CV, constructive criticism appreciated!

Spiral Notebook

I appreciate that there are a number of these threads already up, but I wound really appreciate any opinions on my CV. I've been out of my qualified field for a while but looking to get back into it, be it in the UK or wherever I can. Anyway here's my CV, any opinions appreciated, don't hold back! Thanks.

Nolanger

Take the commas out of the addresses as they're all left aligned
Why didn't DIT upgrade your 69.4% to a 70%?
It's PowerPoint not Power Point
It's college not collage!
What does 'I did not undertake with employment' mean?
Do you really need to state your work experience is in 'Chronological Order'?
It's 'Department of Education and Skills' not 'science'

Eoin

It's a pretty unusual layout - though better than the blocks of text I've received before. Don't send it as a PDF unless specifically asked by the way. Are your LC results still that relevant?

You have full stops at the end of some bullet points, but not others. Stick with one or the other (I don't use full stops in bullet points myself).

You're listing your referees' contact details. You want to be able to control when they are contacted for a number of reasons. Take out their details and just put "references available upon request".

"English - mother tongue" reads a bit strange - "native English speaker"?

Spiral Notebook

Nolanger wrote: »

Take the commas out of the addresses as they're all left aligned

commas out of the address - Ok

Nolanger wrote: »

Why didn't DIT upgrade your 69.4% to a 70%?

Because subject weightings kicked in, studio was worth 3 points, where all the other subjects were worth 1 point each, this leaves my average somewhere in the mid sixtys, but if you do it the old fashion way (add them up and divide by total amount) average works out at 69.4%!

Nolanger wrote: »

It's PowerPoint not Power Point

Ok

Nolanger wrote: »

It's college not collage!

:o:o:o:o

Nolanger wrote: »

What does 'I did not undertake with employment' mean?

me trying to say I didn't work! I will have to word this better!

Nolanger wrote: »

Do you really need to state your work experience is in 'Chronological Order'?'

The reason I was stating my experience in 'Chronological Order' is because if I just put in my architectural experience it leaves big holes in my CV, I thought it better for the CV to flow, to show in a clear manner what i've been doing with myself, rather than have someone trying to fill in the gaps.

Nolanger wrote: »

It's 'Department of Education and Skills' not 'science'

Ok

Thanks for the pointers Nolanger, much appreciated!

eoin wrote: »

It's a pretty unusual layout - though better than the blocks of text I've received before.

Thanks!

eoin wrote: »

Don't send it as a PDF unless specifically asked by the way.

Ok

eoin wrote: »

Are your LC results still that relevant?

Probably not, but its the only other exam results I have along with my collage ones, so I though why not!

eoin wrote: »

You have full stops at the end of some bullet points, but not others. Stick with one or the other (I don't use full stops in bullet points myself).

I will tidy these up, think i'll put full stops at the end of each one.

eoin wrote: »

You're listing your referees' contact details. You want to be able to control when they are contacted for a number of reasons. Take out their details and just put "references available upon request".

Very good point about the referees, First time i've seen this point made and it makes really good sence! I'll defn take your advice here eoin!

eoin wrote: »

"English - mother tongue" reads a bit strange - "native English speaker"?

Native English Speaker to me sounds strange! Different strokes for different fokes I guess!

Anyway thanks very much for the feedback, its the sort of stuff I was hoping to get, proper constructive criticism that will help me improve the CV! Anyone else care to throw their 2 cents in?

Slasher

In general, it is a good CV, but contains too much detail

Remove LC results, nobody cares at this stage.

Remove detailed DIT results, just put Average 69.4%.

Remove the bit about languages because your understanding of German is not good enough to highlight at the top of the CV. Just put it under the "Skills" section, like "Basic knowledge of German language" or something similar. Only highlight this if the employer requires a second language.

Remove DOB unless it is somehow relevant in your particular field.

Remove driving licence - almost everyone your age has a driving licence so no benefit putting in the CV unless you are applying for a job where driving is a principal activity.

No need for "$360 USD", it's either "$360" or "USD360". That is the kind of carelessness that would cause some employers to put the CV in the bin.

"I did not undertake with employment" ?? Again, careless.

In the Work Experience section, try to highlight some things that you did particularly well or imaginatively. I do not know much about architecture, but your CV reads like any other CV for someone in your field, make yourself stand out by listing your achievements.

mr.interested

eoin wrote: »

Don't send it as a PDF unless specifically asked by the way.

