2000 sport

iTrader: (1)

any good advice for writing a CV ??

just finished uni, have been a sales consultant for carphone warehouse part and full time for the last 4yrs, but want to do something else while my application for the police is going through...

any ideas.. ?

thanks, alex..

Patt@firstime

lie

mrklaw

keep it short and to the point. Two pages max if possible. Nice simple layout in a simple font (serif or sans depending on your taste, but serif, like Times Roman, is often easier to read when printed)

Personal crap at the top (few lines, perhaps use two columns to save space)
Keep personal details simple - name, address, phone, email. No need for marital status or blood type

Then an intro paragraph, showing what key skills and experience you have that is relevant to the job you are applying for. If you customise nothing else, do this for each job. Shows you are thinking about each role.

If you have a short work history, put your education first, in reverse chronological order (most recent first). The more senior/professional your education, the more of the little stuff you can leave out from secondary school etc. You want a nice size but not too long.

Work history, again in reverse chronological order.
One line for the job and company (don't need full address)
Then a few sentences about key responsibilites and activities that are relevant to the post you are applying for. Ideally customise this / adjust the priority of tasks/roles to suit, but not essential

Two referees at the bottom. If you need to pad, then you can put their full details (again you can use two columns). If you are short of space then just name and something like 'details available on request'

2000 sport

iTrader: (1)

thanks very much.. pretty much what i needed there !

imlach

Suprised you didn't say this was a "sales executive"

....or rather, back in the real world, "shop assistant"

Reminds me of my mate who was head of marketing for Sony (Televisions) in Germany a few years back......
He wasn't best pleased when we said he'd managed to work his way up to a job in telesales

chris's scooby

As what mrklaw said really.

Also important to taylor the covering letter to match one or two things the ad you are replying to has mentioned.

Oh and i'm sure they won't hold the Carphone Warehouse job against you. LOL

Good luck with it.

Chris

imlach

Yes....if applying for graduate jobs, education should come before employment history. If appying for jobs a few years down the line, employment history should come first, then education after.

If a graduate position, school stuff should be 1-2 lines at most - not really that relevant aside from subjects studied, and perhaps grades for a graduate job.

Wouldn't bother with listing referees in full - just say 'available on request' and use the space saved for more useful stuff about you....

As someone else said, before employment & education history, write a list of your key attributes...

If a technical job, list your technical skills, as well as your interpersonal skillset.....lots of nice adjectives.....

alistair

Remeber what a CV is for..........

It's not to get you a job.

It's to get you an interview !

Put enough detail in there to sound qualified, relevant & interesting, but leave enough unanswered that they want to interview you.

davyboy

Pay someone to do it for you.

Worked for me.

Got the first job I went for. I have been happy cleaning **** for the last 4 years.

Dave

Drunken Bungle Whore

Another thing to remember - the CV stage is the screening out stage, NOT the screening in. Most employers will have a pile of CVs and will be looking for a reason NOT to interview/ employ you.

Mosnter have apretty good CV set up so give them a whirl! www.monster.co.uk

Also try Reed - they have a special area which deals specifically with graduates - and they certainly used to be fantastic - though haven't been around them for a while. www.reed.co.uk

Would certainly suggest you take ANY temp work you can get your hands on though to beef up the CV. Even if it has no relevance to your degree, it still shows a willingness to work.

Good luck!

Graz

Keep it coming, I'm writing mine at the moment, my old one is a bit out of date as I've been in this job for 10 years Finally had enough so this thread is quite useful at the moment