FAO: People who read CVs/hire people
Comments
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Just found this topic.
I'm a Specialist Recruitment Consultant and to be honest a CV should be as long as it needs to be. Graduate/ Uni leaver - I would say anymore than a page or two would be a bad move simply because what has somebody with little professional experience got to say. Of course when I'm dealing with much more experienced people their CV can be 3, 4, 5 pages long sometimes even a bit more (Directors/ Senior people with 20-25 years experience).
As for the Uni thing, someone previously said that a CV is really there to secure an interview - this guy is right, thats precisely what it is for. Of course you need to have good interview techniques, which in your case would primarily be sugar coated answers for those difficult questions as to why you ain't at Uni no more - me, I would say that having started Uni being interested in the subject you have over time found a passion in something else and feel that you want to make the move now rather than waste time & money going in the wrong direction. Shows a decisive & prgoressive nature. Something like that anyway.
If you still need help with it let me know, I'm sure we can sought you out.
Easy,
G"If you think straight enough, you can see round corners"0 -
Sorry to dig this topic up, but I found this whilst reading the news, and thought it might be helpful. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2950896.stm0
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Whoo! Cheers!
Hopefully come tuesday I'll have a computer capable of running an office app again, so I'll get back to writing it.
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finally!
Yeah, I know it's only just started. I'm working on it now.
Suggestions?
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Sounds very stupid and unimportant, but in your hobbies and interests you've missed out a few capitals when talking about yourself. 'i' rather than 'I' [:)]
Edit: Read through the rest now and it looks good, Avi. I like that it's very simple and still stylish. It's also quite clear. Good job
<font size="1">I promised myself I wouldn't ever.. but here we go..(MySpace)</font id="size1">
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<font size="1">Mah Pwetty
Deserves some loving at least :P</font id="size1"> 0 -
Whoop!
There's presumably more to add (at the very least, the end of the last sentence), though I've not worked out what yet.
Odd how I managed those mistakes, though. I'm usually a bit of a stickler for that kind of thing...
One bit I wasn't sure about is the 'what I learnt' column. Sounds a little overly 'self-assesment' crap, but it's the only way I can think of demonstrating gaining transferable skills.
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To be honest, I think that's quite nice. You sound quite neutral rather than saying "Omg I did so well and omg I'm great olol!". And it's always good for them to know what certain jobs have taught you to do. I think the 'How to get along with people' line might be a bit over the top, as I don't really think it's a proper skill - you kinda learn that all the way through life and it sounds like you were a total horrible person and didn't get along with anyone before that job. The rest sounds good though. And you also missed out on a capital in the sentence of 'Time management' in the last bit of what you learnt.
<font size="1">I promised myself I wouldn't ever.. but here we go..(MySpace)</font id="size1">
<font size="1">Wondering who I am, what I'm doing here and whether or not I ride a bike? Read Novs answers to all the FAQ here!</font id="size1">
<font size="1">Mah Pwetty Deserves some loving at least :P</font id="size1"> 0 -
Needs a capital M for Maths in GCSEs section.
"accross" is the wrong spelling of across.0 -
It's got more to it now
http://lordandmaker.co.uk/stuff/cv.pdf
I just sound like an arrogant cu[url][/url]nt for most of it, though I suppose that's mostly what a CV should sound like...
Any more suggestions?
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Hi
Firstly, it took me ages to get my first IT interview so if at first you dont succeed keep persevering. However since then I have had quite a few different jobs in the industry and have written loads of CVs.
To answer your original questions:
1. I would always make a 2 page CV. its what employers expect.
2. Thats a tricky one and someone has already given a better answer that i ever could.
Now to add my own unasked for advice...
If I were you I would really re-structure your CV.
The most important parts of a CV are the top thirds of each page.
Your first page, the most important of the 2 pages, contains a block of text and when you scan over it quickly nothing stands out. No skills, no qualifications, none of your qualities that you have listed.
Use bulleted lists to make keywords or statements easy to identify.
Put your IT experience up there at the top of the job list, add the irrelevant work experience lower down.
Personally I wouldnt put my online "Tag" in my CV. Companies want people who will get on with their existing staff, including your tag, in my opinion, makes you look like a bit of a nerd and thats not good.
