CVs for employment in the UK: Can you advise me please?

Question

I am just in the process of writing an updated version of my CV so i can upload them to afew job websites.

I was thinking about writing my CV out in this format. Does this sound good?

1. Contact Details (Name, D.O.B, Address, Email Add, Tel. No.)

2. A brief paragraph detailing my skills, separated by commas (e.g Obtaining customer sales, dealing with telephone enquiries etc)

3. Employment History from recent to older (Name, Address of Employer, Job Title, Job responsibilities)

4. Employment history (School name, dates attended, subjects studied and grades recieved)

5. A Summary of my skills i could bring to the potential role (with use of bulletpoints)

Would you delete or add any additional info to the CV. What are your opinions to this proposed CV format?

Thnks for your opinions/advice guys

Dave
UK

Answer 1

New legislation around age means that you no longer have to put your age or birthday details on your CV.



I think you have a good layout planned - however - as a recruiter myself I will share with you some of my experience.



Your CV is potentially one of tens or even hundreds depending on the job. When i sift thru CV's I'm looking to identify as much as i can which matches my sifting criteria. In other words - how can i tell quickly if this person has what I'm looking for. So - with that in mind, id be tempted to incorporate your skills into the intro section where you describe yourself. Whilst I'm interested in what skills you have I'm MUCH more interested in what you have done with those skills. So that first intro paragraph should be a snapshot of you and your achievements - your opportunity to sell yourself to me. Don't ramble of waffle on too much tho. 5 or 6 lines at most.



Then list your skills and attributes.



Then, when you do your work history - tell me what you were responsible for and very importantly, what you achieved. Use numbers, percentages etc to reinforce this. e.g. Used my extensive IT skills to produce a tracking system for invoices which saved the company £6,000 per quarter in factoring fees.



Hope that helps

Answer 2

First of all, in terms of formatting, I would use one of the templates from Word so that you have an idea how to set it out.



As you've suggested, contact details go first, but leave out your DOB.



Next, put a paragraph entitled "Personal Statement" or "Objective". In no more that three or four sentences, outline your work history and why you are right for this role.



Employment and Education History sounds fine as you've suggested.



Then, with regard to the summary of skills, I would suggest that this is not necessary for most jobs. It could be a good idea if you work in IT, for example, and want to list all the programs and equipment that you have experience with. For most jobs it really isn't necessary.

Answer 3

Think of this dave,



You are an employer, busy manager who is dealing with a billion and one things, and you get shoved with this pain in the derriere task of recruiting a new Office Manager on top of everything. You have a bunch of CV's that you have got to decide on, and are pushed to rush to some meeting:



As a busy manager, you don't have the time to score, asses and grade every one. You are looking for the ones that stand out.



You pick up the CV described above that starts with an address, a big long paragraph to read, a big chunk naming employers and addresses and............I have lost interest





Next you pick up my CV, which starts with my name and then says:

An efficient, organised teamplayer with 7 years experience of Staff management for teams up to 20 people



Previous employers:

Name and town of employers: Job Title

Key Responsibilities

***********



and so on. Can you see why the manager lost interest in your CV. It does not sell why you are right for the job, it just provides big paragraphs and boring addresses etc



I know it can be tricky to jobhunt, so I have compiled a website which contains an excellent base for starting a CV as well as other info. find it at

http://www.gjobadvice.co.uk

Answer 4

Well my CV has never let me down, I usually get asked to interview. Mines is laid out:



Personal Details: Name, contact details, DOB, nationality (nice to let them know you're ok to work in the UK).



Education: as you've got it there.



Employment: just as you've got it there, altho since I've been working since I was 13 and have had multiple jobs while at uni as well as relevant work placements I split it into two categories, relevant work experience to the job i'm applying to, then just other work experience (remember altho the job might not be relevant it's still worth mentioning as you might have picked up skills that are transferable).



Then I've got a section of skills and little examples of how i've demonstrated them / used them. it's handy to write that kinda stuff down even if it's not in ur cv cuz lots of job interviews ask you to give an example of a time when you demonstrated leadership skill/team work skill/whatever, and if you have examples already in mind it helps a lot.



and then i have a note at the end saying that references can be supplied if needed. this is quite a good idea if ur uploading ur website onto websites and stuff as you dont want to give out someone else's contact details on the web. but again, make a note somewhere of all relevant references contact details so they're easy to find should they be requested.



also make sure that if you're submitting a word document that you format it nicely, make it look smart, make the headings clear, all that jazz. you want them to look at your cv and think "yeah, this guy's smart".



us british struggle to blow our own trumpets sometimes, dont be afraid to proudly stand up and admit you've got skills and stuff, remember you're selling yourself. you gotta believe you're the best person around. all the best :)

Answer 5

Name

Address

Marital Status

Phone number

Email

D.O.B



Personal skills.

Education

Training (if any)

Employment (Most recent first)

Referees