Who/where can I go to for advice on my CV? I know there are any number of websites offering advice but I’d kinda prefer someone who knows about CV’s to get some advice.

I’ve looked online but cannot really find what I’m after.

Anyone..?

2 pages. Keep things concise. Include contact details. Mention achievements. Make it easy to read.
All very general though. Do you have any specific questions?

This is an answer I put onto LinkedIn when someone asked what not to put on a CV, hope it helps:
“I would avoid the following if I was writing a new CV:
Never a photo, I have never seen one that adds any kind of value to a CV.
Remove your Date of Birth, it adds nothing. O
n a similar note, any work experience less recent than 15 years ago (and arguably 10 years ago) is not really relevant. If someone wants that information they can always ask.
Personal details such as marital status, number of children, race, etc.
Contact details that you don’t want to be contacted on. If you don’t want to take a call at home, don’t put your home number on the CV.
Any education other than your highest level (i.e. if you have a degree I do not need to know what A-Levels you have). Unrelated qualifications (e.g. if applying for an IT job I do not need to know that you’re a qualified brick layer).
Political persuasions are not needed and can be used against you.
I do like to see hobbies and interests as they can be used as a conversation starter and can give an insight into the kind of person you are. However, do be careful not to put anything on that that could be used against you.”

I would also add:
Keep it to 2, maybe 3 pages but make sure the interesting stuff is on the first page.
Have a few different versions that emphasis different areas of your experience. That way you can send the right version for each job you apply for.
Bullet points are good, long and winding paragraphs aren’t.
Remeber that whoever looks at your CV will likely only spend about 30 seconds on it so make sure it make an impact.
Keep the fonts fairly standard, Tahoma or Arial are good, Comic Sans isn’t.

Hope this all helps!

Lunge pretty much has said it all.

Always taylor your CV to the job you are applying for 1 CV for all jobs isnt really specific enough.

I was made redundant by a large UK company 3 years ago and we got loads of help with CV’s etc from a couple of external companies. Both said there is no absolute right or wrong way to do it, in fact they even offered conflicting advice at times…

If you want I can send you a blank copy of my CV, which has never failed to get me an interview for any job I have applied for. Of course I may not work in the same field as you.

lunge and Funcydunc have most of the stuff covered.

You have to make a direct hit early on as there are so many people going for every job at the moment, so recruiters will not get past the top half of the first page of your CV unless it grabs their attention. Top of the CV should be a 4-5 line paragraph summarising your experience and skills. Then list your job history as one liners before going into detail on each one, most recent first. Put all of the personal stuff like education, location, interests etc at the back

Always taylor your CV

Make sure you spell check it too!

A CV should be viewed largely a reference point to be used in an interview.

Most CV’s aren’t read, so don’t get too hung up on this, just make sure the right words appear in it and in the right quantity, so the recruiter’s word search software picks yours out.

If it get’s past the junior who’s tasked to screen the shotlist, you will be very lucky!

If you are looking for a job, the last place you want to apply is online! There are too many hurdles to get past before your CV is presented to a decision maker, the person who wants to hire you. You have almost no chance of reaching the right person.

I have three tips for finding your next job:
1) Network!
2) Network!
3) Network!

The only bit I would clarify from Lunge’s NOT list is : Personal details such as marital status, number of children

If you are married but with no dependednt kids that can work to your advantage as you are tied down but will work school holidays.

Clearly depends on the role you are going for. What sort of thing are you looking for?

Spongebob’s advice about networking is valid too. My last couple of jobs have been with the Technical Director of a company I worked for before and then with the CEO of a company I had worked for previously. It is important not to sh1t on people on the way past as they can be useful later. Try LinkedIn, it is like Facebook for adults and less intrusive than phoning everyone you can remember for the last few years for a chat.

there are no hard and fast rules, except some you should get right!

* Spelling
* Grammar
* Make sure your cover letter refers only to the job you’re applying, and not another job or course
* Re-read it a day or two later to see if it sounds stupid
* If you say you have a good attention to detail, make sure you apply that to your CV. Soooo many don’t!

I prefer CV’s in chronological order, most recent stuff first. No need for detail, just summarise. Particularly older stuff – very brief ‘headliners’. Try to show seperation between sections – I’ve seen loads where education merges into work experience which merges into hobbies. Just a coupe of lines of white space and then a bold title is enough. Make it easy to read… hard stuff gets put on the ‘no’ pile.

DONT USE ACRONYMS, particularly when applying for an even slightly different role or field to where you worked. I haven’t got a clue what you’re on about.

Covering letters – short and well spaced into paragraphs. Long drony text is just a mare to read & more likely to contain waffle and head to the bin. Only put facts in the covering letter. Don’t tell me facts about the job position which you blatantly don’t know, just that you’ve made up. Don’t big yourself or your enthusiasm up too much – they’ll think you’re weird!

A few words about what you want to get out of the job and what your future aspirations are is always good. The CV can talk about your skills, not the covering letter IMO.