Your TA career looks pretty short, it might make you look like you dont stick with anything, especially combined with ditching your degree. Maybe you should say why that is or remove it all together, depending on how important you think it is.
Personally I wouldn't call Unix, *nix and Ubuntu, *buntu, it makes you look like a MS hater which is silly because 99%* of the world is using MS for everything.
*I made this statistic up.
Putting your postal address at the top is pointless, add it to your covering letter (always add a covering letter if your applying directly to a company rather than an agency), leave more space at the top of the page for relevant info.
This is dangerous advice but make your CV stand out from the crowd A LITTLE BIT. Dont go mad, dont add daft colours, just make it slightly different in a professional way.
You should also taylor your CV to each job, if an add asks for MySQL then put that at the top of your list of skills, if another asks for BASH then add that to the top of your list.
Also, recruitment consultancies will probably want a MS Word version of it because they hack it about before they send it out so an employer cant get to you directly and cut them out.
Try getting a qualification in something relevant. My breakthrough came after I did a course in VB, one employer needed someone who had, among other things, VB skills.
Once youre happy with your CV stick it on Monster and make it public. I got hammered by agencies when i was on Monster. They are a pain in the arse but really work hard to get you a job and take a lot of the hastle away.
Happy job hunting. It can get really boring and frustrating but stick with it, im sure youll get there in the end.
Thats enough from me, feel free to ignore anything and everything if you like.
Spud
www.grandmas-attic.co.uk0 -
I've just uploaded a new version of this. Larger text size, since 8pt is too small, apparently.
I'm working on the less paragraphs and more bullets thing, but it's really rather difficult.
Yeah, I'm anticipating a wait.Crinion wrote:Hi
Firstly, it took me ages to get my first IT interview so if at first you dont succeed keep persevering. However since then I have had quite a few different jobs in the industry and have written loads of CVs.
I'm trying to work out a bulleted list format that means it doesn't take up any more space.If I were you I would really re-structure your CV.
The most important parts of a CV are the top thirds of each page.
Your first page, the most important of the 2 pages, contains a block of text and when you scan over it quickly nothing stands out. No skills, no qualifications, none of your qualities that you have listed.
Use bulleted lists to make keywords or statements easy to identify.
I wondered that. But my computer-based stuff is very spare-time orientated. Thought past employment might make me look more employable?Put your IT experience up there at the top of the job list, add the irrelevant work experience lower down.
Yeah, that's come out of it.Personally I wouldnt put my online "Tag" in my CV. Companies want people who will get on with their existing staff, including your tag, in my opinion, makes you look like a bit of a nerd and thats not good.
That too.Your TA career looks pretty short, it might make you look like you dont stick with anything, especially combined with ditching your degree. Maybe you should say why that is or remove it all together, depending on how important you think it is.
I was calling Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu and Fluxbuntu *buntu because they're all the same. But I've taken that out anyway - anyone who's interested knows what I mean by 'debian derived'Personally I wouldn't call Unix, *nix and Ubuntu, *buntu, it makes you look like a MS hater which is silly because 99%* of the world is using MS for everything.
Gonna be agencying mostly. Not checked what they want, but it is only one line...Putting your postal address at the top is pointless, add it to your covering letter (always add a covering letter if your applying directly to a company rather than an agency), leave more space at the top of the page for relevant info.
Yeah, I want to do that. Just can't work out how.This is dangerous advice but make your CV stand out from the crowd A LITTLE BIT. Dont go mad, dont add daft colours, just make it slightly different in a professional way.
Yeah, this is done in Open Office so i can export it as .doc.Also, recruitment consultancies will probably want a MS Word version of it because they hack it about before they send it out so an employer cant get to you directly and cut them out.
I've looked into that, but all the relevant courses seem to be £1200+...Try getting a qualification in something relevant. My breakthrough came after I did a course in VB, one employer needed someone who had, among other things, VB skills.
Yeah, Monster's where this is going.Once youre happy with your CV stick it on Monster and make it public. I got hammered by agencies when i was on Monster. They are a pain in the arse but really work hard to get you a job and take a lot of the hastle away.0
