CV Advice - Please have a look and advise
Discussion
I've re done my CV following some advice and trying to get as much advice as possible really on how I can improve it.
Its a PDF REMOVED FOR SECURITY REASONS and I've blacked out certain info for obvious reasons.
any constructive comments are more then welcome.
Its a PDF REMOVED FOR SECURITY REASONS and I've blacked out certain info for obvious reasons.
any constructive comments are more then welcome.
Edited by Rich VRS on Saturday 22 November 00:49
Drop your qualifications in before the career history.
Did you do a final year project at uni? may be worth mentioning that.
What CAD systems are you conversant with?
Get rid of the extraneous stuff at the back end, or at least trim it drastically.
Do you know anyone that's good with English? Get them to remove every last grammatical error in there. (I know, my posts are always full of errors, but they're speed typed and not trying to gain me employment)
Did you do a final year project at uni? may be worth mentioning that.
What CAD systems are you conversant with?
Get rid of the extraneous stuff at the back end, or at least trim it drastically.
Do you know anyone that's good with English? Get them to remove every last grammatical error in there. (I know, my posts are always full of errors, but they're speed typed and not trying to gain me employment)
It's very busy, some pointers to get started on:
Your personal statement reads more like what you should be saying in a cover letter.
For the personal statement, you could begin "I am a hard working Architectural Technology graduate with previous practical experience as an Architectural Technician..." then go on to say how you are disciplined, precise, quick to learn, etc.
Then I agree with spikeyhead, put your qualifications next and expand on relevent projects, classes, and software.
For your job history, leave out the description of what each firm does. Condense the stuff that's left into bullet points i.e:
- Assisted with structural survey drawings
- Involved with both residential and leisure developments
I would delete the 'road trip' from your experiences and incorporate the rest into 'interests', but bullet pointed again i.e:
Scouts
- Kayaking to instructor level
- Organised and led hikes
- Sailing to instructor level
Also I would remove BSc (Hons) from after your name.
Your personal statement reads more like what you should be saying in a cover letter.
For the personal statement, you could begin "I am a hard working Architectural Technology graduate with previous practical experience as an Architectural Technician..." then go on to say how you are disciplined, precise, quick to learn, etc.
Then I agree with spikeyhead, put your qualifications next and expand on relevent projects, classes, and software.
For your job history, leave out the description of what each firm does. Condense the stuff that's left into bullet points i.e:
- Assisted with structural survey drawings
- Involved with both residential and leisure developments
I would delete the 'road trip' from your experiences and incorporate the rest into 'interests', but bullet pointed again i.e:
Scouts
- Kayaking to instructor level
- Organised and led hikes
- Sailing to instructor level
Also I would remove BSc (Hons) from after your name.
Edited by Stevenj214 on Tuesday 11th November 19:16
I haven't read all the detail but from my initial impression, yes, since you are a recent graduate put your qualifications first and expand on the subjects that you covered. Actually, just noticed that you haven't put dates for your qualifications, I would do this. On a separate sheet I listed all subjects I took throughout my degree and detailed my final year disseration. I took this to interviews so that if they asked about my course I was prepared.
Again, bullet point sentences and make them more snappier. Drop the 'I did this..' and 'I did that..' kind of phrases and begin them with something like 'Responsible for...' or 'Achieved...'.
In my CV I have a Key Skills section where I put IT qualifications etc. (or whatever may be relevant to the particular job). Since most people use pcs these days I think it's useful to list how competent you are at Word/Excel, CAD, or whatever.
Drop the referees. If you are successful then they will ask you. I used to take a separate sheet with my referee details on it to interviews, just in case they asked.
There's quite a bit of white space, which isn't a bad thing, but perhaps increase the font size and reduce your margins.
Put your name in the header so that if page 2 becomes detatched then they know who it belongs to - and make it bigger, don't let them forget who they are reading about!
I would also put the section headers (Education, Experience, etc) in a bigger font (I also use character spacing so it doesn't looked as cramped), perhaps just tart it up a bit, such as using a lines across the full page rather than underlining (a pesonal hate of mine).
Again, bullet point sentences and make them more snappier. Drop the 'I did this..' and 'I did that..' kind of phrases and begin them with something like 'Responsible for...' or 'Achieved...'.
In my CV I have a Key Skills section where I put IT qualifications etc. (or whatever may be relevant to the particular job). Since most people use pcs these days I think it's useful to list how competent you are at Word/Excel, CAD, or whatever.
Drop the referees. If you are successful then they will ask you. I used to take a separate sheet with my referee details on it to interviews, just in case they asked.
There's quite a bit of white space, which isn't a bad thing, but perhaps increase the font size and reduce your margins.
Put your name in the header so that if page 2 becomes detatched then they know who it belongs to - and make it bigger, don't let them forget who they are reading about!
I would also put the section headers (Education, Experience, etc) in a bigger font (I also use character spacing so it doesn't looked as cramped), perhaps just tart it up a bit, such as using a lines across the full page rather than underlining (a pesonal hate of mine).
It's riddled with grammatical, typographical and spelling mistakes for a start. Mixed tenses, spurious apostrophes, inappropriate capitalisation, semi-colons, missing "a" and so on. "Licence"... argggh 
Header or footer with name and date and 'x page of n pages'.
Referees can be "available on request".
What happened in May/June 07?
I have no idea what your degree entailed.
Personally (and I'm a pedant, you might have noticed!) I'd have the umlaut in Travermunde.
Header or footer with name and date and 'x page of n pages'.
Referees can be "available on request".
What happened in May/June 07?
I have no idea what your degree entailed.
Personally (and I'm a pedant, you might have noticed!) I'd have the umlaut in Travermunde.
Not wishing to be unhelpful- but I wouldn't give this CV a second look...
Personal statement is rather woolly for a start. However, overall grammar and sentence structure is frankly very poor.
As a recent graduate, you will clearly have a broad skill-base- but grammar is not one of your strongpoints!
I cannot really comment on the content as I have no experience of your industry- But I would seriously consider starting again; and getting somebody with strong written English skills to re-write it for you.
I know that may come across as a tad harsh. However, I regularly receive CV's and the one thing that bugs me is poor written English.
Don't take it to heart, I have certainly seen a LOT worse than yours!
Good luck,
Charlie
Personal statement is rather woolly for a start. However, overall grammar and sentence structure is frankly very poor.
As a recent graduate, you will clearly have a broad skill-base- but grammar is not one of your strongpoints!
I cannot really comment on the content as I have no experience of your industry- But I would seriously consider starting again; and getting somebody with strong written English skills to re-write it for you.
I know that may come across as a tad harsh. However, I regularly receive CV's and the one thing that bugs me is poor written English.
Don't take it to heart, I have certainly seen a LOT worse than yours!
Good luck,
Charlie
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