CV Help Pls

Fantom · 13 Apr 2006 at 21:35

Hi Ive just written my first CV and have kind of muddled through

and wondered if any of you guys could cast your eyes over it for me

thanks (any advice appreciated)

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decmatt · 13 Apr 2006 at 22:01

for half GCSE, isnt the correct term Short Course?

Fantom · 13 Apr 2006 at 22:04

thanks good call

w11tho · 13 Apr 2006 at 22:09

It's vitae.

Fr0dders · 13 Apr 2006 at 22:10

i spent a great deal of time trying to get into IT

i have loads of friends in the business, and they all tell me the same thing. That paper qualifications are meaningless when it comes to IT

theres far too many Computeach-esque courses that create blaggers. "you too can get a job in IT, in just 4 weeks !" etc..

My mate paul does a lot of recruiting, and his analagy was this, if he interviews 10 people, and seclects 3 for jobs. 1 or 2 of those 3 will have blagged their way into it, arent fully qualified and cant do their job and have to go.

Experience counts for so much more than paper qualifiations. cos theres so many people out there, with the bits of paper, but dont know jack and cant do the job

id switch the emphasis of your CV round. Make the education section minimalist and put it after your experience. Put your experience and achievments at the front of your CV, and try and give as much info about experience you've got. If you've not got any. get some. Voluntary work for your local youth centre or whatever will go a long way.

edit

dont need to list all the units you studied for your BTEC. Just what qualifaction you've got and where you got it from will suffice. key with CVs is not to bore people. It needs to be easy to read and a big list of units like that is off putting. Let them ask you at interview what you did, gives you chance to sell yourself. IF you have it on paper, they wont ask you about it cos they think they've found everything they need to know about what you did at college.

also

play up your experience more. Your 2 days at a solictors has to be far more than "using basic MS DOS skills". im not asking you to lie. but do play up what youd did slightly. Lieing would be saying you did something you cant do, not something you didnt do. Theres a difference. because if your asked about what you did, if say you did more than you actually did, but know anything and everything about it, how are they to know what went on ? where people get caught is when 2 days formating HDs becomes 2 days in sole charge of a server farm. You need something inbetween

if you want any more help or advice etc..

e-mail is in trust

I've had my CV looked at a fair bit when i applied for a few interal jobs at work. The guy who does all our interviewing and slection helped me with my CV for an interal position in IT. and his line manager had a look and helped me out too. So ive been helped a fair bit with mine

Fantom · 13 Apr 2006 at 22:19

thanks MrLOL ill make some changes

thanks for the advice

trouble is i dont have much experience but ill try to bulk it out a bit more

Fr0dders · 13 Apr 2006 at 22:23

L337 LooX said:
thanks MrLOL ill make some changes

thanks for the advice

trouble is i dont have much experience but ill try to bulk it out a bit more

just dont make the mistake of saying you've got experience of something you've not

if its something you know inside out, but havent necessarily been asked to do it in a work environment its fine. Because if they ask you about it at interview you wont get stuck.

To get that first step on the ladder, you've got to get some1 to give you a break. And to get that break, you've got over embelish what you've done a little

once you've got your first post though, it will be a lot easier.

triggerthat · 13 Apr 2006 at 22:51

Try to avoid sentances and use bullet points. You have not specified what grade you got on your diploma.

No one cares which particular grade you achieved during your GCSEs. 10 GCSEs at (A - C) including Maths and English is a good exam.

Arcade Fire · 13 Apr 2006 at 22:55

w11tho said:
It's vitae.

Hey, I didn't know you were still posting on here!

Fantom · 13 Apr 2006 at 22:57

triggerthat said:
Try to avoid sentances and use bullet points. You have not specified what grade you got on your diploma.

No one cares which particular grade you achieved during your GCSEs. 10 GCSEs at (A - C) including Maths and English is a good exam.

i havent included the results for the diploma because i havent finished it yet
but will do very soon and hoping for a distinction

good point about the GCSEs it could give me something to talk about in the interview

also if i summarise the GCSEs what do i do about my GNVQ, put in the equivelent?

Fr0dders · 13 Apr 2006 at 23:05

Heres how my CV Reads

Education :

University - 1 1/2 Years of Computer Science at Teesside univesity
Left half way through second year owing to personal commitments

A - Level Queen Elizabeth Grammar School :
History General Studies and Physics. AS Level Maths

GCSE Queen Elizabeth Grammar School
Maths, English Literature, English Language, Physics, Chemistry
Biology, History, French, German

Experience :

details here

very good point about the bullet points. My CV is full of them. comes back to that easy to read thing i mentioned earlier. An interviewer has to be able to glance at it, not find it intimidating, and be able to skim read it as hell be looking at thousands of them.

edit

another good thing to have on your CV is some interests. Something to show your not all work and no play. Again, dont put you play lacrosse when you know nothing about it. But saying your a keen football player when you actually did was play for a team for a few seasons ago is fine

as said earlier, its not lieing. its embellishing

Nix · 13 Apr 2006 at 23:26

A general pointer: get rid of the grocers apostrophe and write all numbers in spelling where possible.

i.e. 4 B's should be: four Bs

Fantom · 13 Apr 2006 at 23:52

Nix said:
A general pointer: get rid of the grocers apostrophe and write all numbers in spelling where possible.

i.e. 4 B's should be: four Bs

consider it done

thanks

whitecrook · 14 Apr 2006 at 00:15

too wordy on page 2 - condense that right down using bullet points - brake it down into a skills section:
maybe something like a sentence on job description, then a sentance of skills used/required/gained from doing that job

The first thing should be your name in big letters not curriculum vitae. They'll know it's a CV they want to know who's it is.

The word homepage jarred with me a bit; maybe use something like Web: or even don't qualify it.

0.02

Scottie2004 · 14 Apr 2006 at 12:04

Remove homepage link as it has nothing to do with enhancing your c.v, also without being rude it's pretty amateur stuff which does not enhance your application. Good site for personal purposes though. Also, create a contemporary email address such as your name @ domain rather than aramadillo, it sounds a little immature imho.

I've been in IT software engineering roles for around 10 years now and a well researched and structured C.V. has opened doors for definite.

Wryel · 14 Apr 2006 at 12:53

whitecrook said:
The first thing should be your name in big letters not curriculum vitae. They'll know it's a CV they want to know who's it is.
0.02

I always say this, its like starting a letter with 'I am writing...' - no ****!

fonzee · 14 Apr 2006 at 12:59

Scottie2004 said:
Remove homepage link as it has nothing to do with enhancing your c.v, also without being rude it's pretty amateur stuff which does not enhance your application. Good site for personal purposes though. Also, create a contemporary email address such as your name @ domain rather than aramadillo, it sounds a little immature imho.

I picked up on this aswell... maybe create a more sensible email address with your ISP for example. I would leave the website out as well tbh.