university of sheffield cover letter

Preparing your CV and Covering Letter

Developing your CV

Add value to your CV by taking part in extra-curricular activities and other types of work experience e.g. summer placements, part time jobs and the SURE scheme which are advertised via Career Connect.

Global Engineering Challenge & Engineering You're Hired are great ways to evidence to employers that you have experience of working in multi-disciplinary teams to solve real life engineering problems, can work to tight deadlines and present information to your peers.

BEng/BSc students: You have only your first year of study to enhance your CV and develop your employability skills before you start applying for placements at the start of year 2. Make the most of this year and the summer vacation to gain some experience!

The Engineering Year in Industry Team can review your CV:

The summer before you will be applying, you will be invited to have your CV reviewed. Look out for the email and have a draft of your CV ready to be submitted for review.

During term time Make an appointment with the team to have your CV reviewed (appointments are in person in the Employability Hub in the Heartspace building)

Think about the words you use on your CV and make them impactful. Refer to this document for some suggestions!

Have a look at sample CV's but remember your CV should be original and reflect your skills and experiences.

If you are not sure about what skills you currently have then the new mySkills App can help you reflect on the skills you already have and help you think about what skills you might need to develop.

Covering Letters

Typically accompanies your CV

Opportunity to express why you wish to work for the particular company / particular role

Expand on and evidence your relevant skills / knowledge / experience requested by the company

Normally no longer than 1 side of A4

Always tailored to a particular role

Book an appointment with the Year in Industry team to get your covering letter reviewed

Refer to the resources on the Careers Service website for more advice

• Careers & Employability Service
• Graduates Hub

Writing a CV

Find out more about how to create an effective CV. Busy employers receive lots of CVs so yours may only have a few seconds to make the right impression.

First steps - how do I start?

A CV will usually include information about your education, work and extracurricular activities, plus any positions of responsibility. If you haven’t already got a CV, start by creating a document with information about yourself under each of these headings. You’ll need a bit of detail about these so write a short summary of your experiences and activities, including the skills you demonstrated and anything you achieved.

Make sure to meet the criteria

To write your CV, you need to be clear about the required skills and qualities for the job or course concerned. A general CV which isn’t targeted stands little chance of success, so you need to work out what the recruiter is looking for. You can usually find this in the job / course description. If this isn’t very detailed, or you’re sending your CV to ask about possible opportunities, read relevant careers profiles and similar job adverts to help. Then you need to match your CV to the requirements by:

• making sure your most relevant experiences appear early in the CV
• using keywords from the recruiter’s advert
• referring to the skills and qualities they require

A CV is divided into sections, typically including:

• Name at the top followed by contact details. Email and phone are usually enough. You can include a postal address but leave this out if you are submitting your CV to a jobs board or a recruitment agency. You can also include a link to your LinkedIn profile or personal website. Don’t include a photo of yourself for a UK CV
• Education - titles of your qualifications and any relevant degree content, eg key modules, projects and/or skills you've gained
• Work experience/Employment - include full/part-time, temporary and voluntary jobs. Summarise your duties, achievements and the skills involved
• Positions of responsibility, if any
• Additional skills (eg languages or relevant IT skills)
• Interests - brief descriptions to give an insight into your personality and involvement
• Referees - Normally two, a university tutor plus one other, ideally work related. Provide name, job title, along with university department or organisation name, email and phone number. You can usually just put 'References available on request' if you need to save space. Remember to get your referees’ permission.

Note, the sections don’t have to appear in this order or use exactly these headings. Create headings that match to key words or relevant experience.

Personal profile

A 'Personal profile’ or ‘Career Objective' statement is optional and most people do not need one. In some sectors it may be expected, so do some research into the industry or type of role that you are applying for. It can also be useful to include a statement if you are giving someone your CV without a covering letter or supporting application; for example at a recruitment event.

It’s hard to write a really good personal profile but if you do decide to have one, make it concise and to the point. Briefly cover who you are, what you have to offer (in terms of your most relevant skills and experience), and the type of job you are looking for.

Format and style

Your CV needs to create an excellent first impression through a professional format and layout through:

• A sensible length, normally two A4-sized pages maximum. Recruiters haven’t time to read more. If a job doesn’t require lots of qualifications or experience, a one-page CV may be fine
• A clear, common typeface, with good use of the space on the page - avoid dense, long sections of text and large empty spaces
• Consistent format for headings, spacing, and typeface throughout
• Dates and locations (town/city) for your education and work history
• Correct spelling, punctuation, grammar - mistakes mean your CV will probably be rejected

We don’t recommend using one of the many online CV templates. Another person’s format and structure won’t necessarily suit what you want to emphasise.

Written style

Aim for concise statements to make it easy to read quickly. You need to write with impact so go for short, simple sentences or bullet points. Instead of using "I" every time, start sentences or bullet points with verbs that match the skills the recruiter is looking for, eg "Organised...", "Liaised with...."

Use positive and active words, eg rather than “My duties included serving customers…” or “I had to serve customers…”, it’s better to say “I met customers’ needs by…”

Where possible, include what you achieved in your activities, eg how you contributed to your employer’s business or group project for example, or what you did that led to improvements or helped achieve the desired result. Alternatively, comment on what you learnt from your experience, eg about effective teamwork or how businesses operate.

