Spec me a CV bitches

Post by **Dog Pants** » June 26th, 2009, 12:37

I know this is subjective, but I've not applied for a job in 9 years and even then I got my only other job because I was a graduate who'd work for minimum wage. So I've no experience of CVs. I'm hoping that a couple of our professional 5punkers will have experience of reading and writing them, and if so, do you have any advice? I could go googling stuff, but the internet is full of advice, mostly bad, and with no experience of what to look for I can't seperate the good information from the bad.

I've an inkling of what I should be doing - tailor each CV to the employer/job, keep it below two pages, stick to relevent experience and qualifications. Problem is, I don't really know where to start.

Post by **Grimmie** » June 26th, 2009, 12:47

I have a shit-ton of stuff saved from the careers advisor when I worked at the college and got made redundant.
I'll zip it all along with my CV/covering letters and send it over tonight

Post by **fabyak** » June 26th, 2009, 13:19

Most importantly: Tailor your cover letter to each job, they can be roughly the same but make sure you include specifics about the job you're going for or they will most likely chuck it away as a generic carpet bombing approach

Post by **Dog Pants** » June 26th, 2009, 14:34

Cheers guys. Fab, you're likely to recieve one if the offer to pass it on is still there.

Post by **fabyak** » June 26th, 2009, 15:32

Sure is! Just emailed my mate to warn him your CV is inbound in the future

Post by **Dog Pants** » June 26th, 2009, 15:40

Awesome, cheers

Post by **tandino** » June 26th, 2009, 18:54

Doggers!

I'm by no means saying my CV is awesome, but It has got me a few interviews and a few jobs over the past 6 years. I'll happily send it over for you to have a look at along with various tailored covering letters if you want. As you said, keep your CV punchy and concise, but memorable.

Your covering letter is the key to an interview. Get the job description/person specification and compose the covering letter with ACTUAL examples of times where you've performed that action. For example:

Person specification says

"The ideal candidate should have team leadership skills"

A paragraph in your covering letter would be

"In University, I was appointed as team leader. Our task, as a team, was to program a piece of interactive learning software. As team leader I composed a project management chart detailing significant milestones in the project BLAH BLAH BLAH"

Litter it with actual examples. Too many people will just be generic "I was a team pleader in uni" when asked for an example where they led a team. Give the cunts details, they love 'em.

Also be ridiculously positive, like it's the best job you've ever fucking SEEN! People don't want negativity nowadays.

Apologies if any of this seems at all patronising, I'm just explaining how I would go about it.

Post by **Dog Pants** » June 26th, 2009, 19:00

Nope, all good stuff. I might not have thought of putting actual examples for a start. Any help I can get is appreciated.

Post by **HereComesPete** » June 26th, 2009, 20:48

Pretty much what those gents

said.

I've gone for jobs where I haven't had the qualifications stated but I've offered reasons why I could do the job regardless and been given the interview.

Like tandino said, their job always the best thing since sliced bread whilst getting sucked off by a hooker. And examples of situations where you've lead/been lead/targets/deadlines met etc are good. Even if they can't see anything you've worked on, tell them you did and that it was fucking mint because you/your team made/fixed it.

A well tailored cover letter for a job where there's a lot of candidates is a far heavier hitter than the cv itself in the initial stages. Get it good enough to make the initial cut and you're halfway to the face to face bit.

Trends on cv's regarding personalisation tend to flit about, some jobs you're recommended to stack the tech data and leave the hobbies well alone, some to inject quite a bit of inter-personal crap.

If you get a no, ask why it was no. Even if they say they don't do that, if you've got them on the phone they're unlikely to just hang up if you push the issue.

Above all, keep faith in yourself and your abilities.

Post by **Dog Pants** » June 26th, 2009, 21:04

HereComesPete wrote:Trends on cv's regarding personalisation tend to flit about, some jobs you're recommended to stack the tech data and leave the hobbies well alone, some to inject quite a bit of inter-personal crap.

I'm hoping for the former. I struggle with the hobbies and interests part, it's usually got just movies and gaming on it, which don't look great.

Post by **HereComesPete** » June 26th, 2009, 21:09

A bit of personality helps on any of them. But I think you'll be better with a clear concise cover and lots of achievements on various programs and tasks in the cv body.

And you do plenty of stuff, taking sprog to the seaside, homebrews+real ale, p&p gm'ing, films, music, food etc.

Post by **ProfHawking** » June 27th, 2009, 11:39

stick one quirky and unique hobby on there (that you do know about). It gets their attention, and they'll want to ask you about it so are more likey to get you in for an interview. Also then in the interview when it comes up, you can chat about it easily and comfortably.

Post by **Grimmie** » June 27th, 2009, 11:43

Dog Pants wrote:I'm hoping for the former. I struggle with the hobbies and interests part, it's usually got just movies and gaming on it, which don't look great.

You mean competitive on-line gaming within a community that you help moderate.
And that you organise and lead events within the group, contributing with your excellent writing and storytelling skills.

Or something.

Post by **Dog Pants** » June 27th, 2009, 17:09

Grimmie wrote: You mean competitive on-line gaming within a community that you help moderate.
And that you organise and lead events within the group, contributing with your excellent writing and storytelling skills.

Or something.

Maybe. I kind of stole yours and added a bit of forum mod to it.

Post by **Grimmie** » June 27th, 2009, 18:08

Dog Pants wrote:Maybe. I kind of stole yours and added a bit of forum mod to it.

Now you just have to learn website design and move to Birmingham.

Post by **Dog Pants** » June 27th, 2009, 18:16

Haha, I only meant the personal interests. And only the bit about gaming. And then I modified that. Thanks for the starter though

Post by **FatherJack** » June 27th, 2009, 22:52

I need to get around to updating my CV now I need a new job at the end of the year.

My last one is rather out of date, given I wrote it in 1995, it did work for me though. It was printed out in dark green using Wingdings computer symbols as bullet points - would seem terribly cheesy now, but got it noticed by the (all female) interview team.