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CEng Application Length

Former Community Member
Former Community Member

In the context of a CEng application, from the guidance notes on page 2, it states "The requirement is not to exceed a total of 12 pages for the whole application when printed."


When I went to the review section, the accountability diagram, copies of my certificates and other 'supporting document' evidence such as 'Assessment Summary' were not present in the application pdf when I clicked 'Download Application'. Are these items considered separate? I would have thought 'full application' included those documents too. I see a total of 5 pages in the downloaded document that seems to cover everything else (employment history etc).


Is the 12 page figure the number of pages that should be present when I click the 'Download Application' in the review section, or does it also include certificates, accountability diagram etc? Are the supporting documents sent separately?


Sorry if it's been asked before, but it also says "You should aim to provide roughly 3000 characters as it is unlikely that less will adequately demonstrate your relevant experience."


For most past employment entries I have 3000 or thereabouts. However for my current and primary role which demonstrates the most, I have currently 7000 which is over double the amount requested. Is this excessive to the extent that it would be marked down?

Parents
  • I get quite a few questions about the format of applications - although there seem to be fewer now that we have amalgamated the Responsibilities and Personal Achievements sections in CM that seemed to cause endless confusion on what went where.  A method that I recommend - and most of my candidates like - is to list the key responsibilities of the particular role at the start of the Responsibilities and Personal Achievement section (I think the latter might have been better in the plural - but I digress!) as bullets, but then to "tell the story" in prose, so very similar to your technique, Andy. 


    So far as the length of application is concerned, I completely support the 12-page limit, although this does get a bit corrupted at times by the amount of white space that the PDF compiler creates, and I tend to counsel applicants to take this into account if they need to.  Quite a few of my applicants come in one of two flavours - either a) They produce an application that barely makes 6 pages total (one recent application had an employment section that didn't even make one page!) or b) they have trouble getting under the 12-page limit.  Unlike you, Andy, I get quite a few applications that are desperately short.  Having coached quite a few applicants through requests for further evidence of UK&U/full evidence statements, etc., (none of whom were given advice by me originally, I hasten to add!!), the page/word limits on these are quite tough and I encourage all of my applicants to make as full an application as possible, to try to avoid these requests.  I tend to advise that an Employment section for someone with an exemplifying qualification and several years of experience should span at least 4 pages, to ensure that they are providing evidence of all competencies.  For the more mature candidates with a lot of experience, I normally recommend 5-6 pages - giving an application length of around 10-11 pages depending on training details, etc.. For those without an exemplifying qualification, I suggest that they also try to include some evidence of mathematical/engineering methodologies that equate to the exemplifying level, to demonstrate their UK&U, so I expect these applications to be somewhat longer.


    To those who have difficulties getting under the page limit, I have one piece of advice - remember that D competencies are aimed at demonstrating clear, concise communication!  This overlaps to something Roy said earlier.  There are few things more daunting to a reader than to see a whole page of text without a single paragraph break - I've had several of these recently and from my viewpoint, this does not give an impression of a clear communicator.
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  • I get quite a few questions about the format of applications - although there seem to be fewer now that we have amalgamated the Responsibilities and Personal Achievements sections in CM that seemed to cause endless confusion on what went where.  A method that I recommend - and most of my candidates like - is to list the key responsibilities of the particular role at the start of the Responsibilities and Personal Achievement section (I think the latter might have been better in the plural - but I digress!) as bullets, but then to "tell the story" in prose, so very similar to your technique, Andy. 


    So far as the length of application is concerned, I completely support the 12-page limit, although this does get a bit corrupted at times by the amount of white space that the PDF compiler creates, and I tend to counsel applicants to take this into account if they need to.  Quite a few of my applicants come in one of two flavours - either a) They produce an application that barely makes 6 pages total (one recent application had an employment section that didn't even make one page!) or b) they have trouble getting under the 12-page limit.  Unlike you, Andy, I get quite a few applications that are desperately short.  Having coached quite a few applicants through requests for further evidence of UK&U/full evidence statements, etc., (none of whom were given advice by me originally, I hasten to add!!), the page/word limits on these are quite tough and I encourage all of my applicants to make as full an application as possible, to try to avoid these requests.  I tend to advise that an Employment section for someone with an exemplifying qualification and several years of experience should span at least 4 pages, to ensure that they are providing evidence of all competencies.  For the more mature candidates with a lot of experience, I normally recommend 5-6 pages - giving an application length of around 10-11 pages depending on training details, etc.. For those without an exemplifying qualification, I suggest that they also try to include some evidence of mathematical/engineering methodologies that equate to the exemplifying level, to demonstrate their UK&U, so I expect these applications to be somewhat longer.


    To those who have difficulties getting under the page limit, I have one piece of advice - remember that D competencies are aimed at demonstrating clear, concise communication!  This overlaps to something Roy said earlier.  There are few things more daunting to a reader than to see a whole page of text without a single paragraph break - I've had several of these recently and from my viewpoint, this does not give an impression of a clear communicator.
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