How to "dumb down" an IT CV?
Discussion
Bit of a strange one this 
My last 8 years in IT have been relatively senior (from a hands-on technical point of view rather than management) but, at the same time, rather general in terms of skills.
For example, at Yell, I was one of a small team that was responsible for Yell.com, which encompassed all kinds of things, ranging from shell scripting and other Unix bits and bobs, SQL, various web related stuff like HTML, JavaScript, Perl etc, through to ITIL certification and practice, being lead technical bod in various projects and so on - the usual large corp political stuff. However, being the size of company it is, there were dedicated teams for Oracle support, networks and so forth. So I was a generalist really.
Then, for the 4 years after that, I worked for a small company (5 people) looking after the internal and external IT (ie the website as well as desktops & server etc), telecoms and various other bits and pieces. I was also responsible for putting together a quarterly magazine for the NHS. Hence the title "IT & Publishing Director".
Problem is, right now I'd be more than happy to do a regular 1st/2nd line type of job (for lots of reasons, not because I'll take "any old job") but I'm getting an awful lot of "overqualified" responses from applications.
How does one go about preventing that, when even the job titles cause recruiters to immediately think "just wants something for the short term" -> bin?
My last 8 years in IT have been relatively senior (from a hands-on technical point of view rather than management) but, at the same time, rather general in terms of skills.
For example, at Yell, I was one of a small team that was responsible for Yell.com, which encompassed all kinds of things, ranging from shell scripting and other Unix bits and bobs, SQL, various web related stuff like HTML, JavaScript, Perl etc, through to ITIL certification and practice, being lead technical bod in various projects and so on - the usual large corp political stuff. However, being the size of company it is, there were dedicated teams for Oracle support, networks and so forth. So I was a generalist really.
Then, for the 4 years after that, I worked for a small company (5 people) looking after the internal and external IT (ie the website as well as desktops & server etc), telecoms and various other bits and pieces. I was also responsible for putting together a quarterly magazine for the NHS. Hence the title "IT & Publishing Director".
Problem is, right now I'd be more than happy to do a regular 1st/2nd line type of job (for lots of reasons, not because I'll take "any old job") but I'm getting an awful lot of "overqualified" responses from applications.
How does one go about preventing that, when even the job titles cause recruiters to immediately think "just wants something for the short term" -> bin?
LivinLaVidaLotus said:
Not sure how you'd dumb it down, but I'd say your best chance right now are with a smaller firm who could really benefit from your wide range of skills.
I agree. The smaller firms will recognise your contribution than say maybe a larger multi-national. If its with a smaller firm then maybe you can emphasize your wide ranging experience but some how balance that with it not coming across as 'filling the short term gap'.I know exactly what you mean, been there plenty of times too. I frequently drop off & re-add different certifications, skills & experience for different internal & external roles.
The trick is to tailor your CV for that specific post. It's difficult not to leave yourself with gaps but often easier to simply highlight the more basic stuff they are looking for. You can always flesh it out with efficiency gains & cost savings - that way they also know the advantage of you over the next guy.
The trick is to tailor your CV for that specific post. It's difficult not to leave yourself with gaps but often easier to simply highlight the more basic stuff they are looking for. You can always flesh it out with efficiency gains & cost savings - that way they also know the advantage of you over the next guy.
If this post represents your CV, then i'm not suprised your getting no joy.
Don't really know how to say this without sounding offensive, so i'll just say it.
You come across as very pretentious with your "IT and Publishing Director". From your description, you are a web developer. Looking after 5 PC's and writing a word doc once a quarter hardly qualifies you as an IT Director.
Obviously I don't know you, but that's the impression I get reading the first post.
I'm an IT contractor with my own Ltd. co. so technically i'm head of negotiation, sales director, Purchasing manager, CFO and of course MD - doesn't mean I can do any of those.... on my CV i'm a software developer - thats what i do.
Your CV should represent what you want to do, not what you have done or can do. If you want a job in 1st or 2nd line support then put that down as your job for the last five years. And dont ever mention IT Director.
Don't really know how to say this without sounding offensive, so i'll just say it.
You come across as very pretentious with your "IT and Publishing Director". From your description, you are a web developer. Looking after 5 PC's and writing a word doc once a quarter hardly qualifies you as an IT Director.
Obviously I don't know you, but that's the impression I get reading the first post.
I'm an IT contractor with my own Ltd. co. so technically i'm head of negotiation, sales director, Purchasing manager, CFO and of course MD - doesn't mean I can do any of those.... on my CV i'm a software developer - thats what i do.
