CV & Cover Letter Service ?

OU812

I'm looking at refreshing my CV & want to take some professional advice on it.

Ideally I'd like someone to review & then re-write my CV & provide a cover letter template.

Any suggestions ?

Ray Palmer

If you are unemployed go to Fas. They officers are very good at doing this but some are not much use.

Most of the companies that offer this service are really not going to make a difference.

A recruitment agency are also very good for input and giving samples.

What kind of experience do you have or is this a graduate CV?

zoobizoo

Check our Carr Communications.

The charge €150. They did mine up and I was happy with the result.

OU812

Ray Palmer wrote: »

What kind of experience do you have or is this a graduate CV?

This is the problem. Twenty years of experience. CV is running to four pages.

zoobizoo

Should never be beyond 2

OU812

^ I'm aware of that, that's why I'm looking for some professional advice on it. Very hard to cut the level of detail.

joeguevara

OU812 wrote: »

^ I'm aware of that, that's why I'm looking for some professional advice on it. Very hard to cut the level of detail.

First things first, a CV should be different for each role that you apply to. Take out the job description and see what they are looking for. Highlight these in your CV. As in the roles that have these identify the skills. Roles that are irrelevant or did not provide with the skills that they are looking for, just state the role.

The cover letter is key. This is where the recruiter is looking to see if you have the skills. If you cannot demonstrate the skills that were in the job description in the cover letter, they will not even look at your CV.

Go to other recruiters websites for similar roles and see what key words they use. Include these in cover letter and CV (obviously make sure you have these skills).

As said before CV should be max 2 pages. Recruiters are only looking for key words and job experience. Get a family friend to look over CV and cover letter for grammar and spelling mistakes. Try and get the hiring managers name and use that instead of Dear Sir/Madam.

If you are using recruitment agencies, bare in mind that in quite a lot of situations, the job does not exist. Keep the chin up. Key is to make yourself standout and to demonstrate that you have read the advertisement.

Best of luck.

OU812

So I should be highlighting the best of my career over these two pages, is it ok then to have dates that would have gaps in them ?

e.g.

2001 - 2006 IT Manager Superglobalmeganet

2008 - 2010 Chief Engineer Starship Enterprise


Between 2006 & 2008 was doing consultancy work for various companies <- ditch this

joeguevara

OU812 wrote: »

So I should be highlighting the best of my career over these two pages, is it ok then to have dates that would have gaps in them ?

e.g.

2001 - 2006 IT Manager Superglobalmeganet

2008 - 2010 Chief Engineer Starship Enterprise


Between 2006 & 2008 was doing consultancy work for various companies <- ditch this

No keep the timelines. but for instance if it is for an IT Manager Role, highlight the skills learned in the 2001-2006 role. and relevant in 2008-2010. If the roles between 2006 and 2008 do not have transferable skills, just name them. What you want to standout are the skills most appropriate to the role.

If you are finding that the skills are being repeated through all the positions you have. Develop them in the most recent roles and just name the jobs that you had in the past.

Make sure your job history is outlined most recent first and work backwards.

B.A._Baracus

OU812 wrote: »

I'm looking at refreshing my CV & want to take some professional advice on it.

Ideally I'd like someone to review & then re-write my CV & provide a cover letter template.

Any suggestions ?

Just pick up things here and there. Some good advice given so far. But to chime in with some cv tips i've learned from my Dozens of jobs over the years ( I got bored easy :pac: )

1, The Cover Letter. It's the most important thing on your cv. It's an employers market these days and an employer can get dozens, even hundreds of cv's for a job. They are not gonna read them all. Just scan. So your cover letter is your simple one to two paragraph selling point. Dont put it on it's own page. Start off your cv with it then go into contact details.. etc.

2, Make your cv easy to read. There is a line between giving enough information about previous jobs and then making each seem like a short story :P

Design a cv that looks nice but is easily scanable but gives all the information.

Bandana boy

I would not worry too much about your CV running to more than 2 pages when it is looking at 20 year’s experience.

That two pages rule while a good rule of thumb for more junior roles ,will limit one of your strongest selling points ,that of your experience.

I recently managed to see the shortlisted candidates for a Director role in my Company and not one was under 4 pages.

Fridge

I've heard the "never go over 2 pages" rule so many times and yet recruitment agencies in my experience and in articles I've seen recently have said it's not always a problem. They would tend to ask for a shorter version if their client requested it though, so I guess maybe having a 2 page version, a 3 page version and your original on file might be useful.
As you're going to be tailoring the CV to the job requirements itself though it's going to change for every job application anyway.

I didn't really think people read cover letters though. From this thread it seems they do now, but I used to just ditch them when I used to screen people's CVs because they were just basically copied from the internet or from candidates' business studies books! I applied for something recently where the recruiter clearly hadn't read the cover letter as it had something important in it she seemed to have missed. But maybe I should focus on the cover letter more now.

B.A._Baracus

Fridge wrote: »

I didn't really think people read cover letters though. From this thread it seems they do now, but I used to just ditch them when I used to screen people's CVs because they were just basically copied from the internet or from candidates' business studies books! I applied for something recently where the recruiter clearly hadn't read the cover letter as it had something important in it she seemed to have missed. But maybe I should focus on the cover letter more now.

Think it depends on the cover letter itself :P
You made a great point of a cover letter just being a load of crap that some copy from the net. Who is gonna read that.

I've hand a few cv's pass through my hands at times. Some just write so much about themselves. Like, get to the point! :P

Jim2007

OU812 wrote: »

This is the problem. Twenty years of experience. CV is running to four pages.

If you have over twenty years experience then I would not worry at all about this 2 page BS!

Jim2007

zoobizoo wrote: »

Should never be beyond 2

Fine if you are just out of college, but totally BS if you are mid career! It is like many of those little rules that will lead to boring and dull CV that will get passed over.

Corkbah

OP ....can point you in the direction of a guy who provides such a service.

(if you are interested)

Stereomaniac

I had my CV done free of charge by the Obair people in the centre of Waterford. However, I availed of this service because I was sent to them by social welfare. Perhaps you could use them.

Jim2007

OU812 wrote: »

So I should be highlighting the best of my career over these two pages, is it ok then to have dates that would have gaps in them ?

e.g.

2001 - 2006 IT Manager Superglobalmeganet

2008 - 2010 Chief Engineer Starship Enterprise


Between 2006 & 2008 was doing consultancy work for various companies <- ditch this

If you have over 20 years experience, then consider using a functional rather than cronoligical format.