I have just gotten back to the flat after being at WINZ for the employment seminar – week two.

Surprisingly, I’m actually really enjoying them.

The case manager is a lot of fun. She cracks jokes and says it like it is. They are really starting to help me in seeing what things I have been doing wrong. Not that I have been doing everything wrong and not that everything is wrong, there are just better ways of doing them.

Today we were covering CVs and cover letters.

At uni, we were educated a bit on how our CVs should look and what to do in trying to get a job, but WINZ is in the business of finding people jobs and helping them get into the workforce.

I feel that these seminars would be beneficial for EVERYONE, whether they get recruited straight out of uni or enter the workforce out of high school into apprentice type jobs.

The seminars cover things that you just don’t pick up in high school or that one hour lecture on how to promote yourself and your CV. There should be consideration for implementing a compulsory six week course for every school leaver, which would provide NCEA credits – more worth wile that picking up trash for credits. (But I may cover this at a later time on a different blog, just an idea.)

Some of you might say you can pick up this type of thing on the internet, but it’s not the same. There are a lot of inconsistencies on the net – one site can tell you something completely different to the next.

THE INTERNET IS NOT ALL KNOWING.

My CV and cover letters are fairly in-line with what the case manager was saying today, but I can tweak a few things. Things that may actually be costing me interviews.

And in today’s tough market of finding a job in journalism, I need to do everything that I can to get that interview.

Yesterday I did have an interview. They told me they had more than 70 applicants for the job. Although the interview was more of a “meet and greet”, it shows they are interested in me, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I get into the second round of interviews.

I’m actually excited for next week’s seminar, it’s on interviewing. I’ve been trying to work on my interviewing skills and this will be a huge help.

Today, I am going to do some job applications, there are always more to do. Tomorrow I have an appointment with the employment seminar case manager who is going to help me with a specific application, because it is my dream job that has come up. I am going to everything I can to get an interview for that job!