Writing a CV - a guide ?

[dUnKle]

My cousin has asked for help in putting together a CV. Problem is I have never needed to write one before (although have read a few many years back in my first job)

He has not longe qualified as an electrician but as he did so the company he was working for closed down - so he went out and got himself a night job at a local supermarket whilst he seeks something more suited

Now aware times are tight but local paper has plenty of ads for jobs he could do but he wants to make his application look good, proffesional and stand out

Are there any tips or guides that will help him ?
Also what about a covering letter ?

On a similar note, he was thinking of sending out a few dozen letters to local companies "advertising" his skills - is this a good idea ? if so what should he say ?

Thanks for any help

[Iccz]

Clean & Concise facts (yes, don't fabricate your CV).

Avoid big paragraphs where possible.

Get across the important facts only.

Cater the CV to suit the position you're applying for.

Spacing.

Structure; something like

Personal Details (Name, Address, Contact Number, Email)

Profile (brief description of the person, strong points etc)

Key Skills/Expertise - possible list of achievements.

Education

Past Employment

References



I have to read through CV's when helping employment here.
How do we do it?

It's a 30 second interview.

Key questions in this 'interview'

Does said person has the skills required?
- the experience in using the skills?
Does said person understands the requirements?
Has said person has provided benefit to previous employers using those skills?

Try not to waste time writing your life story, it's not wanted

Use bulletpoints a lot, it makes it a lot easier to digest quickly

there are a lot of example CV's about on google, remember to read the CV through as an impartial person and think, would I be interested in this person from this CV?

Possibly print out some example CV's along side theirs and compare them...
See which gets and holds your attention best, that's what your aim is to do.

[smallclanger]

For christ's sake use a spell checker and make sure the grammar is correct. You wouldn't believe the mistakes I've seen in some CVs it is off putting straight away.

[dUnKle]

Originally Posted by Iccz

Clean & Concise facts (yes, don't fabricate your CV).

Avoid big paragraphs where possible.

Get across the important facts only.

Cater the CV to suit the position you're applying for.

Spacing.

Structure; something like

Personal Details (Name, Address, Contact Number, Email)

Profile (brief description of the person, strong points etc)

Key Skills/Expertise - possible list of achievements.

Education

Past Employment

References



I have to read through CV's when helping employment here.
How do we do it?

It's a 30 second interview.

Key questions in this 'interview'

Does said person has the skills required?
- the experience in using the skills?
Does said person understands the requirements?
Has said person has provided benefit to previous employers using those skills?

Try not to waste time writing your life story, it's not wanted

Use bulletpoints a lot, it makes it a lot easier to digest quickly

there are a lot of example CV's about on google, remember to read the CV through as an impartial person and think, would I be interested in this person from this CV?

Possibly print out some example CV's along side theirs and compare them...
See which gets and holds your attention best, that's what your aim is to do.

Would you prefer then just a one page CV as apposed to a 4 or 5 page document ? and then maybe have that with a covering letter ?

[Liquid101]

Good advice from Iccz.

However, I will add this.

If the employer supplies an application form, always complete it, including education and qualifications etc etc. Never assume that including your CV which also has the information will suffice.

When I shortlist, I'm always amazed that people leaves huge parts blank, or just put 'refer to CV' in the space. If you can't fill in a form properly, without taking shortcuts, what does it say about how you approach your work.

[Showoff]

Hi dUnKle,

You should be able to find examples of how to produce a good CV by searching on the web, there are a few standard things that must be included such as name, contact details, education and employment history etc, but the best piece of advise I can give you (to give your friend) is don't have a standard CV that you send out for every job you apply for!

Tailor the CV for each job, the person that will review the CV's might not have time to read them all the way through, so start off with the most important bits that are relevant for the role you are applying for, remember that the person at the other end reading these will have to go through loads, so in order to stand out you must make sure your CV fits the role.

