How to get a health and safety job – career advice

For jobseekers, getting an interview can  be tough but some are more likely to be invited along than others, as Stephen Asbury – who recently received and evaluated 142 applications for two vacancies his company advertised with SHP – explains.

As the managing director of a company that has gone through the hiring process on various occasions, it is my opinion that an excellent application – comprising a well-written accompanying letter and correctly prepared curriculum vitae – is the key to the door of the interview room. Anything less is unlikely to prove successful in these very competitive times. If you are not selected for interview the qualifications, experience, or talents you may have will not matter one jot.

Find the latest health and safety jobs on SHP4Jobs

Presenting yourself as a prime candidate for an interview is a key skill, which can be learned. When contemplating applying for a job, I strongly advise you to read and then re-read the recruitment advertisement. Trust me – the employer has agonised over every word therein, and they regard this text as the definitive description of the person they seek. In 2011, it is pretty easy to research the organisation with the vacancy. The Web takes you directly to the company, where you can read all about its origins, its employees, its clients, and its services.

Prior to writing your application letter and ‘bespoking’ your CV, you should have two lists in mind:
• What does this employer need? and
• What can I offer to meet those needs?

By closely matching these two lists in your mind, you’ll be ready to start typing.

Although the advertisement for two vacancies we placed in SHP and on shp4jobs.co.uk produced many excellent applications from qualified, experienced and interesting candidates, probably more than a third of the total made no reference whatsoever to the job we were recruiting for, or to how the applicant’s skills met those needed by our business. “Dear Sir, please find attached my CV” was unlikely to impress. We did look at some of the “attached CVs” and the same (frankly) lazy approach was repeated. “I am a health and safety manager” was a common thread, even though we were recruiting for tutors/consultants. None of these was interviewed. (See panel at the foot of this article for a summary of the factors that led us to invite candidates for interview, as well as those that caused us to reject the application.)

Application letter
The application letter should be one side of A4, and properly formatted with your and the company’s addresses, the date, and begin: “Dear X”. Use the person’s name if you know it, and spell it correctly. “Dear Sir/Madam” will be fine otherwise. Mention the job title, and where you saw it advertised.

Your letter is your chance to ‘speak’ directly to the recruiter. Write it in the first person – for example: “I am an experienced NEBOSH course tutor, and have delivered more than 20 full courses, with an average first-time pass rate of more than 90 per cent” would impress any employer seeking training-course leaders. All our applicants who said something like this were interviewed, as it was precisely what we were looking for.

The final paragraph should outline your interest in the role and mention any dates on which you are not available for interview. All recruiters really want to meet and interview the candidates they’re interested in, and can usually work around your dates if you let them know.

When it comes to signing off your letter, if you have addressed it to a named person you should end with a “Yours sincerely”, while “Dear Sir” requires a “Yours faithfully”.

Some (including me) say that text messaging and Twitter have brought about a deterioration in the proper use of the English language and proper punctuation, but your letter of application should excel in both regards. Spell-check it before you finish, and then have someone else proofread it.

Course of life
Your curriculum vitae should be a chronological explanation of your study and your career, with a personal statement, and (of course) all of your contact details. We had one applicant who had, unbelievably, mis-spelled his own e-mail address, and several who did not include their contact telephone numbers.

The following list comprises the essential CV ingredients:
• Name, followed by your correct post-nominal letters (if any);
• Address, telephone numbers, e-mail address – so the recruiter can get hold of you when necessary;
• A personal statement – summarise yourself in your own words, in six sentences. Write this ‘third person’, e.g. “Stephen Asbury is a chartered fellow of IOSH and a chartered environmentalist…”;
• Employment history – list your jobs in chronological order, starting with the most recent. Give the name of your employer, your job title, and your pertinent successes and responsibilities in each role;
• Qualifications – list these in order of importance to the role for which you are applying. Indicate where you achieved them, as well as the year of achievement (in brackets);
• Expertise/publications – describe your professional development, specialist skills, and, if you have had anything published, say so here;
• References – indicate that ‘References are available upon request’. When the recruiter wants them, they will ask. Long lists of names take too much space.
It is important that your CV ‘looks right’. This includes selecting a clear, professional font and text size, and good use of white space. No one is likely to read a 10-page CV, so keep it to two, maximum three, sides. The best CV we received was on heavyweight, off-white paper, with light shading of boxes containing the sub-headings. The candidate was absolutely shortlisted for interview. (But white A4 is probably fine!)

If you want to improve the look of your CV, there are some good examples available free on the Web,1 or, if you would like a book filled with good ideas, the best – in my opinion – is by Corinne Mills,2 which sells for under a tenner.

Climbing the ladder
If you have joined IOSH, you are connected to an organisation committed to ensuring the continuing professional development (CPD) of its members. IOSH has five main categories of membership, which provide a ladder for you to contemplate climbing throughout your career, as well as keeping up to date with CPD on your current rung.

