Quality of CV's

Cedrus

I would prefer to send a .pdf CV because agents have got me into trouble with their 'editing'.

It's humiliating sitting in front of an interviewer trying to explain a blatant lie that I'm not responsible for and don't even know is coming.

At my last interview the HR head was leaping all over my experience with no regard to chronology and was obviously confused so I asked to see the agents CV then promptly handed her the CV I'd brought with me. The agent must have sat on her laptop by mistake, it was so badly hacked up, she was some saleswoman to even get me an interview with it though.

I've also had file size limitations with .doc that have made it almost impossible to send my CV, I've never had this with .pdf , 25 years of contracting is a large CV however you look at it.

However, "who pays the piper calls the tune" and if they want it .doc so that they can play with it, that's what they get.

Gurgle

Procrastastudy wrote:

Still wondering under what theory there would be any obligation to do anything with applications.

Because its your job to find the most appropriate candidate for a position, and you couldn't even be bothered opening their CVs.
Whatever 'IT policy' excuses you come up with, you're rejecting candidates due to your own laziness.

Cedrus wrote: »

However, "who pays the piper calls the tune" and if they want it .doc so that they can play with it, that's what they get.

Hardly reasonable when they don't specify what they want, and then reject candidates out of hand for assuming a bare minimum of technical competence on the recruiter's side.

Procrastastudy

Gurgle wrote: »

Because its your job to find the most appropriate candidate for a position, and you couldn't even be bothered opening their CVs.
Whatever 'IT policy' excuses you come up with, you're rejecting candidates due to your own laziness.

I completely disagree - you clearly don't understand the factors involved.

Mr. Loverman

Cedrus wrote: »

I've also had file size limitations with .doc that have made it almost impossible to send my CV, I've never had this with .pdf , 25 years of contracting is a large CV however you look at it.

I'm scared to ask... how many pages is your CV?

Gurgle

Procrastastudy wrote: »

I completely disagree - you clearly don't understand the factors involved.

I'm going to reject your comment without consideration of what it may contain because you used a hyphen instead of a semicolon.

Mrs OBumble

Gurgle wrote: »

Because its your job to find the most appropriate candidate for a position, and you couldn't even be bothered opening their CVs.
Whatever 'IT policy' excuses you come up with, you're rejecting candidates due to your own laziness.


Hardly reasonable when they don't specify what they want, and then reject candidates out of hand for assuming a bare minimum of technical competence on the recruiter's side.

Ahh, no, it's the recruiter's job to find an appropriate candidate or three - not necessarily the most appropriate. And remember, in some companies, the most appropriate one will be the one who will work for the lowest wages.

I'm guessing you're going to have kittens when I tell you about a short listing practice followed by some employers during 2009/10-ish, when there were virtually no vacancies and thousands of applications for some jobs: It involved putting the applciations into piles (totally randomly, perhaps by order received), saying "I don't hire unlucky people" and then throwing all-but-one of the piles into the rubbish bin without even looking at them. Harsh, but effective.

As someone said, it's different with high-end jobs where there is a shortage of good candidates.

Turtwig

Yep, often heard about that.

I often joked if I found out a company I was applying to did that I'd send them in 100 different version of my CV and then see what the statistical distribution of luck I had was.

Never yet tried it but always been tempted.

Surely, the most environmentally friendly, effective and efficient way would be to just limit it to the first X candidates who apply that you can manage instead of just dumping and shredding stuff. Unless the ethos of the company is one that believes in luck. (Oh Gawd!)

Gurgle

JustMary wrote: »

Ahh, no, it's the recruiter's job to find an appropriate candidate or three - not necessarily the most appropriate. And remember, in some companies, the most appropriate one will be the one who will work for the lowest wages.

Isn't that the difference between barely doing your job adequately and doing it well?
(And how do you know those peoples' pdfs don't have 'minimum wage' down for their expected salary?)

