Reply to: Another post about CV writing services

[cojak]

Bump....

Don't say we never help newbies....

(I'm polite in this thread.... )

[BrowneIssue]

A whole thread of people being constructive in their criticism. Then you come along and stand out like a sore thumb. Happy at your work?

Absolutely ferkin' marvellous.

Learn to quote your sources.

[suityou01]

Whoever wrote that is a retard.

you're
. If
you're

A retard whose use of English is so poor they could not write a CV to get them an interview.

A whole thread of people being constructive in their criticism. Then you come along and stand out like a sore thumb. Happy at your work?

[Doggy Styles]

I'm probably a bit unusual, but I never stick my vanilla CV online.

I tune it slightly for each job I go for, send that version to the agent, and in the covering email I briefly highlight the reasons why I'd be perfect for the job. That usually gets me past the agent's "30-seconds attention" barrier.

[BrowneIssue]

Someone on here posted recently

"If your not getting interviews there's something wrong with your CV, if your getting interviews and not gigs there's something wrong with your interview technique"

Whoever wrote that is a retard.

"If your not getting interviews there's something wrong with your CV, if your getting interviews and not gigs there's something wrong with your interview technique"

you're
. If
you're

A retard whose use of English is so poor they could not write a CV to get them an interview.

[pmeswani]

Jolly decent of you to post this old chap. 10 out of 10 altruistic marks.

(Any chance of a screen-shot to see how you formatted it too?)

Not really. . Was hard enough getting it up there. The only thing that has changed is the formatting and the grey boxes. I've tried to publish a PDF version of my CV, but with no luck....

[cojak]

Read this:

Killer CV

It's all you need to know and even shows you an example CV.

Basically, the CV needs to show at the beginning why the client/agent should pick you for this contract.

That's why the summary is so important - it says in a nutshell why you CV should stay at the top of the pile.

The next should be bullet-pointed achievements: what you have done for previous clients and why they liked what you did.

• "create a spiffing web portal that incorporated a time machine that increased ClientCos profits by £000%"

Next you list your expertise:

• "wrote the book on coding spiffing web portals"

List up to 10 of your most relevant achievements and expertise bullets. This is what we mean by the term 'tailoring your CV' - not all of your achievements are going to be of interest to every client. Create a Master CV with everything bullet-pointed and make sure you remove at least one from each list every time you send it out.

For Jobserve list up to 10 of your most impressive achievements/expertise bullets.

You need to sell yourself in plain English and answer the question.

"I have a need - will this CV answer that need?"

Just listing a load of TLAs and numbers does not cut it for either agents or clients.

[pmeswani]

Thanks Pogle, Gonzo et al. Some real food for thought. I agree with all the points raised, and am grateful for the "user friendly" way these have been posted, rather than just an out and out panning. Thank the lordy lord Dim Prawn is asleep eh?

Don't forget to vote in the "BCS, on the CV or not" poll.

Ok, here's my thoughts. Don't use Yahoo, Hotmail or any freebie email addresses. As a contractor, it may help to have a paid for email account... such as suityou01.co.uk.... stands out more. However, I am prepared to stand corrected on this.

As already suggested, put a career summary at the top outlining what you have done, what vertical markets you have worked in. This is your 10 to 20 seconds of glory to sell yourself....

In your skills profile, put your most experienced skill first and your least.... last. If you cannot demonstrate how many months or years you have used a particular skill, lose it. Drop the (including DTS) and like. More annoying than anything. If anyone wants to know if you have done DTS within your years / months of experience, they will ask you for it. Get rid of the "Working knowledge of" bit. Employers don't really care if you have working knowledge... only commercial experience.

Bullet point your career history and drop the technologies line. (The space saved here can go towards your career summary).

Drop the use of tables. Makes your CV look a bit disjointed.

Educations & qualifications..... only show your highest qualifications... nobody cares about anything less. It can be assumed (rightly or wrongly) that you have some GCSE's and A-Levels / BTEC OND's. And put the year when you achieved your highest qualification.

Put your professional Qualifications under a different heading and state when you did them.

Drop the Personal details bit at the bottom. It is assumed that you are in good health. Being a smoker shouldn't hamper your ability to carry out any work. I could, if I wanted to, assume that you are a heavy drinker by the ommission that you haven't stated that you are a light or a non-drinker. Being "British" doesn't mean you are more likely be able to do a job than being an English speaking French national or a English speaking Russian national.

Memberships and Associations can be dropped... I know I have it in my CV... however, they are not viewed as highly these days as they were 5 or 10 years ago.

HTH.

[suityou01]

I think there is some scope for you to reorganise the skills matrix and also the older stuff that you worked on so that both take up less space.

