My First Ever CV - Comments Needed!

The style of it is far too bland, you need something eye catching and will stick out from the rest, having a black and white CV with some text boxes is more boring than watching a chess player trying to get out of check.

Make it look interesting, have a 3 colour set design like white background, black outline and blue heading backgrounds.

Dont have everything left aligned, it looks to linear.

Spacing of your cell border for
14 days (June 2003)
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is off. Try keep everything in one table to ensure its all lined correctly. Also you should have everything nicely spaced and not too close to eachother or it will look conjealed at first glance.

Would you like me to upload my C.V? I'm sure many people can point out flaws and even help me improve it but it will be a nice guide for you :)

*edit*
I wont comment on the content you put because you have good replies above, but I think your layout can be improved :)
 
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Any suggestions for something that might make it more appealing...you say colours but in what way would look best? :)

Could make the boxes a different colour - the bit where it says 'Work History' and so on.

Thanks for the heads up for the box being a bit off. I spent a long time spacing it, must have missed it. :o

Go for it, upload! :)
 
If you've got an email I'll send you my CV for a look at something different.
I'd advise you to try and cut it down to 1 page. I had plenty of success from my 1 page CV.
 
SideWinder said:
I was always told never to include your date of birth...love the design of it, may swipe some of your ideas! :o
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Including your date of birth has no positive or negative impact on your CV, and it is something they will find eventually regardless. For them to know only helps build a line of communication and it also allows them to inquire about your time spent from leaving education.

Coran said:
If you've got an email I'll send you my CV for a look at something different.
I'd advise you to try and cut it down to 1 page. I had plenty of success from my 1 page CV.
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1 page can be fine depending on how many C.V's the employer has, but one page can imply you don't have much to say or you dont want them to know much about you.
 
My ability to ensure that people around me are satisfied creates a quality that your company would benefit from.
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i think this could be phrased better, doesnt make sense to me that it 'creates a quality' for some reason.

and the tesco waffle isnt needed, as stated above.
 
codec said:
Including your date of birth has no positive or negative impact on your CV, and it is something they will find eventually regardless. For them to know only helps build a line of communication and it also allows them to inquire about your time spent from leaving education.



1 page can be fine depending on how many C.V's the employer has, but one page can imply you don't have much to say or you dont want them to know much about you.
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It is never good to have a CV longer than 2 pages mate. A CV is only used to get you an interview. If a story book gets submitted for a position it is likely it won't be looked at, no matter how colourful it is! ;)
 
codec said:
Including your date of birth has no positive or negative impact on your CV, and it is something they will find eventually regardless. For them to know only helps build a line of communication and it also allows them to inquire about your time spent from leaving education.



1 page can be fine depending on how many C.V's the employer has, but one page can imply you don't have much to say or you dont want them to know much about you.
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Agreed on the date of birth. Might as well include it together with Nationality & email.

As for the 1 page comments. You're right, it could imply that but there's a lot of wasted space on this C.V. Sidewinder takes half a page to say what I covered in 4 lines regarding education. Another example would be his 14 days work experience in 2003. The first 2.5 lines basically say what the job placement title and the time period (in the left hand column) have already said.

The skills section needs some tweaks. I like it down to the problem solving section but then it's not so great. I'd say problem solving is a skill. Giving presentations is another skill, not a subcategory of the above. Perhaps move it to communication skills? The multi-tasking comment is also a bit odd. It's just a definition of what the term means. A bit unnecessary? Also, claiming the ability to do these things without giving any examples may not be the best idea.

p.s. I've sent the email, SideWinder
 
SideWinder said:
- Leading my own department within ‘Fresh Food’
- Quality control
- Stock replacing and replenishing
- Waste and reduction issues
- Warehouse organisation
- Working within a larger team
- Multi-skilled
- Unloading cages from the delivery lorries
- Responsible for assisting other team members
- Cash handling
- Understanding of stock control
- Customer interaction on a daily basis
- Sourcing products from the warehouse for customers
- Product location
- Arranging customer orders
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This is a lot better mate - quick reference to what you can do. When you get an interview it gives them an opportunity to ask for more information on the relevant skills and gives you an opportunity to elaborate on them.
 
Coran said:
Agreed on the date of birth. Might as well include it together with Nationality & email.

As for the 1 page comments. You're right, it could imply that but there's a lot of wasted space on this C.V. Sidewinder takes half a page to say what I covered in 4 lines regarding education. Another example would be his 14 days work experience in 2003. The first 2.5 lines basically say what the job placement title and the time period (in the left hand column) have already said.

The skills section needs some tweaks. I like it down to the problem solving section but then it's not so great. I'd say problem solving is a skill. Giving presentations is another skill, not a subcategory of the above. Perhaps move it to communication skills? The multi-tasking comment is also a bit odd. It's just a definition of what the term means. A bit unnecessary? Also, claiming the ability to do these things without giving any examples may not be the best idea.

p.s. I've sent the email, SideWinder
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I've tried to arrange it so it still looks pretty good but obviously space has gone a bit, may have a bit of a tweak and see what i can do - perhaps remove the full addresses? I wasn't sure though...

Dark_Shadow (I think that is his 'correct' name) has been helping me so i shall get to work on my weakest bit, the skills, tomorrow morning. Thankyou for the coments, you have no idea how much you
are helping! :o

Thanks for the e-mail! :)

pedrochop said:
This is a lot better mate - quick reference to what you can do. When you get an interview it gives them an opportunity to ask for more information on the relevant skills and gives you an opportunity to elaborate on them.
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Thankyou! :)

Noel Gallagher said:
Huh, thought you can't list a ref whos member of your family..?
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I thought so too...you can use close family friends though.
 
pedrochop said:
It is never good to have a CV longer than 2 pages mate. A CV is only used to get you an interview. If a story book gets submitted for a position it is likely it won't be looked at, no matter how colourful it is! ;)
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Its not bad to have more than 2, just not recommended, depending on how you submit your cv you will usually do 3 pages (1 page introduction, 2 pages CV) if your sending CV via email you gotta remember the email itself should be classed as 1 page (introduction) as you are being judged on this also.

If the role you are applying for requires a lot of information - you need to state as much relevant information as possible to the job - you need to force the employer to think "not giving him an interview would be stupid". 1 or 2 pieces of paper covering your details, career (past, present, future), personal description, experiences etc and then the references at the end is limiting yourself to submitting too little information and looking like the rest of the c.v's in the pile.

I got 3 pages + introduction page because it means I can clearly explain who I am, what I've done, why I feel Im right, where I want to go and how I want to get there etc etc and I still have some room for adjustments etc. Its also spaced out so it makes it easy reading. A well spaced CV can be read quicker than a cramped CV.

Good way to test is by reading it to yourself aloud or give it to someone to read and time them.

I only put a relative down cos I wasnt sure on the job he was applying - some employees WANT a personal reference. Those names arent real - I made them up :p
 
Coran - You are one smart guy...your style of CV is very different to mine. It's more direct, hm, may have to switch things around a bit on mine and see what i can do. Because i am lacking education, i am trying to elaborate more on my experience whereas with yours, your education speaks much more volume.
 
Yeah, I just wanted to highlight quite how much variety there is in CV styles. I like to think that mine is very clear and the work experience descriptions are all concise and to the point. You're right though, I probably rely on the education section more than I should.

As far as smart guys go, I've met some extremely smart people. The physics they speak is on a whole different level to me.
 
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