Writing a CV

I have had an idea, and started a new thread. Please see "Advice needed"

(Not sure if it's viable)

I'm now up to version 7!

However have had a lovely initial reference/testimonial from my boss:

"Phoenix joined us six years ago and quickly adapted from the B2C to the B2B sales environment. She has a great sense of humour which she uses to establish raport with prospective clients. She is a hardworking and enthusiastic team member who often takes work home home when a deadline is to be met.

Phoenix has a rare sales talent - she is a born salesperson who clearly gets a real kick out of every sale she makes. Phoenix has been generating annual sales of around £330k, and as our only business development manager until last year we relied totally on her for helping us grow from a £350k turnover to £1.3m

I am personally extremely sad that we have had lose our Business Development Team and I have no hesitation in recommending Phoenix to any potential employer."

Gulp, sob, etc. I really loved my job, and got a lot of satisfaction from it. I miss it so much. I feel that ones job is part of ones identity, and am feeling very much adrift at present.

Oh well, onward and upward.

Good to see they are 'thinking outside the box' and are into 'blue sky thinking' when advising you about CVs phoenix

Evening all, and thanks again for all the feedback

I have had a call today from another agency, who advised that "these days" there is no need for a profile/statement, as these tend to ne full of cliches (motivated, equally happy working alone or as part of a team etc) and we all know that cliches should be avoided like the plague!

PoppaRob nice to see you on here.

Human Resources - the scourge of every organisation! In Australia, you have higher requirements of qualifications - not many clinical psychologists, or occupational psychologists for that matter, knocking about in HR in the UK. More likely business diplomas, young college leavers, people still studying and gaining experience on the backs of employees whose lives get turned upside down by these transient, ambitious numpties who have no empathy and little understanding of the impact of their casual rhetoric about redundancy, demotion, suspension, disciplinaries and health worries.

As a manager, I sat with many a weeping employee who had given years of loyal service, being told by some new HR entrant to the organisation that their job was in jeopardy because of absence through illness, or potential changes in infrastructure, with no hint of compassion or understanding.

They had little training, but felt able to give out bad advice about CVs, 'help' with moving to more suitable posts after long-term illness, or in over-riding policy and proedure when there were clear reasons to do so, such as enabling very sick people to retire without having to fight for the right. And, when you phoned them a fortnight after they had wreaked havoc, where are they? Oh, they left last week - did no-one tell you!?!?

Apologies to the good old personnel officers who got caught up in this move into bureaucracy - good pastoral care of employees, faces that we all got to know and who were on hand to help when we needed it. There were two left in my organisation when I retired, and both continued to offer help weeks after I left. The other half dozen or so were too busy chatting on Facebook, re-writing complaints about their department in order to avoid being found out for their ineptitude, and writing their academic essays in work time so they could get their ambitious feet further up some other organisation's promotions ladder.

Never listen to an HR person giving advice about CVs!

Yes Phoenix you will find that with agencies - just when you've got your Cv just right someone will tell you they want it either longer or shorter. Preferences vary between industries and professions as well. Computer programmers list the projects they worked on with a long list of the kinds of programming tools used in each one. The applications that surprised me most were for head teacher. Long rambling badly written essays on their philosophy of education in some cases.
Hi there popparob lovely to hear from you. Clinical psychologists are good guys here. They help people to overcome disabling phobias without the use of drugs. etc. But it has always been a very tough entry requirement even to get started. Maybe it means something different in Australia. I was somewhat surprised to hear that in the USA "therapists" dish out drugs. Ritalin, anti depressants etc.

I like the suggestions so far, can I suggest instead of: 'My job satisfaction comes from closing sales and increasing profits as part of a happy and successful team.' I would prefer my main strengths are closing sales and increasing profits as part of a successful team.

I did some serious jobhunting when I wanted to return to the workforce after a small stroke and some heart dramas that had put me onto a disability support pension. I attended 2 course and saw 3 alleged Human Resources experts, all of whom had very firm rules on how to write a CV/Resume, and of course that meant I got 5 quite varying versions of how to write a CV.

Here in Australia the requirements to become a clinical psychologist changed in the 1990s. You had to have a MSc.Psych rather than a MA.Psych which meant a lot of people who had a BA.Psych and wanted to get into clinical psychology were excluded - most of them went into human resources.

First feedback from an agency, it's too "wordy". This agency left a message on my mobile at 8.30 on Monday, after I submitted an application for a specific job on Saturday. It has taken until 5.53 today, to actually speak to the woman. I have phoned every day, left messages with her colleague, finally has a brief chat yesterday, she said she would phone me at 4pm to discuss in more depth. She didn't. I phoned again today, finally managed to talk. Apparently her client doesn't think I'm right for the position.

Now need to re-write the CV to be more bullet points, rather than text.

Oh bluddy hell!

