Boasting on your CV

[tim123]

You know how it is, sometimes jobs go well and sometimes they don't.

Usually, when a job goes well you expect to get more work out of the client, but (unfortunately) in the current climate this sometimes isn't possible.

So how do I write on my CV, "did a blinding job, finished four months work in two and then sat around drinking tea, um making useful enhancements to use up the remaining contracted time" and not make it look like "did a useless job and was not renewed"?

I've seen CVs with "won award for company's best coder" or words to that effect and my response is usually "yeah, so what"

(And I know that the client will give a good reference, but very seldom does anyone ask)

tim

[TheFaQQer]

I tend to go for the subtle approach (and then make up for it by posting on here instead!).

I had an interview a couple of years back when the guy said in passing "oh we're doing XYZ as well. Do you know anything about it?" Since it wasn't in the job description, I'd not mentioned it in the CV, but it was nice to be able to say "oh yes, I wrote that part of the product when I was at ABC". As a friend of mine put it, it then makes you seem SO good, that you don't even need to mention how good you are.

Seems to work for me, touch wood.

[ratewhore]

I've seen CVs with "won award for company's best coder" or words to that effect and my response is usually "yeah, so what"

Given that most of us work through one man companies, it's not that impressive is it?

[Sockpuppet]

I tend to go for the subtle approach (and then make up for it by posting on here instead!).

I had an interview a couple of years back when the guy said in passing "oh we're doing XYZ as well. Do you know anything about it?" Since it wasn't in the job description, I'd not mentioned it in the CV, but it was nice to be able to say "oh yes, I wrote that part of the product when I was at ABC". As a friend of mine put it, it then makes you seem SO good, that you don't even need to mention how good you are.

Seems to work for me, touch wood.

Exactly.

My CV is:

Client Co - Date from - date to

They paid me x. I saved them y which is more than x by sum z.


Seems to work. Results speak for themselves.

[TykeMerc]

One of my projects at my last gig was given a Chairmans Award, meaningless to any other potential customer so I don't put it on my CV.

[d000hg]

Exactly.

My CV is:

Client Co - Date from - date to

They paid me x. I saved them y which is more than x by sum z.


Seems to work. Results speak for themselves.

How do you know how much you saved them? Why are you hired to save the money anyway, rather than to get a product nearer completion?

[TykeMerc]

How do you know how much you saved them? Why are you hired to save the money anyway, rather than to get a product nearer completion?

There are a lot of different types of IT engagement, software developments producing an actual new product are only a percentage of the work done.
Many if not all of my projects have cost savings and efficiencies as part of the benefits case and success criteria.

[thunderlizard]

How? you work it out before the project. That's why you do the project.
E.g. let's pay SockPuppet £20000 for a barcode reader: we can then sack those 3 full-time data inputters on £15,000 per year, saving us £25,000 this year and £45,000 in future years.

Why? Because most clients either want you ultimately to help decrease their outgoings, or increase their income. The sheer beauty of project completion propter se ipsum just doesn't cut it. Soulless isn't it?

[Fred Bloggs]

Honestly, I find that a client wants to talk to me because I know things that they do not know. Then I find it very easy to look like a superstar. Of course, you then have to deliver the goods. But any contractor worth his salt should have no trouble looking good IMO. Remember this- "In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king". It's true.

[tim123]

Exactly.

My CV is:

Client Co - Date from - date to

They paid me x. I saved them y which is more than x by sum z.


Seems to work. Results speak for themselves.

The point is, the only way that I save the company money is by doing the job quicker than ANOther would.

I don't go into companies to advise them to change the way that they work, I go to a client to develop something that they has already decided needs developing.

So the question is, where I do save the company money by doing the job quicker, how do I reflect this on my CV in a way that doesn't just look like an unsubstantiated boast?

tim