To help you navigate the unique difficulties, dilemmas and demands that dyslexic job hunting entails. We’ve teamed up with Target Jobs to bring you this 5 part blog post. Read other posts in this series here.
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Dealing with application forms, CVs and covering letters
If you’ve had help understanding and choosing essay questions at university, you might struggle unpicking a job specification to find out what the employer’s looking for. Dr Elizabeth Bradley, careers adviser for disabled students and graduates at the University of Central Lancashire, advises,
‘Print the advert off. Use a coloured highlighter to identify the key words or phrases. Annotate these with examples of your experience and notes on how your evidence fulfils the requirements.’
You can then discuss this with your careers adviser before writing up your application.
Perfecting your pitch
Elizabeth continues, ‘You could also make a plan or map of all your evidence of skills, colour code the relevant sections and tick off the items on the job specification as you go to make sure you meet all the criteria.’
She also advocates having someone read through your application before you send it off, especially if dyslexia affects your spelling, grammar or ability to write in a coherent order.
‘Don’t rely on your word processing application’s spell-check as it may not pick up on the right words being used in the wrong place, such as ‘from’ and ‘form’, and watch out for abbreviations and non-conventional spellings,’ adds Elizabeth.
Make Your CV More Effective from Monster UK on Vimeo.
You may also want to take advantage of websites like Target Jobs or Monster. Where once you’ve uploaded a CV and created a profile, much of the information needed for an application can be drawn directly from your profile. Having an up-to-date and complete Linkedin profile can also be an effective way to cut down on some of the paper work. With the new Linkedin Job Search App you can use your Linkedin profile as your application and apply to many jobs with one click.
Elements of this post were originally published on the Target Jobs website
Read Part 3 HERE:
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