Reply to: Hello & 'junior' positions

[deeb]

Cheers; and yes, have plenty of experience with 'recruiters' from the other side at least, to know how they work (ie lying, begging and stealing to get contact details of someone that will have no desire at all to talk to them.)
After I 'bought into' my first couple of positive responses recently my cynical... ah, realistic... side has now returned.

Note, as per my first post, I do have many years of testing experience and of course KNOW I'm pretty great without a bit of paper :P. However, having chucked some CVs in, so far have had less positive responses from agents on that side than for coding (and no, I didn't use the CV that promoted coding stuff!) So hoping that's the sort of thing that will help to get me past the first hurdle.

[bless 'em all]

If I end up back trying to aim for testing positions, will look to get an istqb or two done, as often is mentioned.
(I know I'll breeze the first level at least.)

All you need to be a great tester is an ISTQB certificate and an attitude like yours. You go for it. Just hope for your sake you don't get interviewed by MTT, or land up on my team.

Oh, and welcome btw!

[Bunk]

You are a tool to him.

I usually think the same of them

I agree about covering letters though. I usually just fire off the CV with default Jobserve guff in the message.

[northernladuk]

Will an agent pass on a covering letter? I've been working on the basis they won't and so not tried to target it at them.
I've again been in the position that my CV does seem good enough for an agent to be enthused by it, but guessing not for the client.

Nope, covering letters tend to be a waste of time. Send one if it makes you feel better but the agents tend to just copy your CV in to standard format and fire it off.
Agents are salesmen, they will keep you hanging on and keep you interested so you don't go for another gig. They tend to know very little about the clients exact requirement and even less about the technology so don't take anything the agent says as given. You are a tool to him.
Remember people don't like to give bad feedback, easier to say something nice and then just bin your CV after the call.

[deeb]

Ta,

Sorry, 'client' .

And no degree or other stuff worth listing. If I end up back trying to aim for testing positions, will look to get an istqb or two done, as often is mentioned.
(I know I'll breeze the first level at least.)

Will an agent pass on a covering letter? I've been working on the basis they won't and so not tried to target it at them.
I've again been in the position that my CV does seem good enough for an agent to be enthused by it, but guessing not for the client.

[stek]

Employer?

[SueEllen]

Oh and I should add that I'm neither a kid nor and old git - which is why I was thinking it might be good to let the employer discriminate against OTHER people .

Doesn't work like that I'm afraid.

Agents format CVs and this will include removing personal information. The ones who know about the equality legislation will remove your age. Even if they don't if the company has HR they will remove it before giving it to the hiring manager.

State the number of years experience for your main skill(s) and if you have a degree put the years you did that on it. People can roughly guess your age from that though I do know people who did their degree later in life.

[northernladuk]

Been a bit busy and sadly not busy being offered jobs, cheers for the thoughts.

Any suggestions with what to replace it with?
I have gone for ...acclimatising to new infrastructure

Doesn't sound too bad but won't stack up against '5+ years in xxx infrastructure though.'

Oh and I should add that I'm neither a kid nor and old git - which is why I was thinking it might be good to let the employer discriminate against OTHER people .

LOL that is one take on it I guess

Being a bit anal, but does it matter what time I send off an application?

I was going to send a few off, but wasn't sure if late at night was ideal.
Both for the "he should be in bed now" and that it may be better to send it off mid-morning so it pops up a the top of the email list at that time.

But you could then be last in a long list of mails he got the night before. I work from my oldest post mail first when I come in and the others on my bank of desks do (had a chat about this) but there is one or two that just open the top one first.
Can't see it making that big a difference though.

[deeb]

Been a bit busy and sadly not busy being offered jobs, cheers for the thoughts.

Any suggestions with what to replace it with?
I have gone for ...acclimatising to new infrastructure

Oh and I should add that I'm neither a kid nor and old git - which is why I was thinking it might be good to let the employer discriminate against OTHER people .

Being a bit anal, but does it matter what time I send off an application?

I was going to send a few off, but wasn't sure if late at night was ideal.
Both for the "he should be in bed now" and that it may be better to send it off mid-morning so it pops up a the top of the email list at that time.

[northernladuk]

"aptitude to learn new skills and technologies"

Either of which on your CV are likely to have it the bin in a flash.....

[mudskipper]

Cheers, some interesting points.

I've already been doing a similar position, however on my CV it seems I may need to modify how I present the concept of 'willingness to learn'.

"aptitude to learn new skills and technologies"

[northernladuk]

Some companies don't CVs with age, marital status, children, etc. because they could be open to accusations of prejudice. I find that my 40 years experience covering teletypes, punch cards, and a mechanical card sorter doesn't impress. Talking about exciting new features in SQL Server 2014 CP1 does. My CV covers 10 years max. Luckily I have all my hair and not much grey so people think I am 10 years younger than I am, still get most contracts from telephone interviews though.

Must be the hair!!!

[BigRed]

Some companies don't CVs with age, marital status, children, etc. because they could be open to accusations of prejudice. I find that my 40 years experience covering teletypes, punch cards, and a mechanical card sorter doesn't impress. Talking about exciting new features in SQL Server 2014 CP1 does. My CV covers 10 years max. Luckily I have all my hair and not much grey so people think I am 10 years younger than I am, still get most contracts from telephone interviews though.

[northernladuk]

Cheers - have now tweaked CV to reflect the thoughts.

Any ideas of putting age (date of birth) on there?
I haven't for ages, but wondering if 33 is about right for what employers are looking for or not?
I've certainly heard people in other sectors moan about a lack of age on a CV, but would think it'd make less of a difference in this sort of situation.

What has your age got to do with **** all? There is no benefit to you putting it on but there is a benefit to the employer if he doesn't want kids or old gits in so does nothing except allow a client to discriminate against you. Your work history often gives a clue about your age so if he wants to know it he looks there.

[deeb]

Cheers - have now tweaked CV to reflect the thoughts.

Any ideas of putting age (date of birth) on there?
I haven't for ages, but wondering if 33 is about right for what employers are looking for or not?
I've certainly heard people in other sectors moan about a lack of age on a CV, but would think it'd make less of a difference in this sort of situation.