Ski Season tailored CV writing...

Who enjoys writing a CV?

Not me, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I've read way too many 'CV writing tips and tricks' websites and trawled through umpteen 'CV samples/templates' documents for my liking.

And yet I still find it hard! I had made a concerted effort to sit down and start (hopefully finish!) the CV which I intend on sending off to Ski Season employers. And as of last week, 4 hours work had left me with personal details strewn over a .doc file.

The trouble with writing a CV for such a narrow market as the ski season market, is that it can't be your generic 'Here-I-am-and-this-is-what-I've-done' type CV. When we went to Natives recruitment fair last October the one thing I took from the day was a) that I really wanted to work a ski season and b) that our CVs needed to be properly tailored to have ANY chance of being called back for an interview.

If I remember correctly 50,000 people apply for a couple of thousand European ski jobs. That's slim pickings for getting in! Which is why I feel there's so much pressure to write this CV to its best but also to tailor it to, not only the ski industry, but to specific employers themselves.

We finished our CVs today and have applied for 3 jobs each. It's difficult to appeal to many jobs. There is a whole industry right from chalet area managers and hotel managers (which we aren't really interested in) down to kitchen porters and chamber maids.

I personally have more of a luxury than Kerry in that I can apply to more job categories. Being an electrical engineer and having experience in building maintenance means I am well suited to a maintenance job within a chalet. That coupled with a clean (Or soon to be!) driving license and a C1 (Large Goods Vehicles) test looming within the next couple of months gives me good grounding for Driver/maintenance jobs.

I've mentioned before that we have a 5 day Chalet Cookery Course booked with Natives in August. This, we hope, will stand us in good stead for applying for chalet hosts and even chalet cooks. We've recently been cooking some meals from the brilliant 'Chalet Cookery Book' again by Natives. (I've just noticed they're giving away free downloadable copies! 06/06/2012)

I find it pretty hard writing appealing yet brief covering letter, tailored for each companies specific values and tastes. I'm conscious that recruiters may glance at a covering letter and CV over a cup of coffee and want to make them as concise as possible without dragging on and on.

I really hope we have have got it right. I'm sure our evenings will be absorbed with more applications and hopefully follow up phone calls with the potential for an interview.

So we are back on the hard work trail, but it will feel so awesome if/when we achieve gainful employment!