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| So what should your CV/resumé look like? |
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| wizard69:
Well this could end up being very interesting and long discussion. --- Quote from: Alex Eisenhut on November 25, 2020, 06:40:40 pm ---I suppose there are people on both sides here, hiring and seeking? I would like some opinions. What do you think of these: https://resumegenius.com/resume-templates --- End quote --- It depends upon the job. In my mind a Resume should have two pages. The first should cover your contact information, work history, education history and associations related to work. The layout of this information should be terse and in a matrix or other carefully laid out form for quick review. No paragraphs at all. The second page or possibly some of the first page should cover what your experiences are. The information should be logically grouped in paragraphs and needs to be cleanly written ( no run on sentences or overly complex statements). I really doubt that having more than one full page here is an advantage for anybody. The only third page is the cover letter which needs to be separately written for each company that you wish to apply to. It really isn't a resume as such but rather an introduction to that HR person that filters such stuff and helps them forward it to the right hiring manager. --- Quote --- My CV has always been just a series of paragraphs with minimal formatting. I have also never put a photo of me on one, this is a European thing I think. --- End quote --- In the USA it might even be illegal or could easily cause the Resume to end up in the waste bin. Even if it is legal most companies will do what ever they can to avoid any possibility of racial bias. Putting your face on a resume would mean that it can't go any further through the hiring process. --- Quote --- Do CVs really need to be graphical and typography masterpieces? --- End quote --- Well again it depends upon the job!!! In some industries / occupations it can be extremely important. In others it just needs to look decent, have no spelling errors and no grammar error. In this regard it is best to have the resume looked at by several people for these sorts of errors. In any event clean formatting makes it far easier to read the document and frankly larger text doesn't hurt. That last thing you want to do is send a resume to a 70 year old hiring manager written in 8 point wall of text. You need to look at this way what would your prefer to read yourself. |
| Berni:
I made mine look like the front page of a datasheet by copying the format of a popular chip manufacturer. Including some easter eggs. The kind of people that would get the joke and have enough of a sense of humor to find it funny is the kind of people i want to work with. Tho in my experience it seams to also make it trough the clueless HR droids because it had the keywords in it (They probably just Ctrl+F for the right words and not even read the rest). But it did make for a good personality test once you get to the actual interview part, anyone who works in the field recognizes the format and brings it up as the first thing. One of them told me he printed it out and went to show it to other engineers that got a good laugh out of it. So in the end the unique CV format didn't really work as a filter to deter the clueless ones, but it was still fun. As for photos. I don't see why that would be on a CV. If you have a cool home lab however, definitely put in a photo of that (also can serve as a test of competence of the guy that is interviewing you when you start pointing at test gear on the photo). |
| tggzzz:
The CV should be terse (precis is a valuable skill), easy to scan (to pass first filtering), and easy to read (to get the interview). It should contain only things relevant to the job offer; that includes the usual brief overview and brief history, and one/two terse paragraphs for every relevant technical or managerial experience. Those paragraphs should tantalise the hiring manager into thinking you are an interesting candidate. The usual waffle that HRdroid like (e.g. can work in teams and on my own) should be "demonstrated <waffle> by X". It should be as long or short as necessary to meet those conditions. If you have significant experience and achievements that will be more than two pages but probably won't be more than four pages (exception: an academic job requires length/weight). Including relevant out-of-hours experience indicates that you work because you enjoy it, and aren't merely a time-serving wage-slave. Provided you clearly delineate (e.g. use bold font) between core skills/applications and other skills, it is OK to include technologies that you have used briefly. That indicates a wide knowledge, flexibility, and the ability to choose/use the best tool for the job, and the ability to learn whatever the new employer needs now and in the future. That latter is important for any interesting job where you are extending yourself and aren't merely repeating you last job. It may not be the case for contractors nor for technicians that need to fit into a slot in the machine. Make very sure you can justify everything in your CV. It is better to say "I don't know because I haven't that experience, but I've demonstrated I could find out" than to waffle. |
| posatomic:
I used to do some hiring, actually I hired my boss at my old place :-+ I can give a couple red flags that you should avoid if you think the place you apply has no relevant HR department: * Spelling mistakes. If I see a spelling mistake in a CV I immediately give less attention to what's on it. It's just unprofessional. It takes 5 minutes to check your spelling. * Overly fancy CVs. This is a big one for me. If I'm looking for embedded software engineers, I don't want to look at the CV of a journalist. * "rating" yourself. So you rate 5 out of 5 stars in C programming fresh out of college? This opens up a big can of worms that I really love to jump into. You'll get invited for a talk, but you'll get the questions according to my 5 stars, not yours. You might not enjoy the results :-DD * Too many corporate buzzwords. If every CV contains "can-do attitude", "proactivity" and the likes, their purpose is kinda lost. * Motivational letters. I don't care about how long your tongue is. This is company-specific of course, but don't include one unless it's requested in my opinion. |
| tggzzz:
We are "lucky" in the UK, we have a TV programme called "The Apprentice". It illustrates all the things that you should not say or put in your CV, to a laughable extent. That includes exaggerations and lying in the CV, statements like "I'm a world class salesman", "I'll give the job 110%", corporate buzzwords everywhere (without an "as demonstrated by" clause). |
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