Can you elaborate? Sending CV as PDF means that a person who read it will see the document exactly in the way you want. For example, if you send it as Word document, and a person opens it in OpenOffice, a lot of things will be misplaced, which you don't want. If we agree that a layout and presentation is very important, then only PDF can guarantee that.

pollypocket10

Hi OP,

Here is my take on this. I haven't had to review a lot of architectural CV's in the past but I have worked as a recruiter (in-house & agency) for 8 years now and generally the same rules apply in each sector.

Send in word format. Some recruiters like to copy and paste CV and cover letter into one doc and it's a pain if they can't do it because of the format. Also some have recruiting software that doesn't handle pdf well and your cv could get lost in cyberspace or be illegible when they receive it.

As the others have said remove commas & full stops from address.

The first block with three columns seems like a bit of filling to me. You don't need DOB, Drivers Licence or language(unless the language is relevant to a particular job). You have your qualification posted under education so no need to have it in there twice. I think this space would be much better used to put in a brief personal profile which summarises your experience & goal. It should be no more than 4 - 5 lines long and factual. Don't make it a sales pitch. eg I am a qualified Architect with x years experience. I have had excellent exposure to education, commercial and residential projects and have gained a thorough understanding of building regulations in the UK and Ireland. My goal is to secure a position in....

Remove the word chronological under Work experience. This section is well laid out and reads easily, good stuff. September 2007 - June 2008, Replace this with something straight forward like "Working on Final Year Thesis"

Architectural Work Experience Examples
OK here is where my lack of experience with architectural CV's is letting me down. I would question is this is necessary at all? Are these projects key achievements or would this type of experience be a given for someone at your level experience? If they are key achievements them make that your heading. Put them below your education section though.

Which brings me to education, no need for leaving cert results. Generally there is no need for detailed results of your degree (open to correction if this is the norm for architecture though) I would simply list the Name of the instution, years attended, qualification obtained and overall result.

Skills are fine.

Remove referee details, replace with References are available upon request.

Eoin

mr.interested wrote: »

Can you elaborate? Sending CV as PDF means that a person who read it will see the document exactly in the way you want. For example, if you send it as Word document, and a person opens it in OpenOffice, a lot of things will be misplaced, which you don't want. If we agree that a layout and presentation is very important, then only PDF can guarantee that.

Because the mast majority of people who will be screening a CV will expect a word document. They might want to make notes, copy it into a template they use, or in the case of an agency, they might want to remove your contact details. Most people only have the ability to read PDFs.

I know that the open source products are far more popular in Europe, but in Ireland I really think that a word document, or even an RTF file are far safer.

Basically, I would be slow to piss off the people who receive my CV.

starlit

A few tips and my opinions what you can do to adjust your cv.

• Dumb down C.V;
• Leave out chronological order - start off with most recent work but only add in most important;
• Check grammar and spelling and punctuation;
• Final year- add research instead of thesis and exams, no need to mention you didn't do work experience during the course due to thesis and exams. Research is a type of work experience if you explain it well, its a means of experience and learning new skills;
• Simple, straight forward, to the point and consise, not too sure about your layout. Some of it has too much information i.e. how much a building is worth? Its the skills and what you learnt and what experience you have from the job is more important than just where you worked or what building projects you worked on, name them yes value you them no;
• Leave out college results, and probably leave out leaving cert results too if you can, no real need for them. Shorten the list for results of your leaving cert though like and present it like the following Irish (Grade), English (Grade), Maths (Grade) etc rather than down a list, takes up too much space on the page. When adding your college results best to just state whether you got an honours 1:1, 2:1, or 2:2 and add whether its a distinction, merit grade 1 or 2, pass, or just state you got first or second class honours that would be enough. Maybe add in your thesis result;
• Best to reduce your CV to no more than 2 to 3 pages;
• Describe your qualities, interests, hobbies, and achievements not just skills. Maybe add in a goal you would like to achieve;
• Shorten your skills description to one or two sentences or list them down. One word to describe a skill would nearly be enough;
• Referees, I would suggest you add "Available on Request". If you wish to stick with adding them in I would include one or two refereers from work/employment/business environement and one from an Educational environment like maybe your thesis supervisor, head of department, your class tutor or a lecturer that knew you very well in college that could give you a reference.

Best of luck OP, hope that helps!