Any tips?

I’ve done a linkedin profile.

I’m googling for vacancies.

I’m applying.

Most job specks seem to be fantasy island. How many of the specs do they real expect to fill.

When did you last change your CV? not “update”, change. When I was made redundant in march I update my CV and had a couple of people look at it. They weren’t impressed and suggested I use a “bullet point” format throughout rather than free text

I rewrote it entirely and got a new job within two weeks.

a month or so a go. I’m mainly bullet points with a “skills matrix” which was suggested to me by someone.

use jobsite and monster – they circulate your CV around more agencies that you can even think of

make sure you update the CV posting on these sites every couple of weeks as new cvs get by far the most attention

Can anybody recommend any professional CV writers ? Might be worth the money I reckon – I hate writing mine – it’s hard to get the tone right. And easy to forget stuff.

Can anybody recommend any professional CV writers ? Might be worth the money I reckon – I hate writing mine – it’s hard to get the tone right. And easy to forget stuff.

not sure I’d employ someone who couldn’t write their own CV…

Anyone got any good links for CV rewriting? (Not professional – DIY)

Oi jam bo cheeky – I am not saying I can’t write a CV, just that professionals might do it better. You don’t keep a dog and bark yourself…

And I certainly wouldn’t employ anybody who can’t use mixed case…

Get networking, speak to friends and anyone you know who may still be working in your chosen industry, ask them to pass your CV onto their HR department. Over 50% of vacancies are never advertised. I got my current job that way via a link to someone I hardly know.

^ This is something I am terrible at, I hate asking people for favours. I currently don’t think I have any contacts at the moment as I’m making a clean break.

Have more than 1 CV with each emphasising a different area of your skills and send the most relevant to each job advert. Some people will do a new CV for each application but that may be too much for some.
Get your CV on the job boards (Monster, Jobsite, CV-Library) and update it weekly to make sure it stays at the top of the pile.
Make sure you have key words written on your CV. Think of the things that people will want to see and will look for in their CV searches and make sure they are there.
Make sure anything relevant is in the first page of your CV. I have no problems with a 3 or 4 page CV but the keep people reading you need to have them hooked on the first page.
Follow up your applications with a call. Send the CV then 1 hour later call the agency and explain you have applied and would be keen to discuss. Again, this gets your name towards the top of the pile.
Only apply for jobs you can do. If you’re a project manager don’t waste your time applying for business analyst roles even if you think you could “turn your hand” to it.
Don’t waste your time with jobs that have been live for more than 3 days, only apply to the freshest adverts.

Read ‘What colour is your parachute’

Some of it is a bit ‘american’ but there is some really good advice in there. I know statistics are spurious but a number of studies have shown punting your CV out there has the lowest success rate for job hunting. Networking / Informational interviewing the best.

I did a very small re-tweak of my cv yesterday and it must have pooped my cv to the top of the pile or something as I got one phone call yesterday pm and one this morning. No interviews as of yet but it’s a step in the right direction.

I used a free CV writer that I found on the Googlenet that helped with layout, the actual wording is mine.
Regarding the OP, cold call, target companis then just knock on doors with a quick and polite request. Do some research on the company so you at least know what they do. You haven’t said what field you’re in or what postion you’d be looking for, research these in the company you’re calling on. Show them you’re interested.
If you’re unemployed, you have the time. Make job hunting a full time professional activity.
If that seems like too much work, then you don’t deserve the job.
Second if that, if that doesn’t get you anywhere, you could try printing you CV on pink paper to catch someone’s eye (usual caveats apply).

And good luck.

Rockhopper – Member

Get networking, speak to friends and anyone you know who may still be working in your chosen industry, ask them to pass your CV onto their HR department. Over 50% of vacancies are never advertised. I got my current job that way via a link to someone I hardly know.

agree with this strongly…

recruitment consultants will mess you about and find any jobs in order to make their commision (i used to be one)

write letters to companies you’d like to work for. Phone and speak to decision makers and have a chat about what you’re looking for. Even if they don’t have work they may know someone who does…

you may get lucky with job sites etc.. but you’ll be competing against 30,40,50+ other applicants.

