Fancy, custom CVs

[Otispunkmeyer]

So me and my OH are currently putting together our CVs and of course we have been sending them out to all and sundry for their take on how it reads and how it is presented.

Now we have just received one back which has been drastically altered. They've made the background dark grey, headings have a different font to the main body of text and the first three letters of each heading plucked out in a bright colour like lime green. There are "stars" much like the star rating systems you see on product reviews on Amazon and an open space with a sound bite like paraphrase which I guess is supposed to be some sort of condensed personal statement.

Looking online I see there a loads of rather different CV's. Colourful borders, fancy text, selfies and just found one that looks like it has some kind of waterfall plot come time line graph which very briefly describes what the person in question has been up to all his life.

What is PH opinion on the type of CV that differs from the dry typed black words on a crisp white background with clear layout? A clever way to get noticed or a complete gimmick?

Being highly cynical, if such CVs crossed my desk they'd probably go to the bin because it just screams shallow and gimmicky. I mean some appear so tarted up as to leave no room for any kind of useful detail about what you've done, what you've achieved and the skills you developed in doing so.

[RealSquirrels]

mine is a video of the strictly come dancing people doing an interpretive dance about my career, to the tune of a song about me sung by some X-factor nearly-one-hit-wonder.

[prand]

I agree with you. Keep your CV simple, tidy and concise.

Focus on how your knowledge and experience in previous jobs can bring benefit to the new organisation and fit with the advertised role.

You don't need eye catching formatting for this.

[randlemarcus]

Surely it depends on the role you are applying for, much the same as the covering letter. One for an actuarial position really ought to differ from one for the window dresser for Disney Stores.

[Otispunkmeyer]

We are looking for engineering and environmental roles....basically I am unsure about how such CV's would be received by such industries. I can see how it might be good for an industrial designer for instance. The other thing I thought was if these get printed out on a B&W laser printer, some of them are going to look pretty bad/unreadable.

[limpsfield]

Too gimmicky in my view. If you are a sixteen year old applying for a Saturday job in a shop then ok, but otherwise a no from me.

[Gargamel]

Hi, just finished reading 400+ cvs for one position.

How to stand out ? Hmm have the right experience, relevant qualifications and be sure to balance achievemnets and tasks. Avoid subjectivity, provide figures and qualifying statements.

E.G.

Reducing wastage by 4% of one year, saving around £1.2m = Good

Expert in reducing material wastage = bad


In terms of colour, font, fancy stuff. Unless it is absolutely top notch creativity

http://www.businessinsider.com/insanely-creative-r...

Then don't waste your time, concise, easy to read is fine with me - and believe me I see absolutely every kind of CV imaginable.

[Otispunkmeyer]

Do not envy your Job Gargamel!

Those are pretty fun to look at, but possibly style over substance.

[rog007]

Due to the high volumes attracted by some adverts, some organisations have staff other than the hiring manager do the initial sift so you must be clear in your CV that you meet the minimum requirement to get through that sift. If it's not obvious to the reader who may have many others to read then it will be binned. Fancy fonts and formats can make deciphering quickly a pain so may be binned on that alone. Stay safe unless the industry requires a more creative approach. Good luck!

[10 Pence Short]

Simple arial, as little formatting as possible. Try to keep it to two font sizes and use bold/underline sparingly.

Imagine the person at the other end hates reading and has Word 5.0 installed on their IBM 386.

[Zad]

I had an agency send me a dozen of so CVs, which was awfully nice of them really, as I am a sole trader. It was very eye-opening and excellent in terms of showing me what my contemporaries are up to. All but 2 of the CVs were hugely flawed. Not flawed because they didn't have the skills for the job (there was no job) but because of stupid spelling mistakes, overblown personal statements, excessive fluff and claims which could not possibly be true. Even if you are a dyslexic whose native language is not English, there are no excuses.

When you have written your CV: Read it. Print it out. Sleep. Read the printout the next day. Then get someone else to read it. For some reason or other, errors get more easily picked up when on paper.

If the job is via an agency, they will probably enter your basic data and trash the original CV anyway.

[Engineer1]

10 Pence Short said:

Simple arial, as little formatting as possible. Try to keep it to two font sizes and use bold/underline sparingly.

Imagine the person at the other end hates reading and has Word 5.0 installed on their IBM 386.

Or use Formatting to highlight and low light things,

Manager at x corp 2010 - present
usual bs about position

Team Leader burger joint 2009-2010
temporary role

Manager at y corp 2007 - 2009

done well the role that you want to lose into the background vanishes but is on your CV if they query the gap.