Writing a CV: content and style

Sammyantha

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Whether you write a skills based CV or a chronological CV, you should put your education before your employment.

Interesting that you say that. I have only seen this done a few times before, and generally more so in academia. It's interesting to read what qualifications a prospective employee has, but when going through dozens (or in the current climate, hundreds) of job applications, experience needs to be seen first. If it's on the second page/ bottom of the CV, the person sorting through applications may not even get that far before casting it aside.

If on the other hand, the applicant has a relevant qualification, it should be incorporated into the personal statement strap line along with keywords tailored to the position so that employers can see at first glance that this person is not only qualified but an "organised, pro-active professional, with more than 20 years experience in government" etc.

Sammyantha

LittleVoice wrote: »

unless they are actually relevant

Agreed. Many people don't know how relevant their interests can be however. What you do in your spare time says a lot about who you are and how you approach things. Hence why i mentioned adrenaline fuelled sports on sales CV's - these show the person thrives on competition, adrenaline, they get a buzz from getting ahead. If you were tailoring a CV towards a research position, interests such as problem solving, reading, writing, would all be relevant. For hairdressing, it may be socialising (good with people), fashion (image aware) etc.

Sammyantha

stokelady1 wrote: »

Agh can't believe this myth is still doing the rounds! I wok in recuitment

I work in recruitment too The CV needs to be a foot in the door. Once you're in, you can expand on what's in there. That's why keywords are so important.

cannycat

Just to emphasise that every employer is different, and sometimes even departments within the same organisation are slightly different. What works for a commercial recruiter may not work for a public sector situation, where the majority of jobs require an application form rather than a cv - although a lot of the information below is equally relevant to tailoring your cv. I'd also definitely recommend talking to the line manager or department if you can to get more information about the job.

Many applications are online now and although you can submit a cv for some it may or may not be read. As a line manager, if we have 40 or more applications for a job, it is much, much easier and fairer to shortlist if we can simply go down the ticklist for the post against a consistent format. I've also assisted colleagues with recruitment and selection for their posts, and the main errors we come across are:

1. Badly completed application forms: sloppy grammar, bad spelling etc. While some people (several of my teacher friends, curiously, which possibly says volumes...!) will tell you this doesn't matter, it can indicate a sloppy approach and a lack of care, and if there are applicants with identical qualifications/experience who've taken more care with the application, it can make the difference between reaching shortlist or not.

2. Applicants assuming that we will understand what their qualifications mean without expanding on this in the further information section. For some it's obvious, e.g. if you're applying for a job as a healthcare assistant and you have an NVQ in Care, then that's fairly clear, but if you have, for instance, qualifications from overseas or something more specialised like an HND in Infographics then it often isn't obvious how they 'map' to the job requirements.

3. Applicants assuming we'll understand how their experience fits in with the job description/person specification without actually explaining it in the further information section. This can be a particular problem with internal candidates. With our recruitment systems, we don't see the personal details until the shortlisting stage so the evidence is absolutely key in making a decision.

4. People who just copy and paste their entire cv into the additional information section. This is just pure laziness, quite honestly, and indicates they haven't taken much care over the application.

You're trying to answer:

1. Why do you want THIS job, in particular, with THIS employer?
2. What qualifications, skills, and experience do you have that are particularly relevant to whatever the employer is asking for?
3. When I was last job hunting I had 7 or 8 different cvs, all differently targeted depending on what type of role I was looking for.
4. A really good piece of advice I was given by a careers officer at the time was to put my name and contact details at the top of the cv, and then have a really short precis underneath targeted at the job, e.g. "Experienced administrator with 5 years' hands-on knowledge of MS Office, excellent time management and filing skills, able to organise team of 12 stroppy, demanding and overfed executives while dancing on one leg, sweeping the floor and serving tea, seeks second career post in the arts management sector".

(All right, the end product was a bit more serious, but it was very good advice!)

Best of luck with your applications, whether they're cv or application form based!

LittleVoice

Sammyantha wrote: »

Agreed. Many people don't know how relevant their interests can be however. What you do in your spare time says a lot about who you are and how you approach things. Hence why i mentioned adrenaline fuelled sports on sales CV's - these show the person thrives on competition, adrenaline, they get a buzz from getting ahead. If you were tailoring a CV towards a research position, interests such as problem solving, reading, writing, would all be relevant. For hairdressing, it may be socialising (good with people), fashion (image aware) etc.

It can also show that they are at risk of injuring themselves and being on sick leave and not earning income for the employer - in fact possibly being a drain on them if there is a decent sick pay scheme.

Welsh_Totster

Blimey it's a mine field! All this time I've been cocooned in the civil service the big bad world out there seems totally mad! I'm glad I asked about this now as I have plenty of time to think it through. Thanks folks!

Sammyantha

Welsh_Totster wrote: »

Blimey it's a mine field! All this time I've been cocooned in the civil service the big bad world out there seems totally mad! I'm glad I asked about this now as I have plenty of time to think it through. Thanks folks!

:rotfl:

Good luck :beer: