Reply to: CV review services

[AMH]

2 pages
A Header
4 sections - key Skills - Recent Experience - Older Employment History - Training/Qualifications


A block of a dozen Key Skills - that can be edited to suit specifics in a role
maybe take up 3rd of a page - add that to your heading ie your name, etc. your looking at 1/2 a page.

Full page covering last X amount of years of employment in details, experiences, achievements, what you did, what you accomplished etc.

1/2 a page left to list your previous employment history & any certs, training, or anything else that is relevant.

If you cant write it yourself, then decide if you want to pay for a professional service. You could always troll People Per Hour & maybe find someone.. then edit it in your style.
I find the hardest thing is writing about myself & getting in the keywords & describing what I do. So I would consider paying someone to do that for me, then I would either rewrite it in my own style or change the formatting, etc. so it does not look like a template or scripted CV.

[rob s]

Edit ruthlessly down to 2 pages to remove the dross, then expand to 3 if it's relevant. Make sure the top half of the first page has the interesting stuff.

I was once advised to put keywords in 6pt white font in the footer to game the candidate scoring systems, but conducted no A/B testing so have no idea whether this works or is urban myth. Leave this out of the one you send to agencies though, obviously.

[saptastic]

Hi

I am of the opinion my CV is in need of an overhaul as my applications seems to be disappearing into a black hole at the moment as I probably don't have the right keywords and emphasising/selling my knowledge and experience in the right way to get past 1st line of defence at recruitment agencies. So I'd like to know if many people have used any CV services and what their experiences have been with them. I used "The CV Center" about a year ago (who were at the time I used them recommended by this site) and I found them to be nothing more than a bunch of incompetent charlatans so I am very wary of ever using this sort of service again, especially as I am being quoted the best part of £800 by FullerCV and upto about £400 by others!

Are you really being quoted £800?
I can understand investing some money if you get a couple of useful pointers that helps you with getting noticed.
But am confused - what services are included for £800? Guaranteed contract?

[Epiphone]

A CV writing service is useless. The first hurdle is to get past the agency and they don't read CVs. You need the keywords/buzzwords du jour so the pimp can enter them into their search system and your CV pops up.

A pimp doesn't care what it looks like and by the time it gets to the client the pimp has formatted it out of all recognition anyway.

Just make sure your CV highlights keywords, shows your achievements and doesn't make you look like a div.

[heyya99]

the brief chat I had with them

The initial chat is great. They sound like they'll solve all your problems. Fantastic sales people, but the furhter stages are a waste of money. It's aimed at poeple who are very bad at CV writing. Not for people, who have good CV, but want to make it really stand out. The CV you have already is probably as good as Fuller CV can do.

[d000hg]

I think what some of us don't realise is that some people have no idea at all how to write a CV. I was taught how to do it at school and of course it's not a complicated skill but at some point in your life receiving some advice is sensible.

However I still think just asking friends who are good at getting jobs/contracts they go for to show you their CVs is probably the best option.

Maybe we should start a "post an anonymised CV" thread or something.

[scubadude]

Whatever you do, avoid The Fuller CV like the plague. I dealt with them and they sank to new depths of unprofessionalism. They're strangely recommended by CUK.

Thanks, that is good to know. And looks like a bullet to dodge! I picked up on FullerCV because they are recommended by this site and from the brief chat I had with them it looks like they use freelancers/contractors themselves so it might a case of being lucky/unlucky who they pair you up with for an interview and to write your CV.

I have a CV that has already landed me one contract and have had good feedback from, but now on the bench. At the moment though I feel like I am not standing out from the crowd as most of my applications are disappearing into the ether and my thoughts are that my CV is not enough of a personal statement or has the right key words to get past the filters and underlings at recruiters which is the reason behind my original query.

These CV services sell themselves on getting the right keywords into your CV and LinkedIn profile, making it more of a personal brand/statement so that you standout from the crowd and get more hits and interest. This is why I wanted to know if anyone has used any CV services, to find out whether it made any difference or is it just a load sales fluff and do any of these companies actually understand IT contracting and what is important to recruiters and hiring managers when looking at/for CV's. A lot of them claim to use industry experts and work with recruiters but how true that actually is I don't know, although (in fairness) the guy that FullerCV wanted to pair me up with did appear to very credible (having researched him), but at £599+vat I would damn well expect it!

[heyya99]

Whatever you do, avoid The Fuller CV like the plague. I dealt with them and they sank to new depths of unprofessionalism. They're strangely recommended by CUK.

[darrylmg]

However hobbies like cooking , star gazing, photography and [B]reading[\B] shouldn't be included as everyone thinks they can do these things.

Love it.
Reading as a hobby.

[northernladuk]

There you go. 7k Posts about CV reviews on the forum. Enough?

https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourc...ntractoruk.com

[SueEllen]

Besides, people who run businesses read CVs not write them

CVs/Company profiles/whatever you want to call them need to be personalised to the person they are presenting.

CV writing companies write generic CVs which if you get hundreds of applicants you can soon see who is likely not to have written their own CV.

The best person to write about you is you.

In regards to length of CV - if your CV is full of technical and scientific terms plus you have more than 5 years experience than your CV is likely to be over 3 pages. The trick is to present enough information about your experience without boring the reader.

The first page is the one that is read properly so on the first page present your skills and go into detail about your most recent roles.

The last page should have things like qualifications on it as they are also looked at.

If you have done any high level sport e.g. were a Olympic athlete or have done something like London to Paris more than once, then include it as this one sentence which can be a talking point on the last page. However hobbies like cooking , star gazing, photography and reading shouldn't be included as everyone thinks they can do these things.

Some people do skim read your full CV so you need to make sure it's not repetitive. This is difficult to do if your CV was written by someone else and you need to edit it.

[sociopath]

Ideally you should submit a company profile (rather than a CV) and attend a business meeting (rather than an interview). Presenting your CV in the traditional way simply makes you look like an employee in a number of ways. This is not a big deal though.

[cojak]

Employees submit CVs. Contractors submit Profiles. There are plenty of employee profiles of established consultancies of various industries online that you could have a look at for ideas and inspiration. All just a click away on a google search for free.

I submit CV's.

Go figure.

[sociopath]

Employees submit CVs. Contractors submit Profiles. There are plenty of employee profiles of established consultancies of various industries online that you could have a look at for ideas and inspiration. All just a click away on a google search for free.

[sal]

If you can't do simple accounts or understand contract law, how do you expect to run a business?
And yet...
But you pay an accountant to do your accounts and a solicitor to review your contracts.

Comparing apples to oranges here...

Law is far more complicated than writing a CV
Personally i use accountant because i need references when applying for finance, mortgage etc. or trying to rent a place. I can do all of my books on my own. Contract review likewise i use for piece of mind and to save myself valuable time.

Besides, people who run businesses read CVs not write them

People who run business need to be able to sell their product/service. In our case the CV is doing just that, even permies can do it.