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CV writing for Oz

CV writing for Oz

Old Mar 31st 2010, 4:39 am
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Default CV writing for Oz

I would like to hear your views and experience in presenting your cv in the oz market.

I have great qualifications and an impressive career track record internationally. My fear is that prospective employers and agents take a look at my cv and immediately exclude me from positions that quite frankly I would do in order to get into the Oz market. I have thought of rewriting my cv to a competency based version. Has anyone had success with this format?


Any suggestions?
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Old Mar 31st 2010, 5:19 am
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Default Re: CV writing for Oz

I work in the employment services sector and I actually run courses in resume writing.

Chronological resumes are by far the most preferred type of resume format. You should only be looking at a functional resume if

1) You are changing career
2) You have an erratic work history

I have attached a copy of my resume (All personal details changed for all you stalkers out there )

It chronicles my career from 1987 through to present day and is under 2 pages.

You will see my name is in top right of the Header of the document. This means it is automatically on the top of each page. If you think of someone searching through a pile of paper to get something they will most likely be lifting it up and flicking through so that the outside edge would be visible. This means your resume will be easy to find

The bullet points for my work experience are concise simple points that anyone should be able to understand. Try to steer away from jargon.

I am going to start a thread which will have more job seeking advice
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ResumeMGarrett.doc (48.0 KB, 392 views)
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Old Mar 31st 2010, 6:34 am
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Default Re: CV writing for Oz

HUP,

What great advice. Looking forward to your new thread.

Thanks

Chris
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Old Mar 31st 2010, 7:09 am
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Default Re: CV writing for Oz

Originally Posted by HUP
You will see my name is in top right of the Header of the document. This means it is automatically on the top of each page. If you think of someone searching through a pile of paper to get something they will most likely be lifting it up and flicking through so that the outside edge would be visible. This means your resume will be easy to find
Most CV's are imported into a computer system nowadays and are only read if the key skills in your CV match the skill search critieria so it doesn't really matter where your name is as it won't get printed unless you match on skills. A lot of companies are paperless offices as well.

The bullet points for my work experience are concise simple points that anyone should be able to understand. Try to steer away from jargon.
The way you have presented your sample CV is way too crammed and lacks presentation. A CV is a sales tool designed to sell you as an individual and like everything, first impressions count. It has to look good.

For an experienced professional, education should be the last thing on the CV as in all reality, real world work experience is far more important. Education should only come first if you are a recent grad with no relevant work experience and need to leverage education to get the job.

Two pages used to be the rule of thumb years ago when people stayed in a job for life but nowadays it is impractical as many people have had far more than two jobs and if you are a contractor with many projects under your belt it is impossible to fit it all in. I always advise about five pages in length.

After your name the first thing a prospective employer should see is a bullet point summary of your experience, relevant to the job.

When I look through CV's the first thing I look at is where they are based and are they legally permitted to work in the country. If they can't work in the country or are not local there is no need to go any further. Secondly I look at hard skills; do they have the skills to do the job. Thirdly relevant work/project experience and finally education.

If the CV looks like crap, there are spelling mistakes and grammatical errors then they go to the bottom of the pile.

Last edited by Deancm; Mar 31st 2010 at 7:15 am.
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Old Mar 31st 2010, 9:20 am
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Default Re: CV writing for Oz

Originally Posted by Deancm
Most CV's are imported into a computer system nowadays and are only read if the key skills in your CV match the skill search critieria so it doesn't really matter where your name is as it won't get printed unless you match on skills. A lot of companies are paperless offices as well.

The way you have presented your sample CV is way too crammed and lacks presentation. A CV is a sales tool designed to sell you as an individual and like everything, first impressions count. It has to look good.
It is very true that when submitting applications online, the initial pass of resumes is done by filtering software. It is looking for keywords. The keywords it is looking for are generally within the job ad itself. If an ad is asking for specific skills and attributes then if you have those skills and attributes your resume should reflect this.

In terms of being crammed my resume is concise. Consider when someone is presented with a massive pile of resumes what is the first thing they want to do? They want to get rid of resumes. Basically you have roughly 30 seconds to progress from the large pile to either the pile that will be looked at a lot closer or the bin. The resume is not actually being read at this stage. They are just looking for a good presentation.

