Cv's - Help!

[airdlass]

Need help in writing my CV - never had to do one before - any help, advice etc would be welcome

[katarina]

http://www.e-cvs.net/ma/cv.asp?ref=G11

The above site offer a free service.

[golach]

Airdlass, google "cv writer" there are many sites to choose from, best o luck

[airdlass]

http://www.e-cvs.net/ma/cv.asp?ref=G11

The above site offer a free service.

Thanks Katarina and Golach I've registered with the above site now I've just got to remember all my dates etc! Do you have to list all your previous jobs? That might take some time

[_Ju_]

Airlass, a CV shouldn't be longer than a couple of pages, or three at the most. Be clear and precise. List activities from most recent to most distant.

[rockchick]

Do you HAVE to list all your previous jobs? Depends...

It's best if you can list them all, to show your continuity of employment, but you can fill out with what you did only on the ones that have relevant experience. If you're applying for an office job, for instance, they won't really care what you did when you were stacking shelves at Co-op if you can show that you did blah blah blah when you answered phones for x-company.

If it's confusing, like if you have two or three jobs, you could write a wee paragraph that says "during 2002-2005 I maintained employment through contract work while covering night shift at y-company and also completing bit work for z-company when available.

If you did sporadic "spot" jobs, say that..."during blah blah period I found occasional employment doing", maybe stating that further details can be provided if desired.

also, remember to tailor your CV to the job you're applying for. Try to have the most important or impressive part of your CV at the top, whether it's your education or employment history, or your personal bits. Maybe you've done alot of volunteering where you've picked up skills that could be relevant for the job - tell them this! They aren't going to bother reading between the lines.

Good luck!

[airdlass]

Thanks Rockchick , that makes a lot of sense.

[sweetpea]

Need help in writing my CV - never had to do one before - any help, advice etc would be welcome

Hiya airdlass

My advice to you would be this - a CV is a tool that gets you employed or screened out. It's your chance to sell yourself so do you really want that job and how much.You need differnet ones for different jobs i.e. no point highlighting ITskills if they are not really a big part of the job. Use numbers or thignd that state and unlike my essage don't have any mistakes.
Hope this helps.
sweetpea x

[airdlass]

Hi sweetpea
Thanks for the advice - I will adapt my CV depending on the type of job I'm going for.Don't know about selling myself though!

[sweetpea]

Just a turn of phrase. Most bosses can't be bothered decyphering what's on a CV as long as it's logical and says what you mean then you can't go wrong.

[davem]

Selling yourself is hard but once you've written the CV anyway, get someone who knows you well to go over it, and point out all the good points about yourself that you've missed. What we all tend to do is think of the things we arn't so good at as important and what we're good at as easy so not worth mentioning. Get you're friends to remind you what your star qualities are, that will help with an interview too!

[Max]

Yes, and a word of warning -make sure you can back up everything you put on your CV. For example " I can use my initiative" gives an interviewer the opportunity to say "give me an example of when you used your initiative recently?" So be prepared! Good luck.

[las123]

if you find it hard putting your good points etc down on paper, you can go to careers scotland and they will help you, you just have to fill a form with some info and then they do the rest.

[airdlass]

thanks very much for all your suggestions etc - I have now managed to compose a rough copy and it's not looking too bad!
Cheers

[Errogie]

The main thing to get over in any job application is not especially your history, or even why you need to secure the appointment, but instead what you can bring to the job and what you can add to the service which the prospective employer wants to secure.

I found this to be the most annoyingly missing component in a slew of applications which I recently had to wade through!