CV Help!

[BorntoBubble]

Are there any blondites that have worked in recruitment or have experience of lots of CV's and wouldn't mind taking a look at mine? Im starting to send it out for graduate jobs and as many eyes on it as possible for advice tips seems to help!

Ill be applying for Maths graduates type jobs... Finance sector/Analyst type work. Let me know if you dont mind sparing me 5/10 minutes it will be greatly appreciated and ill send it over by email!

Cheers

Callum

[Tal]

Lots of different styles of CV. A couple of years ago, I was writing a few of these (...) so I can offer a few bits of advice:

1. Work out what you can sell better: your skills or your achievements. That will be the focus of your CV.
2. Don't say you were a member of a team that achieved its targets. What did YOU do? How did you do it? What was the result?
3. Find out what each employer is looking for (if you don't know, do your research) and make sure that is a recurring theme in your CV.
4. Be honest. I know that sounds ridiculous, but you will have things you can do or have done that tick the boxes. The key is selling it.
5. Two pages of a normal font (Arial 11, say), with two sentences at the top as your personal statement to give them a good idea about what you offer. White paper and no fancy nonsense. Space it out and make sure you have no SPAG issues.

I'm sure there are plenty on here who have good ideas. Find out what each employer wants and, if you can do it, give it to them.

[Ant040689]

Lots of different styles of CV. A couple of years ago, I was writing a few of these (...) so I can offer a few bits of advice:

1. Work out what you can sell better: your skills or your achievements. That will be the focus of your CV.
2. Don't say you were a member of a team that achieved its targets. What did YOU do? How did you do it? What was the result?
3. Find out what each employer is looking for (if you don't know, do your research) and make sure that is a recurring theme in your CV.
4. Be honest. I know that sounds ridiculous, but you will have things you can do or have done that tick the boxes. The key is selling it.
5. Two pages of a normal font (Arial 11, say), with two sentences at the top as your personal statement to give them a good idea about what you offer. White paper and no fancy nonsense. Space it out and make sure you have no SPAG issues.

I'm sure there are plenty on here who have good ideas. Find out what each employer wants and, if you can do it, give it to them.

Probably plenty on here that are gonna find it tough to explain their years of experience in Poker and trying to sell that on CV if they ever do seek for employment, inc. me, ha! We be screwed.

[BorntoBubble]

Lots of different styles of CV. A couple of years ago, I was writing a few of these (...) so I can offer a few bits of advice:

1. Work out what you can sell better: your skills or your achievements. That will be the focus of your CV.
2. Don't say you were a member of a team that achieved its targets. What did YOU do? How did you do it? What was the result?
3. Find out what each employer is looking for (if you don't know, do your research) and make sure that is a recurring theme in your CV.
4. Be honest. I know that sounds ridiculous, but you will have things you can do or have done that tick the boxes. The key is selling it.
5. Two pages of a normal font (Arial 11, say), with two sentences at the top as your personal statement to give them a good idea about what you offer. White paper and no fancy nonsense. Space it out and make sure you have no SPAG issues.

I'm sure there are plenty on here who have good ideas. Find out what each employer wants and, if you can do it, give it to them.

Cheers TAL some really good hints and tips here. Its currently bang on 2 pages and always has been an i tend to amend it for each new job or as experience comes and gos for myself.

SPAG is my biggest issue im really poor at writing and i know it (can you tell?!) so this is one thing i always send it off for to be checked over by numerous people as often what i write does not make sense!

[Tal]

Lots of different styles of CV. A couple of years ago, I was writing a few of these (...) so I can offer a few bits of advice:

1. Work out what you can sell better: your skills or your achievements. That will be the focus of your CV.
2. Don't say you were a member of a team that achieved its targets. What did YOU do? How did you do it? What was the result?
3. Find out what each employer is looking for (if you don't know, do your research) and make sure that is a recurring theme in your CV.
4. Be honest. I know that sounds ridiculous, but you will have things you can do or have done that tick the boxes. The key is selling it.
5. Two pages of a normal font (Arial 11, say), with two sentences at the top as your personal statement to give them a good idea about what you offer. White paper and no fancy nonsense. Space it out and make sure you have no SPAG issues.

