CV... any tips.

[Pozz]

I have been asked to send my cv to a potential employer/sponsor.

 

I havent updated it for ages, so figure now's the time for a revamp.

 

Is the standard UK style of CV acceptable in Oz, or are there anythings I need to be aware of?

 

If anybody has any tips on the perfect CV please share them...:biggrin:

[Guest Silol]

I'm also interested in this one due to the crossroads we find oursleves at. There are some good sites from a google search on Australian CVs and Cover letters.

[Jo_uktooz]

Check out Sample Resumes | Resume & Cover Letter | Career Advice | CareerOne.com.au

for some sample Australian resumes and cover letters.

Good Luck

Cheers

Jo

[Metoo]

It maybe worth getting in touch with job sites such as Monster, who I noticed recently have an Australian site too, they may be able to assist in an Australianised CV

 

Ha ha just read the link it's part of the Monster business

[Pozz]

Thanks guys :biggrin:

 

I havent updated my cv for years so ive looked at the links posted.

 

What are your views on adding 'interests'?

 

UK cv's seem to have this section if its applicaple to the job, team leading type stuff etc.

 

The Oz examples dont seem to bother.

[Guest The Deaks]

Following redundancy in the UK, I was fortunate enough to have some professional advice on the Aussie CV/Job hunting plan from a global change management consultancy. The advice they gave didn't seem Aussie specific but helped a lot. They seemed to put most focus on what they call your 30 second commercial. Write it out and practice saying it with a partner. This is after all what you will do in an interview. I had 2 interviews over the phone and it paid dividends. Like most people I know I can do what I do but describing it is sometimes difficult. In the UK we would probablly call this a profile on your CV (refer to it as Resume from now on). This should be the first bit of your CV/Resume and state specifically your length of experience and some key skills and personality traits. Back it up though and avoid lame references like 'team player' & 'good communicator' unless they are supported in right context. No idea what your line of work is but if you are in say Sales and you 'increased revenue and market share by 15% in 2009' state how exactly. May sound obvious but i thought my CV was fairly good before I met up with these guys. In Oz they have Resume's from (probably) a wider range of countries so the formal stuff is generally speaking less known. Wouldn't worry too much on intrests

[Guest melodicminor]

Would agree with most of the previous posts. My 50 cents would be to not draw undue attention to the fact you have not worked in Oz before. Tabular layouts and skills matrixes for technical roles are well liked by employers. No hobbies unless they are exceptionally cool or relivant to the position your applying for. Its worth making a bumper CV of all your skills and then removing/trimming out the chaff to taylor it to each role you apply for. Dont forget the cover letter - this is often more important than the CV. Keep it professional, concise and friendly.

 

Melodic

[Pozz]

Thanks guys. Its a medical role so my cv/resume is quite specific.

 

I have just emailed it and managed to get the facts down in 2 pages. I also had a pre interview questionnaire to complete which covered a lot of the subjective info.

 

Im quite happy with what I sent so theres nothing more I can do now.....just wait and see.

 

Thank you all for you comments and advice.

[pau1evs]

GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR JOB x

keep your resume to 2 pages !

do a blog to start !!!

dont go do interests hobbies etc !!!

but if your describing your work try to describe what you did but short and sweet

cause there are alot of differences in the words !!!!!

good luck

carole

[Pozz]

Well I must have done something right...... Now have to prepare for a telephone interview :biggrin:

 

Im usually ok in interviews, but being as so much hangs on this im a bit nervous!

 

Anyway, fingers crossed.

[Pozz]

Found out today I now have a job and a sponsor! It hasn't sunk in yet but needless to say it was a pretty good start to the week.

[OZwanted]

Found out today I now have a job and a sponsor! It hasn't sunk in yet but needless to say it was a pretty good start to the week.

 

many congratulations,:biggrin:

[Guest itsSHIRLEY]

Hi can anyone advise me on what to include on my CV. I only have two years expereince as a qualified nurse. Two years previousy as a care assistant, however i am 42 and have had many jobs before not unrelated to nursing, do i have to include all my job history, or do i just put relevant previous jobs ? can anyone help ?

[Guest One Hour Photo]

I have some experience in this, including going through quite a few. My ex-husband who used to employ people, we had names for certain types of applications i.e. War and Peace, Centre of the Universe, Dreamers ....

 

I recal going through one lot of about 60, every single one was appalling (tatty, bad spelling, white out) and was initially put to one side, however someone had to be appointed so we went through them again and picked the best of a bad lot (based on specific qualifications and experience) and 3 or 4 were interviewed.

 

The fact is poor quality applications sometimes succeed because they have nothing to beat. If you make the effort to put together a good application you are qualified to do that will give you a head start.

Keep it short and relevant, no-one cares about you, or what you did 20 years ago, who you are married to or how many kids you have ... they care about 'what's in it for me'.

No-one cares if you 'play squash' (yeah right) unless you are applying for a job at a squash club or in a sports store. If things go well and you get along you may get chatting about things at the interview, but really your private life is no-ones business.

If you ask a group (I ran a few classes on this) 'what is the purpose of a CV' most will answer 'to get a job' WRONG. The purpose of the application is to get contact from the prospective employer leading to an interview.

Imagine yourself as the employer, imagine you are busy and have 50 applications on your desk to go through - what would you want to see. Don't think about it from your point of view or what you want, think from the point of view of the employer and what they want, what it important to them.

Then you must role play interviews, I did this a lot with my ex. He had been in the same job for quite a long time so he got out of practice and is a bad communicator (if words were money he would be a billionaire because he never gives any away) so he was going to interviews and missing out, he knew he was hopeless at interviews but didn’t really want to deal with it.

He was very reluctant to practise but in the end he got sick of coming second and went along with it. When it came to the technical questions I didn’t understand his work so I had to get the questions from him and then ask ‘is that a good answer’ but in other areas I could test him.

Sometimes I would ask something like ‘have you ever had to deal with problems of sexual harassment’ or ‘what would you do if you saw a colleague being bullied’ (he was a manger) he would get irritated and say I will never be asked that .... which is true (people pretend to care about things like that but in reality no-one does) but I said it was my damn interview so he would answer or I wasn’t playing anymore. In the end he got into it and we did a lot of practice, we set it up and role played as close to a real interview as we could, with the advantage you can ‘re-wind’ and try again.

My purpose in asking unlikely (but relevant) questions, was at some point in an interview you are likely to be asked something you weren’t expecting so, by me doing that, he learnt to think outside the clichés, about who he is and what his values are. It paid off and he has had some good jobs and is a lot less stressed by interviews these days.

My main ‘advice’ is don’t be lazy, the more time, effort and work you put into preparation the better results your will be.

I always suggest to people to update their CV at least once a year, even if they aren’t considering looking for a job. As new things come on take old things off, or at least reduce them. No CV should be more than one/two pages + a good cover letter.