I recently attended a workshop organised by the local job centre. It was designed for people like me who have not had to apply for jobs for some while – twenty odd years in my case. One of the things they talked about was CV presentation. Some of it was pretty basic, like keep it short, sweet and to the point. Also, put in stuff that is measurable – so in my case, the outsourcing of training provision for my department saved £20k per annum, rather than simply outsourced training.
In general, my CV already pretty much met the stuff we were told about. There were some do’s and don’t’s included. For example, the presenter said always put in some hobbies and interests – again using the same reasoning as mentioned before; make it measurable, demonstrate what you are capable of and state that references are available on request.
Then you get this that completely contradicts it…
References available upon request
It’s taken for granted that you’ll supply references – but a little premature to mention this on your CV. Wait until you’re in the running for the job and then provide a list of referees.
And
Hobbies and interests
I’d like to ban this entire section from CVs, as it’s generally a cue to list the dullest and most predictable. “Socialising with friends”, “reading”, “film”… Occasionally you get the more unusual, my favourite being “marching bands”, but you’re not necessarily going to be a great accountant just because you’re a dab hand on the euphonium.
Ultimately, I guess you just have to do the best you can and hope…
As I am fond of telling people when I do these workshops. You could ask 10 Recruitment Agents how to do a CV and get 10 diffrent answers.
There is no correct way, it’s what works for you. If it gets you interviews it’s working. If you’re not getting interviews, it could be it needs looking at again.
I agree about the references bit. no need to add it. Hobbies & interests is tricky. I don’t include them on mine as they are not relevant to any job that I’m applying for. (and are mostly solo pursuits, could make me seem ‘not a team player’)
I’ve been through the CV writing process fairly recently, and was given advice by my local job centre as well.
Hobbies/interests are an interesting bag, I’ve ended up with a few on my CV this time round, but I haven’t had them on there for over 6 years. However this is mainly because some of the skills I can offer a company have been developed through my hobbies rather than work.
As for references – I don’t see the point in mentioning them. Even when I have listed some the companies/agents usually ask me for some anyway (and don’t complain when I give the same ones!). The line ‘References available on Request’ is definitely a waste, and space that could be used for something useful instead.
As Pavlov’s Cat said above – if you get interviews with your CV then keep the format and adjust. If you aren’t getting interviews then I suggest looking at the format – it seems to make more of a difference than the content does when dealing with agents at any rate.
I’ve done both and got interviews doing both…
The interests and hobbies advice was along the lines of relevance and measurablity. He gave the anecdote of one person he knew who coached an ice hockey team. This demonstrated useful traits for a potential employer. Mine, like yours, tend to be solo pursuits – photography, so reviled in the groan article (but I’ve sold a few pictures, so not just cameraphone images), motorcycling, calligraphy and such.
Was the workshop provided by the state? To all job seekers?
If everyone does their CV the same way, it’s all a pretty pointless exercise.
The workshop is provided by a private company and funded by the state. It is primarily aimed at people who are from a professional or executive type background who have not had to look for work in recent years.
For the most part it was about presentation – what employers look for seems to change regularly so it was about the latests gimmicks as much as anything.
I picked up some useful tips and some of it I was already doing.
For me, getting the interview seems to be the easy part. It’s the interview that appears to be the problem. My sister in law suggests that I come across as too independently minded and not sufficiently malleable. She could be right, of course.
I’d say applying to an online job advert most closely resembles shining light into a black hole, as most seem to run everything through an automatic keyword analyser and bin anything that doesn’t match those for the job.
So I’d say make sure any keywords in the requirements are echoed in your CV. i.e. don’t send a ‘generic’ do some tailoring to your CV, based on the deathless prose in the ad.
I wouldn’t add references/referees, tried both ways, makes no difference. Never listed hobbies yet, never looked at them when I was doing the interviewing either.
Covering letter seems to make a difference at the moment. Brief, or no covering letter seems to cause instant binning – more research needed.
Overall state of the HR/job world in the UK? Woeful.
CV writing advice is always quite generic.
One of the most damaging CV writing mistakes is not keeping it to a maximum of 2 pages. Your CV can be concised down to 2 page. More than this can be a reason for rejection by recruiter or employers.
You can find great free CVs from this really useful
CV template: resource page.
Here’s a link to download free CV templates
http://www.cv-service.org/CVsAdministration.htm
http://www.cvxl.org/cvdownloads/admincvs.zip
You can also find hundreds of CV templates / examples from this page.
More CV templates:
Please bookmark this blog / page or save to favorites to return later for more freebies.
Best regards
Mike
For what it is worth (and given that I have got every job that I have gone for with a CV along these lines, that may be some), I read a book by an HR bod some years ago, who had this to say about structure:
1) Basic Personal Details: from my own personal experience, I don’t give two tits whether you are married or have children. And I certainly couldn’t care less about the sex or birth dates of your kids (yes, someone did do that on a CV recently).
2) Personal Statement: a prose piece talking about who you are, what you can do and what you aspire to do. Ideally, this should be tailored (slightly) to each individual job that you apply for. [2 paragraphs max.]
3) Personal Skills: a bullet-pointed list of your specific skills, preferably relating to 1) above, e.g. in 1) “… proficient in all DTP and graphics applications”; in 2) “… expert in Photoshop, Freehand and InDesign; proficient in Illustrator, Fireworks…”.
4) List of relevant jobs [most recent first]: within each job, you should describe your responsibilities, any innovations you brought (yes, quantify them!), and anything that you learned. [These summaries should be short and to the point.]
5) Educational Qualifications.
6) Hobbies and Interests: but do not just put “reading”, because everyone does. Elaborate on it: what do you like reading, why do you like reading those books or periodicals, do you act on what you learn from them? etc.
7) References on request.
And yes, do include a covering letter (if only so I know which job you are applying for—we might have several open); this shouldn’t need to be said but, from experience, it does: tailor the letter, very specifically, to my company and the specific job you’re applying for.
Anyway, I am one of the main hiring guys at my company, so if you’d like me to have a quick scan of your CV, I’d be happy to do so.
DK
Hobbies – Some suggestions.
Kitten tormenting, vole sharpening, prostitutes, burning passages from the Bhagavad-Gita into small children’s foreheads, hard drugs, draining pus from self-inflicted wounds, vole darts, dogging with real dogs, baiting hoodies and holocaust denial.
One tip – never, ever say ‘smoking’. That’s a no-no.
Best not mention train spotting either. Nobody wants to employ a weirdo.
As I don’t smoke, that’s not an issue for me. However, we have started to lie about Mrs L’s habit – all sorts of people ask and we can be penalised for it. This first started back in 2003 when we had to take out compulsory life insurance in France – her premium was not only higher than mine, but took longer to process, causing delays with the house purchase. We swore; never again. So we just don’t mention it and take the risk.
Generally I’d go along the lines that DK recommends, but do tailor to suit the individual job. It’s not often that I don’t get an interview.
As a personal note LR, I tend not to put “motorcycling” as a hobby/passtime as there are a lot of folks out there who will make the assumption that you are a member of the hells arseholes and will spend much of your working day biting the heads off female employees and raping the chickens.
I usually get round this one by putting “classic motorcycle restoration”, as I work on my own bikes and they are old.