When considering a career move, you might well think about moving up a rung, also. To look the most attractive to employers and really stand out from the rest you should, if you are not there already, consider stepping up to a category of chartered membership (CMIOSH or CFIOSH). For affiliate and technician members, this means selecting an approved qualification – a NEBOSH diploma, a degree in OSH, or an NVQ. Each has its merits, its up and downsides. But do decide, and do press on with your professional development.

For graduates, it means completing your Initial Professional Development (IPD), either the open-book exam if you originally took an NVQ, or a Skills Development Portfolio, if you originally took a diploma, or degree.
IOSH can provide guidance on all of these steps, and a call to the membership department is a good idea if you want more information. Trust me – employers really value candidates who are professionally qualified.

Conclusion
No one ever gets appointed purely based on a letter and a CV, but you should see these elements as essential steps between application and appointment. The better the overall quality of your application for the job, the greater the likelihood of you securing an interview – it’s as simple as that.

Should you be fortunate enough to be selected for interview, the focus changes from what you said on the paper to how you look, how you listen and how you respond to the interviewers’ questions; will you live up to your CV? In a future article, I’ll share with you the critical success factors involved in making the most of that 45-75 minute interaction with your (possible) future employer. But you can’t worry about that until you are shortlisted for an interview.

References
1  http://career-advice.monster.co.uk/cvs-applications/free-cv-templates/ jobs.aspx?HPS=4_5C3CVTemplate
2 Mills, C (2009): You’re hired: How to write a brilliant CV, ISBN-13: 978-1844551774, Trotman:London

Stephen Asbury is managing director of Corporate Risk Systems Limited

Panel

When applying for a job

DO:

1 Apply right away. I can’t speak for all employers, but I read each application when it arrives, and I’m sure my natural enthusiasm for the first few leads me to look more closely at the first one than number 142.
2 Research the company to which you are applying. The Internet makes this rather easier than it would have been 20 years ago. Reflect your research in your application. The single most eye-catching application we received said: “I knew of your company and was minded to apply – after reviewing your website, I was certain that this was a job I wanted” (the candidate was interviewed).
3 Clean up – or check the privacy settings – on your social networking sites. Employers really do look at these, and your drinking exploits, and ridiculous party photographs are unlikely to impress.
4 Use white paper and black typeface, and stick to just one font throughout.
5 Spell any contacts’ names correctly – errors here will be noticed before anything else.
6 Send a well-written application letter, and an accurate CV. “Please see attached CV” on its own is unlikely to impress.
7 Use spell-check, and then check it again. It’s easy to miss errors in your own writing, so ask a trusted friend to proofread it, too.
8 Sign your name legibly. My test is: “Can this be read?” I am not keen on applicants who cannot write their own name legibly, and I don’t interview scribblers.
9 Apply by the cut-off date. Employers generally have an interview and appointment schedule in mind, and the ‘apply by’ date is critical on this path. If you apply late, you may not even be considered (the one we received late was not interviewed).
10 Keep an eye on your e-mail once you have submitted your application. We invited three people to interview who (it seems) did not check their messages and so didn’t know of their invitation to interview. If you have changed your mind, or taken another job, have the courtesy to let us know. You never know where our paths may cross again in the future.

DON’T:

1 Send a letter of application longer than one side.
2 Send a CV of more than two sides (absolute maximum is three). We had one CV of 10 pages – only the first two pages were read in detail; frankly, the whole thing was boring.
3 Write “Curriculum Vitae” at the top of your CV. Employers know what it is, and it wastes a line that can be used for valuable content. Your name and qualification letters should be the first thing the reader sees.
4 Fold your application letter and CV into three to fit it into a ‘DL’ envelope. A bigger envelope keeps everything flat – it just looks better unfolded.
5 Forget to correctly weigh and stamp your letter. Employers do not want to have to visit the postal sorting office to pay the penalty fee for careless despatch.
6 Send the application by post if the employer wants it electronically (by e-mail), and don’t send it by
e-mail if the employer wants it by Royal Mail.
7 Say “this is a pay cut for me” in your application. If you’re not attracted, don’t apply. You’re sending a very mixed message. The pay cut may be so, but it adds nothing positive to your application. If you wish to discuss the salary, you need to get to/beyond the first interview.
8 Mis-quote your IOSH credentials – we had applicants from people who claimed to be MIOSH, RSP, GIOSH and AMIOSH. None of these represents a correct category of IOSH membership. And don’t be untruthful as regards your professional credentials. We had a lot of applicants who claimed to be a ‘member’ of IOSH, when their true grade was not so (we call this a ‘small m’ member.) Remember: all smart employers check with the membership records department at IOSH, which has always been happy to validate our shortlists.
9 Mis-title your institution – IOSH is an institution, not an institute.
10 Spell your own e-mail address incorrectly. Unbelievably, we had one applicant who did this. His CV said his e-mail address was [email protected]. We presumed that it was [email protected] and I bothered to check this with him – but I suspect many would not be as motivated as I.