CV advice

lola_run

Have been asked to edit someone's CV! Which reads better?

Company XYZ, Dublin, Ireland
• Market research and consultancy for Irish firms. (Oct-Dec 1996)

or

Oct-Dec 1996 Company XYZ, Dublin, Ireland
Market research and consultancy for Irish firms.

Personally, I find that putting the dates first is a bit annoying for the reader and may be of little relevance. Whereas putting them in brackets after draws more attention to the company name. What do others think?

Also, which sounds a better title: Education or Academic Record? I've always used Education but recently saw 'Academic Record' on someone's CV and was wondering if this would be better than Education. There's nothing spectacular in the CV itself, just school and university education.

Tabnabs

As someone who receives CV's on a regular basis, I'd prefer to see the first style as long as it's in reverse chronological order i.e. top of the list is what you're currently doing etc.

As for education vs. academic. It's a very minor detail. Again, IMHO, once a person has a third level qualification, I have no interest in their leaving cert results or even what school they attended, degrees/diplomas and post grad' experience is all I'm interested in.

lola_run

Dyflin wrote:

As someone who receives CV's on a regular basis, I'd prefer to see the first style as long as it's in reverse chronological order i.e. top of the list is what you're currently doing etc.

As for education vs. academic. It's a very minor detail. Again, IMHO, once a person has a third level qualification, I have no interest in their leaving cert results or even what school they attended, degrees/diplomas and post grad' experience is all I'm interested in.

Thanks for that.

I'd be afraid to send my CV to you though, considering you don't know where to put your apostrophes. It's CVs not CV's ;-)

leeroybrown

In my experience section I have my experience in reverse chronological order with column on the left with the dates and then on the right the job title and employer followed by a list of relevant points.

Something along these lines:

Jan 2007     General Dogsbody
 - Present:  ACME Widgets Ltd, Galway City.
             - Monitoring of Widget production
             - ...

nesf

lola_run wrote:

Thanks for that.

I'd be afraid to send my CV to you though, considering you don't know where to put your apostrophes. It's CVs not CV's ;-)

CV's is acceptable as it's the plural of an abbreviation. It's not a hard and fast rule but it is usually used to avoid confusion and make it clear that the "s" isn't part of the acronym itself. It's a matter of personal preference which way you spell it but both are "correct" and in some formal settings the apostrophe would be expected (i.e. where clarity is essential).

Apostrophe use isn't just about contractions and possession etc.

Tabnabs

lola_run wrote:

Thanks for that.

I'd be afraid to send my CV to you though, considering you don't know where to put your apostrophes. It's CVs not CV's ;-)

Um, no it's not.

Ouch...:o