Keep it short and sweet, anything more than 2 pages (3 with a covering letter) is too much, they don't want to read about what you did 10 years ago in a previous job, so only detail the relevant parts of the most recent jobs and roles.

And remember check it through for spelling and punctuation, (mine is cr@p so please don't comment on it) if the first few lines are littered with errors they won't bother to read on, get a few people to read it through and see what they say.

Pass on my best wishes and good luck to your friend, it's not a nice time to be out of a job...

[Iccz]

Originally Posted by dUnKle

Would you prefer then just a one page CV as apposed to a 4 or 5 page document ? and then maybe have that with a covering letter ?

It depends what is on the 1 or 4/5 pages...

Lets say for example I get a 3 page CV...

Starts off with the details of the applicant.

Name, Address, Tel and E-mail, nicely centered at the top of the page in a header style.

That's their contact details clear and easy to find not in with their CV.
The simplest thing on the CV, yet it makes the job easier.

They then moved onto a 6 line profile, which outlined their usual position of employment, let's say, senior programmer with XX years experience of <insert their past project brief> using <insert languages, databases etc>. and possible a "now seeking a position..." if there is a slight change in the position.

from that i'd then want a key skills list with their programming languages etc, level they feel they are with them and how many years they've been doing said language etc for.
Same can be done for office software etc etc... nicely bullet pointed out or in a table.

Next they've been around in the programming business for a while, they might have some achievements they'd wish to make me aware of, maybe they implemented the first software system that was incoporated with robotics in a car manufacturing firm etc...
Maybe they've done mentoring to trainees in companies in the past.
as long as it applies to the position then it can go in here.


All that information would be ideal on the first page.

After that has made me think yeah they seem to be suited to what I need in this position i'll want to read the 2nd page, take a look at their credentials etc

I'll want to see on here a history since school of this field, or interest in the field.
How they have progressed through their career.
How experienced they are.
How well they are educated and trained.

Keep this to no more than 2 pages, and keep it clear and not boring.


Try not to make your CV too long, i'd personally go for no more than 3 pages 1 or 2 is ideal, depends on your education/employment.

You have to remember you're marketing yourself so you have to keep the attention of the person reading it, and make yourself as appealing as possible to them, it's an interview on paper, make sure you pitch yourself well.


Also what Liquid said is a huge point, it just shows lack of willingness and makes you wonder how much they actually want the job.

[Dony]

I was once told not to use white paper because it will get lost in the pile of other cv's. I only used this advise once (used an off white / cream colour) and got the job.

[Hitby]

I haven't read all the replies but please, please don't write your CV in the third person. We get quite a few like that here and it makes the applicant appear to be a pretentious tit

[Iccz]

Originally Posted by Dony

I was once told not to use white paper because it will get lost in the pile of other cv's. I only used this advise once (used an off white / cream colour) and got the job.

I'm not sure how many people do this but I often notice the quality of the paper used.
Someone once sent us a CV that was beautifully put together, printed with wax ink and sent on high quality paper, sadly what was on the CV was useless...

Paper colour I don't think I notice so much but paper quality is something i've noticed, though it makes little difference unless you can back it up with what's on the CV.




One other thing I notice is 4/5 CVs seem to have Date Of Birth / Age on them, it is not a requirement on the CV as an employer should not be taking age into consideration for most jobs, besides they can work it out from education/employment anyways.

[nheather]

Would you prefer then just a one page CV as apposed to a 4 or 5 page document ? and then maybe have that with a covering letter ?

From personal experience of someone who reads CVs (employs) rather than writes them I think an applicant would benefit from a single page CV and a covering letter.

WHY
===

1 - I generally have loads to read and only so much time. This is only going to get worse given the news reports of 600 people chasing a single job (extreme case). So lengthy CVs are more likely to irritate me and if I'm pushed it's quicker for me to dismiss it rather than read it.

