Someone slate my CV please

TheMagicPirate

TheMagicPirate

TheMagicPirate

Associate
Joined
9 Jun 2005
Posts
2,207
Location
A Beer Garden in the Toon
I've had pretty poor luck with finding a job (or even getting an interview to be honest) so I'm figuring that my CV is to blame. I'd appreciate any criticism (preferable constructive) on it, because right now I'm bloody miserable in the job I'm in.

THEMAGICPIRATE
CURRICULUM VITAE

I am a recent B.A (Hons) Media Production graduate, at present working as a Team Leader, as I have done for the past 6 years during my education. I am currently looking for interesting and challenging position. I’m looking for a role where I am expected and able use my current skills and experience as well as learn new ones.

Personal Details
Address, Phone number & email.

Education

Sept 2005 – Jul 2008
Northumbria University
Media Production BA (Hons)– 2:2


Sept 2003 – Jul 2005
Newcastle College
Media Production BTEC – Merit



Sept 2001 - Jul 2003
Newcastle College
A level Math’s, Physics &
Computing

Sept 1998 - Jul 2001
High School
GCSE Math’s (B), Science (B,B), Geography (C), R.E (C), English (D), English Lit (D), French (D), Media (D).


Employment History

Nov 2002 – Present
Odeon Cinemas (Previously UCI)
Team Leader

May 2007 – Present
Century/Real Radio
Road Crew

Sept 2005 – Present
Various Employers
Freelance film work

May 2002 – Nov 2002
W.H. Smith
Cashier

Employment Responsibilities
Odeon Cinemas Ltd
My responsibilities at the cinema are plentiful and essentially involve the day-to-day running of a busy cinema encompassing several areas: -
Customer Service (from information requests to complaints), Health and Safety (ensuring all relevant HSE guidelines are met), Personnel Management and Development (leading a team of 5 – 20 people as well as delivering regular assessment and reviews of them), Time Management (ensuring every task is completed within its strict time constraints), initial, as well as ongoing Training and Recruitment (from interview to practical training), Disciplinary Issues and Setting and Meeting Targets.
On a longer time scale I am also currently marketing team leader; this involves organising events to maximise exposure and attendance for the cinema. I have also been a part of the retail and training teams in the past. Retail involved doing weekly counts of all stock as well as placing large orders and managing budgets, Training involved delivering Odeon’s two-day initial training package to new staff members as well as ensuring all exams were kept up to date. I have also represented the cinema at Tenants Association and Security meetings.

Century/Real Radio
My role at Century is more Marketing and Advertising driven. I spend most of my time interacting with the public promoting station-supported events. More recently I have been actively involved in coming up with marketing events that increase awareness of the stations recent re-branding.

SKILLS
I have excellent customer service and interpersonal skills and can quickly build a good rapport in order to get the result I need from a conversation. I am an experienced trainer, having interviewed and subsequently trained over 150 new staff whilst at Odeon. I thoroughly enjoy the entire recruitment and training process. I am incredibly resourceful and have excellent problem solving skills. I find myself to be a very calm person who finds it hard to become stressed and I never buckle under pressure. I get a real buzz about tasks where failure is not an option. I am also a good leader. I find it easy to take charge when needed and would like to think I can keep my staff happy and motivated.
Whilst at university I gained invaluable project management skills and I intend to pursue a PRINCE2 qualification in the future. I have a good mind for marketing; I feel I am good at understanding and predicting what strategies work best for a given idea.

OTHER DETAILS
I hold a clean Full UK driving license and have done for almost 3 years.
I am First Aid trained.

REFERENCES
Immediately available on request.
Click to expand...

Obviously the formatting isn't exactly the same.

I do try and tweak it for each job I apply for, I'll add a bit more on marketing if I'm going for a marketing job etc...

So please OcUK, slate my CV because as it stands its getting me nowhere :(

Something I have been considering is redoing my English GSCE.
 
" I am currently looking for interesting and challenging position" - grammar mistake. "I am currently looking for an interesting and challenging position"
 
geuben said:
" I am currently looking for interesting and challenging position" - grammar mistake. "I am currently looking for an interesting and challenging position"
Click to expand...

I can't believe I let that get past. I've read and re-read it loads of times and never noticed that :(

Thanks. 1 problem down, many to go.
 
TheMagicPirate said:
I can't believe I let that get past. I've read and re-read it loads of times and never noticed that :(

Thanks. 1 problem down, many to go.
Click to expand...

"I’m looking for a role where I am expected and able use my current skills and experience as well as learn new ones."

Can you not see a problem here as well?
 
I’m looking for a role where I am expected and able to use my current skills and experience as well as learn new ones.

edit: just beat me to it :p
 
Employment history should be most recent at the top to the older ones. The May 2007 should be first I think.

Because you have written sentences in the job responsibilities you have use "and also" too many times. Bullets are best imo.

My role at Century is more Marketing and Advertising driven. I spend most of my time interacting with the public promoting station-supported events. More recently I have been actively involved in coming up with marketing events that increase awareness of the stations recent re-branding.
Click to expand...

