Help with a job application....

[djinuk]

Im 26 and applying for an apprenticeship (late i know), my cv is looking great and ive also talked about being happy to fund training myself should it be required, however they have an application form with some very awkward questions.
The position is for an engineer at coors, Im looking to change my career away from construction.
Anybody able to offer guidance on what they most likely want to see from questions like this.
　
　
"Share with us your understanding of a successful team and provide an example of when you have participated in a team, detailing what your personal contribution was"
Im thinking about talking about when my old boss walked out and how i lead the team being the most senior, and putting the commercial interests of the buisness as priority.

"Please give details of any work experience you have. What did you learn about yourself and your career ambitions? What was your most significant achievement?"
???

"What attracts you to working in a manufacturing environment (whether as an operator or engineer) and what do you think you can bring to the apprenticeship"
Im planning to talk about my genuine interest in engineering, how stuff works, how its put together, and therefore my hobbies (building cars)

"Describe something you have done using IT that best demonstrates your interest and ability to work with computers"
I was going to talk about my back ground of web design, also using auto cad in my current job to scale drawings and convert into real life estimates of quantities.

"Summarise an action that you have successfully completed on your own and comment on what you have learnt about yourself from this?"
I was going to talk about my hobbies, maybe restoring my renault 5 from a rusty hunk of junk, Welding, fabricating, paint, engine rebuild. and then go on to say i found this natural , , easy , enjoyable

[Trevhib]

Q1 Suggestion: "When working as a <blah> at <blah> during <year>, my boss left the company suddenly. Being the most senior, it became necessary for me to take on management of the team for <period of time >. In order to prioritise the commercial interests of the company I realised this required the team to be productive, which meant ensuring team members were both happy and fully trained." Then you might provide an example of what you did to try and achieve that. Did you do anything that made it easier for the new incoming manager?

Q2 suggestion: This is an apprenticeship application so they wont be expecting applicants to have a lot of previous work experience but you have, so just give a brief overview of the best/most relevant jobs you've had. Then say something about what it is you want to achieve in your longer term career and say how you believe working in engineering can help you do that. That covers the first two parts. The third part of that question is really a separate question. You could even separate your answer to this from the previous sentences. What's the best thing you've accomplished in your construction work? Use something from your work that highlights something you were proud of, or was of good quality, involved initiative, or a higher level of difficulty/skill than your job at the time expected of you.

Q3. Looks like you're already ok with this one. You also have loads to draw on from a work experience perspective though, maybe you could pick one thing from the past that led you to deciding to want to change careers from construction and go down the engineering route? So an example of when you were doing something or saw something during your construction work that piqued your interest in engineering and made you realise it was something you really wanted to explore.

Note: Always talk in positive terms about your past, your previous employers and the work you've done.

Q4. Sounds good. Are you ok with the MS Office products? If you're pretty good with Excel, that will be useful to mention.

Q5. Sounds right. If you've talked about work-related stuff all the way until this point, using something more personal, outside of work, will be perfect at this point.

I think you'll breeze this mate. They may worry that you're too advanced in general terms to be starting an apprenticeship at this stage so you'll probably have to convince them that you're absolutely happy to begin at the beginning??

Best of luck with it anyway. Let us know how you get on.

[djinuk]

Thanks so much for the time writing that, gave me some good ideas, I know exactly what your saying about the 'too advanced' bit,. I began drafting up some answers yesterday, will keep you informed on how it goes, theres a few im planning to apply to, however the questions seem to follow the same basic route so im just going to try to get some good answers down and probably reuse a lot of it.
　
Share with us your understanding of a successful team and provide an example of when you have participated in a team, detailing what your personal contribution was"


A Successful Team is a team that has a common sense of purpose which unites all the team members and provides a context which they can understand the functioning of the team and how each of the individuals contributions play a part. A successful team has clear access to the organisations resources to support there ability to reach there goal and they use these resources in the most effective manner. They also build on key relationships between individual departments to allow for the best access to resources required for the team to fulfil its purpose. A good team plays upon the strengths of the individuals to help overcome any weaknesses others may have, they also monitor external factors and are able to quickly adjust the way they work to overcome changes or obstacles they may encounter Whilst working for *********** our current boss left and we were understaffed and struggling with the ever growing work load, being the longest standing member of our department I called a meeting and discussed how best to distribute the work load, I prioritised estimates that were secure and held definite sales after completion to avoid producing estimates that my be deemed not as good commercially for the company, I also split the type of workload in an effective manner ensuring those who were particularly strong/fast in that area were tasked with there strengths, I myself concentrated on producing estimates of quantities as this was my particular strength whilst the other 2 dealt with the email enquiries and calls entering the department. This at the time was the most effective way to combat the situation and we worked well and understood as a team our end goal.
What attracts you to working in a manufacturing environment (whether as an operator or engineer) and what do you think you can bring to the apprenticeship"

Understanding and discovering how mechanical products work has always been a huge interest of mine from a young age. As a child i spent years building with Mechano and Lego, as i grew up i began taking apart, building and repairing other items around the house including pcs, remote control cars and now full sized cars. My interest in science, particularly physics has developed throughout my life and i enjoy the challenger of using scientific and mathematical ideas to solve everyday problems. I believe my genuine interest and huge ambition will shine......********

[Trevhib]

Ace. Looks like you're all over this.

I know you haven't finalised your answers but thought I might just add a few more suggestions. That's all they are and I hope you don't mind me putting them forward bud

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A successful team is a team that has a common sense of purpose that unites all the team members and provides a context in which they can understand the team's function and the value of each other's contribution. A successful team has clear access to the organisation's resources to support their ability to reach their goal and they use those resources in the most effective manner. They also build on key relationships with other departments to allow for the best access to resources required for the team to fulfil its purpose. A good team plays upon the strengths of the individuals to help overcome any weaknesses others may have, they also monitor external factors and are able to quickly adjust the way they work to overcome changes or obstacles they may encounter.

Whilst working for *********** our existing boss left and we were understaffed and struggling with an ever-increasing work load. Being the longest standing member of our department, I called a meeting to discuss how best to distribute the work load. I prioritised estimates that were secure and held definite sales after completion to avoid producing estimates that may have been deemed less commercially rewarding for the company. I also split the work load to more effectively match tasks to individual's strengths. I personally concentrated on producing estimates of quantities, as this was my particular strength, whilst the other team members dealt with incoming email enquiries and calls. This at the time was the most effective way to combat the situation. We worked well and had a good understanding of our joint goals.

[tommy_boi]

my personal view since my manager went awol 8 month's ago.i still run the shift and have been offered the manager's job.

communication is my first call. i work with a lot of members that can't understand me,do the stronger speaking members help you communicate to them? does the least speaking member get support from there team members?
as a team we need to achieve deadlines /goal's

my team needs direct organisation every morning( i call a group hugg lol) to say what every one's doing this day.

cant work a computer excel etc.just my input.

[tommy_boi]

i have to liaise with other department's and other company's.i have to

[djinuk]

cheers trev, i do appreciate that, to be fair i usually fire my final stuff through my friend whos a publicist and he plays with gramma and irons out any daft mistakes. Very much appreciated on a posotive note next year i hope to be on here more and out and about with the r5 with less projects on the go !

[Trevhib]

No worries mate. Aye, spelling and grammar are not everybody's strong point. Always good to know someone with a keen eye for that kind of thing

Let us know how you get on.