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CVs

 
 
All Acting Regiment
16:29 / 18.05.07
How do you write a good CV?
 
 
Spaniel
16:31 / 18.05.07
Well, to begin with you make sure to tailor it for the intended audience
 
 
This Sunday
16:36 / 18.05.07
Assuming you mean curriculum vitae (there are other options), one thing I've had frequently recommended is that, unless they are courting you, tailor the listed accomplishments/involvements to the job, rather than to explicating yourself.
 
 
All Acting Regiment
17:02 / 18.05.07
Thanks guys. I thought I'd see what people thought. I often take a generic one around with me but ask if they want a specific one.
 
 
Spaniel
17:07 / 18.05.07
If you're hunting for a proper job I wouldn't ever bother with a general one.
 
 
This Sunday
17:15 / 18.05.07
I concur with Boboss (so much, I left to get coffee while he unknowingly posted my initial suggestion for me), but if your background is all very tight, the general might not need a great deal of alteration.

The main thing would be don't be too hack-and-slash about cleaning it up. Don't stress and go at your life history with a hedge trimmer and no guard.

I had a friend get so nervous about what info to keep in a CV intended for a job cleaning up photos for a museum, she almost took out her photography degrees, while leaving in some relatively minor musuem sales work. It was caught in time and re-adjusted, but it's just better to really think about whether some things should stay in or be cut. Photography stuff on a photo job, yes, but a job history of working well with children might not help you get a copy editing gig, no matter how much it might help you deal with the job once you've got it.
 
 
Kit-Cat Club
18:59 / 18.05.07
Boboss is right, if you are applying for a particular job. I one saw the CV of a friend of a friend who had applied for an academic post (a very junior one) and had used what was clearly her generic CV - it had a terse list of her qualifications, but included a lot of info about her work experience at an old people's home, her job in a betting shop, and her two delightful cats. Needless to say, etc.

If you are going round agencies it's probably less important to tailor it, but even so don't talk about your delightful cats...
 
 
MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!
19:03 / 18.05.07
Never more than two pages unless there is some truly exceptional and very specific to the position in question reason to go over two pages.
 
 
Spaniel
19:30 / 18.05.07
Yes. Short but sweet is important.

Remember that when you're applying for jobs people want to hear about what you have done and how that matches what they do. They absolutely don't want a list of unsubstantiated skills and qualifications*.


*Agencies are the exception obvs
 
 
Triplets
19:37 / 18.05.07
don't talk about your delightful cats...

Don't listen to them, Legs. This is precisely the thing you need to be using the Kittehfilter for.
 
  
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