JustMary wrote: »

I'm guessing you're going to have kittens when I tell you about a short listing practice followed by some employers during 2009/10-ish, when there were virtually no vacancies and thousands of applications for some jobs: It involved putting the applciations into piles (totally randomly, perhaps by order received), saying "I don't hire unlucky people" and then throwing all-but-one of the piles into the rubbish bin without even looking at them.

Yeah, heard that story before. I don't have much trouble believing it either, I've met enough HR types. For every 1 who knows what he's doing and puts an effort into doing it well (they are out there), there's 3 lazy self-important wastes of space.

Eoin

All the (largely uninformed) moaning about HR types and agencies aside - if the file format of your CV is the only issue, then you're doing well.

But the odds are that there are some improvements to the content and layout that you can make to give yourself a better chance of getting to interview, and hopefully some people have gotten that from this thread.

Out of interest - what do people think about the Europass CV format? I've received a couple of them in recently. I'm tempted to make one myself to see how it compares to my usual word format.

fasttalkerchat

Eoin wrote: »

All the (largely uninformed) moaning about HR types and agencies aside - if the file format of your CV is the only issue, then you're doing well.

But the odds are that there are some improvements to the content and layout that you can make to give yourself a better chance of getting to interview, and hopefully some people have gotten that from this thread.

Out of interest - what do people think about the Europass CV format? I've received a couple of them in recently. I'm tempted to make one myself to see how it compares to my usual word format.

My CV is a mix between this and the traditional format. The top few inches is my name and contact details, then a paragraph about me and what I can offer the business. Next, education and employment is done in that style with a title and start and leaving date on the right column. At the bottom I have a closing paragraph.

Cedrus

Mr. Loverman wrote: »

I'm scared to ask... how many pages is your CV?

Four for my "full CV" page 1 is personal and education, the first c12 years is just one job precis, company names and dates on half a page at the back. Then there's more specific job info for the last c12 years and they take up the middle 2.5 pages.

The "short CV" with just personal and education, Job titles, Company Names & dates takes up 2.5 pages.

Maria1203

can any1 help pls????
im sending between 50-100 cvs a week and dont even get any reply or interviews, i have over 10 year experience in administration (worked in bank than in solicitors and then i was managing a beauty salon). i had my cv looked at by few professional ppl and they all said same thing that my cv looks great. has any1 else has the same problem or would know what is the problem then??? thanks

maxwell smart

Are you only applying for jobs you have experience in? Because 50-100 seems a lot and I imagine you are applying for every sort of job.
I have gone through 1000+ CV's and (truthfully) only 20 have been worth contacting. And after a phone chat I have called 14 to first interview with the aim of getting 8 for second interview for the jobs.
The point is that out of those 1000+ CV's, around 800 were from people who had little or no relevant experience for the position advertised.
Try to target yourself for the right job, make sure your CV SHOUTS out to the person who is reading it. Put plenty of information about your achievements in each position, how you made and saved money for your employer (or however you were measured). And try to keep it to 2 pages.

Maria1203

mostly i'm applying for any admin work that wouldn't require as much experience as i have, i even took alot of things off as i was getting over qualified replies, in my case i dont think i can win. I went back to college so hopefully that might help, thanks alot for all your help, greatly appreciated

fasttalkerchat

Maria1203 wrote: »

mostly i'm applying for any admin work that wouldn't require as much experience as i have, i even took alot of things off as i was getting over qualified replies, in my case i dont think i can win. I went back to college so hopefully that might help, thanks alot for all your help, greatly appreciated

I would rewrite the CV slightly before sending it to make it fit the position. Not in an obvious way, just emphasise the more relevant experience you have.

Cedrus

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

I would rewrite the CV slightly before sending it to make it fit the position. Not in an obvious way, just emphasise the more relevant experience you have.

I've never really understood the idea of agents asking me "could you rewrite your CV to suit the job". My CV, any CV is essentially a historic record of my experience, how can I change it without being dishonest. If it was shorter I could revise the nuances, but mine is too long and my industry has changed too much over the years to do this for every job application. I will never claim skills I don't have, because apart from the ethics, I don't want to end up in a job I can't do just because I lied.

