Work history on cv

DCFC79

reheat wrote: »

The "right" length of you CV depends what liine of business you are in. For many industries the 2-page limit is spot-on, but if your work is strongly technical and you have 10 years experience it will not have enough meat in it.

Nonetheless the front-page-hit-them-between-the-eyes approach is vital. This "Killer CV" article is very good for engineering jobs.

the work im doing now isnt technical plus its different to what work im looking for

monkeymo

I work in recruitment and when I look at a CV, I want to know what someone does in their current job (or recent previous job(s)), their qualifications and can they spell and communicate.

I don't want to know whether you think you can work in a team or on your own, whether you were a prefect at school or whether you can fill 8 or 10 lines describing yourself in a "Profile" section. You might describe yourself as determined and ambitious, but I would argue that your description is irrelevant as it is subjective. Stick to the facts. What can you do? What have you done? Tell the employer what you think they want to see that you can do.

What I want to know is: have you got the skills and experience to do the job that you have applied for?

If you work in sales and want a new sales job, I want to know what you have sold, who you sold it to, what industries you sold it to and whether you are good at selling.

You say that you want to work in a different sector to which you have experience. I want to know why you want to work in the sector you've applied for, why you think you're relevant and where you see similarities between your skills and experience and the position you applied for.

HTH and all the best!

LittleVoice

monkeymo wrote: »

II don't want to know whether you think you can work in a team or on your own,

Hear, hear! I agree entirely with the post. (And in a team/on own is one of my pet hates.)

Oldernotwiser

LittleVoice wrote: »

Hear, hear! I agree entirely with the post. (And in a team/on own is one of my pet hates.)

Is there ANYONE who can't work as part of a team and on their own initiative (in their CV)? The phrase is totally meaningless.

reheat

LittleVoice wrote: »

Hear, hear! I agree entirely with the post. (And in a team/on own is one of my pet hates.)

The many hundreds (maybe thousands) of job ads I've trawled through in the past months, almost without exception all say people must work well in a team as well as able to work individually. I think in fairness it depends very much what kind of work you do. In my line of work (software engineering) both skills are absolutely imperative - they are part of the job. If you don't make a brief (one short sentence) mention in your CV people wonder why you haven't!

reheat

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Is there ANYONE who can't work as part of a team and on their own initiative (in their CV)? The phrase is totally meaningless.

I agree that trying to convince recruiters of your soft skills in a CV or cover letter is incredibly difficult, especially as the most reclusive hermit could state on a CV what a great team player they are (gets on well with the sheep?!). But being in my mid 50's it's not easy to gain that edge I need to progress from CV submission to interview, so what I've done recently in my cover letters is to mention (truthfully!) what an interviewer has said about my soft skills such as motivation, enthusiasm, etc.

LittleVoice

reheat wrote: »

The many hundreds (maybe thousands) of job ads I've trawled through in the past months, almost without exception all say people must work well in a team as well as able to work individually. I think in fairness it depends very much what kind of work you do. In my line of work (software engineering) both skills are absolutely imperative - they are part of the job. If you don't make a brief (one short sentence) mention in your CV people wonder why you haven't!

So what you do is show working in a team and an individual achievement - just saying in a profile "I am a team player and also work well on my own initiative" is something the people who prepare boiler plate CVs include on every CV. [I'll admit not 100% of CV templates but an awful lot really.]

It is also a trite phrase to use in a job ad.