Thought you might have. So blow your trumpet woman. Make that crystal clear. There are a lot of 22 year olds out there padding Cvs and exaggerating what they have done.

Many thanks all. And, yes, JessM , I did lead, write, and present on all of the ones mentioned!

The most important ting for someone shortlisting applications is find the ones that most closely match the job specification and personal specification and they don't want to wade through pages and pages to find that so make sure you meet the essential critieria as soon as you can and the profile you are putting first needs to say some of this. These days employers are wading through sometimes 200 applications. Good Luck with it.

The para re winning contracts was the stand out one for me. Beef it up. Did you lead the bid, write the bid, make the pitch - or were you just one of a team that did this. Make it clear.
I have read thousands of CVs. 5 pages - you lose the will to live.The person commenting had probably never been on the receiving end of hundreds of CVs that he had to read TODAY.

Key tip - make sure that key words for the job jump off the page.
I once waded through gadzillions of MBAs applying online for a role in which some background in marketing was essential. If i could not spot that word marketing in the first 30 secs it would be a "no thanks" .
Other tip, before I get on, is to make sure there are no unexplained gaps in your chronological CV. If you were a full time parent for 5 years, make that clear. Some people look for gaps and fret about what you were up to.

Thanks!

Agreed!

Butternut, do you mean put that before my progression through the company? If so, I think I can see your reasoning, they are household names and I must admit I am a bit proud of being responsible for adding them to the company client list. (Slightly abashed at boasting smiley).

I am still of a mind to tailor it to suit the application, there is one I applied for over the weekend that, with the 20/20 vision that is hindsight, I think will actually scare the potential employer into thinking that my salary expectations may be more than they can afford!

PS Am I allowed a bit of a "moment"? It is quite a good list, isn't it?

CVs - short, relevant, punchy, evidenced and show something of the person behind them. More than than a page and a half becomes a chore for the reader, and you know the old saying about the first few seconds clinching an interview, well the beginning and end are what tend to be remembered so put the sensational stuff first and last. You will have the best CV ever written!
xx

Dare I suggest - Move para. 4 to the top of this section. Include the BBC and D.T. too. It's the most relevant. The rest is padding ( everyone in similar businesses will be aware of this) and can be put in later.
x

Thanks Butternut , glad to hear that I seem to be on the right lines.

This next bit is from the section on my "current" (ha, tomorrow is my last day!) employment.

I first joined the company as an Administrator, providing support to the Client Services Managers, then became Project Manager with sole responsibility for selling a benchmarking programme to Local Authorities across the UK. I was promoted to Business Development Manager, a position I have held for five years.

My role involves contact with both clients and prospective clients by telephone and email, preparing quotations, proposals etc. (using Microsoft Office) and delivering face to face sales presentations. An essential part of the job is identifying clients’ needs and offering appropriate solutions at competitive prices that will meet company requirements with regard to profit margins.

For over four years the company has taken stand space at various key industry specific exhibitions, where I have had the responsibility of representing the company and engaging with potential new blue chip clients. I have also taken part in several live interviews on various BBC Radio stations on the company’s behalf, and contributed to articles in the Daily Telegraph.

I have been successful in winning contracts with clients such as British Gas, Anglian Home Improvements, M&S Money, Nuffield Health and Camelot (The National Lottery), among many others.

Covering letter, mission statement, call it whatever name, is the clincher in my book. I would keep the CV shorter rather than longer. Many decisions are made in the first 10 secs. or so.
Good luck! x

Ooooh, forgot to run this one by you all!

I had another meeting with my boss last Friday, showed him the draft of my CV.

His response? "That's a good start, I will help you to make it really stand out."

OK, fine, but he then went on to say that Lucy (a recent intern) has a rather "thin" CV as she was just out of UNI, but they worked on it and managed to get it up to..............................*5 PAGES* !!!!! I kid you not!

Every website I have looked at says 2 pages max! I also think that the covering letter or email can be a crucial factor, as that should be a sort of "appetiser" to make them want to actually read the attached CV.

real cleft stick that one Phoenix.
I vote for "excellent" sense of humour.

Thanks all, I will have a bit of a re-jig.

Carol and susiecb , I have included examples of my achievements/successes in the sections I have done with regard to my 2 most recent jobs. I have only covered the last 2 employments, but they do cover 17 years!

I sent an email yesterday in responseto an advertisement, requesting an application form. (That was what the advertiser requested, not a CV)

The form came today, and part of it requests details of your education,including dates. This has made me a bit as it means that they can work out ones age, to a degree.

Mr Phoenix has suggested that I put the qualifiations in, bt not the dates.

Any thoughts, ladies?

I used to shortlist applicants' and read their CVs and one criterion we always looked for was examples/evidence, so I would add some examples of how you were successful, what gave you the competitive edge, name some of the media you have used, specify what you think is relevant to the reader. Good luck! It's looking great