please enter a valid email addressmessage hereBy clicking Submit you agree to the

How to deal with depression at work

How to deal with depression at work Kristen Ryan graduated a year ago and accepted a position in public relations. After two months on the job, she started having anxiety attacks, and after six months on the job, anxiety attacks were almost daily. Ryan says the anxiety was from the pressures of life changes: Moving away from family, staring new job, transitioning to a completely different life from school to work. And, she says, I broke up with my long-time boyfriend. The most common age to experience depression for the first time is in ones twenties. Typical triggers are those Ryan cited, resulting from the stress of entering the workforce. Recently, these triggers have been exacerbated, as the new generation of workers takes for granted that challenging and rewarding work will come their way. This is a generation whose parents oversaw each moment of their schedule to ensure proper mentoring and enrichment. So a job standing at the office copier is a big comedown that many new workers are not prepared to accept. For those who have no choice, the result can be depression. Depression is serious: Fifteen percent of clinically depressed people die by suicide. The illness is more common in women than men, and according to the Canadian Mental Health Association, one in five working women has suffered from depression or anxiety. The good news is that depression is very treatable, so getting help is important. Dr. Stuart Koman, president of the mental health clinic Walden Behavioral Care, says there is a preponderance of scientific evidence to show that a combination of medicine and talk therapy can solve most cases of depression. Ryan found that sessions with a social worker helped her to get back on track. But not everyone recovers so quickly. Like Ryan, Rachael Chaump joined a public relations firm last year, and after a few months, she realized that she had a severe problem. She says, I was crying at my desk every day for no reason. And finally I called my dad and told him I hate my life and I cant go on like this. Chaump ended up on temporary disability in a treatment program that included drug therapy to treat what was a chemical imbalance. Both women had to move carefully in order to keep the jobs they had. Ryan took meditation classes and then, when she had an anxiety attack she went to a secluded place at work to meditate. She also took long walks outside in the middle of the workday. Chaump was not able to hide her depression as well, but she says that even with all her crying, People just got used to it. As long as I kept answering the phone no one said anything to me. If you think youre depressed, you need to do two things: Figure out how to keep your job, and figure out how to get help. According to Jonathan Alpert, associate director of the Depression Clinic at Massachusetts General Hospital, One of the most difficult calls is to recognize depression in oneself. This is true even for people in mental health fields. Often the first step is getting feedback from someone else. Enter the employee assistance program EAP that helps workers confidentially identify mental illness in themselves. Denise Curran is a therapist at ComPsych, an employee assistance program serving six thousand organizations. She describes her role as sort of a referral service. Curran, like most EAP therapists, can give you advice over the phone or online as to whether you seem depressed, and who you can go to, locally, to get help. The EAP process is completely confidential, but crying at your desk is another story. Chaumps company, FCF Schmidt Public Relations, was incredibly supportive and gave her paid leave even though that is not the company policy, per se. Other companies are not likely to be so gracious, so be careful. A good resource is the book Working in the Dark: Keeping your job while dealing with depression. Author Beth Gulas, a specialist in corporate critical intervention, says the book can help you determine if its a safe environment to tell your boss about your depression. The book also gives advice on how to keep working through depression if you have to (example: set fifteen-minute goals for yourself.) Before you curse the fact that you have to show up for work every day, consider that work might be a godsend for someone who is depressed. According to Gulas, One of the typical symptoms of depression is choosing to be alone. But it is likely that depression will be exacerbated if you stay at home.

