Reply to: A touch of CV advice please

[seanraaron]

I was being serious - I don't agree.

Well that advice seems to be in line with the advice on this site as well - at least in terms of being brief and having overview. My CV already had that, but I used to have the company name followed by a brief description of the outfit and my section, followed by a rundown of regular duties. It wasn't exciting reading.

In the distant past I used to list every technology I ever worked with and get approached with completely wrong jobs because of keyword searching. Very tiring. I'm happy with the current one, but if you've got a different philosophy I'd love to hear it.

I'd also like some advice on listing gigs with an umbrella. I suppose I could put Giant down as my "current employer," but that might seem odd?

[TheFaQQer]

Are you serious or just making fun - don't confuse me!

I was being serious - I don't agree.

[MrMarkyMark]

Are you serious or just making fun - don't confuse me!

You have to appease him, by asking him the right question.

Ask him about his experiences in a Turkish bath with another fully grown man.
He loves to talk about that.

Gladiators and bleeding radiators are another couple of his favourite topics.

Fill yer boots

[seanraaron]

No.

Are you serious or just making fun - don't confuse me!

[TheFaQQer]

Well his idea of paring down your CV to a couple of pages and having date, company name, role and a couple of job highlights seemed sound to me...you don't agree?

No.

[northernladuk]

Haven't seen that expression before, are you saying he's actually a house-breaking gibbon?

Hang around here for a week and you'll see it 100s of times :

[MrMarkyMark]

Haven't seen that expression before, are you saying he's actually a house-breaking gibbon?

Probably, because I made it up

No, that's Mauve Monkeys job

[seanraaron]

FTFY

Haven't seen that expression before, are you saying he's actually a house-breaking gibbon?

[seanraaron]

With my pedant hat on your job is being a contractor (or a director or whatever) , you get contracts or gigs as part of that job. Permies get jobs. HTH.

Still new, but just for clarification I did consultancy for Morse Group not long after immigrating and I list those gigs under Morse as my employer. Are you suggesting I indicate Giant or just "Independent Contractor" as my current job and then individual gigs below that? I was going to just list the gigs by the end-client and then indicate somewhere that it was a contract role.

Long as you have your pedant hat on, I thought a pedantic reply might be appropriate, though I'm not entirely taking the piss.

[MrMarkyMark]

FTFY

A bit of a prickly perhaps and potentially a closet hanging orange chomper, but he can keep it civil so I'm okay.

[northernladuk]

With my pedant hat on your job is being a contractor (or a director or whatever) , you get contracts or gigs as part of that job. Permies get jobs. HTH.

[seanraaron]

Sometimes, although I said on the thread, some industries like a long CV.
Also, it can depend on how senior the role is, as to how long the CV is.

Still, good advice in the main, although, be careful around WTFH, he has a penchant for 4 by 4's and stranglers gloves, so I have been told.

A bit prickly perhaps and potentially a closet Mail reader, but he can keep it civil so I'm okay.

I did keep my old full-fat CV - no way in hell I could remember all that crap otherwise!

@northernladuk: I tend to remain in jobs for years and I've never had trouble getting another job, so it's not been something I've put a lot of work into before. My CV was structured well and not overly dense, but it was bloated. This radical overhaul was just to make it sell better and cut down on the bs hits from keyword searching. I think there's been so much to take in with between the redundancy thing and starting the contracting thing I just didn't consider it, really.

[northernladuk]

Well his idea of paring down your CV to a couple of pages and having date, company name, role and a couple of job highlights seemed sound to me...you don't agree?

He does post some good stuff but what you've mention above is pretty fundamental advice about CV. Everyone should know this really.

[LondonManc]

Hi All, Just need a bit of advice on whats the best thing to do with my CV.

I finished a fairly long term contract last July and went travelling around the US for a few months. I came back and went into a contract that didn't end so well after only two months so now I have a gap on my CV of 6 months.

Is it better to add the details of this job even though it ended not so well or is it better to just leave the gap?

Appreciate your thoughts...

Thanks

If you finished the two months up and the agent wasn't left fuming, you only need for the agency to confirm that you did the gig, no need for getting in touch with Client Co. You need to consider how you left and how you can put a positive spin on it; whatever non-lying turd-polishing you think sounds best.

[MrMarkyMark]

Well his idea of paring down your CV to a couple of pages and having date, company name, role and a couple of job highlights seemed sound to me...you don't agree?

Sometimes, although I said on the thread, some industries like a long CV.
Also, it can depend on how senior the role is, as to how long the CV is.

Still, good advice in the main, although, be careful around WTFH, he has a penchant for 4 by 4's and stranglers gloves, so I have been told.