It is also a good idea to keep separate notes about particular tasks, events or special responsibilities that you have had during your working life. At one time, perhaps, you may have had to lead a team of people on a special project. At another time, you may have had to take on extra responsibilities when your boss was absent through illness or during a period of company reorganization. Perhaps there have been times when you needed to take hard decisions or deal with particularly difficult situations. Note down too those times when you feel you achieved particular success. You wouldn't want to write all this down to send to an employer, or course, but many interviewers like to ask about previous experience so, by reading through your notes before the interview, you will be able to draw on examples which you can use to explain that you have the necessary background and experience for this job.
Be prepared also to explain why you left particular organizations. There may be one or two jobs which you didn't like, but interviewers prefer to hear positive statements so try to think of a couple of good points about each job.
Take a good look at your employment history and try to predict concerns and questions which it might prompt from an interviewer.
- Have you had lots of jobs for relatively short periods?
- Was there a positive reason for this?
- Has your work been largely within the same field, or have you had lots of different jobs?
- Is there a common theme to the work you have done?
- Is your experience limited to working within one organization or have you simply never settled anywhere for long?
- Are there any gaps in your employment history?
Equal opportunities
This is a term which implies that all people should be treated equally and fairly. When it comes to getting a job an equal opportunity employer will make efforts to ensure that he appoints the best person he can find irrespective of ethnic background, religious belief, gender or disability. Many employers go to great lengths to try to ensure that their appointment procedures are fair to all applicants so their application forms frequently ask for details of candidates' backgrounds. By keeping a careful check on the applications received and the people they appoint, employers are able to ensure that no particular type of person is favored over another.
Often, organizations use person specifications to ensure that no candidate is excluded from consideration for a job without a sound and logical reason. Person specifications list the background, experience, skills and qualifications required of the successful candidate. People who meet these requirements should be considered for the job irrespective of who they are. Increasingly, age is being seen as an equal opportunity issue too.
People support equal opportunities in employment because they believe that it is right to do so. Why should anyone make assumptions about you simply on the strength of a little knowledge about gender, age or skin color? There is also a sound economic argument for supporting equal opportunities in the workplace. An employer needs the best staff he can possibly attract. He doesn't do himself any favors by ignoring applications on the grounds of irrational prejudice. An employer who decides that he will not consider a woman for a post in his organization has effectively chosen to ignore half of the potential candidates. With few exceptions, where gender may be a genuine occupational qualification (GOQ), he cannot possibly be sure that the most appropriate person for the job will be found in the remaining half of the population which he is prepared to consider.
Equal opportunities are an umbrella term for a number of Acts of Parliament. There is no single equal opportunity law and there is nothing in the law which states that any organization has to be an equal opportunity employer. All companies, however, must as a minimum fulfill the requirements of a number of laws which make employment discrimination against certain groups illegal.
The Equal Pay Act 1970 (amended in 1983) stipulates that an employee is entitled to equal pay (and other contractual terms and conditions) with an employee of the opposite sex if they are doing work which is the same or broadly similar, or if the work they do has been rated as equivalent by job evaluation or in terms of the demands made on the worker.
The Sex Discrimination Acts of 1975 and 1986 make it unlawful to discriminate:
- in the arrangements made for deciding who is offered a job;
- in the terms on which the job is offered;
- in deciding who is offered the job;
- in making opportunities available for promotion, transfer or training;
- in the benefits, facilities or services granted to employees;
- in dismissals or other unfavorable treatment of employees.
The Disability Discrimination Act (1995) makes it unlawful for employers with 20 or more employees to discriminate against current or prospective employees.
The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (1974) provides that anyone who has been convicted of a criminal offence and is not convicted of a further indictable offence during a specified period becomes a 'rehabilitated person' and the conviction becomes 'spent'. So, in most cases, the offender doesn't have to declare when applying for a job (see Declaring Convictions).
The Equal Opportunities Commission is concerned mainly with ensuring equality of opportunity in employment, education and training for men and women. The address is: Overseas House, Quay Street, Manchester M3 3HN; 0161-833 9244
The Commission for Racial Equality has offices in London, Leicester, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Edinburgh. The headquarters address is: Elliot House, 10-12 Allington Street, London SW1E 5EH; 0171-828 7022
The National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (NACRO)'s address is: 169 Clapham Road, London SW9 OPU; 0171- 582 6500
The Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation's address is: 12 City Forum, 250 City Road, London EC IV 8AF; 0171-250 3222
