Advice wanted from any employers

Dont' try and be too clever, you don't want them to think you're a smart arse

 

Too right, I get 'em turning up in flash suits, serious amount of gel and they tell me how they would do my job. No one likes flash gits.

Just stick to a trusted format. Oh, and this is very very good when you have an interview, send a decently hand written letter a couple of days latter thanking them for the oppurtunity to see them. Puts you back in their mind and it goes down a treat. Trust me its an Ace :JPS:

 

Excellent idea, use this after sales calls, never thought after an interview.

sids idea on watermarks is a good one, thats what printers do (I used to be one)

 

If electronic send the CV as a word document. I tried it as PDF a few times and there are still places without Acrobat!

My only advice would be to what others have said and swat up on the job, find out as much about it as you can, the whole business and their bigger picture and have some questions ready. Be enthusiastic and imply its this interview of which you future rests. Chances are its not, but an interviewer wants someone who is keen and not likely to go taveling for a year. Which brings me to another point, if you have travelled get it on the CV, and if it comes up in questions tell them about it but that is part of your life that has gone. At your age employers expect a traveler and won't hire if they suspect!

 

Chaps

I have read more CVs than I care to remember.

You would be surprised at the number of speeeeling mistakes, for goodness sake use the spellcheck.

The biggest mistake is making the CV too long. Three pages max. I once had a 105 page one and do you honestly think I spent hours reading through that lot.

The main thing is to list acheivements.

ie Do not say I worked in X dept using Y software etc. Better to say I worked in X dept and acheived an objective of Y by successfully completing a management objective of whatever.

Results count.

Regards

Mick

 

I've mentioned in my CV (the one I used to get my last job) that I have travelled all over Europe, this equates to Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Lille, Lloret, Brussels, London and Dublin so its not a total lie.

Plus when I leave I plan to spend two weeks traveling to see Germany and southern France.

My CV is two pages long so I iwll have to cut some stuff out of it, I think with regards to skills I will be subtle, the stuff I know in depth I will mention i.e sucessfull completed project using ASP.NET C# which was self taught, where as the stuff I can do but not so good at I will just list as skils such as Java.

I am going to phone a to make an appointmnent withthe careers service today.

 

An interview is a "sales call". What you're selling is yourself

Michael.

 

Word of advice, dont put any faith in careers advisors, none at all, I found them just about pointless. If I was you, Id just mail as many companies as possible who you would like to work for. It was awful when I graduated, I got nothing for the first few months, diddly squat, zip then I got my first job offer and since then Ive been offered every job interview Ive been for within 48hrs. You learn whats required and what you need to do. The other good advice is that first impressions count, its amazing really, but you get a gut instinct as soon as you meet the interviewee. My last boss has been in business for over 40 yrs and employs 100's, he's now a very good friend (even though Ive left) and he says its the first 30 seconds that make all the difference.

 

I once so a truckie letting a girl in his cab one night whilst I was locking up. I told my boss what that was all about (Im an innocent catholic boy), he said it was a "sales call", dont know why he would be interviewing a girl at that time of night in his cab

 

I'm totaly doomed then

I am still thinking of setting up my own company and having done some research it seems I can get the funding quite easily for it. So if I have problems getting a job this will be my fall back.

My main problem is my GCSEs are quite poor but hopefully this is not very relevent in the grand scheme of things.

 

Dont worry about it, it'll work out. That career's fair in Fallowfield will be coming up soon, I know loads who picked up jobs there, and if you leave them your details they will get back to you, I had them ringing me up, it is worth going if its still going that is. Even if its a crap event there are tons of birds there, Im pretty sure Manchester Uni even run free buses from various location.

Dont worry about your GCSE's, just dont mention 'em!! The trick is to put your most recent qualification at the top. Then list your other qualifications going down reducing your font all the time. When it comes to your GCSE's just put 9 GCSE's (or however many you passed), after all you've not much space on a 2 page CV

You really really need commercial experience before setting up on your own. Im in a partnership now and we employ 20 staff, the stress is immense, on the other hand if youve no responsibilities you've nothing to loose.

 

If you have to care for and look after a family member where you may need time off on a regular basis or your religious beliefs dictate that you worship during normal work hours should you mention these obligations on a cv?

If you do are you then protected by law in as far as you must be given a fair interview with these points not being held against you?

I can think that if given the position and these obligations then come to light your new employer may not be all that pleased with his latest find.

Any ideas?

 

This is a could point I was recently reading up somthing similier, I have high frequency hearing loss, and the thing I was reading said you must declare anything like this, becuase it protects you if you can't do your job because of it, the company then has to find new ways of solving the problem. I would imagine the same applies in the situation where you need to care for somebody etc.

 

Absolutely not and a prospective employer has no right to ask you about such matters either. In many cases it would be illegal to ask such questions.

I went on an interviewing training course recently for my employer and the types of things we're not allowed to ask about were made very clear. The most obvious one is asking a female candidate if she is intending to have kids (ie about to go on maternity leave).

Even putting the legal and/or moral issues about asking such questions aside you should never, NEVER, NEVER volunteer any potentially negative information on your CV and should only do so in an interview in response to a direct question where you'd have to lie to do otherwise.

On your CV you should avoid giving someone reading it a reason to reject you and anything negative is bad news. You're not lying by not including it.

Michael.

 

But what if it affected the job performance? If they didn;t know before they employed you its not the employers fault it is?

Having said this when I applied for a job at a very large British electronics retaiers (the one that sells 555 timers) the interview went very well until I mentioned my co-ordination problem. I wish I hadn;t mentioned it,

For my current job I was ask at the interview "what was the lowest point of your life". I am not sure if that question was entirely legal but I told them about past problems due to my hearing and another condition (which I told them I didn't want to go into) and in this case I think that actually did me a favour, because the job is all about web accessability.

So I guess it depends what the job is. If you are applying for a position at a rest home, then mentioning you care for somebody at home will be a major plus point, but if you are applying for a traveling sales person posisition then perhaps not.

 

It's the prospective employers job to find out that information during the interview process (if they're legally allowed to ask the questions), not your job to volunteer it. If they don't and give you the job then if it really affected your ability to do the job they could (probably) fire you. As long as you don't flat out lie during the interview they haven't got a leg to stand on.

If you're selling a car you don't point out all its faults do you? If the buyer doesn't spot them then that's their problem, not yours.

Michael.

 

AT, you now have the answer to a question you have not yet posted - just how good is this forum then?