Some apostrophe help:

When I write CVs. When I read CVs. The pile of CVs.

The CV’s font. The CV’s layout. The CV’s purpose.

All good points above, the only thing I’d add is get to someone else to read it, too. Ideally someone literate, pedantic, and who works in HR.

There’s a few things I’d like to pick up on here.

2 pages.

This gets trotted out every time someone asks about CVs, and it’s bogus. Actually, that’s unfair; what I mean is that it’s old advice that’s not always appropriate, and it certainly shouldn’t be the first thing on your list of priorities.

If you’re going for an unskilled job then two pages is probably excessive. On the other hand if you’re going for a job where you’re likely to have / require a lot of skillsets, experience, qualifications etc, two pages is an impossible ask. On my own “generic” CV, my skillset list is a page on its own (not to brag, that’s just how IT staff often are, we often work with a huge variety of systems).

I’ve been involved in recruiting with a couple of different employers and I’ve seen a lot of CVs. There’s few things worse that getting a four-page CV that’s been condensed onto two pages by using a 6-point font and no white space. Bin.

It’s worth being concise, but that’s achievable without obsessing about your word count.

A CV should be viewed largely a reference point to be used in an interview.

Sorry, no. A CV serves one purpose and one purpose only – it’s a sales document to get you in the interview. Once you’re sat in that chair it’s done its job. If the best you can do on an interview is read your CV back to me, I wouldn’t employ you, I can read.

there are no hard and fast rules, except some you should get right!

This. Anyone who says you must do blah blah should be treated with suspicion. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, otherwise they’d all be the same. Different candidates, different roles, different industries, different employers all dictate different requirements.

As a rule of thumb, the more important something is, the nearer the front it should be. If you’re a University graduate in a stopgap job at ASDA who’s applying for a career position, you’d list your education first and the shelf-stacking at the end. If you’re a time-served plumber looking for a full-time plumbing job, then it’d be the other way round, you’d list work experience first and academic second (assuming you even listed it at all). For me, what’s important in going for an IT job is my support skillset, so that’s what’s at the head of my CV above work experience and academic history.

Actually, rereading I’d say I’d agree with pretty much all of CP’s post there.

Couple of other things,

Depending on industry, it may be worth tailoring your CV to the job. I have a generic CV which I’d give to an agency, but if I was going for a specific job then I’d move their ‘job requirements’ front and centre on my CV and drop or depreciate irrelevant information.

On the subject of agencies, a lot of them keyword search CVs. So, there’s no difference between “I am a SQL god” and “I’ve used SQL once” from the point of view of a search engine. It’s worth bearing this in mind if you want to avoid a lot of false positives (or of course, if you don’t…)

Once you’ve finished, consider making an anonymised version (ie, remove personal details), then sticking it on the web so we can tear it to bits give constructive criticism. It’s a lot easier to give direct advice with an example.

well I am sure a link to your last thread about women and football will help 😉

All interesting stuff, so thanks for the tips too.
I’m finding garden leave an interesting concept; managed a swim and full service of bottom bracket, various pivot bearings and sorted a sticky gear this morning. Now to the more serious stuff of the next career move…

Any tips on networking within the biking industry?
(up north if poss)

ty

Sorry, no. A CV serves one purpose and one purpose only – it’s a sales document to get you in the interview. Once you’re sat in that chair it’s done its job. If the best you can do on an interview is read your CV back to me, I wouldn’t employ you, I can read.

Yeah, but we all know recruiting agents don’t read curricula. And I have plenty of STW evidence to back this up ;-).

many CVs are scanned for keywords before the lucky ones are viewed – if they’re missing you’re buggered no matter how great a gift to the world you think you are

iDave y am not even referring to that (which in my opinion is laziness), but more to the fact that once you have an interview, the recruiter ask you to talk about you, what are your studies, and your skill. All of them being written black on white on the CV.

EDIT and what spongebob says…

would people use the word skills or the words competences?

I’d argue they’re different things.

I have a competence in Excel. I wouldn’t say I’m skilled in it.

Include your achievements e.g. increased sales by x%, revised z process which increased efficiency by y%

One way of doing this is the CAR method:
Challenge – the problem / opportunity
Action – what you did
Result – what was the outcome

Too many CVs just list functions people undertook rather than what resulted from doing the functions.

Hopefully you’ll be interviewed by very intelligent and successful women

LOL @ idave.

While everyone says keep it short etc, recruitment agents stick it straight into IT – consequently if you’ve not the buzz-word on…

I once got a contract due to been the only person on the database with ‘RACF’ on their CV.

You know, I wonder if you’d get away with hiding “search engine optimisation” text, like websites do. List your key skills a hundred times in white text on a white background on the last page, and wait for the agency’s CV scraper to go up to 11.

Thanks fit the advice lads.

Juan and Dave, god loves a tryer, don’t quit as I’m sure it’ll come together…

“List your key skills a hundred times in white text on a white background”

Nicely devious idea. All the CV parsing apps I’ve seen highlight the searched keyword, so you’d probably get found out quickly.