New rules for self-publishing

New rules for self-publishing I just spent the last two weeks selling my self-published book. I published a book a few years ago with Time Warner, but I wanted to see what it would be like to self-publish. I decided against an ebook format because I really like holding the book of an author I love to read. I like living with that book in my house because its like living with a friend. So I went with a print book. And I did a lot of unconventional things beginning with the announcement and they paid off. So, heres my advice on the new rules for self-publishing. 1. Mainstream publishers help very few people. And probably not you. Authors sell books, not publishers. For writers without a big name, publishers give them credibility. The problem is that publishers arent set up to be able to make money from authors who havent already made a name for themselves. This arrangement used to be fine before social media, before almost every author needed a channel to an audience. But now authors have the ready-made sales channel that is social media, so the publishers are no longer the gatekeepers to customers. Amanda Hocking is reportedly making a million dollars a year self-publishing ebooks. And very rich author Joe Konrath, who has written about the math behind publishing, recently he turned down a half-a-million-dollar book deal so that he could self-publish. Mainstream publishers dont work for unknown authors either. So when publishers give an advance to someone without their own audience, the publisher finds itself in a very high-risk, venture-capital type model, but they are venture capitalists for individuals rather than companies. Very few individuals can sell a book on a large scale through a publisher if they couldnt do it on their own anyway. And if you could do it on your own, why wouldnt you? The money you earn is so much higher when you self-publish if you can actually sell the book. If you dont have a big name, use a blog to get one. If your content is not interesting enough to build up a blog readership, its probably not interesting enough to sell books. 2. Self-publishing should be about making money. You can use a print book from a big publisher to get your name into the speaking world. And then make $15,000 a speech. I know. I went that route, and it works. (Although the life of a speaker, traveling all the time, is arguably terrible and theres a reason mostly men choose it. But thats for another post.) A self-published book does not get you credibility. So you should do it only for the money. And, in this case, you should consider doing a print book. You can charge more for print and its hard to convince people they should buy an ebook when, presumably, your ideas are already online. (And, if they are not already online, how do you know if they are good? No mainstream publisher will take your book, so the presumption is your ideas suck until someone shows you they dont.) 3. Print books are souvenirs: Party favors after a fun time. This is especially true when it comes to blogs with large readerships, or consultants who have changed thousands of lives at big companies. Books take up space in your house, they add to your list of frivolous possessions, and they are expensive in an age when information is largely free. So a print book needs to be like candy in your hand, an interior design choice, an extension of who you are, just like how you have Nike shoes and a Marc Jacobs skirt. This means that the aesthetics of print books is improving fast. If its not nice to hold or put on a shelf, then you may as well have it electronically. Also, once the book is a souvenir of an experience, the book doesnt need to be completely new. Theres a long list of people who publish great books that are largely excerpts from their blog: Seth Godins Tribes and Guy Kawasakis Art of the Start, for instance. That seems fine to me. Almost useful. Because loyal readers will see the short burst of ideas from a blog recombined and reordered into a bigger idea. Blog ideas add up to something. That something is revealed in a book. 4. You dont need a title. Self-published books sell via social media word-of-mouth, which is links between social media platforms. There is no need for a title when information is traveling like this. A book is dependent on a friends endorsement and a link, rather than having the title of the book call out to browsers in a bookstore. If a book is going to be reviewed in print and then you use that review to go to a bookstore and ask a clerk for a book, only then do you need a great title that someone can remember. But there is none of that when you are promoting a book via social media. Today the promise of the book is more important than the title. The promise of the book needs to fit into the promise of some given social networks. For example, if I have a book about medicine in Mesopotamia and I cant find a history of medicine community or a Mesopotamia community, itll be hard to promote the book. Google searches make markets for product sales if you want to pick up customers via search. Communities make markets for books if you want to pick up buyers via word of mouth. 5. Forget about the book cover have a great landing page instead. You are going to send people to a page to buy a book, not a book store, not Amazon. This is your place where you are selling. Its like your food truck. People will take a look at it quickly to see if its trustworthy and worth their time to try it. The number of people you lose on the buy now page has to be really, really small. And it is not necessarily true that a picture of the cover of your book is what will close the sale. So you need to do a lot of tests to see what kind of copy and layout can close your sale. And if youre on a limited budget, tell your designer to focus on the landing page, not the book cover. Today authors need to be good at creating landing pages. It used to be that publishers were market-makers for books. We know now that authors are, but since publishers are not great at online marketing, it makes sense that the person who is writingand connecting with the audiencewould also be the person writing the landing page to turn interest into sales. I used to online tool Unbounce which does a great job of guiding sellers through the process of creating effective landing pages. (Heres the landing page I made.) 6. Do the printing in China. Its really difficult to make a book look as good at one of those fun, interior-decorator type books you see in Anthropologie or CB2the kind that look beautiful on your shelf, like they were made especially for your living room. I wanted that, though. Melissa solved the problem because was able to negotiate a book production deal with a company in China that speaks only Chinese. (Of course I expressed worries because China is known for having quality issues. But she said, Dont worry. Itll be fine. If the books have with problems, I can yell at them in their own language.) Also, use your community to make your own Kickstarter a site that lets you collect money from the Kickstart community to get their project underway. If you have a community to sell books to, then you have a community to fund your book project. This takes the cash-flow pressure out of publishing a gorgeous book. This worked well for my bookwe all get a better souvenir to hold if we all come together to fund it. 7. Print books should be limited editions. Once you think of a book as speciala souvenir of a reading experiencethen selling it for a very limited time makes sense. If something is available forever, its not special. The business model where you can buy a book any time doesnt make sense if we are trying to make print books more special in the age of ebooks. If you can buy a ninety-nine-cent ebook any time, a print book should be a short-offer, limited edition type sale. That is why I was closing sales this week. But selling a self-published book is addictive. When I got a six-figure book advance, my book was so unlikely to earn back the advance that it was not that fun to count salesnone of the money went to me. On top of that, you dont get daily tallies from in-store sales. The publisher doesnt tell me if my review in Salon sold any books. They just dont track things like that. But tracking sales of a self-published book is intoxicating. Its a lot like blog stats. Its immediate feedback, mostly logical, and surprisingly satisfying. The same is true with a self-published book. But Im also making money. So, that said, Im keeping the book a limited edition, but Im selling it for two more days. Two more days of fun for me. And, thank you, everyone, for helping me to learn all this stuff and have fun at the same time.

