Ive just been made redundant and find myself unemployed for the first time in my life.
So after Lucyslovely advised against staying in the pub all day to put the world to rights,
i decided to write a CV for the first ever time.
Is it just me or does anyone else find it bloody difficult to sell themselves on a poxy bit of A4 paper?
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writing my first ever CV aged 35
Definitely, that's why I still haven't done one !!
Try and point out actual acheivements that you have made in your previous job, i.e. 'Sold x% more than target" which demonstrates what you actually did rather than the mundane lines that a great number of people include stating how they wer responsible for x and managing y people.
At the end of the day, the person reading the CV's will only speed read it and if they are not captivated straight away then you'll end up in the 'no' pile. Believe me, I've had to screen CV's ! If you can make your's stand out within the first half of the page then your quids in - maybe !
Remember - sell yourself ! What was taken for granted in your old job may be appreciated in another organisation.
There are a few books available that can help. My advice would be to check them out in your local bookstore to see which one suits first rather than buy online - unless you know what book you want.
Best of luck and if you need help with words or how to phrase something then let me know and I'll see if I can help
Try and point out actual acheivements that you have made in your previous job, i.e. 'Sold x% more than target" which demonstrates what you actually did rather than the mundane lines that a great number of people include stating how they wer responsible for x and managing y people.
At the end of the day, the person reading the CV's will only speed read it and if they are not captivated straight away then you'll end up in the 'no' pile. Believe me, I've had to screen CV's ! If you can make your's stand out within the first half of the page then your quids in - maybe !
Remember - sell yourself ! What was taken for granted in your old job may be appreciated in another organisation.
There are a few books available that can help. My advice would be to check them out in your local bookstore to see which one suits first rather than buy online - unless you know what book you want.
Best of luck and if you need help with words or how to phrase something then let me know and I'll see if I can help
Having been made redundant 4 times in 7 years, I've had no choice but to perfect the art of a good CV.
My advice is that you create the basis of a CV and then taylor it for every single job application you send off. I guess its almost like replying to the adverts on this site. I mean who on earth would send the same reply to every advert they read? LOL
Back to the job application. Read the job advert several times. Look carefully at the points they ask for. things like "based on the M4 corridor" or "fluent French required".
Basically if you meet the requirements in the advert, you need to ensure that these items are shown clearly on your CV. If possible on the first page. I've often found the person who wrote the advert is the same one who filters through the CV's.
What goes in it..?
Personal Info, Education, Jobs, Hobbies (I'd ignore swinging in this bit).
If you are writing a letter to go with your CV you can ensure that all the information they ask for is included. Often they ask for details of your current salary package etc.
Hope that helps, but please PM if you want for specifics...
Ian
My advice is that you create the basis of a CV and then taylor it for every single job application you send off. I guess its almost like replying to the adverts on this site. I mean who on earth would send the same reply to every advert they read? LOL
Back to the job application. Read the job advert several times. Look carefully at the points they ask for. things like "based on the M4 corridor" or "fluent French required".
Basically if you meet the requirements in the advert, you need to ensure that these items are shown clearly on your CV. If possible on the first page. I've often found the person who wrote the advert is the same one who filters through the CV's.
What goes in it..?
Personal Info, Education, Jobs, Hobbies (I'd ignore swinging in this bit).
If you are writing a letter to go with your CV you can ensure that all the information they ask for is included. Often they ask for details of your current salary package etc.
Hope that helps, but please PM if you want for specifics...
Ian
Quote by donnydaz
Ive just been made redundant and find myself unemployed for the first time in my life.
So after Lucyslovely advised against staying in the pub all day to put the world to rights,
i decided to write a CV for the first ever time.
Is it just me or does anyone else find it bloody difficult to sell themselves on a poxy bit of A4 paper?
There are loads of really good web sites that give excellent advice on cv writing. It may seem scary, but once you start it becomes easier. Get something down on paper, & then you can start to improve it. Just think of everything you have ever done that is likely to have the slightest appeal to an employer, & that includes hobbies, bringing up a family etc, & put it all down. Later have a look through it, & decide on the things you want to leave out.
When you get something you are reasonably happy with, show it to some friends, a past employer/supervisor you may still be on good terms with, anybody who can give you an HONEST opinion, rather than telling you what they THINK you want to hear. People who have experience of recruiting staff are of course likely to give the most useful feedback.
Finally...................... GOOD LUCK.
I personaly have found this site to be very useful: it has some articles on how to write a CV... as well as a build your own CV thing that asks you questions to help you build a CV.
Having been there and done it to death with writing a CV myself, I would say the key thing it to focus your CV based on the Job you are applying for... I had several stock versions of my CV and covering letter... after the first 10 job applications I could just mix and match to get the right mix for each job... this makes it much quicker and easier... but you have to put the effort in at first.
I was lucky enough to get a professional recruitment consultant to look at mine for free. All he did was pass comment on having qualifications first with some explanaiton of the big ones like degree's... followed by RELEVANT past jobs, and RELEVANT other experiences. If you wanna know more just ask... and I will drivvel on some more for the benifit of all reading this.
Having been there and done it to death with writing a CV myself, I would say the key thing it to focus your CV based on the Job you are applying for... I had several stock versions of my CV and covering letter... after the first 10 job applications I could just mix and match to get the right mix for each job... this makes it much quicker and easier... but you have to put the effort in at first.
I was lucky enough to get a professional recruitment consultant to look at mine for free. All he did was pass comment on having qualifications first with some explanaiton of the big ones like degree's... followed by RELEVANT past jobs, and RELEVANT other experiences. If you wanna know more just ask... and I will drivvel on some more for the benifit of all reading this.
I agree with all the above, Donny, but just a quick point. Make sure you run the CV through a spell checker or get someone to read it with spelling in mind. You've made a couple of typos on here, which in itself isn't a problem, but on a CV, they might as well be painted in red. When someone is recruiting and have hundreds of CV's to read, they look first for a reason to NOT give you the job. Then from what's left they look for who can do the job. Make sure you get into the second category.
Good luck
!
Mal
Good luck
!Mal
