A. The Covering Letter

This should be quite brief with no more than three paragraphs over one A4 page. The opening paragraph should mention what you are applying for and why. Try not to repeat your resume. instead, mainly summarise key points relevant to the post. The second paragraph should state why you are particularly suitable, especially in acquiring customers and giving value for money, and using certain key words the advert might have mentioned, while the third contains what you hope to gain from the post and any special skills/expertise you would bring to it in return.

The letter should stress your experience, knowledge and expertise that would suit that job and enhance the company's service and reputation. Mention the desire to face that next challenge in your development which the new company appears to offer and the enthusiasm and drive you would be bringing. The letter should be more professional and emotional in tone, i:e stressing the kind of person you are, your personality, your objectives, reliability, resilience, successes etc, with certain key words like flexibility, adaptability and challenge strategically placed. Overall, the letter should give a brief flavour of you while the resume fills in the details. End very hopefully, thanking them for a positive response soon.

B. The Resume

No resume should be longer than two A4 pages, and at the most, three. banking is now a global activity so be prepared to address that aspect in your resume. You could arrange the details in the following order for clarity:

1. Education - all your college and university experiences, along with your qualifications, especially if you are an older candidate. Include your high school if you are younger.

2. Current Post - This should have a brief outline of your present job, its responsibilities and roles, and the main skills you employ within it, especially the ones relevant to banking.

3. Professional Experience - This is where you would list your other key and recent jobs, making sure you outline what you did. Use certain key buzzwords associated with the finance field, so that your specific skills in handling the potential tasks are plain to see, and in accepted banking jargon. Highlight the experiences which actually match the requirement of the advert rather than just speaking generally.

4. Additional Experience - This part is suitable for all the things you might have done in between jobs or as voluntary work, again emphasising the relevant knowledge and skills gained within them that would be useful to the new post. These would also help to fill any noticeable gaps and give a more rounded picture of you.

5. Computer Skills - Mention the computer awareness you have, the different kinds of applications you are adept in and your actual experience in this field. Computers are our future and you being comfortable with them shows your adaptability and flexibility. Confidence in technology has to be your keyword, especially when computers are now essential to the vast amount of banking data.

6. Languages - This is another crucial aspect in our global banking world. Any language could be useful to your role, especially the main ones like English, French, Spanish, Hindi, Punjabi, Japanese and Chinese. These kind of linguistic skills can often be priceless to potential and existing customers.

7. Honours and Awards - List these clearly with brief explanations of why you received them, specially the most recent. Honours which match the new job field should come first.

8. Recent Training - List all the courses and training you have had, especially the ones that are relevant to this new job. Even the occasional one day course in banking functions shows that you wish to keep up with the trends and not hang back in old ways and mindsets. That is also how you would be able to compete with younger people who might be at the cutting edge of their profession.

9. Six Key Words (Optional) - These are words you would use to describe yourself or other people have used constantly to describe you. These would be useful as a snapshot to tell the recruiter what kind of personality you have and could work in your favour, especially if those words are also in mind for their ideal candidate.

10. References - List two key referees that can be contacted as recommendation and support for you. One is usually a business leader, like your last boss, and one personal, or both could be from past experiences. If you are younger, one should be a principal of your college or headteacher.

On the whole, you have to stress your experience, accomplishments and the results you are capable of producing, where people are also concentrating on money. In effect, how you would improve the bottom line. That's all banking businesses are interested in. If employers think you will make things happen, while being sensitive and adaptable, you are halfway in. A fine balance in demonstrating experience, clear objectives and a love of the profession itself will get you even farther.

Employers often use salary requests to weed out the unsuitable job hunters from the candidate pool. If you put in too high a request, the employer naturally thinks you are too expensive for them. On the other hand, if your salary expectation is too low, the prospective employer might think that you don't value yourself and thus many not be a valuable employee for them.

There are three kinds of advice experts give on how to tackle the issue of mentioning salary expectations. These advices may seem contradictory, but each advice has sound logic. Read them carefully and decide what is suitable for your particular case.

Three strategies for replying to salary requests:

1. Ignore salary request
2. Get around the salary request
3. Meet salary request with a range

Some experts will tell you to ignore the salary request. Now, what are the repercussions? If you totally ignore the salary request, the employer might think that you overlooked it because you are unsure of what you deserve, you are careless in filling forms or you are desperate and want to negotiate about salary but would accept whatever you got. If the employer specifically mentions a salary request, they have reasons for doing so. Usually, the salary request is a method for making sure that the candidate knows her/his market value.

The second advice you'd get is “Don't think that employers are so easily fooled if you omit your salary expectations! They will wonder why you didn't mention it.” So, try to get around this dilemma by using phrases like “Each position in my career has brought fresh challenges. I've been promoted regularly with suitable benefit packages. I'd rather discuss this issue of salary and benefits face to face during the interview.”

The third advice from the experts is “Meet the salary request directly with a range.” One good way is to put a little more than the minimum you can accept as the lower figure on the range and the higher figure a reasonable notch higher. A typical example would be “Depending on the nature and scope of my responsibilities, I could negotiate for $35,000 - 45,000.”

Overall, if the job ad doesn't mention a salary request, it is better that you don't either. There is a possibility that you are screened out if you give the wrong salary expectation. You have better leverage in negotiating a better salary package during the interview process itself.

However, the law in many countries restricts what you can ask or cannot ask candidates at job interviews. Established practice and common decency also dictate how you should conduct a job interview. The purpose of these laws restricting some areas of inquiry is to prevent discrimination, so that every human being gets a fair chance of being recognized for true worth and contribution rather than on grounds of skin colour, ethnicity, gender or age etc.

