Internal Job Application + CV check

almoststew1990 · 26 Sep 2013 at 21:58

Hi,

Please can you take a look at my current CV. What do you think could be improved?

I want to make myself stand out and play to my strengths- having experience of the very work that I am applying for, instead of more general TP experience. I also feel that I have demonstrated that I do currently do work more akin to a 'full' transport planner.

Please can you lovely OCUKers check my CV?

Cheers!

[FnG]magnolia · 26 Sep 2013 at 22:02

Lose the clock bullet points but keep the pictures.

It's unusual to reference a cover letter in your CV and you've made no mention of personal interests. It's not particularly punchy, either; not very 'active' is the word I think the HR goons use these days.

almoststew1990 · 26 Sep 2013 at 22:28

The clock pictures come from the dodgey pdf conversion lol they're bullet points really.

That is the point I am trying to make; do I need the 'hook' factor if my current team leader who knows me pretty well is reading it? I assume it will be read in its entirety almost out of interest. The hook / professional first impression is already there from working with him for 11 months. What do you think?

Thanks for the tip about the cover letter reference, I'll remove it

Tom_ed1987 · 26 Sep 2013 at 22:44

What's your recruitment process like? You have direct experience of the role you are applying for - in my organisation you would just have to tick the competency boxes and you'd 99% be the preferred candidate.

oldbag · 26 Sep 2013 at 22:46

Those clocks should show different times, that would be rad.

[FnG]magnolia · 26 Sep 2013 at 22:46

Many organisations have a slightly more robust hiring policy than being able to tick an 'I AM NOT INCOMPETENT' box.

Scrutinize · 26 Sep 2013 at 22:47

Ok,

Firstly, anonymity is always good, so you may want to edit out who you work for as iirc, does their internet policy not prohibit you from identifying yourself on a public forum?

Are you a member / associate member of the TP society, ILT or IHT or at least working towards them?

Side 1

1) Profile
2) Key Skills
3) Key Projects (LIst 2-3 and include the project value and in your case especially if you have been assessing any major schemes which could be worth £50m plus)

Side 2

4) Academic and Proferssional Qualifications
5) Work Experience
6) Detailed Project Experience (This will be an expansion of what you put in your key projects etc. I assume you have been involved in assessing some major schemes and not just the odd house extension?)

It doesn't read that well and there are some typos and grammatical errors and odd sentence structures when describing things.

For example you put:

Knowledge and experience of scrupulous analysing Transport Assessments (<<wtf does that even mean), including TRICS and First Principles based trip rates, vehicle distribution methods, 'Accession' based Walking and Cycling investigations, Personal Injury Accident data and Public Transport Accessibility;

It doesn't read well or make great sense to me.

Out of interest, are you assessing submitted schemes or supporting the preparation of internal schemes; or both?

I would probably word it something like (pick and chose from the wording but I haven't got time to refine).....

Key Skills
>>Assessment of the transportation and highways impacts of submitted planning applications as part of the Council's (insert your depts name) development planning team
>>Verification of transportation modelling and traffic forecasting submitted as part of developer planning applications including ARCADY, PICARDY, LinSig, SATURN outputs etc.
>>Liaising with transport consultants at all stages in the planning application process.
>>Providing advice on S106 and S278 agreements.
>>Working with DEs during the Design Check stage.
>>Liaising with members of the public and stakeholders
>>Excellent verbal and written communication skills
>>Transport modelling using (list what you can do)
>>Experienced with MS Office, Project, ADOBE CS, ArcGIS, AutoCAD, CIVILS 3D etc (do not include the modelling software you have already listed)

You don't need much more in key skills. Your key projects are of greater value as it gives the interviewer something to discuss with you and they can get a feel for what your capabilities translate into.

edit### And those clock bullet points, my goodness man!! are you a hard core transport planner with who wears socks, sandals and a green cardigan to work?

oldbag · 26 Sep 2013 at 22:48

^ the above poster's name is very apt.

Ghosteh · 26 Sep 2013 at 22:58

Only a small point, but you seem to switch between semicolons and full stops in finishing your bulleted lists. And as you're using full sentences in the lists, you should be finishing each one with a full stop. There are also a few that have no punctuation at the end of a few of them.
You could use semicolons on the list of your A-Levels though as they're not full sentences.

From what I understand of semicolons anyway

.

Django x2 · 27 Sep 2013 at 09:17

Firstly, anonymity is always good, so you may want to edit out who you work for as iirc, does their internet policy not prohibit you from identifying yourself on a public forum?

That will be their internet policy. As in, when he is at work. If he is at home, his internet policy might be to quite openly and publicly tell everyone who he is, and who he works for......

WillyNelson · 27 Sep 2013 at 09:53

The fact you went to Kings is a pretty big handicap

I'm not sure the first section reads very well. I would put the client focussed points first with the more general 'support LM' and 'attend meetings' at the bottom of the list. Also, how do you qualify the outstanding level of advice you give? It may be better to say that the advise is accurate or detailed or comliant with whatever guidelines you have to work within.

Is this your first job? Move your skills section to before Education. Take some of those more obvious kills out (communication, etc) and use them to expand on your current role. Don't leave the explanation of your current role only on your covering letter, put one in your CV.

With the short career experience you have this could probably be condensed down to a single side and you'd remove a lot of the tendency to waffle a bit - some of it sounds like padding and you repeat quite a few phrases (ability to, analyse & examine).

Use 'working knowledge' instead of simply 'knowledge' if you know how to apply the knowledge in your role.

Scrutinize · 27 Sep 2013 at 10:13

OP

Y u no return to thread.......

Drop me an email via trust and I can assist further.

almoststew1990 · 27 Sep 2013 at 21:58

Evening Ladies Gentlemen!

Thanks for the help everyone, I'll respond to a few choice comments:

Scrutinize said:
Are you a member / associate member of the TP society, ILT or IHT or at least working towards them?

I am not, I was under the impression I had too little experience to apply yet. I will bring it up with my line manager next week as some of them are members of CIHT.

Scrutinize said:
Out of interest, are you assessing submitted schemes or supporting the preparation of internal schemes; or both?

Essentially I assess submitted planning applications and schemes. I do not design schemes. However, I am not a CEng Highway Engineer; I do not know lots about highway construction and technical details of drainage. But many of my senior colleagues in Highways Development Planning are members of CIHT.

Scrutinize said:
...especially if you have been assessing any major schemes which could be worth £50m plus)

I'm 23 and with 11 months experience and provide advice for a relatively rural County, not TfL or Manchester! I have assisted my line manager in approving schemes of up to £400,000 (staggered signals) max. Even Local Transport Bid schemes which include large signalised roundabouts are only up to £5m.

Ghosteh said:
I'm a grammar nazi

Thanks for the tip, I think I will go with proper sentences with full stops to make it more readable.

WillyNelson said:
I'm not sure the first section reads very well. I would put the client focussed points first with the more general 'support LM' and 'attend meetings' at the bottom of the list...

...Is this your first job? Move your skills section to before Education. Take some of those more obvious kills out (communication, etc)

This is my first career job. Good point about moving the skills before education as they're more work relevant.

I agree with moving the client based duties before the more general ones with the exception of the Assist Line Manger with advice to LPA, as this is my Job description nearly word for word, and my main target in my Personal Performance Programme Psomething, so therefore I feel it should remain at the top of the list.

I have created a second draft- how does this look? CV Draft 2

Thanks for all the comments so far, I think my cv is much improved now! The grammer might not be perfect with this being a draft and all.