If you are applying for work internationally, do some research into the expected format and content of a CV for that country. For example in the USA a CV (or resume) is usually only one side of A4. In China it can be up to three sides and in Greece up to five sides.

Personal details

Some countries require comprehensive personal details such as nationality, gender, marital status or date of birth. In others eg the UK and USA, anti-discrimination laws make this information unnecessary.

Photographs

Different countries have different guidelines for adding a photograph. In Europe and Asia, adding a photograph is often standard practice. Use a 'head and shoulders' professional-looking image.

Qualifications

You may wish to include the local equivalent to your qualifications on your CV, so that the recruiter can understand your level of education. In some cases you will be required to produce evidence of your qualifications at the point of application.

Once you’ve read our advice, we suggest completing the following tasks:

1. Attend one of our CV workshops or watch our recorded CV webinar. See our  events page  for more information. 2. Explore our top-rated online course  ‘How to succeed at applications’ 3. See our  sample CVs  to get an idea of how our advice can be put into practice 4. CVs are usually accompanied by a covering letter. Find out about  writing a successful covering letter

Experience all t he benefits and services that come from being a Sheffield graduate.

Academic / Research CV

You can use this interactive CV to find out more about the different sections. Hover over the CV and then click on the highlighted section to find tips on what content to include, and how to piece it together. Click again to close the information popup.

You can use this interactive CV to find out more about the different sections. Tap on the relevant section to find tips on what content to include, and how to piece it together. Tap again to close the information popup.

This example CV is tailored for an academic research post. It is typical for academic CVs to be longer than the typical two pages, but ideally most of your relevant experience should still fit within the first two pages. Try to avoid a CV that is more than three pages long if you can.

• Multidisciplinary knowledge exchange project in collaboration between the School of Biosciences, the Department of Chemistry and industrial partner BioPharma Ltd.
• Developed an innovative protocol for identifying, analysing and characterising therapeutic molecules derived from probiotics using cutting edge spectrometry and microbiological techniques.
• Collaborated closely with stakeholders, and led on discussion in key stakeholder seminars and meetings. Monitoring finances for the Biosciences portion of the budget.
• Learned about BioSensical's probiotic production process and the unique microbiological processes employed.
• Achieved a working protocol for detecting bacteria of interest for isolation for probiotic uses.
• Communicated my progress with BioSensical colleagues with monthly reports and meetings.
• Designed, implemented, and tested characteristics of isolated bacteria of interest for therapeutic purposes.
• Trained to isolate E. Coli in a Cat III laboratory using microbiology techniques. Maintained safe and sterile practises, including use of safety hoods and autoclaving.
• Isolated DNA from samples with subsequent processing using PCR, real-time qPCR and next generation sequencing.
• Investigated the interaction of macrophages with the respiratory Influenza A virus, measuring the effect of these infections on macrophage antimicrobial molecules and cell death.
• Awarded £300 after a competitive selection process to undertake a summer project that allowed me to expand on my 3rd year project.
• Gained experience in enzymology, bacteriology, and biochemistry through the experimental processes.
• Investigated the contribution of glycylglycine endopeptidase enzymes to the antimicrobial resistance in Staphylococcus aureus bacteria.
• Received the departmental GlaxoSmithKline prize for 'outstanding performance' in this project.
• Taught in 2 undergraduate modules at Level 1 in the School of Bioscience. Modules include Practical Molecular Biology and Introduction to Genetics.
• Supervised an undergraduate research project focusing on identifying characteristics of a probiotic of therapeutic interest. Held regular catch up meetings with the student and organised lab training sessions.
• Designed and implemented appropriate teaching methods as a seminar leader/co-leader, eg group discussions/presentation, Q&A session, poll, word cloud, Jamboard, Google Doc.
• Provided guidance and support to the students on course materials and necessary study skills/methods/techniques.
• Marked and provided feedback to the students' work based on published assessment criteria using VLE.
• Arranged/participated in regular teaching meetings with senior colleagues, and colleagues and administrators involved in the course.
• Demonstrated new practical techniques in line with the departmental safe operating procedures.
• Outlined the practical theory, including COSSH risks or hazards.
• Assisted students in the lab, answered questions and ensured that students worked safely.
• Assessed lab reports and provided timely feedback to students utilising marking crib sheets.
• "Probiotics - the good, the bad, and the ugly" | Public engagement talk presented at the Festival of the Mind organised by the University of Sheffield, x .
• "Your inner superpower to fight evil germs": included fun interactive activities designed to enhance learning of gut health among primary school aged children | Festival, Sheffield, x .
• Society Secretary - produced agendas and minutes, organised calendars and actions.
• Represented my department at a Faculty level, reporting student issues and finding solutions.
• Actively listened to students' concerns with an empathetic and non–judgemental approach. Carefully collated concerns and escalated these where appropriate.
• Organised and ran 'Pizza Talks', Faculty and Departmental Conferences to promote student skill development.
• Invited to review manuscripts for the Journal of Gut Health, International Journal of Gastrointestinal Microbiology and Journal of Microbiology.
• Undertaken on a voluntary basis whilst concurrently and flexibly alongside my research and teaching commitments.