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CV trends

Gutsy

Gutsy

New Member
Hello there,
I hope I've put this in the right place ... it's personal development as in the answers I get to this question will assist me in advising clients who come to me to type CVs.
What I want to know, from people who own businesses and employ staff, and others who have knowledge on this is about CV formats.
The new way of writing a CV is to basically put everyhthing in paragraph format and leave out as much personal info as possible.
The old way is to have a chronological list of personal information, employment, education .. etc.
Which do you as employers prefer to see? Do you prefer to see indepth information about your potential employee, or a two page CV giving the bare minimum, really?
Thanks guys.
 
J

John

New Member
Hi Gaynor,

I work for a large corporate telco in London and the standard across our industry sill tends to be 2 pages maximum (although you can include a covering letter as well).

I would advise never to go over this 2 page limit. It may differ (depending on the peronal preference of the employer) when applying for a role in a smaller company but I would certainly err on the side of caution.

In terms of structure I would advise the following:

- Brief Overview 6/7 Lines Max
- Career History Headline in bold for each role/posistion and 4 or 5 bulleted sentences stating stating key achivements/responsibilities in that particular position)
- Interpersonal/Transferable Skills I usually have headings (depending on what type of role it is) for Team Work, Communication, Project Management, Technical Skills etc and then put 3 or 4 bulleted sentences below),
- Education (I dont bother with school qaulifications.. just pertinent degree/MBA information)
- Personal Interests. 5 or 6 lines max

You should feel confident in your CV as long as it is concise, well structured and "punchy". Ensure the CV is tailored to the specific role and remove any abbreviations. Make sure you fill the CV with concise information that makes you stand out from the others. Use the appropriate language but try to avoid generic statements like "I've got great business accumen". Try to leave as many "hooks" as possible that will make the potential employer want to find out more in the interview.

Hope that helps (it's not an exact science by any means)

Thanks

John
 

sam09

New Member
Thought this was a very helpful post! As I am a gruduate on the job hunt! Which hasn't been doing great at the minute.
I wanted to add, how omportant is the cover letter. Will employers even look at the CV if you don't like the letter?

Tis a tough time, you need experience to do everything, from sorting mail to making coffee! And how do you get experience unless you can get a job (as it appears my studies do not count as experience as such). Also I'm at the age where if I go for a position against say a 17 or 18 year old they are more likely to get it as hiring myself would cost more due to minimum wage.

So any tips to get ahead I would also love to hear!!

Sam
 
J

John

New Member
Hi Sam

The actual importance of the covering letter contents may differ depending on who looks at it and their style/preferences. However, since it's the first thing people will look it's importnant not to overlook it. It's going to be a very short letter but you need to make sure it's concise/"punchy"/stands out (as with the CV).

In terms of experience- When you don't have any pertinent experience (e.g. when you are applying for a graudate scheme role) you need to make sure you "beef up" your Interpersonal/Transferable skills section. I worked at a kids summer camp in the states for a few years that let me put down lot of stuff. The main thing you want to get across is that you have a track record of developing yourself (both as a person and as a professional) and your skills.

Good luck with the job hunt. It can can be a challenging time but keep learning things, stay positive and eventually something will come up.

Any other questions let me know.

Regards

John
 
Employment Law Services

Employment Law Services

EmployEasily Legal Services
Writing a CV is a bit like writing a good homepage for your website. Prospective employers want to know what you've 'delivered' not just what you've 'done' so instead of listing a mirror of your job description try to call out major accomplishments relative to the roles you did.

Eg. If you were a sales manager responsible for a team selling widgets, instead of simply listing all of the things that role entailed, like....... setting sales targets for team members, reviewing team performance and introducing performance improvement plans as required, etc, etc, etc ..........you should call out things like............Identified areas for growth and increased the company's client base 25%................Drove sales performance resulting in a 15% increase in growth profit for the business............and if you can equate these accomplishments to pounds even better!

It goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that you need to be able to back-up at an interview anything you claim to have achieved in your CV with firm evidence but focus on the 'what you can do for the employer' more than what you do.
 
Gutsy

Gutsy

New Member
Thankyou everybody that gives me a lot of food for thought.
 
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