Reply to: HELP! Desperate and Frustrated (long post)

[Joe Black]

nredwood - I've seen your CV

I think I'd agree with most of the comments. Only thing I would also suggest is loosing the white-space and...ehmm...consider whether you really want MS Office to be listed as your first skill...

[thunderlizard]

Blimey, never seen so much helpful advice from people on here. I'd agree with most of it.

Don't be shy, get loads of people to criticise your CV and try and make it better. Now that you've got a specific idea of what kind of job you want, rewrite each previous job description on the CV with that in mind. Even if 80% of each job was irrelevant to what you want now, concentrate on the 20% that's relevant.

If MCSE (which I haven't got) is anything like MCSD (which I have), then there's little to be gained from studying it in a working environment. Better to make use of your spare time to thug through the books and practice papers so that you're ready to do the exams as soon as you can afford. Even better, take one exam ASAP and put "MCP (working towards MCSE)" on the CV. If I were hiring I'd look on that as more or less a tick in the MCSE box.

In your position I'd probably tolerate maybe £13-15/hr if it got me the job. It's still an above average wage, and you can always whack it up on first renewal

My answer to CV gaps was "If I'd wanted to work 12 months a year I wouldn't have gone contracting". In an interview situation, it's your cue to talk about all the interesting and constructive things you're doing while not locked up 9-5.

One of my early contracts I got by seeing a card in the jobcentre wanting a few skilled clerical staff. I figured that if they had that requirement, their IT was probably a bit scrappy so I went in and offered to sort it out.

Don't know what you've got against PM work though. Whenever I've done it, it's been a right giggle.

Best of British,
tl

[cojak]

Forget the "only woman in a male IT environment" - take them at the knees when they start sprouting that cr@p.

[datestamp]

I would say "What skills do you have to sell. How far will you have to travel to sell them. Go sell them."

It is great to keep all your skills upto date, and go and do things that you find interesting. Unfortunately, contracting can sometimes be about flogging your skills to boring and stupid client sites. Don't think permie. Think "sell-sell-sell".

I thought the NHS was crying out for recently experienced staff for heaps of projects.

If you can balance all aspects, then great. If not, the priority is to get out there and sell yourself. It is your skill, personality, ability to dodge bullets, ability to fight off vampires and your business knowledge they are looking for. Not your aspirations. I hope that you can find something suitable, that pays the bills and doesn't cause too much pain, very soon. Good luck.

[n5gooner]

nredwood - I've seen your CV, ther is too much detail and at nearly 5 pages (I think) you need to cut it down to 2 pages. Cut the detail, be a bit more direct. what area are you looking to work in ?

[Mordac]

nah Mordy I just did a search for her on google

Milan.

Hoping for a piccy were you? You old perve.

[ratewhore]

I can't help but pick up on 11 years support experience. Got to say, after 11 years you should really be specialising or moving into management or something beyond an MCSE level engineer role.

What about advertising yourself as a local IT support company? Get out there and mailshot all your local businesses, you will have skills and experience they need...

[Chico]

Whats the quote by Hobbes? Short,nasty and brutish - yep that describes the morons on this board who take delight in the suffering of others. You disgust me.

[sasguru]

1. Listen to advice above

2. More specifically, this following is the best site for telling you all you need about contractor CVs. Follow the advice on it exactly. The guy knows what he is talking about.

http://www.contractoruk.com/news/00405.html

3. My tuppence worth - Don't worry about altering your job titles slightly. If asked about this later, say that your (new) title was a better description of what you did. This is particularly the case when you want describe a PM role as a Support role. People may be curious about why you downgraded yourself, but if you say that you were being more honest about what you did, it only reflects well on you.
I'm afraid an element of truth-bending is essential, as long as its not a downright lie and you can do the job.

4. Don't be too down on yourself. I've been there before and it does seem like the end of the world, but in retrospect (15 years later), I was wrong to think that. Go out for a drink and have a laugh occasionally.

[DimPrawn]

That's more like it. A female posting "HELP! Desperate and Frustrated " on CUK.

[milanbenes]

Steveeee,

u da man

Milan.

[steve'O]

[QUOTE=Denny]Ignore the prat just below your enquiry. You don't need that sort of comment.

You are so serious Denny boy! DO we always have to teach people how to write CV'S FFS?

[milanbenes]

nah Mordy I just did a search for her on google

Milan.

[Denny]

CV reformat

Ignore the prat just below your enquiry. You don't need that sort of comment.

One of the things I would do is to really scrutinise your CV. You are not in a position to simply list out a wild meandering of roles that combine technie with PM. That's been your mistake so far.

I would suggest the following (for what it's worth!)

On your CV clearly state your role status - whatever that is as a techie. Don't put PM. The begin your CV with a summary of your techie career to date successes and main skills, but add why you took the PM roles. The reason is that you are aware that it is vital in the marketplace today to have rounded skills, business skills in addition to the usual technie stuff. Only mention the bits of your PM roles that's relevant to your technie ambitions. The link is crucial here. Use that to your advantage. Use that part of the summary to reinforce the former not as an addition to the former making you appear as a portfolio careerist. Your PM 'exposure' should be worded to act as a support for your techie roles to act as a foundation for a more rounded techie IT professional that the market is screaming out for (there are too many techie bods with no people skills, or softer management skills that your PM roles would have given you). What better way to demonstrate that than being in the shoes of a PM for a while.

Then list out all your main techie roles to date, leaving appropriate date gaps in your CV for the PM jobs you've taken on (but dates asking to refer to page whatever for details). Don't worry about this because these gaps have already been accounted for, the skills you've used on each and then write a sentence or so beneath those that relate to how your new PM experience would further a similar type of role in the future. At the end of that list only then describe in brief the actual PM role titles to back up the summaries already forwarded under the appropriate summary and technie role lists.

It's all about creative CV planning. If an agent can see you are essentially techie with essential PM ' exposure' (use that word not experience because that implies you want to go on with PM work) then your CV will be positioned as a techie not as a hotch botch of techie turned desparado for work PM that you now regret. That just means 'desparate for the money so I'll take anything I'm offered' a message you don't want enshrined in your CV either as a techie or a PM.

I hope that helps.

[Mordac]

Are you on drugs Beansey?