To get linkedin to work for you your profile has to be 100%. i.e. complete with photo, all fields filled in and 3 references.
google linkedin webinar (some are free) which explains how linkedin works and how recruiters use it. Key is to have words they use in searching prominent in your profile etc.
good luck

I get bombarded with CVs on a daily basis by people who *think* they’re pro-actively searching for work. These are the people who moan that they’ve sent out 600 CVs and not got one reply!

Well I’m sorry, but googling for a list of companies and then spamming them with a copy-and-paste letter with a PDF of your CV attached is NOT a very proactive way of looking for work.

Here’s what would make me as an employer sit up and take notice:

When someone puts a suit on and takes the effort to travel to my studio and hand me their CV. I’ll always try to make time to see someone looking for work as I think that a face-to-face meeting tells me a lot more about the person than an email or letter.

If visiting is not appropriate, at least ring the company and find the name of the relevant person to whom the letter should be sent.

I’m recruiting at the moment, and have the following pieces of advice:

If I ask you for a CV, send a covering letter too. Any blank emails with an attachment will be binned.

Career history – most recent first. Give a short outline of your role, then your key achievements or defining moments – only if the job warrants it. Don’t give me several lines about what a barmaid does, I think I can guess.

Tailor your CV to the role. If you are applying for an admin role, don’t over-egg the fact you have a MBA and are blatantly over-qualified.

Never say you are between jobs, it just gives an awful impression from the outset.

I completely agree with Shibboleth’s post – any high volume recruiter will see hundreds of CVs a day in their inbox, so you need to make sure yours is memorable by getting in touch personally either over the phone or by making a visit. If you’re emailing the CV, either call in advance to ensure you have the right person, or call after sending if you know it’s the right person to make sure they’ve received it.

I always send a cover letter. Cold calling or going round company is difficult because it’s difficult to know if a company uses what I do. Many companies you would expect to don’t but some which you wouldn’t expect do.

Cold calling or going round company is difficult because it’s difficult to know if a company uses what I do.

That’s the homework element and the whole objective of cold calling.
*winces* as he find himself agreeing with shibboleth.
Maybe on one of these cold calls with shibbo, or whoever, the contact in the company will point you in the right direction, but if it’s too much trouble I wouldn’t bother. Somebody in the HR dept is making millions of phone calls looking for a candidate, just hang in there, they’ll get to you soon.

don simon – Member
*winces* as he find himself agreeing with shibboleth.

If you get past your instinctive urge to disagree with me, you’ll probably realise that I talk a lot of sense. 😉

There’s another reason I like a face-to-face meeting over an email – I can see if they have any visible tattoos! 😀

Write/tailor your CV to the spec you job spec you are applying for.

If you have a strong network use that before sites and recruitment consultants.

If you get past your instinctive urge to disagree with me, you’ll probably realise that I talk a lot of sense.

It’s not instinct, each post is taken on merit.
CFH lastweek, shibboleth this week….. I’m losing something… 😥

If using agencies: find one – or more – that specialise in your discipline. Ask people with similar jobs/backgrounds to you who they used. Ask them to introduce you (by email) to the consultant who placed them, this may get you more attention.

I would recommend http://www.cv-shop.com/ the work they did for me was quite good really.

Don’t treat all recruitment consultants with contempt. They can only place you if you fill the role criteria but if they are faced with a large shortlist they will only remember the candidates who came across positive, contactable and willing. They are not magicians.

recruitment consultants will mess you about and find any jobs in order to make their commision (i used to be one)

I don’t know where you worked but I’ve never worked in such an agency.

hora – Generally, other than putting me in contact with the person looking for work or looking for me, they don’t bring much to the process. I worked at one of the UKs largest recruiters for 4 years and it didn’t really endear me to the recruitment consultant as a whole. Sure, there were nice ones but by and large, the arrogance and salesman attitude (including flipping jobs and candidates as soon as they’d been paid) was pretty bad. Too many of them bought into the whole sales “lifestyle” and watched Glengarry Glen Ross and the Boilerroom too many times.

