[Misc] CV Writing/Advice Services

Westdene Seagull · Jan 16, 2019

I'm in the market for a new job and a recruitment agent last week suggested I needed to review how my CV was written - "too wordy" was his view.

I've been contacted by a CV Writing service but being the cynical old ******* I am I'm not sure it's worth spending money on a new CV. I heard James Reed of the Reed recruitment website on the radio yesterday talking about a 7 second CV ( although he is pushing is book on the subject ) and he was suggesting a single page was now prefered. So, over to the experts on here :

1. Anyone used one of these services ?
2. Was it worth the money ? This offer is for £299 and contains some extras about focussed re-writes etc. In years gone by I meet with one service that charged £4k ( and strangely I didn't sign up ) so this seems reasonable for the cost.
3. Any recommendations of which service to use ?

What do recruitment agents such as [MENTION=2095]Commander[/MENTION] think of these services ? Do they really get your CV to "the top of the pile" ?

Commander · Jan 16, 2019

I'd say the recruitment agent is probably talking sense if he says it is 'too wordy'. However, rather than tell you that and you considering paying £300 for a CV writing service, he should do it for you if he wants to work with you. Or at least help you do it.

1 page is great if you can do it but personally I think it's a bit unrealistic. 2 pages is fine, just don't do any more than that.

£4K to write a CV! :lolol:

Amazing. I will happily do it for you for a mere £3K.

A decent CV does open doors for you, but a decent recruiter is far, far more important. If their relationships are strong enough with their clients then should barely need a CV to get you an interview.

PM your email address and I can take a look at it for you and at least give you some advice.

Rugrat · Jan 16, 2019

On a page if you can. I've spent 35 years in business, often at senior levels and can still get it on a page, with extra narrow margins

What you accomplished 20, even 10 years ago is of little importance. You just want it to open doors, not get you the job

Happy to take a look if you want to PM me

Herr Tubthumper · Jan 16, 2019

I guess it depends what you do but most people I know now use a simple CV with 10 or so bullet points at the top directly relating to the job, next section is education, a few boxes with employment history and that’s yer lot.

father_and_son · Jan 16, 2019

As someone who periodically has to wade through CVs, I would say there is a relatively simple formula that you don't need to spend £300 to know...

1 A4 sheet - double sided - single [professional] font throughout - consistent formatting
(Personally I recommend small adjustment to the margins to help the look/length work)

Name & Personal details
Statement about the type of person you are - buzz word bingo here but give them something that means they read on. "Team Player", "Excellent Time Management", "Self-Starter", ...

Education, Qualifications & Key Skills
Don't be afraid of words like "Expert", "Highly Experienced", etc in this bit (provided you can walk the walk!) Big yourself up and try to show you already have most if not all the skills the job will require.

Current or Last Job
Title should be: Job Title - Employer - Start Date - [End Date]
- single paragraph describing what you do - include any key achievements/awards received or anything you are especially proud of.
- bullet points for the key skills/competencies

<All of the above on 1 side of A4>

Previous Employment
Similar layout to the current job
List as many jobs as fills the page, progressively less and less space devoted to each... don't be afraid to group the oldest ones into "Various Roles"

Outside Interests
A single paragraph that just shows you are human but focus on what makes you interesting... give the interviewer something for a chat before/after the interview as you walk to/from reception. Everyone watches TV and enjoys movies and travelling - don't bother mentioning that!

<All of the past history on the reverse of the first page>

Focused re-write are all about having a 4 page CV containing everything and deleting words/sentences/bullet points, only keeping the most relevant bits, to have an idealised 2-pager for the job you want. If it doesn't help you do this job, don't mention it!

timbha · Jan 16, 2019

As HT says:
• BULLET POINTS

Westdene Seagull · Jan 16, 2019

Herr Tubthumper said:
I guess it depends what you do but most people I know now use a simple CV with 10 or so bullet points at the top directly relating to the job, next section is education, a few boxes with employment history and that’s yer lot.

And just to make you laugh - the discussion I had with this said CV Writer on the intro call included him telling me NEVER to send my CV out in PDF format :lol:

Herr Tubthumper · Jan 16, 2019

Westdene Seagull said:
And just to make you laugh - the discussion I had with this said CV Writer on the intro call included him telling me NEVER to send my CV out in PDF format

It does beg the question why not?

Seriously though, all the best with your job search. Hope it works out.

studio150 · Jan 16, 2019

And don't forget at the foot of your SOAP to give credit to NSC who have provided their services without charge.

Good luck with finding a new job

Deleted member 2719 · Jan 16, 2019

Westdene Seagull said:
I'm in the market for a new job and a recruitment agent last week suggested I needed to review how my CV was written - "too wordy" was his view.