When the person reviewing the resumes the person wants to be able to get an understanding of the person as quickly as possible. To this end a common solution is to put a section near the beginning of the resume which lists your skills and attributes. You should obviously make sure these skills and attributes are relevant to the job and if possible reflect the skills and attributes required in the job that you are applying for.
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Old Mar 31st 2010, 10:37 am
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Default Re: CV writing for Oz

Ultimately the cv is just a door opener and you both make very valid comments. Due to the extent and seniority of my experience in various companies mine runs to 4 pages. I have not had any complaints or comments but do tend to tailor my cv according to the position.

On another related topic I am trying to approach employers of choice directly as many do not want to pay agency fees and I believe this gives me a competitive edge.

After all success is one good job!
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Old Mar 31st 2010, 10:10 pm
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Default Re: CV writing for Oz

Originally Posted by chrisve
Ultimately the cv is just a door opener and you both make very valid comments. Due to the extent and seniority of my experience in various companies mine runs to 4 pages.
Absolutely the resume is a door opener. But you cannot go through the door unless it is open.

Obviously with more senior roles your resume will be longer.
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Old Apr 1st 2010, 1:56 am
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Default Re: CV writing for Oz

I would say dont base yours on the CV linked earlyer, I dont mean to offend but that one is ugly. It may have all the relevant information but it just looks terrible, a CV needs to look nice and make people want to bother reading it, spacing it out and formating it correctly are a good start, but above all else make it something thats easy to understand at a glance.

People dont have time to sit and read paragraphs about your previous jobs, they want something quick that gives them the info they need. Making it look a bit stylish as well will get their interest
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Old Apr 1st 2010, 2:31 am
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Default Re: CV writing for Oz

I would not tell anyone to base there resume on mine as I actually customize it when I apply. The main points from it are to convey meaning in your duties and responsibilities without writing paragraphs of information which are unlikely to be read and also to use space effectively.

Attached are a couple of samples that participants have done on the course with all personal details changed.

In these samples they use a career objective and skills summary. There is a lot of debate over the use of these. Personally I like them in that you can at the start of your resume very quickly make it clear that you want the job that you are applying for as opposed to it being a resume that you send out to all jobs. If you look at the job ad and pick out the key skill requirements you make sure they feature in your skill summary (providing you have them of course). This way you are making the resume readers job easier.

There is a massive array of formats that you can use for a resume and based on the type of job you are applying for you may need to investigate the expected format.
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Last edited by HUP; Apr 1st 2010 at 2:33 am.
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Old Apr 1st 2010, 7:14 am
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Default Re: CV writing for Oz

Originally Posted by chrisve
I would like to hear your views and experience in presenting your cv in the oz market.

I have great qualifications and an impressive career track record internationally. My fear is that prospective employers and agents take a look at my cv and immediately exclude me from positions that quite frankly I would do in order to get into the Oz market. I have thought of rewriting my cv to a competency based version. Has anyone had success with this format?


Any suggestions?
Talking from personal experience if you are applying for jobs for which you are over qualified then dump down your CV - You will find it very hard to get an interview if they think you are over qualified. In the end I had my main qualification on the resume but I dumped quite a few additional qualifications that I had eg Lead Auditor for Quality Audits, DMS etc etc.

Once you have your foot in the door you can then really show them what you are capable of
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Old Apr 1st 2010, 7:28 am
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Default Re: CV writing for Oz

I am going to have to be really creative to tone down my cv as I could lose credibility in the process. The last couple of positions that I held was at MD level. Bit difficult to explain that away.
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Old Apr 1st 2010, 7:35 am
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Default Re: CV writing for Oz

Originally Posted by chrisve
I am going to have to be really creative to tone down my cv as I could lose credibility in the process. The last couple of positions that I held was at MD level. Bit difficult to explain that away.

I understand that - I was a lawyer applying for roles way below my qualifications but all I wanted to do was part-time work with little responsibility. You cannot get rid of your main roles but you can play it down to suit.
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Old Apr 1st 2010, 7:35 am
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Why would you tone down your CV and aim for lower positions from the outset? *puzzled* You seem defeated before you have even tried.
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Old Apr 1st 2010, 7:52 am
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Default Re: CV writing for Oz

Originally Posted by Bermudashorts
Why would you tone down your CV and aim for lower positions from the outset? *puzzled* You seem defeated before you have even tried.

Not puzzling at all - I wasn't applying for law positions as I didn't want or need to practice anymore - My OH has a huge career and we decided from the outset that his career would come first.
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Old Apr 1st 2010, 9:04 am
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Default Re: CV writing for Oz

Hebe - wasn't referring to you, I had not seen your comment when I posted. My comment was directed at OP, who I believe (from other threads) is not specifically looking for a step back.
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