Another CV thread

almoststew1990 · 20 Jul 2015 at 20:09

I am about to start my third year as a Development Transport Planner. For my CV I'm planning on using two sides of A4, with my work experience taking up one side of A4 and my "strengths and weaknesses", "Few Sentances about me" and education going on the other bit of A4. Does this sound like a suitable format?

At this level should I be writing about specific case studies of my role (i.e. examples of planning permissions gained) or should I still be writing about my "main responsibilities"

I'll probably pop it on here when I've finished for your helpful comments!

Salsa · 20 Jul 2015 at 20:16

Genuine question but why would you put your weaknesses on your CV?

/Salsa

Buffman · 20 Jul 2015 at 20:16

Strengths and weaknesses?
Never put weaknesses on a cv. Depending on relevant experience can try fit it on one page? (perhaps not if mid 20s)

lafemmefatale · 20 Jul 2015 at 20:18

Whatever you do don't spell sentance like that.

Edrof · 20 Jul 2015 at 20:20

Employ a proper writer to edit whatever you come up with. For a reasonable fee they can make a terrible CV into a top-of-the-pile document. Trust me.

Most people don't do this, so a well-written CV can stand out a mile. I've done quite a lot of my friends' CVs and they have all been successful, with some being told that their applications were outstanding.

Salsa · 20 Jul 2015 at 20:22

Re-reading your OP your order is all wrong too...

Page 1:
Personal/Mission Statement
Skills & Capabilities

Page 2:
Employment History
Education (Keep it brief and relevant only include if your employment history is short)
References (Usually on request)

Is the format I currently use for mine.

/Salsa

almoststew1990 · 20 Jul 2015 at 20:26

Thinking about it, I've basically listed my skills in my Employement history section. Would you keep your employment history brief but have a long skills section? i.e. I've said manage projects independently, train graduates and attending design team meetings as stuff I do in my current job when they're basically skills.

Don't worry my writing style for formal letters and documents is very different to my forum writing style

almoststew1990 · 20 Jul 2015 at 20:27

Salsa said:
Genuine question but why would you put your weaknesses on your CV?

/Salsa

Yeah I'm not actually going to put weaknesses; I added weaknesses automatically!

Guest2 · 20 Jul 2015 at 20:30

Yeh, sack weaknesses off. Save one or two for when/if they ask at the interview stage but make them a positive weakness - like that you sometimes over analyze things

Edrof · 20 Jul 2015 at 20:31

almoststew1990 said:
Don't worry my writing style for formal letters and documents is very different to my forum writing style

Is it up to CV-standard?

almoststew1990 · 20 Jul 2015 at 20:35

Edrof said:
Is it up to CV-standard?

You tell me!

(In half an hour or so anyway!)

mattyfez · 20 Jul 2015 at 21:00

Salsa has the best advice so far. And definitely leave out negatives, save those for tricky interview questions.
For interview advice I'd recommend googling 'be my interviewer' and go through all the questions and have mental answers for them all.

My cv is 4 pages including a mainly blank title page, five pages including a covering letter.

almoststew1990 · 20 Jul 2015 at 21:02

Do you bother with the "exceptional written and oral communication skills" and "proefficient in MS Office" stuff? I'm running out of room so is it safe to assume an employer thinks its a given after a few years in an office environment?

Kenai · 20 Jul 2015 at 21:22

almoststew1990 said:
Do you bother with the "exceptional written and oral communication skills" and "proefficient in MS Office" stuff? I'm running out of room so is it safe to assume an employer thinks its a given after a few years in an office environment?

They're things that everyone puts, even if they can't form proper sentences, type emails like txt spk, talk like a toddler with computer skills that extend to being able to locate the Word icon. They're meaningless these days

mattyfez · 20 Jul 2015 at 21:28

If you've managed to put a well formated cv together in ms word, you don't need to advertise the fact by stating it.

almoststew1990 · 20 Jul 2015 at 21:30

Fair enough!

Thanks for the help guys!

Here is my CV... thoughts?

my dropboxed PDF CV

Kenai · 20 Jul 2015 at 21:40

Your address and contact details are selectable behind the boxes, so you can still see them, delete properly before PDFing if you don't want it online

mattyfez · 20 Jul 2015 at 21:41

It does read a bit too much like a shopping list, but there is a lot of solid content you can expand on.

I'd say you need to make it a bit more reader friendly, especially to those outside the industry.

almoststew1990 · 20 Jul 2015 at 21:46

Thanks for pointing that out!

almoststew1990 · 20 Jul 2015 at 21:48

mattyfez said:
It does read a bit too much like a shopping list, but there is a lot of solid content you can expand on.

I'd say you need to make it a bit more reader friendly, especially to those outside the industry.

Development Transport Planning is quite a small, enclosed industry, so I doubt anyone outside the industry will read it and I'm not really bothered if an external person doesn't understand it to be honest! Even with recruitment agents it seems to be a small cocooned industry so they know what is what.