I've been contacted by a CV Writing service but being the cynical old ******* I am I'm not sure it's worth spending money on a new CV. I heard James Reed of the Reed recruitment website on the radio yesterday talking about a 7 second CV ( although he is pushing is book on the subject ) and he was suggesting a single page was now prefered. So, over to the experts on here :

1. Anyone used one of these services ?
2. Was it worth the money ? This offer is for £299 and contains some extras about focussed re-writes etc. In years gone by I meet with one service that charged £4k ( and strangely I didn't sign up ) so this seems reasonable for the cost.
3. Any recommendations of which service to use ?

What do recruitment agents such as [MENTION=2095]Commander[/MENTION] think of these services ? Do they really get your CV to "the top of the pile" ?

I used a CV writing service spent £300, I personally thought she came up with the in words, but basically said the same thing as I had on my CV in more of a corporate wording.
Waste of money IMO as I just got independent recruiters promising the earth and coming up with little to nothing.

Commander said:
I'd say the recruitment agent is probably talking sense if he says it is 'too wordy'. However, rather than tell you that and you considering paying £300 for a CV writing service, he should do it for you if he wants to work with you. Or at least help you do it.

1 page is great if you can do it but personally I think it's a bit unrealistic. 2 pages is fine, just don't do any more than that.

£4K to write a CV! Amazing. I will happily do it for you for a mere £3K.

A decent CV does open doors for you, but a decent recruiter is far, far more important. If their relationships are strong enough with their clients then should barely need a CV to get you an interview.

PM your email address and I can take a look at it for you and at least give you some advice.

Sorry Commander, but I have had poor experiences of recruiters, what really separates the good ones to the bad ones, for your employee customer

Herr Tubthumper · Jan 16, 2019

father_and_son said:
Outside Interests
A single paragraph that just shows you are human but focus on what makes you interesting... give the interviewer something for a chat before/after the interview as you walk to/from reception. Everyone watches TV and enjoys movies and travelling - don't bother mentioning that!

Good point. I have not properly recruited for some time but once when I was confronted with 50 odd CVs for a contract position, which all had similar experience etc, I chose 3 to interview based on outside interests: one had played pro football for Luton Town, one was a sound engineer and in a failed boy band in a previous life and another wrote an MA on American political hedgemony.

Sussexscots · Jan 16, 2019

Personally, I completely agree with [MENTION=2095]Commander[/MENTION]. Having worked with Recruitment Agencies in the past when advertising for roles, the best ones would screen the people they sent to us for interview in advance. They should be helping you construct a CV to appeal to your target area.

If you're writing it yourself. suggest:

Start with an opening statement about yourself.

Bullet point Key skills and achievements in the last ten years. Hopefully relevant to the competency profile of the job description.

Employment history last ten years and add 'full Employment History available on request'.

Paragraph on Education, personally , if for example you have a degree, I would just put (for example) 'Educated to Degree Level - BSc (hons) Durham. That you got 'O' levels in History and Geography years ago isn't relevant - unless you are applying to be a History or Geography teacher.

If you put 'Reading' under Outside Interests, be prepared to be asked what you've read recently other than Razzle or Titbits.

Send a personal cover letter or e-mail with your CV.

Three Hundred Quid to write a CV! Ouch!

Good luck.

Brovion · Jan 16, 2019

father_and_son said:
As someone who periodically has to wade through CVs, I would say there is a relatively simple formula that you don't need to spend £300 to know...

1 A4 sheet - double sided - single [professional] font throughout - consistent formatting
(Personally I recommend small adjustment to the margins to help the look/length work)

Name & Personal details
Statement about the type of person you are - buzz word bingo here but give them something that means they read on. "Team Player", "Excellent Time Management", "Self-Starter", ...

Education, Qualifications & Key Skills
Don't be afraid of words like "Expert", "Highly Experienced", etc in this bit (provided you can walk the walk!) Big yourself up and try to show you already have most if not all the skills the job will require.

Current or Last Job
Title should be: Job Title - Employer - Start Date - [End Date]
- single paragraph describing what you do - include any key achievements/awards received or anything you are especially proud of.
- bullet points for the key skills/competencies

<All of the above on 1 side of A4>

Previous Employment
Similar layout to the current job
List as many jobs as fills the page, progressively less and less space devoted to each... don't be afraid to group the oldest ones into "Various Roles"

Outside Interests
A single paragraph that just shows you are human but focus on what makes you interesting... give the interviewer something for a chat before/after the interview as you walk to/from reception. Everyone watches TV and enjoys movies and travelling - don't bother mentioning that!

<All of the past history on the reverse of the first page>

Focused re-write are all about having a 4 page CV containing everything and deleting words/sentences/bullet points, only keeping the most relevant bits, to have an idealised 2-pager for the job you want. If it doesn't help you do this job, don't mention it!