Maria1203

i tried everything at this stage, keep taking things off and putting them back on but no luck so far, ive been sending cvs for some time now and registered with nearly every agency and job websites. some1 did say to me that problem could be that ive worked in 3 different industry, even though ive done more or less same thing, im just afraid longer it goes worst it gets as ill have a big gap in my cv

Eoin

Cedrus wrote: »

I've never really understood the idea of agents asking me "could you rewrite your CV to suit the job". My CV, any CV is essentially a historic record of my experience, how can I change it without being dishonest. If it was shorter I could revise the nuances, but mine is too long and my industry has changed too much over the years to do this for every job application. I will never claim skills I don't have, because apart from the ethics, I don't want to end up in a job I can't do just because I lied.

It's about emphasising the relevant duties or skills according to the vacancy, you don't have to be dishonest.

The odds are that you can't fit in every single project or task that you've ever worked on in your cv, so you have to choose what to leave out. And for some job applications, you might want to leave out or focus less on certain things.

fasttalkerchat

Cedrus wrote: »

I've never really understood the idea of agents asking me "could you rewrite your CV to suit the job". My CV, any CV is essentially a historic record of my experience, how can I change it without being dishonest. If it was shorter I could revise the nuances, but mine is too long and my industry has changed too much over the years to do this for every job application. I will never claim skills I don't have, because apart from the ethics, I don't want to end up in a job I can't do just because I lied.

If you worked on building sites but had one job in retail and are applying for a retail you should change your CV to give a short description of your jobs on building sites but go into detail on your retail job.

Maria1203

im not dishonest, im not adding anything that ive never done, because in my last job i managed beauty salon and now when im applying admin/office job (which ive done in all my 3 jobs) they said that i was over qualified so i had to take off managing part and just left admin part in it, all my 3 jobs was to do with admin and accounts

Maria1203

i dont have that big of a difference in my cv, all my 3 jobs was connected with admin but 3 different industry (started in bank then solicitors and then managed beauty salon)

Cedrus

Eoin wrote: »

It's about emphasising the relevant duties or skills according to the vacancy, you don't have to be dishonest.

The odds are that you can't fit in every single project or task that you've ever worked on in your cv, so you have to choose what to leave out. And for some job applications, you might want to leave out or focus less on certain things.

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

If you worked on building sites but had one job in retail and are applying for a retail you should change your CV to give a short description of your jobs on building sites but go into detail on your retail job.

With my length of career it's impossible to fit in everything so my CV is already fairly concise, I've always been a contractor or short term employee so my CV is dominated by where, when & by whom I've been employed. While what I've done has changed fairly dramatically over the years due to changes in technology and also my seniority of experience, it has been a roughly linear progression, I haven't industry hopped and all of my experience is an essential part of my qualifications.

I've been asked by agents more than once to 'add skills' or 'emphasise experience' to fit a project that they had on the go without any regard to whether I had sufficient experience for what their client actually wanted.

Eoin

Cedrus wrote: »

With my length of career it's impossible to fit in everything so my CV is already fairly concise, I've always been a contractor or short term employee so my CV is dominated by where, when & by whom I've been employed. While what I've done has changed fairly dramatically over the years due to changes in technology and also my seniority of experience, it has been a roughly linear progression, I haven't industry hopped and all of my experience is an essential part of my qualifications.

But that's sort of backing up what I'm saying. You've already had to chop stuff out to make your CV concise, so maybe don't decide what to chop out upfront, and swap stuff in and out as appropriate, especially if you've contracted a lot.

Cedrus wrote: »

I've been asked by agents more than once to 'add skills' or 'emphasise experience' to fit a project that they had on the go without any regard to whether I had sufficient experience for what their client actually wanted.

That's not right, but it's not the same thing as tailoring your CV for a particular job. You can do that and still be honest.