Though the majority of interviewees are genuinely interested in getting the jobs they apply for, a small number of dishonest people purposely plan misusing the interview system by finding out what is illegal, going for interviews and then suing the company for discrimination when the interviewer has asked the wrong questions. Corporate HR interviewing policy usually learns to take account of these unfortunate malpractices after some expensive litigation.

Though they vary from country to country, some overall guidelines could be given. Some of these restricted areas of inquiry at job interviews are:

• Nationality
• Birthplace
• Ethnicity or race
• Religion
• Sexual orientation
• Marital status
• Health conditions and physical disabilities

The following list of questions gives only some very broad guidelines. You should always check with your company's HR department or with someone who really knows to see if your state or locality, or even your company, has additional restrictions on what you may not ask.

1. Where were you born?

   This question might seem like innocent small talk, but it could also be used to gather information about the candidate's national origin. You should ask whether a candidate is authorized to work in the country, but avoid asking about citizenship. But some jobs are restricted to nationals of that country so you need to ask that question with proof of such citizenship.

2. What is your native language?

   You can ask whether the person speaks a language required for carrying out the job. For example, if job responsibilities include supporting French-speaking customers, it's fair to ask whether the candidate speaks French fluently.
   
   Race or ethnicity is an irrelevant factor affecting the employee's capacity to do the job though there might be some exceptional cases relating to employment in roles that require involvement with particular ethnicities or nationalities. Many employers are aware that discrimination on the basis of race is unlawful so they try to go around by asking questions like “Is that a Jewish name? But enquiries into the ethnicity of candidates are illegal in many countries.

3. Are you a lesbian? Are you married?

   This question is off limits at job interviews as the information gained can be used as a basis for discrimination. Achieving the balance between work and private life is considered the individual's own affair and does not concern the employer.

4. Do you have children?

   This might sound like an innocent question in most setting, but in a job interview it is illegal. There are general prohibitions about discrimination over parental status, so avoid asking this question.

5. Do you plan to get pregnant?

   This information is insulting, private and also can be used as a basis for discrimination so it should never be asked.

6. How old are you?

   Age discrimination is illegal, and you should avoid asking this question. Usually people write their age on their CVs. It's equally ridiculous to ask a senior level applicant with decades of job experience “Are you sure you are over 18 years old?&rdquo

7. Do you observe Ramadan or Yom Kippur?

   You can't discriminate candidates on the basis of religion, so this question is illegal. If you're concerned about the candidate's availability during certain times of the year, you could ask whether he or she can work on holidays and weekends. But you cannot ask about the observance of particular religious holidays, as this question is discriminatory.

8. Do you have a disability or chronic illness?

   This information is illegal as a factor in recruitment, so the question is illegal. If the job requires some specific physical skills, such as installing cables in high places or standing for most of the day, you may ask whether the person could perform those tasks in those particular circumstances.

9. Are you in the National Guard or liable for conscription?

   It's illegal to discriminate against someone because he or she belongs to the National Guard or is liable to conscription.

10. Do you smoke or use alcohol?

    Almost all jobs forbid drinking being under the influence of alcohol while on the job but consuming alcohol on free time is a private affair. Smoking is also forbidden indoors in many countries. Though people can be fired for drinking or being under the influence of alcohol or other narcotics while on work, and spontaneous tests can be conducted at the workplace, asking about these can be problematic. So make sure what is allowed or not in your country or state.

Most of the articles on the Internet on the topic of what is legal or illegal in job interviews focus on the USA. As legislation and established practices differ in different countries, please make sure of local conditions before designing your own job interview questions.

My favorite example concerns a major company in which the chief negotiator on all employee/contractor matters happened to be the C.E.O's secretary. She had come into the company as a virtual typist, worked her way up, learning as she went. She had a sparkling personality and people skills beyond compare.

When the C.E.O. retired and was replaced by Mr. Youngblood, he was aghast that such an important aspect of a company would have been entrusted to no more than a secretary. (We can call her personal assistant, but her qualifications consisted of a High School Diploma and a few Certificates of participation in mini-courses). Mr. Youngblood hired a University Graduate with a whole heap of letters behind his name. Shortly after, the company was beset by strikes, difficulties with deliveries, even with having the garbage removed.

Where the secretary could say; "I know there's been some problem with your payment, George, but could you please just remove the garbage as a favor to me?" University Graduate could talk down to the trucker, make implied threats and speak in six syllable words, so the garbage remained.

The shareholders got fed up and I was dispatched to locate the source of the problem, which of course, was Mr. Youngblood's appointment of University Graduate. There was no way to "fix" the situation, firing the Graduate was removing the "bullet" from the septic wound, but the wound was still septic.

The only way to get the company back to where it had been before the arrival of Mr. Youngblood was to virtually start from scratch. The company had to downsize, renegotiate everything with the remaining workers, have new contracts with new contractors. It took over a year to get the company back to where it had been, another year for profit to reappear on the books.

All this simply because the person whom the previous C.E.O. used as a negotiator based on her people skills had been replaced by an On Paper Expert. On Paper Experts are often found in the I.T. department. Waving their Microsoft Certification they know as much as anyone who hits the "help" key. The real geniuses are those who taught themselves, often starting with electronics and extrapolating into computers as electronic machines, (as a person who fixes hair dryers can also fix coffee percolators). At the better businesses the local genius is often sent on mini-courses so that his or her lack of a degree or certification is buried under paper.

At the troubled ones, there are contracts with other firms who supply I.T. experts, meaning that one is paying twice for the same work. Whenever a consultant is called in for advice, I always suggest finding out who really does what and how, and then not interfering with systems that work.