UK Resume/Cover Letter Submission

[pdgessler]

Hello all,

Well this is quite a long shot, but I'd like to put my name out there for internships with a British company (three guesses as to which one ) I'm wondering if there are any customs in the UK that I don't know about. Basically I need to know what is included in a typical resume submission. I have a resume and cover letter already, but I'm wondering about reference pages, specific formatting, and the like.

Thanks in advance for the help,

Paul

[Bibs]

Have you got a visa/right to work in the UK?

[pdgessler]

Have you got a visa/right to work in the UK?

I don't have one yet; from what I've read you basically need a pending job offer in order to apply.

[Bibs]

Unless you're a Highly Skilled Migrant (the HSMP visa is the one you'll need) and work in a skills short area then it's very unlikely you'll get one as far as I understand.

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/workingintheuk/tier1/hsmp/

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/workingi...al/eligibility/

You do need a job offer, but you also need to be bringing skills and experience we're short of in this country. It used to be more lax but with unemployment rising it's hard to justify giving jobs to jonny foreigner nowadays.

[Kimbers]

You could talk to Gunter. He's applied, with a little help to the same company (if it's the one I think it is). He can give you the name and details of who to speak to there. However, Gunter is European, which means he gets free movement of labour, whereas you are an American. Whilst you may be from one of our colonies, this doesn't automatically allow you to work over here (as Bibs has said). I don't know if there's different rules for internship/study as I know 2 students over here at present from the USA and they said it was easy on a "Student Visa" or something along those lines.

(Those weren't the exact terms used).

[Advantage]

My CV

Deer Sur,

I waunt to apply for the secritary job I seen in the paper. I can type real kwik wit one finggar and do sum Acounting 2.

I think I am good on the fone and I am a pepole person. Pepole really seam to respond good to me.

Im lookin for a jobb as a secritary but it kant be 2 complikaited

My spelling is not 2 good but find that I awfin get a job Bcuz of my persinalety.

My salerery is open so we can discus wat you want to pay me and wat you think that I am wurth,

I can start imeditely. Thank you in advanse 4 yore anser.

Hopifuly I M Yore best aplicant so phar.

Sinseerly,

Becky

PS : I half includeded a pickture of me B low.

RE: Your CV

Dear Becky,

Start on Monday, we have spell check.

[pdgessler]

My CV

Deer Sur,

I waunt to apply for the secritary job I seen in the paper. I can type real kwik wit one finggar and do sum Acounting 2.

I think I am good on the fone and I am a pepole person. Pepole really seam to respond good to me.

Im lookin for a jobb as a secritary but it kant be 2 complikaited

My spelling is not 2 good but find that I awfin get a job Bcuz of my persinalety.

My salerery is open so we can discus wat you want to pay me and wat you think that I am wurth,

I can start imeditely. Thank you in advanse 4 yore anser.

Hopifuly I M Yore best aplicant so phar.

Sinseerly,

Becky

PS : I half includeded a pickture of me B low.

RE: Your CV

Dear Becky,

Start on Monday, we have spell check.

The sad part about this post is that when I was assistant manager at a bike shop in Neenah I had to sit down and read a job app/cover letter just like this. The applicant spelled 'bike' incorrectly four different times on the app and failed to answer several simple cash register math questions we had placed on the app. The applicant also neglected to fill in half of the reference info and even forgot personal information. We used to see apps like this all the time, but this person actually called to follow up and stopped in several times. It was difficult to get the message across; maybe I should have had faith in the ability of spell check!

In response to the HSMP comments above, I could possibly use a student visa if the internship is arranged as a sort of co-op. Not sure if you use the same terminology across the pond, but a co-op is essentially a continuation of higher education provided by a corporation itself, rather than the educational institution. If all else fails, Lotus Engineering does have offices in Detroit, Germany, China, and Malaysia. Of course this all hinges on an actual job offer. Which brings me back to the original question: Is there anything specific that I should include in my submission other than cover letter and resume? Is it customary to provide a reference page or portfolio? I want to have everything together on the first try because Lotus, as a smaller corporation, will be tried in future with the economic situation as it stands. It will be difficult (if not impossible) to convince Lotus to make an investment they had not already been considering.

[Laura]

Whilst you may be from one of our colonies

You're gonna be in trouble for that one, you know back in 1775 there was this little fight......

[esprit350]

yep most people seem to forget that the yanks pulled us out of the s**t twice 1914-1918 and again in 1939-1945

[Kimbers]

PFAH! If we're talking about that then we pulled the French royally out of the poo at the same times. Do we ever get any thanks!!