Take out the "more" Marketing and advertising. You do not need this.
Dont use "coming up" use "planning and co-ordinating", "coming up is too informal. Again bullets are best. Wall of texts isnt fun to read after you have read 5 - 10 CVs already.

First Aid training should be under Education/qualifications I think, not too sure.

Not got much more time to add more things but you get the idea.
 
'On a longer time scale I am also currently marketing team leader; this involves organising events to maximise exposure and attendance for the cinema.'

'On a longer time scale' doesn't seem like the right way to open that sentence imo.
 
I'd merge employment history and employment responsibilities into one section, just give the position, employer and dates and then give a paragraph about each. Remember it's a sales pitch when writing these.

Looks to me like your recent degree should be pitched more, include a paragraph about what you did and learned. Is there any part of the course you did particularly well on? Pimp it.
 
Thanks for the replies guys.

I'm ashamed I let such simple grammatical errors slip by. All changes advised are going in.

Any more are still welcome.
 
why would you write CURRICULUM VITAE at the top it's obvious what it is, this saves you a line to use for something interesting that they don't already know.

For me I would also merge you employment history with the details about each job and put the employment stuff before your education as it's that which really matters.

I'd also write '9 GCSE's passes including english, maths and science' as it hides your somewhat disapointing results which you don't want to push now you have a degree which is far more impressive.
 
Last edited:
TheMagicPirate said:
Thanks for the replies guys.

I'm ashamed I let such simple grammatical errors slip by. All changes advised are going in.

Any more are still welcome.
Click to expand...

It's easily done. The long you work on something the more your brain subconciously adds in words making you think it look correct etc.
 
A very quick solution - I'd go with combing work experience with skills into something like this:

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

Nov 2002 – Present
Odeon Cinemas (Previously UCI) – Marketing Team Leader

Overseeing the day-to-day running of a [Large/Medium/Small] cinema by directing a small team of employees. Representing the cinema at various associations. Also heavily involved in advertising and public exposure for the cinema. Previously directed retail and training teams. Gained knowledge of HSE requirements and stock-taking and furthered my interpersonal skills and time-management.

(You might be asked how many customers per day your cinema has – know this.)

May 2007 – Present
Century/Real Radio – Marketing & Advertising

Tasked with increasing public awareness of the station, including re-branding and event-organisation. (Need to think of some more stuff for this – it needs to be a couple of lines longer)


Sept 2005 – Present
Various Employers – Freelance film work

Learned to work by myself, without external pressure. Furthered my time-management skills, especially with regards to meeting deadlines and working under pressure. Gained technical understand of film equipment (IF this is true!)

May 2002 – Nov 2002
W.H. Smith – Cashier

Gained an understanding of customer service and money-handling, as well as an insight to large-scale retail operations. (I wouldn’t put any more for this)

SKILLS:

Excellent customer relations – bettered with each employment opportunity. Experience with training – successfully trained over 150 people at Odean. Good problem-solving skills and resourceful – both exemplified especially in the tasks I complete for Real Radio. Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines. Successful in working with others, especially in motivating staff and taking leadership where appropriate, but equally able to work unsupervised. My interests lie in marketing – I am good at predicting trends and enjoy the challenge associated with it.
Click to expand...

Also, I wouldn't put your GSCE grades, but I would put your A-level grades. And relate your degree to your skills in a similar manner. Degrees generally give you ability to work by yourself, meet deadlines etc etc. as well as specifics, in your case marketing stuff
 
Don't put your qualifications first, it looks like you dont have any work experiance to speak of, put you employment first - details of place, role etc, followed by a good description of what you did and achieved.

Then you can go into your qualifications etc.

******************************************

Joe Bloggs
1 Some Road, Some City, Some Postcode,
Email : [email protected] Telephone : 01234 556677

Curriculum Vitae

Personal Statement goes here ... i am blah blah blah, and bloody good at doing blah blah blah. (Not too long 4-5 lines)

Current Employment

Job Title
Place
Role

Description of duties and achievements

other jobs, newest to oldest

Training

Put a short list of any relevant courses you have attended here.

Education

Best qualification - grade - what you did.

Other education as list, i.e. 4 A-Levels (Maths, English etc etc), 29 GCSE's (blah, blah ...)

Personal section

Short (again 4-5 lines) where you can tell them you like caber tossing, poodle grooming, and also state you have a driving license [unless it states you must have a license for your job, if so put it in the training part.]

References

Available upon request.


*****************************************************

something like that should do you :)

Al
 
Last edited:
TheMagicPirate said:
Any more are still welcome.
Click to expand...

Did you print it out to proof read it? Proof reading on the screen is a big no no as it is a lot harder to spot the mistakes. Also get somebody else to read it as you may miss mistakes that they don't.

Secondly can you upload the CV so we can see the design (minus your personal details) as it isn't just the contents that makes or breaks a CV.

Bullet points for the job responsibilities as well but that has already been said! ;)
 
Upon skimming it, do you really need to put down so much for working at the odean? I mean people understand you are young and don't have as much to write down.

After uni when I was applying for jobs I cut down all my part time jobs and temp full time jobs to one liners with the most significant skills used like "Basic cash handling, customer service, etc".

Just a thought, and also put your grades on for A-Level
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom