Who knows how to make a great graduate CV?

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jamescnz5

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#36190 21-Jun-2009 21:08

Any ideas?

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#227228 21-Jun-2009 23:27

As someone who received a stack of these every week, some ideas:

- Your cover letter should (at least) be addressed to someone at the company - sending out a "blanket" cover letter shows lack of preparation. If you can't take 5 minutes to personalise your CV, I can't take 5 minutes to read it.

- In the cover letter you should outline why you would make a good candidate, ie, what skills do you have that would work well. Don't make me work to figure out where you would fit in my company.

- Short and to the point. I don't care what primary/intermediate/high school you went to. To be honest, I make a decision within 30 seconds of opening a CV. You aren't writing a thesis.

- Bullet points are your friend, rather than write paragraphs, summarise the most important things in an easy to follow layout.

- Formatting (this is me being picky) - learn how to use Word properly, a well laid out and attractive CV certainly puts you to the top of the pile.

Hope this helps.

riahon

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#227236 22-Jun-2009 05:44

Who knows how to make a great Graduate CV?

I would have thought.... a graduate

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#227237 22-Jun-2009 06:24

riahon: Who knows how to make a great Graduate CV?

I would have thought.... a graduate

not necessarily. graduates have no idea! even you may not understand that the most important thing to get a job is experience. a graduate has none (usually).

how s/he formats the cover letter and cv to command an interview, and then use all 3 to make an employer not able to refuse hiring someone with completely zero knowledge of the big bad complicated world ... not easy

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#227264 22-Jun-2009 09:11

riahon: Who knows how to make a great Graduate CV?

I would have thought.... a graduate

Yeah right, us graduates have no idea. I had been using the same c.v. all the way through high school to when I finished university, and I have had many jobs from it (none IT related), but it just didnt cut it when I wanted a real job.

There are only a few real pieces of advice that I can give for a c.v, and to be honest as I am not an employer I cant even say they are right, it's just things I have been told in my recent struggle for post-university employment. One, is that if you have no related experience, put your education information first. Don't put in every detail of every paper you ever sat. For mine I went with just my level 3 and level 5 papers, with a brief description of what each paper covered in there (saying you did a level 3 paper called 'Operating Systems' doesnt really tell them what you know).

The other one is to put in a skills matrix. These are really good at showing clearly and quickly what technical abilities you posses.

Lastly, keep your c.v. short. Mine is about 3 pages without a cover letter and even that is really too big, but I just can't seem to trim it down any more (I took out every single job that doesn't relate to IT, which took 3 or 4 pages out of it).

If you want, I can post a link to my c.v. and cover letter so you can have a look at them, but like I said, they are still not a perfect example of a great c.v.

BurningBeard

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#227289 22-Jun-2009 10:13

I treat my CV/applications like I treat advertisements I create (I'm a designer)

Employers get a LOT of CV's, and they're looking for ways to get the list down - they'll be looking for reasons NOT to interview you. Keep it brief and only include information that pertains to the job in question. You only have a matter of seconds to "wow" them.

My CV is one page, two tidy columns, clearly bulleted. I got my current job the day after I sent the CV out.

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cr250bromo

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#227316 22-Jun-2009 11:33

If you have just graduated there may be somewhere within your uni/tech that helps with this sort of stuff. At AUT (where I work) we have a Career Centre which helps with CV preparation and so on. Might be worth asking around. Plus the above advice is useful, keeping it short/to the point.

NonprayingMantis

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#227591 23-Jun-2009 02:29

My advice:

no more than 2 sides of white A4 for your CV. Use largish font, lots of bullet points and leave lots of white space. spell check automatically and manually, then get someone else to proofread it.

unless you are applying for a job as an actor or model whatever you do, don't include a photo of yourself . It just looks retarded.

