Reply to: "Ideal" Contractor CV

[SueEllen]

I got the job but at the time I was pissed that he had no interest in the countless hours that I put in getting top marks at something that was not shotgunning beer or removing bra tops... The rest is history and here I am.

Degrees are used by a lot of companies as a filtering mechanism to short list candidates especially if you are permanent.

As a contractor it's not necessary that you have one but it can help. I've seen adverts/got emails through where they insist you have a degree.

Though personally I've never been inclined to apply for such positions as some of the most interesting people (including those who are well versed in some random subject) I have met and know don't have a degree.

[bobspud]

I understand your point of view bob and I've come across many 'degree' bashers in my time and you're entitled to your opinion.

Without my degree, I wouldn't have a successful career in I.T and the computing element of my combined science degree indeed gave me an excellent grounding in database theory/Codd/3rd normal form etc (before I studied that module I didn't have a clue what kind of job I wanted).

I believe a relevant degree demostrates some form of intelligence combined with application, demonstrated by your achievements in your working life, is a winning combination.

I'm slightly biased as I'm the only person in our entire family history with a degree (not that I ever gloat about it) and that isn't changing soon...

Ah but your key is at least you picked a relavent degree. It's easy to bash degrees when you find people willing to boast about a 2:2 in philosophy while wondering why the best offer they have of a job is McDonalds.

I partied hard instead of working at school so it was no real shock that I bust out with one good A-level (computer science) I went to night school to correct the situation and got a distinction in business and finance. I pottered around the city looking clueless and spending more time hacking into the mainframes than I did doing my day job and finally got the sack and told to stop waisting my time. I worked for a small start up as a DB programmer then went to ICL where The manager was far more interested in the fact my dad had just picked up an ex ICL company car (I had borrowed it to go to the interview and the guy recognised it...) I got the job but at the time I was pissed that he had no interest in the countless hours that I put in getting top marks at something that was not shotgunning beer or removing bra tops... The rest is history and here I am.

[The Spartan]

Well your CV is a representation of you so people have cottoned onto that fact in a bid to make money, I laugh when people put words on their CV's that they don't even understand

[oscarose]

Hit my inbox this morning...

Live webinar on how to write an effective CV for the contrac... - Eventbrite

[geoffreywhereveryoumaybe]

Get your CV reviewed?

A couple of years ago, I contacted a cv review service at w ww.thefullercv.com. They would charge for a full CV review but a freebie was that if you sent in your cv they would give some feedback on it and the free feedback that I got was useful

[tractor]

...

I understand your point of view bob and I've come across many 'degree' bashers in my time and you're entitled to your opinion.

Without my degree, I wouldn't have a successful career in I.T and the computing element of my combined science degree indeed gave me an excellent grounding in database theory/Codd/3rd normal form etc (before I studied that module I didn't have a clue what kind of job I wanted).

I believe a relevent degree demostrates some form of intelligence combined with application, demonstrated by your achievements in your working life, is a winning combination.

I'm slightly biased as I'm the only person in our entire family history with a degree (not that I ever gloat about it) and that isn't changing soon...

Fair do's but there are many of us who were too 'busy' during our formative years to take advantage so we had to spend countless unpaid hours studying Codd and working out what a tuple was and how B trees worked.

I spent the first several years of my career in the army, where we were certainly blessed with our fair share of 'educated idiots' - aka 'Ruperts'. Following a long career in IT and BA, I have to assert that the army does not have a monopoly in that respect

[oscarose]

Think about your CV in terms of a snipers bullet. You get one shot into the agent then it has to travel through the clients HR department and hit the manager square in the face...

Word allows 24 lines per page. I automatically dump anything longer than 4 pages because it tells me the candidate has not bothered to think about what is relevant to me and thinks I want to read 10 pages of everything from year dot...

So for a 4 sided cv thats just 96 lines to give enough information to get you in the door. Now allow for word searching and blank lines to make the CV more readable, and bare in mind that the agency will hack your CV into bits, not trying too hard to fit it into their own template. If you have ever had the misfortune to receive a batch of agency CV's while hiring someone it looks a bit like the results of a gorilla pushing an elephant into a mini.

IMO if your career spans more than 10 years and your education and other un-interesting crap is still taking up space. What you risk saying is that I have done so little since I left school or university I need to leave this crap in to fill space. God forbid that the result is a 2:2 in meejya studies! At least have the grace to crow about a relevant subject with a great result... To me a first says I did what I came to do. None of this drinking mans degree crap

For the last 8 years my name, email address and mobile number have been shoved into the Headers and Footers, just so I can tell my clients about all the fantastic stuff I have done in the other 96 lines...

There are things in a contractors CV that speak volumes more than education. Namely Length of gig and number of extensions in that time. Repeat clients and most of all, the ability for the candidate to be concise and tell me what I want to know about them thats relevant to the role that I have in my team...

I understand your point of view bob and I've come across many 'degree' bashers in my time and you're entitled to your opinion.

Without my degree, I wouldn't have a successful career in I.T and the computing element of my combined science degree indeed gave me an excellent grounding in database theory/Codd/3rd normal form etc (before I studied that module I didn't have a clue what kind of job I wanted).

I believe a relevant degree demostrates some form of intelligence combined with application, demonstrated by your achievements in your working life, is a winning combination.

I'm slightly biased as I'm the only person in our entire family history with a degree (not that I ever gloat about it) and that isn't changing soon...

