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CAREERS GUIDE JOB HUNTING


a good job of it W


Roxane McMeeken asks people in the know how to break into the building services industry


hen applying for multiple jobs, candidates can make some alarming gaffes. Charmaine McKeown, head of human


It’s easy to see when a CV is quite generic and we immediately discount these


Steven Bentley


resources at engineering fi rm Max Fordham, has seen a few: ‘We receive job application letters where the candidate has forgotten to change the name of the addressee.’ This would be a fairly easy mistake to avoid


and suggests that it is certainly worth giving your next covering letter a fi nal check before pressing send. Here we look at what else you must do to land a job in building services, whether you’re going for your fi rst role or are in the early years of your career.


Getting an interview You can fi nd out about vacancies by scanning employers’ and recruitment agents’ websites, but it’s also worth networking – the real


and virtual kind. Mike McNally, sales and development director at Hays Construction, a leading recruitment expert, says: ‘Try to go to events, whether it’s a local CIBSE Young Engineers Network (YEN) workshop or your company’s own internal groups. This will bring you a network of people who have studied in the same area as you and will tell you about job opportunities.’ McNally recommends complementing this


with social media networking, such as CIBSE’s LinkedIn group or YEN’s Facebook group, or join Hays’ specialist building services network groups on LinkedIn. When you’re ready to send your CV to an employer, tailor it to the job. Steven Bentley, director at engineering consultancy Ramboll, says: ‘It’s easy to see when a CV is quite generic and we immediately discount these.’ McNally says: ‘Study the job specifi cation


and pull out two or three points on your CV that match them – you can even highlight the most relevant areas.’ Tailoring might mean taking experience that


seems not to be directly relevant and presenting it so it’s interesting for the employer. Bentley says: ‘We get a lot of graduates who’ve done manufacturing-based degrees and they’ll talk at length about designing aircraft. That’s not really what we do, so it suggests they’re not interested in the built environment.’ However, if you present your aircraft design experience as evidence of a general passion for the fundamentals of engineering, Bentley says he will take notice. Include a paragraph at the top of your CV summing yourself up. McNally says: ‘Think of


We receive job application letters where the candidate has forgotten to change the name of the addressee


Charmaine McKeown www.cibsejournal.com January 2013 CIBSE Journal 15


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