I generally organise my CV like this:

Perosnal Profile - a short paragraph about myself, summarising my strengths, no more than 2-3 lines

Career Goals - where I want to be in 5 years, again, no more than 2-3 lines

Recent work history with acheivements and responsibilities (last 3-4 jobs)

Formal qualifications in descending order of importance, leaving off anything more than 2 layers below where I am now e.g. If I was a Chartered accountant I would list that, along with my Uni grades, but ditch my high school grades. As a fresh grad, make a song and dance about your uni grades, and only briefly mention high school grades if they are particularly exemplary.

Other skills with no formal qualifications

Activities/accomplishments/hobbies outside of work that demonstrate relevant skills , (normally keep this section quite small, but for a grad you might need this to be bigger to replace the lack of work experience)

This is a personal thing, and you may not like the idea, but I like to write my CV in the third person. I think it sounds less arrogant when talking about how amazing I am and, subconsciously to the reader, almost feels like they are getting an objective view from a third party. (they may even remember it as such later when coming to a decision)

e.g. Instead of writing "I demonstrated very strong leadership skills when I did X Y and Z"

you would write "Dave demonstrated very strong leadership skills when he did X Y and Z"

another good hint: When sending off your CV for a specific job, look forparticular phrases in thejobn advert and put them into your CV.

e.g. if the job advert says "requires someone the ability to quickly build sucessful working relationships" try to think of an example of something similar in your work history and use the same wording.
like "Dave's time as a consultant moving quickly from one client to another has taught him how to quickly build successful working relationships" or something like that

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jamescnz5

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#227940 24-Jun-2009 13:03

Cheers! Just one thing though, I have been told by people proof reading my cv that a photo is good..??

NonprayingMantis

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#227989 24-Jun-2009 15:18

IMO Definitely not (unless, as I mentioned above, you are applying for a job where looks are important such as a model or actor.)

Some people reccomend it though, you can google to find a wealth of opinions on it.

If you feel you really must include a photo, then a passport sized head and shoulders is the most you should do.

pebbles

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#228038 24-Jun-2009 17:42

We have been told at uni seminars photos are good too

nate

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#228123 24-Jun-2009 22:23

NonprayingMantis: IMO Definitely not (unless, as I mentioned above, you are applying for a job where looks are important such as a model or actor.)

+1. Looks aren't really that important, but as NPM has said above, depends on the industry you are applying for.

BurningBeard

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#228196 25-Jun-2009 10:20

I'd never include my own photo.

Simply because of my piercings and 13 inch beard. I don't want somebody to make their mind up about me because of that. I let my skills do the talking.

It's all about eliminating any possible reason for discarding your CV.

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8d52797c436

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#228198 25-Jun-2009 10:28

The real truth is that I dont think there is a perfect answer for a perfect c.v. Everyone has their own opinions, including the people that are reading them. The only thing that everyone seems to agree on is keep it short and sweet, personalise it to every job you apply for, and dont give them any reason not to hire you (i.e. a photo of you drinking with friends or showing off any piercings/tatoos might not go down the best)

Balchy

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#228223 25-Jun-2009 11:49

Spell check, spell check, spell check. I generally through out any CVs with spelling or grammatical errors, these are basics! Their, There, they're rah some people really shouldnt go past high school.

Other than that, I generally wont look past a cv more than two pages long. You should be able to fit your RELEVANT experience into two pages or less.

Like someone else has said, personalise each cv and cover letter to the job you are applying for. I have received cover letters applying for jobs with completely different titles! they go straight to the bottom of the heap.

And as for a photo? only if you are hot lol

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rscole86

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#228224 25-Jun-2009 12:05

If your only email address is one you set up when you were 15 or so, then may I suggest you change it.
I've seen a fair few where the email address contains, what I am sure is boasting and false, distracting information.

eg, sk8ng69er@blahblahblah.com

Not a good look... though it may depend on where you are applying for.

As for photos, I personally did not like them as an employer. I wanted to make my mind up based on the facts that the person presented me, and based on that I would interview people.

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