c.v. For an old duffer

Having been with my current employer for 30 years I find myself in need of a c.v. as the office is closing in a few months time.

Is it worth getting a professionally prepared one or do it myself? To be honest I’m struggling to know what to put in it. I was at the previous employer for 10 years so 2 jobs in 40 years doesn’t take up much space.

Too young to retire and too old to employ it seems.

Help and amusing comments welcome.

If you’ve been there 30 years you could probably manage more than 1 paragraph.

Just google other peoples and then make yours up.

I’ve never used a CV service. But get someone to review it.

Try to get everything onto 2 sides of A4. No-one reads beyond that. They probably don’t read beyond the first half to be honest.

Hope it goes well, it’s a hateful process, you just have to get on and do it.

I’d suggest not going straight into wrinting your CV. Do some prep work, next week bring a pad with you (whatever it is you do) take notes of what you do, what you use to do it. Do you manage people, deal with customers etc
Break it down into small chunks and go from there.

Once you have the “data” start to compile the cv using one of the many online formats.
Don’t pay someone to do it for you. It’s a waste of money and as a interviewer, it’s easy to spot who has paid for professional help. not nesseserily a negative, but I’d like to think people can write two pages of what they do/ have done.

Can you show progression within those 30 years? Teamwork or leadership examples? transferrable skills?

Do you have a Linkedin account? If not, get one and look at what other people with your skill set in your industry have. It’s a starter for ten and you will get inspiration for what works for you. Most Linkedin profiles are an extension of a person’s C.V. to an extent.

Second the linked in review of whet your peers are saying. Rely on your strengths, because someone who sea a company through ups and downs and is reliable is a major selling point. Making the most of a new opportunity and learning something new is a good thing, so make sure you sell it as such.

One page of a4 is all any GOOD cv actually needs. Condense down if you can.

A compelling opening paragraph about you, that speaks from experience and personality is the best opener you can get.

Do it yourself, email it to me and I’ll tell you where it’s shit so you can fix it.

Try to get everything onto 2 sides of A4. No-one reads beyond that. They probably don’t read beyond the first half to be honest.

One page of a4 is all any GOOD cv actually needs. Condense down if you can.

That’s nonsense, sorry, a CV is as long or as short as it needs to be. I’ve seen many CVs shoehorned to fit some mythical “one page / two page” golden rule by removing borders and white space and printing in 5pt Flyspeck. My “relevant skills” is a page in itself before I’ve concerned myself with what I’ve been doing for the last 30 years.

Being verbose is bad, but in my industry I’d expect a single page CV from a school leaver.

A CV is a sales document and it serves one purpose – to get you an interview. If you’re through the door its job is done. You need to put everything on there that will get you an interview for the job you’re going for and omit anything that won’t.

Don’t pay someone to do it for you. It’s a waste of money and as a interviewer, it’s easy to spot who has paid for professional help. not nesseserily a negative, but I’d like to think people can write two pages of what they do/ have done.

This is good advice. I’d argue it -is- often a negative though, if you can’t scratch together a couple of pages of a report about your specialist subject (ie, yourself) then you’re of no use to me. Less of an issue in manual trades perhaps, but I’d want you to be able to string a sentence together.

Your Cv needs to sell your abilities and what you bring to an employer. Not just a summary of things you have done in your career.

Its definately worth getting a profile set up on LinkedIn. When I was made redundant last year my current employer contacted me through that site.

If you run a business, or are part of one that sees a value in marketing by paying for it….

Why would paying for assistance in creating a professional marketing tool to present yourself in the best possible way, be an issue ?

A CV should be as concise as it needs to be. It does depend on the industry/sector as some industries seem to expect people to move on after a few years at any post but consider the person tasked with filtering CVs for interviews: they aren’t going to read a five page CV when there’s another 200 on their desk. Get your main selling points across within the first paragraph, you can elaborate later in the document. Don’t tell everything though – you also want the reader to think “I’d like to find out more about this person”.

You shouldn’t have a single CV but one that you can tweak to the needs of each post you apply for. You need to match what you are selling (your skills) to what that particular company wants.

Get your CV proof read by at least two people and remove all spelling and grammatical mistakes (i.e. definitely not definately – sorry dai21t 🙄 )

Don’t bother applying for posts that have requirements like “the applicant should have at least five years’ experience using MegaSoft v2.3 or higher as well as a solid understanding of YeeHa! document management systems, etc.” they are invariably posts that will be filled by an internal candidate but the company has to advertise them externally so they’ve just uploaded the candidate’s CV.

Good luck!

I did use an online CV review service, it was actually pretty useful. Probably the best return on £20 I’ll ever get. So worth considering.

From being on both sides of the fence:
– try and say in the CV the things you personally did or achieved. Facts and figures help. Listing your job spec isn’t helpful for the interviewer.
– 2 pages is a good guide but not a rule. Once you go beyond that you run the risk of including waffle that the interviewer can take you to task on. Stick to the stuff you really want to present and can back up in detail.

These days a CV should describe (briefly) your role(s) and key skills. There are lots of good examples online, or you could look at what people put on their Linked in profiles.

I’m old too, but have had a few more employers and contracts, many many more.

Get a LinkedIn profile setup and write a basic CV, they should both be in line.

If you’re management and/or professional that pay for a CV service if you aren’t getting positive responses back after a week or two.

Ask others advice on what you’ve written, then amend as required.

With just two employers a couple of pages might be possible, but not if you’ve done lots of roles.

tbh mine is 4 pages covering +30 years, and and probably missing at least 50% of what I’ve done, as there is just too much.