Reply to: Do you change your CV when asked to just to get an interview?

[SueEllen]

I was once asked to change my cv to show I had skills I didnt have. Told the agent to **** off, no way would I do that.

You are lucky they asked you.

MF has a whole long thread on how the agent changed it for him and he only found out at interview.

[BolshieBastard]

I dont see a problem setting your cv for specific roles especially in todays market.

I've been contracting since 1997 too and I dont have anywhere near 15 companies on it never mind 37 ffs!

If someone else wants to keep 30 cv variants up to date, good luck to them but to be frank, that sounds like a complete jackanory set of cv's to me.

I was once asked to change my cv to show I had skills I didnt have. Told the agent to **** off, no way would I do that.

Neither do I see anything wrong with an email outlining key skills together with my cv, again, especially in today's market.

In the last few years, I've become picky about the roles I go for. I've a good hit rate but Im not going to be a nob like some and say 'ooh, I've had 35 jobs and only ever had 36 interviews!' If you please.

[norrahe]

If asked I will change my CV. If I really want the role.

Have done so recently as the client wasn't convinced of a certain skill set. I do have said skill set but didn't have it down as the main component of my CV as I took it off due to getting loads of spam jobs from pimps doing key searches and not reading my CV properly.

Depending on the role I may emphasize a certain skill and play down another, it's all about marketing yourself. That's how I see it. At the moment I'm trying to crack a tough market outside of the UK and if it means changing my CV to fit the role, then, hell yeah!

[minestrone]

I don't lie to agents when I get a sniff of a job, the client offers the agent a rate, takes a cut and offers the contractor work based upon the skills the contractor has, the requirements the client has and the contractor's willingness to work for client rate minus agent charge.

It is not a hard business, you get your skills, work for a few years building a CV and write down your work history on a word document which is your selling point.

I would say nearly everyone on here is a highly skilled contractor who knows gigs get offered on the face to face or trusted recommendation.

[EternalOptimist]

The agents job is to lie.
He lies to the client about how good and experienced his canidates are.
He lies to the contractor about the rate, and about the setup at clientco.

The Clients job is to lie.
He lies to the agent about how much he can pay, and aboout other suppliers.
He lies to the candidates about the job, conditions, perks and setup.

The contractors job is to lie.
He lies to the agent about his work status, his requirements and his going rate
He lies to the client about his experience, availability, keenness and other prospects

[minestrone]

If rewording my CV to what the agent thinks will give me a better chance at the role or a bigger rate I am happy to do it.

I draw the line at pushing it where I cannot back it up an a face to face and I have never been asked to do that. Part of modern contracting is about marketing the skills you have.

[suityou01]

No I don't. Like I tell the agent, my CV has been successful in securing work so far so I have no reason to change it...

I like this Mr ratewhore. Spot on.

It's not an agency, but a constultancy. The director is the pimp, if you like. He has not ruled it out and has seemingly conceeded my point. He is drafting a covering email to highlight my developmenty bits. Sounds fair enough, and very constructive. I wish him good luck.

[ratewhore]

No I don't. Like I tell the agent, my CV has been successful in securing work so far so I have no reason to change it...

[Doggy Styles]

I wouldn't send a covering letter for a contract role, it makes you look too keen.

Well certainly not to agents anyway

I don't see anything wrong with that. It gives whoever a hook.

[Sysman]

You ca also go too far here. I once got a bit carried away with tailoring a CV to a client's needs and their comment was that I came over as too specialised, and hadn't I done anything else?

[MarillionFan]

I have worked within recruitment for a while now, currently working for contractjobs.com; The contract only job board. Alot of our registered contractors have multiple CV's that are tweaked to different job specifications. The CV's can be very long as most contractors have worked in varying roles, by having role specific documents they cut the length to 4 to 5 pages rather than 7 to 8!

Exactly. I have now contracted since 1997 at 35 different clients. Some of those clients have been consultancies and so I have worked on even more projects & clients across many industries. My CV needs to be cut back otherwise it's eight pages.

I guess agents are just worried about people who may appear to be jack of all trades , and they assume you may be master of none.

So while they do appear to be prepared to put you forward, they are worried this is what it will appear like to the end client.

I'm not sure I'd want to employ a dev who has spent 90% or whatever of his time the last 2 years just doing business analysis.

Or a PM doing the similar percentage dev for the last 2 years.

With the amount of people on the market, there will be plenty of people who have been 100% dev or PM or whatever for the last 2 years.

So I'd say them being prepared to put you forward at all is good going.

So regardless of you being tulip hot at whatever type of role you are going for, and that yes you may be better than 100 other guys put forward despite doing something else for that period, the question mark is there. Why was he doing that instead of this?

Can they be bothered finding out? maybe? can you get past the dumb gatekeeper agent who may have the same questions? maybe...in this case yes.

Now, I am not a master of all trades, I'm just a lowly dev.

Would I highlight some tech that I used only say 10% in my last role. To be honest, yes, whatever gets me the gig.

Dog eat dog, and all that, I'm sure plenty of people do that.

I have core practical problem solving skills . These in turn can be translated into technical lifecycle functions such as BA, PM, developer, tester. I am a classic jack of all trades, but I am also a master in some, so I need to get past the gatekeeper and into an interview. Of the 35 contracts I have had, I have had 36 interviews. So for me, getting the interview is an almost certainty of an offer.

[doodab]

I have 2 CVs, one focusing on my niche and one focused on my commodity skills. I do review them before sending when applying for a specific role to ensure any experience relevant to the role is highlighted but I would never bulltulip.

If anything I'm a bit too honest when asked "can you do x", and I know I'm reasonably competent but not expert as in some of my core skills then I tend to talk myself down. It's a bloody annoying habit actually.

[amcdonald]

I used to have a few, but didn't fancy keeping several up to date, especially not 30.

I have one vanilla CV and just tweak it for each job, and send it with a covering email describing why I'm such a good fit.

I wouldn't send a covering letter for a contract role, it makes you look too keen.

Well certainly not to agents anyway

[jmo21]

I guess agents are just worried about people who may appear to be jack of all trades , and they assume you may be master of none.

So while they do appear to be prepared to put you forward, they are worried this is what it will appear like to the end client.

I'm not sure I'd want to employ a dev who has spent 90% or whatever of his time the last 2 years just doing business analysis.

Or a PM doing the similar percentage dev for the last 2 years.

With the amount of people on the market, there will be plenty of people who have been 100% dev or PM or whatever for the last 2 years.

So I'd say them being prepared to put you forward at all is good going.

So regardless of you being tulip hot at whatever type of role you are going for, and that yes you may be better than 100 other guys put forward despite doing something else for that period, the question mark is there. Why was he doing that instead of this?

Can they be bothered finding out? maybe? can you get past the dumb gatekeeper agent who may have the same questions? maybe...in this case yes.

Now, I am not a master of all trades, I'm just a lowly dev.

Would I highlight some tech that I used only say 10% in my last role. To be honest, yes, whatever gets me the gig.

Dog eat dog, and all that, I'm sure plenty of people do that.

[MikeNguyen]

I have multiple CVs. Bit like a pick list.

I have worked within recruitment for a while now, currently working for contractjobs.com; The contract only job board. Alot of our registered contractors have multiple CV's that are tweaked to different job specifications. The CV's can be very long as most contractors have worked in varying roles, by having role specific documents they cut the length to 4 to 5 pages rather than 7 to 8!