The CV

Was told recently that this section on a Cv can make you stand out. As I'm a graduate with no professional experience I was told that emphasising on the projects you completed in college and also your interests can attract employers. How do you go about writing these interests so it doesn't sound the same as everyone else and makes you stand out?

Remember I can't lie, maybe just make me sound more interesting than others

When people haven't yet graduated they write something like
Higher Cert in Business (expected April 2006)

Here is the guts of my CV. You might be better off going into the specific responcibilities of each role you had. Rather than going for compentencies in your skills section. But thats a matter of taste.

Qualifications
Bachelor of Science in Computer Systems 2003 - Present

Predicted 2.1 with Honors - University of Limerick


Computer Languages

SQL, UML, Python, Java, C++, COBOL, HTML.


Responsibilities/Experience

Intern Second Level Support Engineer - FEXCO Merchant Services London

Full Time - June-August 2007 :

Prepare all terminals with the correct software configurations given individual account information

Ensure availability of credit card terminal hardware for new installs and repairs

Track all credit card terminal hardware movements to customers and repairers in the supply chain

Test hardware is correctly repaired and where possible repair terminals returned from the field before sending to third party contractors for repairs

Troubleshoot the Point of Sale credit card processing software over the phone with customers

Aid the rollout of ongoing Point of Sale software releases

Assisted First Level Technical support third party contractors and the sales teams in the understanding of the Point of Sale software


Intern Second Level Support QA Engineer - FEXCO Merchant Services Ireland

Full Time - January-September 2006 :

Continued the development of FEXCO DCC's in-house black box automated testing software in Python used for testing their main commercial embedded software application

Represented my project in team, development and departmental meetings as required

Increased automated test case coverage for our embedded Point of Sale software using automated test scripts

Troubleshoot the Point of Sale credit card processing software over the phone with customers

Preformed both scripted and manual testing at the end of each development iteration

Assisted First Level Technical support, third party contractors and the sales teams in the understanding of the Point of Sale software

Analyzed flagged transactions and manipulated the database to repair transaction information as where required. Created reports for inspection, authorization and sign off by management

Gained understanding of the core business practices and regulations of the financial services industry

Astellas - Student Network Administrator - Klinge IT Department
February-September 2005 :

Maintaining, updating, reporting and advising on all anti-virus issues. Involving the management of Sophos Anti-Virus Enterprise console across a network. Virus removal carried out when required

Responding and repairing all user support issues involving staff both (Hardware/Software)

Preventative Maintenance - carried out Daily/Weekly/Monthly checks across the network servers/clients. Filing reports on same for review by the IT Manager

Monitoring and coordinating all computer contractors on site when necessary

Technical Writing - Wrote training documents for the daily/weekly/monthly procedures


Other Skills

4th Year - Computer Systems Class Representative

Elected by the students to the position of Class Representative

Represented the class in communications with lectures

Represented the class in meetings of the Student Union

Aided lectures in the organization of the class as requested

Assisted individual students by answering queries in person and via email

4th Year Dissertation on creating an Automated Test Framework for an application on a point of sale device with a case study of FEXCO Merchant Services. The project involves writing the functional requirements specification for the system under test and python programming. (I created a presentation for the project which is available on request)

Hi guys

Just thought I'd add a little something I put together on CV writing. I work in recruitment so see a lot of these things pass through every day, and over time you learn what it is that makes a really good one! Bear in mind these are the real basics, and purely from my own opinion and experience.
CV writing is a fine art!

CV-Writing Guide

Your CV is a vital tool in the first stage of your job-hunting. It will be the first glimpse of you that an employer will see and, if it gives a bad impression, it will also be their last. So make sure that it reflects you, your professionalism and your achievements in a way that is simple yet effective.

Layout

• Your CV should be easy to read, sensical in its arrangement and your formatting should be consistent throughout.
• Keep your personal details minimal (name, address, contact number, email). There’s no need for date of birth, home town, father’s occupation etc etc).
• Using colours or borders is a personal thing, but I would advise against it. In my opinion it looks neither professional nor attractive so a safer bet is to keep with black and white, or at least subtle colours.
• The same goes for excessive use of bold or italics. Bold text is useful for highlighting things like job title, but using either throughout your CV just makes it harder for the employer to read.
• If you are a recent graduate (with only summer placements or part time work) then put your education first, followed by professional experience. If you have held a full-time, relevant position then put your experience first.
• Use bullet-points where possible. For employers receiving a high volume of CVs this is much easier to scan than paragraphs of text.

Content

• Always add a profile to the start of your CV. It should be a synopsis of who you are, followed by what you’re looking for.
• In addition to a brief outline of your responsibilities, list any achievements in each job, eg. a new process you implemented or an award you received.
• Be sure to include any ‘extra’ responsibilities you took on, which someone else in a similar role might not do. For example sending team updates on policy changes, training new staff or acting as a point of contact for reporting. These are the things that will distinguish your CV from the next one!
• If you have ‘real’ work experience, don’t include summer/part time jobs while you were studying unless they are relevant.
• Recent grads – include your summer/part-time jobs but if you have had 10 different ones, choose the most relevant/impressive ones and stick with two or three.
• ‘Extra Activities’ looks better than ‘Hobbies’. Include anything you do (or did) regularly outside of work/school (within reason!)

Hopefully that will set you off on the right path. If anyone wants any more pointers please feel free to PM me.

Good luck!

o rly?

Thanks for registering an account to tell us about it!

Hey guys, I wonder could you take a quick(!) look at my CV?

I've never had to do a proper one before, I got re-hired after college by the company I did my work placement with.

I've went for a one-pager to try and keep it simple but I'm now thinking it may look too simple, like i have no experience even though I have a right bit. Does it give off that impression to you? I dont want to look like a smarmy git who doesnt have to put in the effort when I'm not like that in real life!

Ive also binned all the interests stuff, does that make me look like a cold fecker now who does nothing but work? I have tons of hobbies and interests, I just cant bring myself to put them on my CV, I hate to even see them on other peoples but if its the done thing I will regress.

All criticism (& praise ) welcome.

Cheers.

Yup the contact details at the top mate. I couldnt see when I looked at first and I did my usual glance job to see how effective your CV was.

I normally add a skill set tailored at the job I am doing so keywords for the HR/recruiter so that they can see straight way to read your CV and mark it for callback.