And we did America a favour back then. Sort of a " Come on in and join the jolly old party dear boy!."

And of course we allowed them to think they beat us, back in the war of independance, when we were always going to pull out anyway, but doing it that way made them more confident and feel better about themselves!

Nice bunch of people aren't we!!

DISCLAIMER: None of the above is true and was written for comedic effect.

[Simon350S]

Surely you just need to turn up in this country giving no notice whatsoever??

Then you'll be entitled to a house, health services, a UK drivers licence, a whole host of other allowances and on top of that you can get a job as a taxi driver. Don't bother telling anyone, you can use someone elses ID card and give some cash lifts home to the drunken girls after they've been out clubbing, who knows what that may lead too?

It'd be much easier that way rather than do it officially and I'm sure you'd much better off!!

[Bibs]

Paul - The more information you can place to support your application the better. Hiring someone on an internship from abroad is a huge risk with little benefit to the company as they can generally recruit more locally for someone with experience and as you noted, the whole thing is a non-starter if they have no interest in recruiting right now and to be fair the car industry isn't on fire at present.

Being employed by Lotus USA and seconded could work, I understand they are under the same umbrella of Group Lotus but there are time limits on this type of work placement. With regards to continuing education at a place of employment, I believe we do that as a 'sandwich' year in the UK where rather than completing your degree in year 3 you'll spend that in industry and return for a 4th year to finish your education. I'm no expert on student visas though, I don't really get involved with them in my line of work.

I wish I could be more positive but I've worked in recruitment for the last 8 years and I've never placed an American in a UK company despite trying a few times. The visa situation is tightening up more and more of late.

[pdgessler]

Bibs - I know exactly what you mean with the recruitment situation, especially with the auto industry (just take a look in America's new lately :/) Being only in my Freshman year of college, I am very fortunate to have an internship in the bag for this summer already. It is not ideal though. I hope to work for an automotive company since that is where my interest lies. The economic situation complicates things further, and not many companies (especially not smaller companies like Lotus) are actively recruiting interns. I noticed on Lotus' site that they have even closed the training program for college graduates. Working for Lotus, however, is something that I would really like to do. I just want to give it a try, and who knows? Maybe I do have a very slim chance of getting an in there, but I will certainly not work for Lotus if I don't even try.

[Bibs]

Good on you mate, follow your dreams.

If you wish to run your CV and cover letter etc by me I'd happily review them for you.

[pdgessler]

Thanks for the offer Bibs, I might have to take you up on that after I get everything finalized.

[Autocross7]

Well, as a Southerner, from the Conferderate states, I have always though of England as an ally!

Cameron

[Paul C]

My knowledge of American history is like this:

There was a civil war. I have no idea how it started, what the sides represeted or who won and how,

There was a declartion of independance from us i think, not sure if we were on the sides of the losers

or not. In fact i'm not sure why we went there, how it got started, who colonised what, who killed who,

and what the world can thank them for now...

But come live here Paul, it's ace!!!

very best of luck with it all.

[Iconic Ride]

The way it went down was Robert E. Lee took a clandestine trip to Germany to ask Hitler to beat up on the Brits, as they were serving some really bad tea to George Washington's troops, so he in turn asked General Custer to serve some overripe turkey to the Sioux Indians, who then got so pissed that they beat up on his troops and kept right on going east to take on the Confederates, who in their mind had started the whole fiasco.

Of course this version of history was taught in a Texas elementary school in Abilene, so some of the facts are probably suspect.

Paul, I sincerely hope your university History classes didn't suffer from excessive colloquialism, and best of luck in your job search.

Cheers,

John

[pdgessler]

Thanks to all for the good wishes! I'm enjoying the extremely scholarly history discussions going on here!

[USAndretti42]

yep most people seem to forget that the yanks pulled us out of the s**t twice 1914-1918 and again in 1939-1945

To be more precise, it was 1916-1918 and 1942-1945 and many blame the second world war on the treaty the Americans pushed through after the first one.

I am glad, however, that they did decide to join in.

Another piece of history, the Boston Tea Party came about because the tax on tea was reduced, not increased, contrary to popular belief. They got peeved because it took the profit out of smuggling.

[peter_england99]

And the tea tax and taxation in general was lower in the states than in the United Kingdom.

[DanR]

Didn't Wilson offer very reasonable terms for WW1 which prompted the Germans to stop fighting.

Then after the fighting stopped the Brits and especially the French reneged, pushing through the oppressive reparations and wanted to punish Germany.

[pdgessler]

Well, the deed is done!! Got everything organized this morning and headed over to the post office. I'll be hoping for the best!

Thanks again to Bibs for reviewing my CV.