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Shiny new CV template, please

Beagleskin

Asked by Beagleskin over 2 years ago for 10 kudos
Best answer by ellie
Last active over 2 years ago 12 responses

The credit crunch has done rather nasty things to my cushy job. Therefore I have to shine up my CV and start sending it to people so they can throw their heads back in derisive laughter and give the really good jobs (where you do nothing but talk rhubarb on KCL and buy bee-themed stuff on eBay all day) to people who clearly deserve them more.

Still it’s worth a try.

Sooooo it’s been a while. Can anyone recommend somewhere to get fabulous ‘employ me you bastards’ CV templates? Or give me some ever so wise advice about weaving magic with said shiny new CV?

I will give you kudos. Shiny shiny kudos.

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12 responses

PrincessBride

What kind of a job? I would say it’s more important to have a concise info-tastic CV than a flashy one. However, when I worked for an F1 team, the design department were always really impressed by the CVs that came in F1 car form. Full size car’n’that. To detract from the lack of actual CV guff.

There is a website with CV templates though, I’ll go and look for it.

You can have my job if you like.

Posted over 2 years ago by PrincessBride

Beagleskin

You can have my job if you like.

Done.

That was easy.

Posted over 2 years ago by Beagleskin

Fi

CV tips from my too many years of receiving shit CVs:

- Make sure you’ve got a good cover letter which is specifically tailored for the role and tells you what makes you the best for the job – and what excites you about it… if I have several similar candidates then a bit of enthusiasm and some effort to sell their experience makes them stand out.

- Try to keep it to 2 pages plus the cover letter. 3 if you really need to and the content is worth it, but no more.

- Have a summary paragraph at the beginning that gives them an overview of your level and core skills plus touches on your aspirations. Key achievements can be in here too if they don’t come out enough in the descriptions within the CV but are really worthwhile highlighting.

- Keep each individual job description/overview to a third of a page or less. Start with most recent and go back.

- Make sure you don’t use too many different font styles or sizes, but that you do clearly signpost headings and new sections.

- Use bullet points as much as possible instead of long prose, although a combo of the 2 is usually good.

- DO A SPELL CHECK. TWICE. And have it proofed. At least twice.

- Never send a word file, always make it into a PDF (this avoids formatting fuckups).

Can’t think of anything else right now. Sorry if most of this is waaaay too obvious for you Beagle, but I do see some awful CVs come through far too often. Hope is of help.

Good luck!

Posted over 2 years ago by Fi tipped with 1K

CravenMaven

Unless you work in an industry with clearly defined stages to your career – law, medicine, accountancy etc, I would go for a functional (categorise by skills) rather than chronological (categorise by date) CV. So all skills related to each other go together – customer relations, editorial, databases – whatever.

One advisor told me to add a two line summary of my skills at the top, as the first thing someone would see on scanning. It worked, too.

Posted over 2 years ago by CravenMaven tipped with 1K

ellie

For tips I used this site when re-doing my CV
They talk about having a front page with skills and achievements and a paragraph (as mentioned by others). I didn’t do the skills and achievements section though, went straight into my career history, but I did take some of the site’s advice. When I did my CV this is what I did:

—Bolded up certain key-words and sentences (e.g delivered whatever, managed whatever, depending on your industry)
—Kept to 2 pages
—Missed off earlier jobs that weren’t relevant (I had a 10 year cut-off date, unless perhaps you’re going for jobs where they need to know everything for security purposes, I summarise with a short paragraph now)
—I put interests, didn’t used to but recently I looked at someone’s CV before interviewing, he was into the same things as me, which made me want to meet him (it helped his CV was great too of course)
—Avoid generic CVs, always target it for each job, sounds obvious but I got so hacked-off re-writing my CV each time I didn’t want to do this, then didn’t get calls
—Find someone who is good at words/recruiter/company who is happy to look at it for you and edit mercilessly, my mate did it and that’s what helped me

I got a lot of interviews off CV done a few months ago, am happy to send to you if you want a look, I looked at quite a few friend’s CVs and pinched bits over the years. I can’t interview at all though, so I may well be posting for tips at later date.

Good luck x

Posted over 2 years ago by ellie tipped with 1K

ellie

ah one more thing….

—As Fi says, proof read twice and spell check twice, but to do this I now print it and get out a red pen, as I miss things when proofing on screen

Editors probably know it can be better to proof-read off printed copies, but I’d forgotten this. I sent out a CV to a lot of recruiters with a mistake in it.

Posted over 2 years ago by ellie

cfalconer

Also, look through at the first proof-reading, then leave it over night and look through again.

Posted over 2 years ago by cfalconer

CarmenM

...some ever so wise advice about weaving magic with said shiny new CV

Be confident enough to entrust the first proofread to a grammatically-sound friend.

Posted over 2 years ago by CarmenM tipped with 1K

Beagleskin

Cheers lovely KCLers (and horrible ones). Kudos to Ellie especially for the site as it’s a goodun. I will buy you all a drink when I am not longer jobless scum.

Posted over 2 years ago by Beagleskin

Provdes

Hey Beags…. you can check out mine onmy site

Did me well in the past, prolly needs updating but the structure is sound…. : )

Good luck with the job hunting – what’s your chosen field (other than knitting bees)

Posted over 2 years ago by Provdes

Beagleskin

Cheers, Provdes. Your CV is most shiny and inspirational.

Posted over 2 years ago by Beagleskin

devilskitchen

Quite pretty, Provdes, but all caps…? Ugh.

Still, definitely proof-read; I had a mistake on my CV and the interviewers picked it up and it caused some sticky moments. Luckily, I am very good at improv – or bullshit, whatever – and they still employed me. Admittedly, they are working me to death, but hey! it’s fun…

Posted over 2 years ago by devilskitchen