That said, they’re not easy to do without so I’ve found agents and agencies I can deal with both as a candidate and an employer and use them as much as possible.

For the OP – make sure your CV is short and to the point (2-3 pages absolute maximum), grammatically correct, and has been checked for bullshit business phrases that are totally empty (see The Apprentice for examples). Say what you did at jobs where it’s not obvious and make sure I understand how you were valuable to your employers. As others have said, make sure you change your CV a bit depending on the role. I’ve had 3-4 versions depending on the sector and type of job I’m looking for.

I’ve seen a job on a jobwebsite I really want, and would be good at. You apply by an online application form with no covering letter. It’s difficult to make my application stand out using the form. Would it be advisable to go to the company in person and introduce myself?

Yes! It’s a much better way if you don’t mind calling someone from out of the blue. It shows intiative, and it saves them fees.

I sometimes start by saying “I understand that you have a vacancy for a xxx. ” You may have to tell the HR people that you’re a candidate, not another agent

Thanks, I phoned them up & have an appointment to see what the job entails on Wednesday. They said the forms deliberately vague. Thanks again.

Often you can cut the job details out of an agency website, do a bit of googling and you can find the company web site that’s looking to recruit. Going direct will save them money.

I’ve recently been recruiting people for mid-level IT positions and I was pretty shocked at how dire most of the CVs are. I’m not sure if this applies to all recruiters but I want to see, on page 1, list of certs and skills *relevant* to the position. IMO you don’t need to re-write the whole thing for each role but that first page has to be targeted.

A skills matrix is good to, preferably with years of experience. Summarising previous roles is important but again keep it relevant, if you used some skills mentioned in the job description then make sure it’s referenced.

Personally I did really pay any attention to the introductory paragraph (mostly as they all seemed to have been re-hashed into nonsensical drivel by the agencies), I also couldn’t care less about school history or hobbies (at best they are a break-the-ice interview discussion point but if all you’re putting down is reading and socialising then honestly don’t bother…).

I actually did a spreadsheet to help me assess people with a mark out of 10 in the core tech areas and a mark out of 5 in the ‘nice to have’ tech areas. I then scan read CVs and based on a quick read I gave the mark (the figure being based on a combo of certs, recent experience and relevant experience) if someone only referenced a core technical skill on page 4 in a previous summary merged into 20 other irrelevant skills then there’s a good chance I missed it but it’s not my loss.

Custom CV for each job, don’t keep sending out the same one.
Cover letter is VITAL, it’s where you get the chance to say I’m the best boss in the world and you want to come and work for me – and seriously never underestimate the power of flattery

Keep it brief 2, 3 pages max – 4+ pages = I struggle with long sentences

DON’T SUBMIT A CV IN PENCIL

Don’t traipse round doors like a Tupperware salesman – as an employer, it smacks of deperation and I wouldn’t see you. I do however open my own mail and read everything that’s not junk

Believe in yourself – if you’re phoning someone tone is as important as content so chin up and smile

It completely depends on the role for which you are applying.

I am a recruiter and work with some of the brightest and best. I’d say that the three things I look for are

Clarity – I have not got the time to wade through reams of paper looking for the salient points. I expect the front page to have a short summary with main skills, main achievements and potted work history.

Longevity – I recruit for full time perm staff and I’m not keen on job hoppers.

Story – The most qualified people usually have a consistent theme to their careers, 10 years selling to banks for example or experience in a specific service line built over time. People who have jumped from pillar to post without much of a theme always raise a few concerns.

Keep in short, precise and to the point. Use a simple typeface and lay it out in an uncomplicated easy to read format.

Not all recruiters are demons but most of them are happy to sell their granny for a buck, this is not always a bad thing as if you’re saleable they will sell you!!

On a practical note what do you do and I may be able to steer you to a good agency.