[abu1]

Its hard for contractors to keep Cv to the ideal 2 page limit. My jobs in last 2 years fills up 1 page alone. Best is to use paragraphs describing last 2 jobs in detail the rest user 1 line or bullet points

[tractor]

Think about your CV in terms of a snipers bullet. You get one shot into the agent then it has to travel through the clients HR department and hit the manager square in the face... This is why cv's are almost a waste of time from the contractor point of view. Too hit and miss, if you miss one invisible check box (self imposed) by the reviewer, you're in the bin.

Word allows 24 lines per page. I automatically dump anything longer than 4 pages because it tells me the candidate has not bothered to think about what is relevant to me and thinks I want to read 10 pages of everything from year dot... Most of the time, given the crappy cookie cutter role specs put out by clients and massaged by agents no one has a clue what you are really looking for and even worse what leaves your email bears very little relevance to what arrives on JobServe or the like. Most are hashed into the ubiquitous 'end to end lifecycle experience, senior level 'whatever', Stakeholder management experience etc'. How many of us have been on a project where you wouldn't be allowed on the same site as a stakeholder lest you inadvertently let on about quality, delivery, scope creep, descoping etc. If you find you are getting crap results too often, change your agent, train your agent and above all, ask for copies of their ads so that you can be sure you are at least hitting the target with your own sniper shot!!

So for a 4 sided cv thats just 96 lines to give enough information to get you in the door. Now allow for word searching and blank lines to make the CV more readable, and bare in mind that the agency will hack your CV into bits, not trying too hard to fit it into their own template. If you have ever had the misfortune to receive a batch of agency CV's while hiring someone it looks a bit like the results of a gorilla pushing an elephant into a mini. The number of times an agent's lackey has discounted my cv because they were too stupid to read what is in front of them and they miss a key point because they are either blind, stupid or both is too many to recount. What chance is there when you often cannot get past the organ grinder's monkey?


IMO if your career spans more than 10 years and your education and other un-interesting crap is still taking up space. What you risk saying is that I have done so little since I left school or university I need to leave this crap in to fill space. God forbid that the result is a 2:2 in meejya studies! At least have the grace to crow about a relevant subject with a great result... To me a first says I did what I came to do. None of this drinking mans degree crap Most of the time you are not really in need of a ninja or SAS trooper, you really only want a technically competent person with a little drive and a history of contract longevity. So why place so much relevance on this type of trait?

For the last 8 years my name, email address and mobile number have been shoved into the Headers and Footers, just so I can tell my clients about all the fantastic stuff I have done in the other 96 lines... Over my 25 year career, I always ask and mostly get references prior to finishing up a role. I have often thought about ditching everything but a list of technical and soft skills on page 2 and filling page 1 with a bunch of choice lines from said references. Given the previous point about agents not actually reading or even understanding what is in front of them, what is the point of perpetuating their inability?


There are things in a contractors CV that speak volumes more than education. Namely Length of gig and number of extensions in that time. Repeat clients and most of all, the ability for the candidate to be concise and tell me what I want to know about them thats relevant to the role that I have in my team...Like I said, mostly it is impossible to guess what a client really wants at the cv stage. That's why you get 25lb howitzer shells instead of a .762 to the brain lol!

HTH

[petergriffin]

I think if your cv is so broad that spans 7 pages you should just give your link to your wikipedia page.

Here's mine.

[northernladuk]

It was sarcastic Sue. I would only worry if that comment was made by NLUK

Am from Yorkshire. We are bred illiterate. Case closed.

[JohannM]

Don't be so soft.

I've been pulled up a lot of times about my spelling.

Though I know I'm a bad speller especially when tired so I check it, check it again and check it again on important documents.

Likewise if someone points out your grammar is bad just point out English isn't your first language and you get it checked on important documents. There is no need to start taking offence where none is intented.

It was sarcastic Sue. I would only worry if that comment was made by NLUK

[bobspud]

I find your post very patronising indeed. IMO most clients are interesting in your background to some degree - that's what a CV is - a historical account of your history and achievements.

Think about your CV in terms of a snipers bullet. You get one shot into the agent then it has to travel through the clients HR department and hit the manager square in the face...

Word allows 24 lines per page. I automatically dump anything longer than 4 pages because it tells me the candidate has not bothered to think about what is relevant to me and thinks I want to read 10 pages of everything from year dot...

So for a 4 sided cv thats just 96 lines to give enough information to get you in the door. Now allow for word searching and blank lines to make the CV more readable, and bare in mind that the agency will hack your CV into bits, not trying too hard to fit it into their own template. If you have ever had the misfortune to receive a batch of agency CV's while hiring someone it looks a bit like the results of a gorilla pushing an elephant into a mini.

IMO if your career spans more than 10 years and your education and other un-interesting crap is still taking up space. What you risk saying is that I have done so little since I left school or university I need to leave this crap in to fill space. God forbid that the result is a 2:2 in meejya studies! At least have the grace to crow about a relevant subject with a great result... To me a first says I did what I came to do. None of this drinking mans degree crap

For the last 8 years my name, email address and mobile number have been shoved into the Headers and Footers, just so I can tell my clients about all the fantastic stuff I have done in the other 96 lines...

There are things in a contractors CV that speak volumes more than education. Namely Length of gig and number of extensions in that time. Repeat clients and most of all, the ability for the candidate to be concise and tell me what I want to know about them thats relevant to the role that I have in my team...

[SueEllen]

intended

[speling bee]

Don't be so soft.

I've been pulled up a lot of times about my spelling.

Though I know I'm a bad speller especially when tired so I check it, check it again and check it again on important documents.

Likewise if someone points out your grammar is bad just point out English isn't your first language and you get it checked on important documents. There is no need to start taking offence where none is intented.

intended

How the mighty are fallen.