My CV got up to three pages long when I was contracting, it is inevitable when you have had a number of contracts, and wasn't an issue. Just make sure that the key information is all on the first page.

Oh yes. I didn't notice that the first time! That will be one of the more important pieces of information in respect of each job so it does need to be clear.

Thanks Pogle, Gonzo et al. Some real food for thought. I agree with all the points raised, and am grateful for the "user friendly" way these have been posted, rather than just an out and out panning. Thank the lordy lord Dim Prawn is asleep eh?

Don't forget to vote in the "BCS, on the CV or not" poll.

[Gonzo]

Again, if the cv is supposed to be 2 pages or less (which this clearly isnt) doesn't that make it even longer?

I think there is some scope for you to reorganise the skills matrix and also the older stuff that you worked on so that both take up less space.

My CV got up to three pages long when I was contracting, it is inevitable when you have had a number of contracts, and wasn't an issue. Just make sure that the key information is all on the first page.

For each role, there is a job title. What more can I do to indicate what my role was? [This isn't meant to be sarcastic, but I couldn't think of a way to rephrase - the question is what I actually mean]

Thanks

Oh yes. I didn't notice that the first time! That will be one of the more important pieces of information in respect of each job so it does need to be clear.

[Pogle]

I agree, It does seem like hard work to read.
I have a series of around 5 bullet points at the top of my CV, which I change depending on the role.

I have frequently been asked to look at CV's with a view to select people for interview and it is really boring! Anything that involves too much effort to read will be binned.
The great long list of technologies and experience just put me off.
For example on my CV instead of listing how many years experience I have in various databases one of my bullet points is:-

• Database experience with Oracle, Access and SQLServer

I also believe that the two side rule does not apply to contract CV's - mine is 3 sides now. But I have seen ones that are 8 or 9 sides - a bit too much IMHO.

HTH

[suityou01]

Thanks for the feedback.

I will assume that the formatting issues are related to Google Docs

Indeed it is.

I think it could benefit from a summary at the top to explain exactly what it is you are pitching yourself as.

Again, if the cv is supposed to be 2 pages or less (which this clearly isnt) doesn't that make it even longer?

The pimp and the client will have an idea of the sort of person that they want for a job. Your profile needs to match what they are looking for so that they will look at you further.

The career history provides the evidence for that. I would try and make that consistent throughout and also make it clear from the first line for each job what your role was.

For each role, there is a job title. What more can I do to indicate what my role was? [This isn't meant to be sarcastic, but I couldn't think of a way to rephrase - the question is what I actually mean]

Thanks

[OwlHoot]

For Pete's sake lose the "Member of the BCS".

Just mentioning the BCS is the kiss of death because, rightly or wrongly it conjures up images of bearded sandaled academics. Also, what is special about being a *member* of the BCS? Can't anyone join as a member? If you were a *fellow*, having been elected on the strength of brilliant papers or something, that might be more of an achievement (but still a no-no, even worse than being a member, to recruiters for commercial contracts).

Also, to shorten the document, I'd ditch the career summary at the end (incorporating any buzzwords in the preceding work summaries). Perhaps add a short *general* summary of your skills and strengths at the start, to tell the reader at a glance whether you are a .Netty person versus a Java bod for example, and whether you are predominantly a developer, or tester, or team leader, etc.

You can shorten it further by eliminating superfluous phrases like "Worked on", "Hired to", "Provided", "Performed".

Also, IMHO, get rid of those ridiculous "registered" symbols. (Others may disagree, and think they look more professional. Not sure, but to me they look pedantic and distract the eye.)

I'd also shorten the dates, like "aug" instead of "august" for example, because the date ranges are too large and distract the eye (although it could be that Google has screwed up the formatting).

Agents will also be interested to see which were contracts or permi roles.

and I wouldn't mention the word "Career". Change it to "Work" or something.

Just my first impressions. It'll be interesting to see what others have to add.

P.S. Some of your technical items are a bit confusing. For example "MCP – Asp.Net & C#" is marked 1 year, and yet the next couple of lines say 5 years for each of ASP.Net and C#. I'd try and group these into themes, such as languages and databases, and order them in descending times to give readers an idea of your main skills v secondary skills and areas dabbled in.

[Gonzo]

Tis done. See edit. Cheers.

I will assume that the formatting issues are related to Google Docs

I think it could benefit from a summary at the top to explain exactly what it is you are pitching yourself as.

The pimp and the client will have an idea of the sort of person that they want for a job. Your profile needs to match what they are looking for so that they will look at you further.

The career history provides the evidence for that. I would try and make that consistent throughout and also make it clear from the first line for each job what your role was.

[suityou01]

Jolly decent of you to post this old chap. 10 out of 10 altruistic marks.

(Any chance of a screen-shot to see how you formatted it too?)

But why?