My CV was laid out exactly like that - except I never had a section for 'Outside Interests'. Reading the various websites about CV writing the consensus seemed to be that your prospective employer wasn't really that interested in whether you collected stamps or not. I also worked to the '2 pages max, no further back than 10 years' rules. Even then I needed the space that an 'Outside Interests' section would have taken up. A disclaimer is I was doing this in 2009 so opinions may have shifted.

The 'personal statement' section is extremely important I think, and not one I'd thought of including until I started reading up on CV writing. And, yes, I happily described myself as 'outstanding' and no one ever contradicted me!

I wouldn't have thought it necessary to use a service. As I said I did my initial one in 2009 and simply googled 'CV writing'. (Despite leaving school in 1975 I'd never had to write one before!). After the initial grind of writing it I found it very easy to keep it up-to-date. It was also easy to tweak for specific jobs where I wanted to highlight particular skills/experience that the job required.

Finally I would agree with Commander's point that the recruiter is key. When I was a contractor I got several contracts from a guy called Dan at a firm called Computer Futures. He understood the industry and only ever sent me relevant roles (he didn't confuse Java and JavaScript for example), and crucially he understood me and what I wanted. Plus he would tell me the tweaks I needed for specific jobs. Sadly he was so good he got promoted and now runs an agency in New York.

Westdene Seagull · Jan 16, 2019

Herr Tubthumper said:
It does beg the question why not?

Seriously though, all the best with your job search. Hope it works out.

Apparently too many of the systems that read CVs make errors on identifying words in PDF files which means a PDF CV can be canned even if it has the correct key words in it.

Thank you.

Billy the Fish · Jan 16, 2019

timbha said:
As HT says:
• BULLET POINTS

I redid my CV recently and used this format. The best bit of advice I was given was to begin each point with an active verb. It scans far, far better.

vegster · Jan 16, 2019

father_and_son said:
As someone who periodically has to wade through CVs, I would say there is a relatively simple formula that you don't need to spend £300 to know...

1 A4 sheet - double sided - single [professional] font throughout - consistent formatting
(Personally I recommend small adjustment to the margins to help the look/length work)

Name & Personal details
Statement about the type of person you are - buzz word bingo here but give them something that means they read on. "Team Player", "Excellent Time Management", "Self-Starter", ...

Education, Qualifications & Key Skills
Don't be afraid of words like "Expert", "Highly Experienced", etc in this bit (provided you can walk the walk!) Big yourself up and try to show you already have most if not all the skills the job will require.

Current or Last Job
Title should be: Job Title - Employer - Start Date - [End Date]
- single paragraph describing what you do - include any key achievements/awards received or anything you are especially proud of.
- bullet points for the key skills/competencies

<All of the above on 1 side of A4>

Previous Employment
Similar layout to the current job
List as many jobs as fills the page, progressively less and less space devoted to each... don't be afraid to group the oldest ones into "Various Roles"

Outside Interests
A single paragraph that just shows you are human but focus on what makes you interesting... give the interviewer something for a chat before/after the interview as you walk to/from reception. Everyone watches TV and enjoys movies and travelling - don't bother mentioning that!

<All of the past history on the reverse of the first page>

Focused re-write are all about having a 4 page CV containing everything and deleting words/sentences/bullet points, only keeping the most relevant bits, to have an idealised 2-pager for the job you want. If it doesn't help you do this job, don't mention it!

Thanks for posting this, when I finally pluck the courage to apply to Higgidy Pies I will have a lot more confidence in my CV!

Arthritic Toe · Jan 16, 2019

In my experience, each agent will have a different opinion on what makes a good cv. I've been told by different agents looking at the same cv that it was (a) in a really bad format and (b) the best formatted cv they'd ever seen.
They will often reformat it in their own style anyway, when they send it out.

Betfair Bozo · Jan 16, 2019

Herr Tubthumper said:
It does beg the question why not?

Seriously though, all the best with your job search. Hope it works out.

I don't know why you wouldn't send it to a prospective employer as a pdf but I guess they might have meant it's more difficult for a recruiter to amend it (ie remove personal details, tailor to specific role, re-format etc) if it is a pdf.

Herr Tubthumper · Jan 16, 2019

Betfair Bozo said:
I don't know why you wouldn't send it to a prospective employer as a pdf but I guess they might have meant it's more difficult for a recruiter to amend it (ie remove personal details, tailor to specific role, re-format etc) if it is a pdf.

Good point.

Commander · Jan 16, 2019

Betfair Bozo said:
I don't know why you wouldn't send it to a prospective employer as a pdf but I guess they might have meant it's more difficult for a recruiter to amend it (ie remove personal details, tailor to specific role, re-format etc) if it is a pdf.

This is correct. Plus some recruitment databases or client HR systems that the recruiter will use don't like PDFs.

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