Graduate CV

Elliza

Hi all,
I've finished college since May and have sent out my cv to over 100 job advertisments and only had 2 interviews. I have uploaded my cv and would like any feedback/criticism good or bad. Any responses is grately appreciated.

MrStuffins

You might wanna edit that as you've left your mobile number on there

maglite

Called her she did't answer


OP at a high level, you don’t need 3 pages, the order you list your jobs isn't what I would do, The HSE ones that seem relevant to your degree should get prominence over the bar work.

Get rid of the profile and tell me about what you did in college.

Elliza

thanks

Carstuck

No need to write 'curriculum vitae' anywhere on it, nor your date of birth or nationality. You could have your name, address etc in the middle in bigger writing underneath each other to save space, similar to:

Name,
Address,
E-mail,
Number

Also, be careful of full stops, either use them throughout or not at all, not both.
CV shouldn't be longer than 2 pages.

Good luck

Irish_Elect_Eng

A few Comments:

(1) Remove date of birth, age is irrelevant.

(2) Profile, rewrite in first person, you have mixed both and third person comes across as pretentious. Loos like this was copied from a CV site or article, if you write a profile write it from the heart,it will come across. If you have them reflest a couple of skills key to the jobs that you are looking for.

(3) Experience in reverse chronological order.

(4) Put your thesis details just under your degree

(5) Mobile number format +353-xx-yyyyyyyy

(6) Remove LinkedIn ref unless your LinkedIn account has additional information or glowing recommendations.

(7) Lose the massive indents, too much white space, you have barely enough information for two pages, spreading it on three really shows that up.

(8) "Windows XP/7/Vista, Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher and Outlook)
and the internet. " loose this, it makes it look like you think this is special, this is like saying "I can write" these days. and my 5 year old can use the internet. If you must mention PC skills try " Highly Computer Literate, Proficient in MS Office Applications"

(9) Your descriptions of your jobs are poor, take a look at some well written CVs to see how to describe skills in an engaging way for prospective employers.

(10) To be honest...start again. Sorry, but you need to really overhaul this if you want to stand out.

Aswerty

I think Irish_Elect_Eng has highlighted most all of the problems and I'd agree that a complete overhaul is needed.

I'd just also mention that using different size font and line spacing in your less relevant work experience makes the C.V look bad. Also I'd use size 12 font for all text where as most of yours is size 11. Bad formatting I think is just as big a no no as bad spelling.

Posy

Is there any set rule on the order of things on your CV?
Like name and so on, then education, previous employment and 'references available on request' at the end, for example?
Should I say 'references on request' or 'referees?'
Would any courses/night classes go under 'education' with my degree or somewhere else?

Do people bother putting hobbies/interests on their CV now or would this basically just be a line or two?

Any opinions appreciated.

Elliza

Thanks for all the comments yes I agree, I have to start again but as you can see I am not very good at selling myself!! Any more suggestions or sample CV's are greatly appreciated.

Elliza

Irish_Elect_Eng wrote: »

(9) Your descriptions of your jobs are poor, take a look at some well written CVs to see how to describe skills in an engaging way for prospective employers.

Any ideas on where i could find well written cv's on the internet?

NomadicMe

Posy

Depending on how relevant education is, education first, experience second.
Last experience should always be first, imho.
One thing few CVs do is tell the recruiter what you did in that role- I don't mean responsibilities only but how did you fare on that- what sort of results did you bring in or what areas did you shine at
References should be at the end and it's completely upto you whether you give the names or have references available on request
I don't tend to put hobbies unless they are different from the usual reading/ traveling sh!te.

Most recruiters scan each CV for about 15 secs and only give it a second chance if they think it's worth their time so only give the info that's really relevant. Leave everything else out- one doesn't need to do every bar-tending job you have had since you were 16 unless that's what you are applying for!

Posy

Is having my CV all on one page very good or very bad?
I can fit it onto one page, it's not too squashed, but I have columns etc.. so could spread it onto two pages as easily.

NomadicMe

Posy wrote: »

Is having my CV all on one page very good or very bad?
I can fit it onto one page, it's not too squashed, but I have columns etc.. so could spread it onto two pages as easily.