2 - If an applicant has written a verbose CV I may be able to decide that I have enough info and don't need to interview (maybe wrongly - but the guy won't get a chance to explain).

3 - If you write everything down what are you going to talk about in the interview.

4 - You want to tease with the CV. That way you have the opportunity to expand and direct as the interview expands.

5 - Most often covering letters are an opportunity wasted (Dear sir, please find enclosed my CV for your consideration. Yours faithfully ...) - it may as well not be there. A CV is largely a factual and formal statement - But a covering letter gives you a chance to be emotive - let's you say why you want the job, why it would be great for the employer etc.

Cheers,

Nigel

[wingnut121]

when i was at school in my last years they got us to write CV's and they lay out was very simple, and i have kept that lay out to this day and i got me the job i have to day. the lay out was like this

personal detail
name:
address:
tel:
D.O.B
gender:

education
then i wrote the address of were my last too college and schools were

qualifications
listed all my qualifications

current/previous employment
i listed my previous employers and the address and contact details of the job

experience
no i think this one might be the most awrkwad one, i just wrote 3 short paragraphs of what i did at the college, and that i had a good attendece rate at college, and that i have own transport

refernces
i asked my college tutors and one of my previous employers and so i put there names address of work place and tel number

and on thats it, i also had a written reference off a previous employers aswell

[Iccz]

Originally Posted by wingnut121

when i was at school in my last years they got us to write CV's and they lay out was very simple, and i have kept that lay out to this day and i got me the job i have to day. the lay out was like this

personal detail
name:
address:
tel:
D.O.B
gender:

education
then i wrote the address of were my last too college and schools were

qualifications
listed all my qualifications

current/previous employment
i listed my previous employers and the address and contact details of the job

experience
no i think this one might be the most awrkwad one, i just wrote 3 short paragraphs of what i did at the college, and that i had a good attendece rate at college, and that i have own transport

refernces
i asked my college tutors and one of my previous employers and so i put there names address of work place and tel number

and on thats it, i also had a written reference off a previous employers aswell

Generally where I work if there is nothing on the CV to draw my attention to their ability to meet the requirements of the position on the first page, then it struggles to hold my attention, unless there is a cover letter, but we usually just ask for a copy of the CV.
That's why i'd place the "experience" part of your CV higher up, before education/qualifications and employment as that's less important than your skills and ability.

DOB and Gener are also pretty pointless on a CV as any possible employer does not need to know this at this stage of the process, but no harm in having them there.

[smelly]

For christ's sake use a spell checker and make sure the grammar is correct. You wouldn't believe the mistakes I've seen in some CVs it is off putting straight away.
Last edited by smallclanger; Today at 1:53 PM. Reason: bad spelling and grammar

Love it

[jassco]

Originally Posted by Iccz

Generally where I work if there is nothing on the CV to draw my attention to their ability to meet the requirements of the position on the first page, then it struggles to hold my attention, unless there is a cover letter, but we usually just ask for a copy of the CV.
That's why i'd place the "experience" part of your CV higher up, before education/qualifications and employment as that's less important than your skills and ability.

DOB and Gener are also pretty pointless on a CV as any possible employer does not need to know this at this stage of the process, but no harm in having them there.

i don't agree, it completely depends on the position that's being applied for. In this circumstance (the OP), they have only recently come out of education. Therefore this should go top of the list (besides contact details etc) as it is more than likely to be relevant to the position that he's applying for, than his work experience in a supermarket or whatever.

I'd also only write one sentence about his work at the supermarket explaining it's a temp job until he can get back into the area that he loves.

Remember each CV is individual to each person AND job.

imo a CV for this should be set out as:

personal info

[relevant] skills summary

[relevant] education

[relevant] work experience

further information (mention here any skills / education and work experience that's not relevant to the job)

personal accomplishments (just add something about yourself here, i.e. running that marathon for charity or winning that football trophy). this gives a little personal touch at the end of the CV.

references