The Officer Cadet guide to writing a CV

[Hatchorder]

After a huge amount of work this week producing 5 CV's for people and a couple of requests I have finally sat down and spent a whole day writing a guide to produce a CV on your own. It is a guide that can be used by both Potential Cadets and recently Qualified Officers.

There are a couple of documents still to be added to it, but in general it should give you all the tools you need to produce a professional CV that will get you into the most important chair - the one in front of the interviewer.

Please feel free to leave your comments here - nobody is perfect!

I hope it helps a lot of people and gives me some time off!

I am still willing to review CV's - but only if people follow the guide and send me what they have produced under advice from the thread. If you send me a CV that is in any other type of format then it means you have not put in the work to do 95% of the work. If it is because you don't like my style of CV then I have to ask - why are you sending it to me?

For all those who recognise their profile, or school results, or work experience then don't worry I won't reveal your real details, but thank you for "donating" something to the article!

So here it is: The Officer Cadet guide to writing a CV

Ian

[Crawf121]

Cafe seafront Shrewsbury

Magic seeing my little town get a mention anywhere...big up the SY1 brap.

cracking article

[thebrookster]

Lovely concise wee article Ian, hope that it helps a few jobseekers out there!!

Personally not 100% with you on layout side, I prefer a touch of underlining/bold type to signify section changes, but no more than that. I do fully agree with the comment about UK English dictionary as opposed to US English!! (Says the guy who has still not changed his laptop over for about three years now, and simply swears at it when it tries to alter my correct English!!)

You seem to be missing the two templates though??

Cheers,

Phil

[YoungMariner]

Really good advice, would definitely be worthwhile adding the two templates if you can.

One piece of advice I received a few years ago from a recruitment agent was to remove your full address, just put the city and country (along with phone number and e-mail address), because of scam/fraud issues etc.

[Hatchorder]

Thanks for the comments everyone. The 2 templates were too big for me to upload so I sent them to CD to add them. He will do it sometime today.


As to all the other suggestions, I think they would be useful for people to read and choose which way they go. Personally I can get anyones full name and address in the UK online without needing a cv to do it. 192.com is an example, unless you opt out for a valid reason, (wife is a Magistrate so we're opted out). Might be more of an issue overseas.



But hopefully it all adds enough that people have choices and more thinking to do.



Ian

[EH75]

Great article and as someone who was offered a job after Ian's help I would recommend following his advice!

[Hatchorder]

Great article and as someone who was offered a job after Ian's help I would recommend following his advice!

Errr, did I use any of your CV in the article! LOL.

Thank you - that is all the validation I need!

Just remember all of you that I have helped, I never want payment for services rendered other than a "Thank You" and for you to agree to "Pay it Forwards". One day you will be in a position to help others and you will do it willingly because you owe it to yourself.

Ian

[Inland Pirate]

Really useful, considering it's not a normal thing for colleges to deal with! You mentioned a cover letter - what sort of things would you expect to see in that?

Thanks!

[chris]

Essentially it links you and your cv to the job description.

[HarmlessWeasel]

Essentially it links you and your cv to the job description.

aye but in what way? I struggled with the cover letter idea. I couldn't help but repeat my personal profile in saying how awesomely suited to the job I was...

[Inland Pirate]

I have no work experience as such, so created life experience, before later realising there was a hobbies section...

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[MTQ]

As someone who is coming to the end of one career and maybe thinking about another, can i thank you very much ! now that my son is away i decided to knuckle down and do a CV and lo and behold you pop up with this ! a great help and i will be sure to "pay it forward"

[Lewis]

I wouldn't have a personal statement in the CV but would follow everything you say on personal statement in the covering letter. Is this wrong?

[size4riggerboots]

You want a short personal statement on the CV, and the covering letter should then expand on it: Use the skills and aptitudes you have described to explain why you'd be the ideal candidate for the job you're applying for.

[Inland Pirate]

Sounds like I need another rewrite!

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