Use DofE to make your CV and Personal Statement shine
DofE is not just a fun way to experience the outdoors, strengthen friendships and improve your fitness: if included wisely, it can be an excellent addition to your UCAS Personal Statement, CV, and even future interviews for jobs, colleges and universities. In this article I’ll go through the top 5 transferable skills you learn on DofE, and explain how to leverage these skills to massively elevate you above other candidates for places in education and employment.
The key is to focus on what you have learnt from the qualification, and not the qualification itself. DofE is a development factory for transferable skills, abilities or expertise which may be used in a variety of roles.
Top 5 transferable skills you learn on DofE
1. Perseverance
Perseverance is to keep on going even when faced with adversity. This quality is at the forefront of the skillset needed for a successful DofE expedition, because in order to keep on walking even when cold, tired, wet, bored and full of blisters, you need perseverance.
Perseverance is an extremely transferable skill, because the ability to channel that same strength and self-motivation you used halfway through an expedition during a tough university module or a challenging day at the office makes you a great candidate.
2. Teamwork
Teamwork means being able to work with a group effectively to achieve a common goal. This is an inherent part of the DofE process, as within your group you have to divide responsibilities and keep each other motivated in order to complete your expedition.
Effective communication is at the core of a great team. DofE forces you to learn to better explain your thoughts in a productive and understandable way, and to be openminded to take on board the viewpoints of others. Recruiters are looking for individuals who will work well in their team, and thus displaying your teamwork skills through communication, and backed up by DofE, significantly improves your credentials as a candidate.
3. Organisation and planning
Although fairly self-explanatory, the importance of good organisation should not be underestimated. Ensuring you complete all sections of your DofE on time shows that you can plan ahead, while executing the expedition successfully extensive organisation.
Whether it’s packing a single rucksack to equip you for a multi-day hike, or keeping up with your Physical activity log, DofE develops your ability to stay organised, multitask, and plan ahead to meet deadlines: three skills crucial to any job or degree.
4. Self-awareness
Self awareness is the ability to recognise your areas of strength, and — more importantly — your areas of weakness. DofE encourages self reflection and awareness through delegation of roles for the expedition, picking skills and sports that suit your strengths and interests, and choosing an expedition aim that suits you and your team.
Being aware of your strengths and open about your weaknesses makes you a likeable and memorable candidate for recruiters.
5. Problem solving
Problem solving is adapting to and overcoming challenges that arise when carrying out a task. It is a crucial part of DofE and a fundamental life skill. Whether it be creating space in your week for volunteering, or finding your way back on route after getting ridiculously lost, DofE creates a lot of problems to solve, and prepares you for a rapidly changing and often complicated world after school.
UCAS, CVs & interviews
DofE for your UCAS Personal Statement
As you may know, UCAS is the service that operates entrance to British universities. The most daunting part of a UCAS application is the Personal Statement: 4000 characters to explain your suitability for higher education.
You’ll likely want to focus the first 80% of your personal statement on your specific course and why you want to study it. With exceptions for some specific courses, DofE comes into play for that last 20% which is more about you as a person, and what you would contribute to the wider university community. A few of examples of how do this would be:
“In completing my Gold DofE award I developed compassion and perseverance through my challenging but rewarding volunteering. I would love to continue this dedication of time to social justice throughout university, participating in fundraisers and outreach programs.”
“Through completion of my Bronze and Silver DofE awards I have gained a passion for the outdoors that I would bring with me to university through engagement in expedition societies and conservation projects.”
“My Gold DofE allowed me to develop my teamwork skills by forcing my team and I to convey our thoughts as effectively as possible in order to achieve a common goal with maximum efficacy.”
“As part of my completion of Silver DofE, I took up yoga and have become captivated by the focus, balance and strength the sport promotes. I’m excited to join the university yoga society, as will as bring my improved concentration and dedication to my degree.”
This is a screenshot from my actual Personal Statement on UCAS. I was selected as Team Leader, but even if you weren’t, you still will have developed these same transferable skills that employees and interviewers value so much.
DofE for your CV
There is no one way to write a CV, but countless employers have spoken about how a CV must be memorable and display your positive traits beyond numbers and qualifications. Therefore, it is always a good idea to include more than just your work experience and education, usually in the form of an Interests section.
Write about your DofE experience but keep it brief — which award(s) did you complete and what skills did you develop? Where did you volunteer and what skill did you learn? Also, if you don’t have much hand-on work experience, including your DofE volunteering under this section is a great idea — the skills developed through volunteering and the commitment a long period of volunteering displays is very attractive to employers.
This is a screenshot from my CV, where I clearly state the awards I completed and some of the core skills I developed. If possible, and something personal (such as where I mention “unseasonably cold weather”) to make it feel more ‘real’.
DofE for interviews
For interviews my first tip comes back to the five transferable skills listed above that all employers and universities will be looking for. When asked classic interview questions (examples below) reference those skills and use DofE as evidence to back up your claim. For the most thorough preparation, come up with model answers for each of the questions below that you can then replicate if (and when) you are asked them.
Questions to reference transferrable skills and use DofE as the evidence:
What are your strengths?
How will you fit into this new environment?
What are your weaknesses and how are you trying to improve yourself?
How do you cope with challenging situations?
The second tip is to leverage DofE as the response to tricky questions you might not have an answer to when put on the spot. Interviewers will often ask deep or broad questions to try and learn more about you by catching you off guard. Experiences that you have had on DofE are a great go-to for these types of questions.
Questions to draw on experiences you have had through DofE:
What is your greatest achievement?
Tell me about a time you made a mistake
Give me an example of a time you overcame a challenge
Does it matter if you have only done Bronze?
This isn’t an easy question to answer but is frequently asked. The higher the level of DofE you complete, the more credible your evidence for skill development is, and the more impressive your commitment to your, volunteering, skill and physical are — read my post, Is DofE worth it?.
Completing only Bronze isn’t a bad thing, just less of a good one. From April 2019 to March 2020, 112,500 people completed Bronze DofE, whilst only 12,500 completed Gold. As such, the higher the level of DofE you complete, the unique and memorable of a candidate you are.