It's Graham Martin.

I'm the recruitment guy.

Yesterday, I was out shopping in Lenfield Town, which is where our office in Orchard is based.

I was looking at some clothing and I went into a really high-end, nice, smart men's clothing store just to see what the new range was for the autumn.

Very nice.

Anyway, whilst I was there, a young lad walked in about my son's age, let's say 20, 21 years of age and I saw him present himself to the owner of the business asking for a job.

Now actually, he didn't do a bad job at all.

But as soon as I'd finished looking and he walked out, I actually grabbed his attention and we had a conversation about how I think that he might be able to improve his chances.

So this is for anybody who's going to be going out there, applying for a job by knocking on the door and talking to a retailer or an owner of a business.

I think he works in many different areas of retail, or maybe in hospitality or restaurants or cafes, but this was specifically for the menswear sector.

So we'll talk about that and you'll get the idea from what I'm discussing.

So this chap, firstly, he looked the part.

This was a very high-end menswear clothing store.

And whilst he wasn't very old and probably didn't have a lot of money, he picked out the key pieces.

It made him look really smart, good haircut, he looked terrific.

And his presentation was, I would say, above average.

The fact that he was out there doing it was a really big deal in the first place.

But here's a chap who walked in and said, look, I'm looking for a job in retail and haven't got any jobs coming up.

And the owner said, well, maybe towards Christmas, I've got a load of people interested, give us your CV.

At which point, the young chap took out his CV and gave it to the employer.

But of course, out of the corner of my eye, as the recruitment guy, I could see that the CV wasn't nicely presented.

It was folded into four.

And of course, at that point, I thought the impression went slightly downhill.

So this is what we talked about when we actually stood outside the shop.

I don't do this on a regular basis, I assure you, but I didn't want to let this chap go without getting his support.

So the first thing I said to him was, when he made his presentation, he should explain why he wanted to work for that shop in particular.

And in particular, to present those brands, Paul Smith, Barber, gosh, I can't remember the others.

But you get the kind of idea, sort of mid to upper range, Boss, that kind of stuff.

So he should have said why he was particularly interested in selling those particular brands.

Now, he'd worked in menswear retail before, but he didn't mention to the chap where he'd worked for and what inspired him, what excited him, what were his own favourite brands.

The CV, and he showed me, he had a few copies left in his little plastic folder, were folded into four.

And they weren't very nicely put together.

Now, if anybody's watched my videos, you know that for me, the CV and the covering letter are crucial.

They're your calling card in this instance.

And on his CV, the opening paragraph, it was obvious that he'd been in retail, but he didn't say so.

He just said he was an enthusiastic, ambitious young man looking for a job in retail.

But he hadn't said that he'd got four years' experience in West End retail, selling certain brands.

So he should have done that.

The covering letter should have been specific to that company.

Now, to be fair, he was walking the streets, knocking on doors, but he was a local guy.

And he probably knew exactly which five stores he was going to go into that day, so he could address them specifically.

To have found the owners or the manager's name would have been ideal.

But even aside, he could have made it specific to that company, of course, that retail outlet.

And the CV should have been on white paper, of course.

But he should have left it with an envelope, a DL envelope, third A4 size, you know, this kind of size.

Like that.

Or even a double the size, which is A5.

And a light pastel-coloured envelope.

And it should have been on the front, CV and covering letter from, and the name of the telephone number.

So we had about a 10-minute chat.

And, you know, I'm sure people must have thought it was strange walking past me in the high street whilst I'm giving this guy some ad hoc on-the-spot coaching.

A lot of people, you know, I've been in Enfield for nearly 30 years, a lot of people know me, so maybe they're not so surprised.

But for you, if you're intending to start applying directly to retailers, just going out and doing it is more than half the battle.

Because I went in afterwards and asked the retailer how he'd got on.

And the retailer told me he thought that the fact that the guy had gone in and presented himself face-to-face, that was terrific.

He says he gets all sorts of emails every day, which clearly, he said, he hasn't got the time to read.

But he liked the fact he went in, he looked smart, and he made an impression from that.

But he also agreed with me that the CV was not quite up to spec.

And also he should have put it in a nicer folder rather than just giving it to him folded in four.

So that's it.

If you want to get back to me with any information, of course you know where I am.

It's Graeme Martin, helper, the recruitment guy.

Graeme Martin, the recruitment guy, saying goodbye.