Till the time all the relevant info is there and it looks good, number of pages doesn't matter! I prefer never to go over 2 but there are times, it's warranted so it is all dependant on the role...

Elliza

Posy wrote: »

Is having my CV all on one page very good or very bad?
I can fit it onto one page, it's not too squashed, but I have columns etc.. so could spread it onto two pages as easily.

Not sure bout this but a one page CV is a resume, correct me if im wrong

Posy

I'm not really sure of the difference tbh!
But I don't have 'Cv' or 'resume' written in it so it should be okay!

rcdk1

Some general comments about CVs and sending them electronically in particular.

1. If you haven't already, try to set up a "professional" looking email address e.g. john.smith@gmail.com rather than johnnys1234@fartmail.com
2. if you're attaching a CV to an email, send it in PDF format. Even if your spelling and grammar are correct, certain words/phrases (e.g. your name or address) will appear underlined in red or green and it doesn't look great. Also, once converted to PDF your formatting won't change when someone else opens the file. Some companies may not be able to open .docx files, such as in the OP. There are lots of free PDF creator such as CutePDF.

Mr. Loverman

I disagree on the PDF point as many HR people are borderline brain dead.

I think .doc is a better option.

rcdk1

Mr. Loverman wrote: »

I disagree on the PDF point as many HR people are borderline brain dead.

I think .doc is a better option.

While I'm not disputing what you say about HR people, I'm sticking with my point about PDFs.

I've not assessed CVs of potential employees but have been involved in assessing CVs from Engineering Consultancies tendering for projects. I also correspond with other Engineers, Solicitors, Planners, Local Authority & Government Depts, members of the public, politicians, Architects etc.

Unless there's a specific reason for a document to be in editable format, documents received in PDF always look better. Documents in .doc format look unfinished and therefore unprofessional. (And of course not having a document in editable format is an advantage in itself).

Mr. Loverman

Well I see many CVs every day, and the vast majority are in doc or docx format and they open fine for me without any formatting issues.

I would be of the opinion that you should make it easy on the HR person so you should give her what she expects.

But it's grand, we don't have to agree.

Jimmy Iovine

Mr. Loverman wrote: »

Well I see many CVs every day, and the vast majority are in doc or docx format and they open fine for me without any formatting issues.

I would be of the opinion that you should make it easy on the HR person so you should give her what she expects.

But it's grand, we don't have to agree.

Definitely. I'd imagine they receive a good few emails each day for jobs if it's a big company or firm. Any effort that they have to go to to find an email for a job will imo result in them clicking out and looking to the next email.

They are under no obligation to read it. Stick to the doc format.

Just read the CV there and I'd suggest you be very careful with your sentence construction. You seem to slip between the third and first person very easily. For example,

A hardworking and reliable college graduate with an eye for detail and has the ability to work on my own initiative. Has excellent reporting skills and can work to tight deadlines, enjoys meeting challenges and seeing them through while remaining confident.

becomes,

I am a hardworking and reliable college graduate I have an eye for detail and I am willing and able to work on my own initiative. I have excellent reporting skills and an ability to work at a high level to reach deadlines. I enjoy challenges and I do my best to....

Be careful with your use of "has" instead of "I have". If you are going to say "I have an eye for detail" then you better show that you have an eye for detail and you are not careless with something like grammar or sentence structure.

I'm not trying to criticise you or anything but the carelessness of the 'profile' section would seem to me to be a factor in you only getting 2 interviews. I'm sure that your experience is relevant, although I'd ditch the bar work, or at least make it less prominent. As it is the most significant body of your CV is on the second page. That shouldn't be the case. Tailor your CV for the job at hand. Put the relevant experience right at the top and then put in the rest as an aside.

The work needed should not be beyond you I don't think. If you need help with the spellings side or whatever then there are plenty of resources on the internet. Search around and you should find grammar resources and maybe even a few sites that offer tips or examples of CVs.

Aswerty

When going with a Word document make sure it is .doc since .docx can have formatting problems if the person receiving it only has MS Word 2003. If you're using MS Word 2003 then this isn't something you have to worry about.

Elliza

Hi all,

I have done up a new CV and I would like your opinions on it, has it approved or disapproved? Thanks in advance