CV for agency: how much personal info?

Hedgehog99

I need to get some temp work, so am preparing my CV for agencies.

Do I still have to include my email, home address & phone numbers?

The agency will have my contact details, so I don't really want to include these on the CV they'll be sending out.

For ID theft reasons and general personal privacy, I don't like disclosing these unless I have to, especially when the agency will be choosing where to send my CV rather than it being my choice and it could have a much wider circulation (I realise that's the point of an agency - to get you work!!).

I'm just feeling a bit annoyed that I recently filled in an application that wanted all sorts of personal info, I didn't get shortlisted, and now my info is sitting there on that employer's computer and I have to wait for them to delete it after whatever time.

ssparks2003

Most if not all agencies will cut and paste your details onto their own template that they send to the client so they will remove your personal details to prevent the company trying to snaffle you without paying agency fees.

engineer_amy

ssparks2003 wrote: »

Most if not all agencies will cut and paste your details onto their own template that they send to the client so they will remove your personal details to prevent the company trying to snaffle you without paying agency fees.

Yes - standard practice for agencies is to remove any contact details to avoid direct contact between the client and candidate before interview.


With the prevalence of social media, Linked In etc, some are even going as far as to remove the name of the candidate, referring to the CV only by a unique reference number. It stops the client looking them up on linked in and sending a message there.


If you are doing a CV specifically for agencies, keep the contact details off the document, only include them in your email to the agency. And keep the CV in word format, don't convert to PDF - if they use parsing software to enter you on the database it makes life easier with a word document, it also allows the consultant to tweak the CV if necessary to fit the job they are submitting you for.

DCFC79

Hedgehog99 wrote: »

I'm just feeling a bit annoyed that I recently filled in an application that wanted all sorts of personal info, I didn't get shortlisted, and now my info is sitting there on that employer's computer and I have to wait for them to delete it after whatever time.

I bet the information will get deleted after a point.

Stylehutz

engineer_amy wrote: »

Yes - standard practice for agencies is to remove any contact details to avoid direct contact between the client and candidate before interview.


With the prevalence of social media, Linked In etc, some are even going as far as to remove the name of the candidate, referring to the CV only by a unique reference number. It stops the client looking them up on linked in and sending a message there.


If you are doing a CV specifically for agencies, keep the contact details off the document, only include them in your email to the agency. And keep the CV in word format, don't convert to PDF - if they use parsing software to enter you on the database it makes life easier with a word document, it also allows the consultant to tweak the CV if necessary to fit the job they are submitting you for.

I would disagree with sending it in word and send it Pdf just how you want it to look. They will want to mess around with it to suit them. Much more difficult to do that in Pdf. If they tweak it to suit something that your not then that doesnt benefit anyone

ReadingTim

Stylehutz wrote: »

I would disagree with sending it in word and send it Pdf just how you want it to look. They will want to mess around with it to suit them. Much more difficult to do that in Pdf. If they tweak it to suit something that your not then that doesnt benefit anyone

It is more difficult to do it well when the source document is a pdf, but that won't stop them trying - badly. The end result is that the company gets a shoddy looking word doc which reflects badly on you - worse, the editing introduces errors into the doc which weren't there on the original - a typo on employment dates for example.

Also, there's tweaking a CV to better arrange info or highlight certain elements and wholesale rewriting it. While the latter benefits no-one, the former might!

With regard to identity theft, I would have thought a date of birth was necessary to do any real damage. Given there's no requirement to have that on a CV, and as long as you don't have it on linkedin, facebook or the likes (day, month - year could probably be guessed from a CV) then you're probably ok...

Stylehutz

IUu

ReadingTim wrote: »

It is more difficult to do it well when the source document is a pdf, but that won't stop them trying - badly. The end result is that the company gets a shoddy looking word doc which reflects badly on you - worse, the editing introduces errors into the doc which weren't there on the original - a typo on employment dates for example.

Also, there's tweaking a CV to better arrange info or highlight certain elements and wholesale rewriting it. While the latter benefits no-one, the former might!

With regard to identity theft, I would have thought a date of birth was necessary to do any real damage. Given there's no requirement to have that on a CV, and as long as you don't have it on linkedin, facebook or the likes (day, month - year could probably be guessed from a CV) then you're probably ok...

Very good point about them reediting with typos etc. I always got the impression recruitment consultants were infallible.

mattcanary

ReadingTim wrote: »

It is more difficult to do it well when the source document is a pdf, but that won't stop them trying - badly. The end result is that the company gets a shoddy looking word doc which reflects badly on you - worse, the editing introduces errors into the doc which weren't there on the original - a typo on employment dates for example.

Also, there's tweaking a CV to better arrange info or highlight certain elements and wholesale rewriting it. While the latter benefits no-one, the former might!

With regard to identity theft, I would have thought a date of birth was necessary to do any real damage. Given there's no requirement to have that on a CV, and as long as you don't have it on linkedin, facebook or the likes (day, month - year could probably be guessed from a CV) then you're probably ok...

Even if you don't include your date of birth, by including you contact details you lay yourself open to being phoned all the time by cold callers trying to sell you mobile phones, double glazing, timeshares, etc.

In the past, I included all my contact details as it is being helpful, and would have done me no harm nor led to the details being sold on to others. Nowadays, I'm not so sure!

jbond

Hedgehog99 wrote: »

....especially when the agency will be choosing where to send my CV rather than it being my choice and it could have a much wider circulation...

Ideally, YOU should be the one that decides where your CV ends up, NOT the agency!
They should be contacting YOU, whenever they want to send your CV somewhere!