The Smart Flow - A Free Professional Resume Template

The Smart Flow - A Free Professional Resume Template The Smart Flow A Free Professional Resume Template If you want your resume to be more noticeable without crazy graphics and fancy fonts then this template can definitely help. It features an organized layout making your profile or objective section more inviting to read especially for recruiters and hiring managers. The process of customizing the text is also very simple since all you need is Microsoft Word. Download this freebie today and make your job application more interesting to employers! File size: 82 KB Format: .docx Downloaded 3,694 times License: Free, personal use only. Please read the license terms for resources. Download previous article Stay at Home Mom Resume Example: Organize Your Transition Back to the Workforce next article 9 Tips to Get Hired for Weekend Jobs you might also likeFine Balance â€" A Creative and Professional Resume Template

55 Top Job Search Experts To Follow On Twitter - Executive Career Brandâ„¢

55 Top Job Search Experts To Follow On Twitter Dont have time for Twitter? Think it has no value? One very good reason to dive into Twitter if youre in executive job search, or think you may be soon, is to learn about todays challenging job search landscape from the experts, by following them and listening. . . . Even if you do nothing else with Twitter. Many, many careers industry professionals tweet regularly and offer tips and resources on job search and career management. They know how the new world of job search works and share their considerable knowledge. They’re writing about personal/executive branding, career management, networking, recruiting, resume writing, interviewing, blogging, social media, Twitter,

Four Methods of Job Search

Four Methods of Job Search There are four methods of job search and I encourage job seekers to use all of thembut not dedicate an equal amount of time to each. When you are in search, looking for a job is your full-time job and you should plan to dedicate 35-40 hours per week in search or a percentage of that it you are searching while employed. Heres a quick rundown of the four methods of search.Job Boards While this is a method of search, the statistics around the percentage of job seekers who actually get their jobs off the boards is relatively lowabout 5-10%. When using the boards, job seekers need to be as efficient as possible. By using aggregate boards like Simply Hired and Indeed, job seekers can quickly cull a great deal of information on posted openings from various boards. Another strategy is to set up job alerts based on keywords and geographical preferences to streamline the amount of search time spent on the boards. Dedicate no more than 5 hours per week to this aspect of your search. Recruiter s About 10-20% of people in search find their jobs through recruiters. A recruiter can be a great ally during a search, but job seekers should keep in mind that recruiters are generally only going to be interested in their candidacy if their skill set matches a position in the recruiters current job requisition portfolio. In addition, recruiters can only expose you to the positions from the companies that are willing to pay a recruiter to manage the search process. When you partner with a recruiter, you only get to see a small percentage of the available jobs in the market. Spend no more than 5 hours per week working with recruiters.Cold Calling Approximately 10-20% of people in search find their jobs by cold calling on potential decision makers in companies. By creating a marketing letter that communicates your skills, accomplishments, and value-add, job seekers can attempt to forge relationships with key people in the companies they would like to work for. The goal of the letter is to build a relationship with people in companies   where no relationship existed before. If you can create and nurture a relationship before there is a need to fill a position, you are much more likely to be considered as a candidate when there is an opportunity because you are now part of the inner circle of contacts within the company. This method takes work and may not yield immediate results, but if these new relationships are nurtured over time, they can grow into opportunity with the company down the line. Spend up to 10 hours per week on this method of search.Networking Close to 70-80% of people in search get their jobs through networkingthe art of exchanging information continuously and graciously with members of your professional and social communities. People are more likely to share information with people they know and trust. So sharing information about job leads comes naturally in networking circles. Attempt to give more than you get and dont keep tabs on your goo dwill versus someone elses and eventually you will find that you can almost always find a connection for whatever you needwhether its a recommendation for a great restaurant, advice on a project, or a tip on a job lead. Yes, its a lot of work, but it is quite rewarding to help others and receive their help in return.

How to Help Write a Resume For a Job Seeker

How to Help Write a Resume For a Job SeekerBefore you start to help write a resume for a job seeker, there are some things that you should take into consideration. A resume is the first opportunity that a potential employer has to get to know you as a person. Not only will it help you land the job, but it can also help you land better jobs.When you're helping to write a resume for a job seeker, there are several things that you should take into consideration. One of the first things to consider is how you're going to communicate your qualifications and your experience. This is an important first impression for any employer. Employers want to see and be impressed by people who are excited about what they do and who want to help other people land their dream jobs.If you don't like communicating, you're probably going to learn very quickly that you can't survive in the workforce. So the best way to communicate your self is to use the information that you've already obtained. Remember th at a job seeker's resume is not just about the skills and education you possess. It's also about how you present those skills and how you communicate those skills to a potential employer.The way you're going to go about that depends on how well you know your information and how much you want to be your own person. If you're willing to consider yourself a business owner, then you'll be looking at job descriptions that use the words 'we'us.' Job seekers who want to be more independent need to understand that employers may be less interested in knowing how they know or how they came to know about a certain topic than they are in understanding how you can help solve the company's problems.When you're looking for a job, you'll find that some employers will hire you based on the way you come across. They may ask you about the things that you like to do. They may also want to know about your hobbies, your interests, and your experience that relate to the company. There are some opportuniti es where employers need to know the way you think about things and how you respond to different situations.To help yourself help you write a resume for a job seeker, it's important to keep that information at the forefront of your mind. Keep the advantages you have over your competition in mind when writing your resume. You'll want to highlight the areas where you're an asset to the company and the reasons why you would be a good choice to help them. Be sure to remember that this type of job position is one that involves extensive travel and requires the ability to interact with others.Take some time to really brainstorm what you can do to show why you're the best person for the job. It's easier to communicate what you have to offer and what you've accomplished to someone else if you can explain the reason behind it. The skills you show and the knowledge you have are all part of what makes you valuable and makes it easy for a potential employer to see that you've got the ability to help the company.Remember that you don't need to spend a great deal of time in order to be able to help write a resume for a job seeker. Just make sure that you're able to capture what the company needs to know about you, without talking down to the person and appearing to be too pushy. It's always best to let the person speak his or her mind because it shows respect for the person.