Reached 1000 mark...!!! Still no Interview call..???

[SueEllen]

Re the spelling, I hate to come across as picky on what for some might be a minor point but spellcheckers arent so good at telling in what context your using a word. This word would be correct in American English either way
but in UK English licence is the noun and license is the verb.
Go and look at said document or the DVLA's website to see how its spelt on there, its the very last line of your CV which i think is why it stood out to me.

Good luck btw, im sure you'll find something soon.

Picking up on the languages point if you speak other languages rather than putting you worked in other countries put that you speak the languages particularly if they are European ones and you are fluent.

[BlasterBates]

Hi Darren

For Me I did Fortran 77 way way back in the first 3 months of my first ever IT job, I would never write that on my CV now.
Best.

Me too

Its stll on my CV,

I LOVE FORTRAN 77

[BlasterBates]

I wouldn´t worry yet, 7 weeks isn´t a longtime. Wait until it becomes months . Look at other sectors, Finance for example, for the middle/back office there are a lot of similarities with Telco. They are running real-time systems. Maybe this is something you need to emphasise.

Anyway good luck.

But just have in the back of your mind you need to be prepared for maybe up to 12 months out of work, at some point, I think you won´t find an experienced contractor that doesn´t have several months out of work at some time.

[MarillionFan]

Firstly thats a very poor CV.

Nothing stands out, it doesnt flow, there is no stucture, it tells me nothing about the candidate, far too buzzwordy, I assume these were all contract roles, otherwise you move around to much.

This tells me you rate your technical, buzzwords highly. It also shows you are unable to structure, therefore implies that your work is unstructured and doesnt flow(critical for testing).

The style of the CV means it will go in the bin pretty much straight away.
Secondly you're sending this poor CV out by the sounds of it by email to every job you see, probably loads which dont even meet your CV, so your wasting your time and the agents. Again, straight in the bin. Be more focussed.

Now the fact, you have had 100 conversations says something else about you. My ratio of CV to interview was about 1 in 2, and my interview to offer was and still is 100%. I never failed to get an offer from a contract interview.

So this means, not only is your CV, your obviously not telling the agent what he wants to hear. The agent is not technical, you need to sell yourself to him.

Think more consultant than techie if you want to succeed in contracting.

[tim123]

My ratio of CV to interview was about 1 in 2, and my interview to offer was and still is 100%. I never failed to get an offer from a contract interview.
.

Oh for such an easy "yes/no" skill to check for on my CV as MF has.

(And I do just mean easy to check, no easy to do)

tim

[Darren_Test]

Guys,

Thanks a lot for the invaluable feedback on this..
I am in the process of rewriting my CV based on the feedback & help i got from you guys...

Thanks again...
Darren

(BTW I am removing my useless CV from that site...)

[cojak]

Sadly I've just got rid of CICS/COBOL...

[BlasterBates]

I LOVE CICS/COBOL

[Emily]

I've not read your CV so can't comment, but what I can comment on is the number of applications. You don't want to be the guy whose CV gets ignored by recruiters and hiring managers because it pops up in their inbox for every position. Here's what happens:

• Joe Bloggs applies for a Test Manager role.
• Recruiter looks at CV, not quite right for role, moves on
• Joe Bloggs applies for a Test Analyst position.
• Recruiter looks at CV, not quite right for role, moves on
• Joe Bloggs applies for 50 other slightly test related roles
• Recruiter blanks CV completely- 'Oh no, not this guy AGAIN'
• Perfect role comes out for Joe Bloggs
• Recruiter still blanks CV because they've looked at it so many times for irrelevant roles the automatic assumption is that Joe Bloggs isn't right for the job.

It's wrong - but that's often how it works.

[SillyMilly]

I'm also a tester - telecoms recently but pretty varied experience before that - and have been out of work since Christmas. Haven't reached 1000 yet but have applied for loads (probably > 100) of test jobs and been ignored by the agents. Have also been interviewed a couple of times and subsequently heard that none of the interviewees was taken on. I call that time-wasting - how can you look at 20 CVs, pick 4 or 5 to interview, say the interviews went well but then decide not to go ahead?

I have an offer now, but not at a good rate, and another interview lined up. A low rate is better than nothing I guess. But it is incredibly frustrating. I have re-vamped my CV but I don't think that's the problem, given that I've had some interviews. I do think there are lots of testers out of work at the moment - some pretty big projects have been canned recently. I hope that the new budgets in April will mop them up and rates will creep up again.

I had a call tonight about an OSS-RC test contract abroad if you're interested in travelling (I'm definitely not!) Best of luck, Darren. I hope things pick up for you.