Changes

Back home in the UK after a stint abroad, and job hunting for the first time in years, this book is a rather timely addition to my shelves. Having spent the last year and a bit teaching English, I also like to think I know a little about grammar and general language use. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the author of this book, and while it's all very well advising readers that ''first impressions really do count'', this carries less weight than it should when you notice the dubious grammar in the first line of the introduction, and in virtually every chapter which follows.

The book is heavily focused towards CVs rather than covering letters (almost 200 pages of the former, 30-odd of the latter) and includes a dummy's guide to the common mistakes made and how to correct these. It talks about the order to put things in, what those things should even be, what's worth including and what should be skipped. However, even though it's quite a chunky book, a lot of the pages are quite light on original content, either because of all the white space (and there's a lot of this) or because of repetition or reference to previously mentioned topics. The author is clearly keen on lists, which again spread things out thanks to all the headings, sub headings and sub sub headings. An example is the nine steps to job hunting where step 5 (''Find a Job'') has 6 areas, many with further sub areas. You could sum up what she says in a few words with none of this fanfare, and still get the same message across. At times it seems like she's including words just for the sake of it. In the section on Achievements, she actually tells you what to do if you have achieved nothing: ''leave this section out altogether''. If you really need things spelling out to this degree, you might like to consider whether you're even ready to enter the world of work with no one to hold your hand.