blonde poker forum

Right - I really need to get myself out and about in the job market, or at least temping.  I've not needed a CV for nearly 15 years so have no idea what the current preferred format is in terms of layout/length etc.  Anyone in-the-know and able to point me in the right direction? 

Two pages maximum (imo) - there's no need for more information than that on a CV.

PM me your e-mail and i wiill send you mine

Not sure what you do (im a surveyor) so it is a professional type CV - but the format is fairly user friendly!

and finally..................... DO NOT MENTION POKER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - they just dont understand!

thanks guys :)up

Also, my first draft is bound to be way too long and full of superflous detail.  If anyone has a good eye for weeding crap out of documents and wouldn't mind proofing it for me once it's done I'll buy them a drink at the next blonde bash....

Unless you're applying for jobs with Gala, DTD, or ALEA. It seems their Leeds venue may need someone in customer relations?

CVs should be short, precise, and above all, relevant.

this is the bit I'm struggling with tbh.  I've spent the last 14 years working at the Ombudsman's office investigating complaints until I resigned in January having had enough.  Before working my way up I did secretarial/admin and supervisory work.  The trouble at the moment is I've no idea what sort of jobs I will be applying for, but if I'm looking at temping I guess I should give more weight to the skills I used earlier rather than the skills I gained/used doing investigations? 

In my pipe-dream I resigned from my last role and got myself a nice poker-related job, but this industry has been as affected as every other it would seem, and despite the amount of contacts here on blonde and facebook there's not been the sniff of any opportunity arising. 

Perhaps it would be an idea to have two versions of my CV - one with a bit of poker-related stuff included to spam those companies with, and a blander one for the secretarial/admin agencies?

Claire

I'm a recruiter (Of accountants and finance directors mainly) , so I'd be happy to assist with the CV.  There's no reason why you shouldn't have different CV's for different audiences/markets. As long as both are factually true, they can emphasise different things.

Generic CV advice;

 *  2  pages is the right length, 3 just about acceptable
 *  Reverse chronological order
 *  Latest role to have most detail, earlier roles having progressively less.
 *  If there are several roles. its fine to summarise the "early career" into one section
 *   List "achievements" rather than "responsibilities"
 *  Achievement words often end in "..ed."  E.g. Managed, improved, implemented,  transformed....
 * If you can quantify achievements, so much the better... e.g. "reduced wastage by 15%"

By all means PM me a draft and I'll comment / critique for you.

Alan.

I agree that you shouldn't have one CV to fit all roles (obviously if you're putting it on a job's board or giving it to a recruitment consultant you'll have to go for a generic one), but otherwise you're best tailoring the CV to suit the advertised role.  It shows a bit of effort and as you'll have tailored it to suit the opportunity, it will also show you in a better light.

ty ty

+1

I have lots of different CV's, each designed for the job I was looking for at the time (customer service/sales/management etc).  I tend to find the job or a type of job I'm interested in and then write my CV with that in mind.  Most companies when advertising a job will tell you what the 'ideal' candidate will have, try to include what the want without being to obvious!

THE BEST EVER.,.,., i had a guy come to me a few years ago asking for a job,,,at the time we didnt need ayone then he cme out with this great line.,.,.,.,.,


I WILL WORK FOR YOU FOR FREE FOR 2 MONTHS.,,..,.,HE HAD ME SOLD.,.,., i took him on as a trial just because he said this.,.,.,i paid him for the first 2 months and kept him for the next 4 years until we moved away,,,he was fantastic.,.,.,

yep - nothing to be lost from that - all through my career I've volunteered to do stuff 'above my grade'.  A lot of people thought I was crazy doing work I was being paid less than others to do, but I got three promotions in my old place as a result - you've got to speculate to accumulate (if that's the right analogy!).

I have said  on here in the past that I'm available to do unpaid work to gain experience in the poker industry, but the offers didn't exactly come rolling in!  That offer is still open by the way if anyone has anything!

.

good luck with that Claw, im a bit curious as to whether you have applied to be a presenter at SKY poker, im my opinion they could definately do with some females who know there stuff?

(I agree what everyone else has said about different CV's for diffrent types of job)

I've made some casual enquiries of Sky, but don't think they're hiring just now.

Thanks for all the advice and to those who have taken a look at the doc for me.  I'm down to 2 3/4 pages now.  Will I get away with that?

Still too long.

2 pages max and, even then, anything which makes you hireworthy should be on page 1.

I'd agree.

Possibly you should bear in mind that you'll usually have a covering letter with a CV, so you don't need to go into detail over things which might be in that.

Also you can mention things like job responsibilities in your CV - but don't bother going into extensive detail as that can be covered in an interview.

(just guessing what might be padding it out - for all I know you could just have a couple of pages of doodles)

grrr - starting to wish I'd only ever had one job - would be much easier :D

any time I've had a pile of cvs to go through the likelihood is that I would've just binned a 3 pager tbh.

the front page may get a cursory glance but it's just as likely that it wouldn't, nobody wants to waste time reading through something that long.

I think I can probably manage it down to 2 pages with formatting, just didn't want it to looked too cramped. 

Probably best to cut it down with editing rather than formatting.

Yes, the idea is not to put down everything you've ever done, in the hope something will stick.

Think about what an employer would actually be interested in.

this

the other thing that would make me bin a cv without reading is if it has a shit layout

you don't need your life history, there's nothing wrong with leaving an employer with questions about you, in fact you want them to ask you questions about you, that's what we call an interview

as long as you get the most important bits in you can cut all the crap out

lol I have cut loads of crap out!  Just changing it to single line spacing has got it down to under 2 pages.

white space - good
<2 pages - good
evidence of achievements - good
re-hash to bring job-specific demands to top - good
clean driving licence - baaad (unless you are applying to drive a van)

CV is now doing the rounds of local employment agencies.  Spotted what looks like a great opportunity today - Customer Services Manager at an expanding company - job description and person specification nicely almost identical to my CV.  To top it off, the money isn't bad and, even better, it's in Ruislip!  Fingers crossed for me please!

GL Mentalist xx

gl Claire.Be lucky.

 ;goodluck;

might keep that quiet if i get an interview.  i'll try not to have a funny spell.

should I send them a link to my RSQ do you think as evidence of my ability to manage difficult people/conflict?

Errrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmmm ....


[ ] Yes

that was a joke btw just in case anyone thought I really might be that mental!

best thing to do is not show up to the interview so they can't see how mental you are

sigh, just realised the CV I've been spamming the world and his wife with is not the final version, and has several mistakes in it.

[ ] gg me

wheee - around 40 job applications made, and I got my first acknowledgement letter!