Your CV should represent what you want to do, not what you have done or can do. If you want a job in 1st or 2nd line support then put that down as your job for the last five years. And dont ever mention IT Director.
zippy3x said:
From your description, you are a web developer. Looking after 5 PC's and writing a word doc once a quarter hardly qualifies you as an IT Director.
Definitely not a developer 
But your point is exactly the one I was trying to make. Whether indicative of the role or not, that WAS the title. In the bit of the CV outwith the previous roles, I am indeed focussing on what I want to and can do. But I can't really make up some other title for a previous role. You think that one's bad - the Yell title was "Webmaster" :cringe: Whenever it's come up in casual (rather than professional) conversation, I've always added the rider about being a small company, not really representative etc.
As it happens I spent 4 years in the late 90s as a contractor as well, but it was always support team leader type stuff (both hands on and managerial).
eta - actually, maybe the simplest solution is just to leave any titles out altogether...
Edited by Famous Graham on Monday 12th January 23:24
in my CV I've left out most of my official job titles - as I've been working for a large mulitnational for some time I've had 2 or 3 job codes but many roles. Each role has a 'title' or description which describes the work done in that particular role. It's more accurate & stops you getting into tricky questioning should you arrive at an interview with a big blue chip who expect you to be up on the ins & outs of directorship & strategy planning for a larger environment only to find out that your smaller business experience hasn't taught you that. Just my 2p - there's plenty of answers.
I'd suggest having your CV focus on what you've achieved, not what your skills are. By all means have a "core competencies" section, but it's what you can do that counts. I'd also recommend having your CV professionally written. I was made redundant in November, last day was Dec 31st, my pro CV has got me some great feedback and shortlisted for some very senior roles, interviews etc.
I used Craig Heeley at www.careerpartner.co.uk - no relationship other than as a satisfied customer. He specialises in IT, and is a former IT guy himself IIRC, so he gets the jargon and the way to sound business-like.
I used Craig Heeley at www.careerpartner.co.uk - no relationship other than as a satisfied customer. He specialises in IT, and is a former IT guy himself IIRC, so he gets the jargon and the way to sound business-like.
Just change the Director part to Consultant or something similiar. When I had a CV need I would put a skill summary at the front - skill, years, level. Then I would discuss the roles (latest first) and as I went through my history the roles would diminish in length until they became mere sentences. I did this because like you I did a lot of contracting in the late 90's and went through a lot of roles.
I own and run a company where no one has a job title on their business card. As far as I am concerned the recipient needs to know that they can contact us on the various numbers given and speak to that person who will deal with their request whatever it is.
I dislike the term Director as it conjures up ideas of a cigar smoking fat cat sitting in an ivory tower.
I own and run a company where no one has a job title on their business card. As far as I am concerned the recipient needs to know that they can contact us on the various numbers given and speak to that person who will deal with their request whatever it is.
I dislike the term Director as it conjures up ideas of a cigar smoking fat cat sitting in an ivory tower.
SLacKer said:
Just change the Director part to Consultant or something similiar. When I had a CV need I would put a skill summary at the front - skill, years, level. Then I would discuss the roles (latest first) and as I went through my history the roles would diminish in length until they became mere sentences. I did this because like you I did a lot of contracting in the late 90's and went through a lot of roles.
I own and run a company where no one has a job title on their business card. As far as I am concerned the recipient needs to know that they can contact us on the various numbers given and speak to that person who will deal with their request whatever it is.
I dislike the term Director as it conjures up ideas of a cigar smoking fat cat sitting in an ivory tower.
I dislike Director and Consultant both, unless you actually sit on the board or spend your days billed out to clients. They're massively overused and the vast majority of people with them in their job titles are nothing of the sort.I own and run a company where no one has a job title on their business card. As far as I am concerned the recipient needs to know that they can contact us on the various numbers given and speak to that person who will deal with their request whatever it is.
I dislike the term Director as it conjures up ideas of a cigar smoking fat cat sitting in an ivory tower.
I tailor my CV to every role, and unless there's a good reason not to my most recent job title will be changed to that of the job I'm applying for - it's a simple but surprisingly effective technique to get your CV looked at more closely. If you've got a pile of 200 CVs to look through in your search for a '2nd line support technician', then you're far more likely to look at a CV from another '2nd line support technician' than you are an 'IT & Publishing Director'. So far, in the last couple of months I've been a Solutions Architect, Technical Architect, Telecoms Consultant, Technical Manager, Lead Developer and probably quite a few others without actually changing the job description at all.
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