I'm sure there are plenty on here who have good ideas. Find out what each employer wants and, if you can do it, give it to them.

Probably plenty on here that are gonna find it tough to explain their years of experience in Poker and trying to sell that on CV if they ever do seek for employment, inc. me, ha! We be screwed.

Then give examples of where you've demonstrated your skills.

"I once triple rangemerged moorman1 with QJo like a bawse" probably won't get you that job at Barclays, mind.

[MintTrav]

I don't think I've seen better advice than that. As Tal says, it's about what you did, not what the company or team did. By 'did', we mean what you achieved/changed/improved - not what you just processed each day. Try to quantify improvements in numbers or percentages.

All I would add is that one good way to find jobs nowadays is by uploading your CV to some of the job-sites. The searches that agencies and employers carry out are often automated, so make sure that uploaded CVs include lots of keywords that they might search on. When applying for specific jobs, you can tailor your CV from one to another, highlighting different aspects of your experience that are relevant to what they are looking for.

The two pages thing can be relaxed as you gain more experience and add jobs to your CV. Don't include photographs, salaries, referees or reasons for leaving.

[Tal]

I'd add that the vast majority of jobs (60-80%) are never advertised.

Write to a company you want to work for. Tell them what you can offer them. Maybe offer to do a bit for free or to get a bit of experience of working in that sector. Funny how doors open.


Don't do this:

http://metro.co.uk/2011/09/12/worlds-worst-cv-by-benedict-le-gauche-admits-to-stealing-laziness-and-skiving-147262/

[theprawnidentity]

A word of warning, no matter how much of a good idea you think it is at the time, DO NOT put a photo of your genitals in the bit for references.  I'd hate for you to learn the hard way.  I still haven't got over some of the very hurtful comments I received.

[BorntoBubble]

A word of warning, no matter how much of a good idea you think it is at the time, DO NOT put a photo of your genitals in the bit for references.  I'd hate for you to learn the hard way.  I still haven't got over some of the very hurtful comments I received.

ahh bollocks. You could have told me earlier

[George2Loose]

Call the national careers service. They do cv reviews. 0800 100 900

[DungBeetle]

Are there any blondites that have worked in recruitment or have experience of lots of CV's and wouldn't mind taking a look at mine? Im starting to send it out for graduate jobs and as many eyes on it as possible for advice tips seems to help!

Ill be applying for Maths graduates type jobs... Finance sector/Analyst type work. Let me know if you dont mind sparing me 5/10 minutes it will be greatly appreciated and ill send it over by email!

Cheers

Callum

Hello Callum

I've worked in investment banking/hedge funds for about 15 years, so not sure if things have changed but I seem to remember that the graduate jobs in most finance companies (except the small bespoke ones) have their own lenghty application forms to fill out.  Before spending a lot of time on your CV I'd give Barcap (for example) a call, ask to be put through to graduate recruitment and when you speak to them just ask what the selection process is.  In 95% of cases they will just ask for your address and send you the glossy application pack (after checking you meet minimum qualifications).  When the form arrives you need to make this stand out - nearly everyone applying will have great exam results so you need to think what makes you worthy of an interview (might be relevant work experience, or a derivatives thesis at university etc etc).

My advice is to apply to every bank.  It's a pain doing all the forms, but it will give you the best chance of securing a decent number of interviews (and you'll likely need a few as investment bank interviews are tough but you'll find your performance in your third one will be vastly superior to your first one as the same questions/scenarios come up)

Not sure what your background is but you might also want to consider a medium term view for getting into banking.  If you don't get in via the above route, the best alternative is to spend 3 years qualifying as a chartered accountant.   Joining a bank at 24 with ACA on the CV is far easier than getting hired as a graduate.  Tough exams though.

Good luck