Henrik

iTrader: (5)

Great news for me today

Apparently, the company I work for have started a project with a big IT vendor to produce a new system to replace our ageing software (or mess, as the big boss put it)...

The project will span from 4-6 months, and after that what happens to me is anybodys guess. I might be able to get a job with the new vendor or somewhere at one of our sister companies, but I wouldn't count on it.

This news comes at a particularly good time for me, as I was just about to embark on a part time MSc in Computing Science... Thank God I didn't actually start and end up having to pay course fees.

So, does anyone require a unix admin / c programmer with lots of experience? Otherwise I have a feeling my new role will involve collecting cheques from the dole office


Could you guys please download my CV and have a look at it and comment on it as well, please? It's here: http://193.41.118.41/digits/cv-scoobynet.doc
Cheers

shamrock

You have 22 years experience but you're only 25, that's good going mate.

minor_threat

Henrik,

good luck with everything. You really need to strip your CV down to 2 pages as it's far too comprehensive! Remember that a CV only serves as a medium to get you to an interview. Your aim is to get the prosepctive employer interested enough to want to interview you and find out more, so less detail is better. Treat your CV as a teaser, like saying "Right, this shows a high-level view of my work experience and persona, but to find out more you'll have to interview me."

I see CVs all of the time and as an interviewer those that interest me (and my colleagues) the most are those which tend to hook us in with pertinent detail but leave us wanting to know more, hence we call people in for an interview.

I'll email my CV to you in a minute (it's a pdf) so you can see what I mean.

minor_threat

LOL! It would be good if experience was cumulative, I could make it look as though I'm 29 with 290 years experience in many different skills!

philc

gosh - you've done a lot!

but would you get to interview stage?

not sure.

I'm currently interviewing for a Technology Manager (in NZ btw) and all the selection panel does at the first stage is draw up a list of questions based on the job ad / job description and then score the CV content against those questions; eg

previous management experience; tertiary qualification or experience; team work; industry experience; MCSE; etc .....

it's not the amount of detail shown in the cv, but whether there is evidence of the required skills.

Remember that the cv is not your life history, but the 'taster' to get you to the interview stage.

So, I suggest - spend the money saved on your aborted degree course on getting a professional to write your cv. Then when applying for jobs, in your covering letter copy the list of required skills from the job ad and put against each skill, your experience.

If you can answer positively most of the required skills from the job ad then there is no reason you should not get to the interview.

It's amazing how many candidates do not reply specifically to the advertised job they are applying for

Good luck.

Henrik

iTrader: (5)

Ok, so basically I need to strip it down, and not make it uber-specific?

The specific bit is hard, especially when you are applying for jobs online, as most job sites only allow you to store one CV and then use that for applying to different jobs. If you apply for a job and then change the CV to apply for another job, the recruitment agent for the first job will see the second version, if he looks at it after you do the update

Maybe I should try to get on the phone more as well, and not just apply online?