What to include on CV's

Taureandagger

Hi Guys. I have no major qualifications to speak of and am working in a factory. Last year I became a member of Mensa and I dont know whether to include this on my CV or not. Would an employer see it as an indicator of potential (In the absence of formal qualifications) or would it go against me.
I didnt go further in college due to financial circumstances and I have to work but would like a more interesting job.
What do you think?

leeroybrown

I wouldn't include it unless I knew it was for a position where it would be perceived in a positive fashion. While being a member of Mensa is a good achievement it could easily be perceived in a negative fashion by someone reading your CV. By this I mean that some people would get the impression that you take yourself too seriously and have a bit of an ego problem. If three people review a CV then I think it's likely that at least one will think that putting it down is odd.

I would suggest thinking about what areas of work might interest you and investigate the possibility of doing a part-time course in the area.

Civilian_Target

Depends what jobs you're looking for.

If there's somewhere you can slip MENSA into your CV you should, especially if you're going for skilled employment. However, if for example you're 20-something, have a not-great Leaving Cert, only factory work experience and you're a member of MENSA, you should probably leave it out becuase it might portray you as underachieving (sorry, don't mean to be harsh, but people will always pick holes in CVs)

Post your CV (with all your personal details removed naturally) and let us see!

Stark

It depends on whether the employer has a chip on their shoulder about highly intelligent/academic people or not. According to one guy I know who had it on his cv, some employers love it, others think "tosser".

Civilian_Target

Another questions about CVs actually. I'm re-doing mine, as I'll soon be jobseeking in the UK. My name is Irish and unusual, which makes it difficult for potential employers to gauge both my gender and nationality - something that should not be important, but often is in peoples minds! Potential employers would like to know if this is a guy or a girl applying, and they know that Irish people are more likely to integrate well in the office.
The question is, is it acceptable to put Nationality and Gender on your CV as personal details? Would I be better off with a photo (regardless of the fact that I'm far from photogenic and would feel like an asshole with a photo on my CV)

Rev Hellfire

There's certainly no reason not to put your gender and nationality down on a CV if you wish, but do keep in mind that if you are going through an agency then the chances are that your CV will editted to the format which the company uses and this never includes those details. Although the agency would know your sex/nationality if you've talked to them and will have passed that information on anyway.

To guy with the mensa qualification assuming you are going for a technical job I would put it down. The whole point of the CV is to sell yourself and if you have an above average intellect there's certainly no reason to hide it for roles where that would be a plus.

I have seen it mentioned on CV's and it does typically get a mixed reviews, but I've never seen it used a reason to not interview someone. Although people (myself included) have commented as to the ego of someone who would put it down, but if you've a good interview manner thats not an issue.

Stark

On most of the application forms I did for UK companies, I was asked for my gender and ethnicity. I'm not sure if that information was actually passed to the application form reviewers or simply stored in a database for later use.