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ITT: I suck at job hunting, do you?

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öde:
I can't help my CV being two pages long. I think I need to reformat it just to be a list of things I've done and the skills used in them.

Jimmy the Squid:
I had my CV re-written by a friend of mine who has a job as a recruitment officer, getting jobs for other people who've just come off of worker's compensation and various rehab programs. It didn't look that much different from the one I already had to be honest. But I'm going to try it out and see how it goes. I'm in the middle of applying for a job as a travel agent. I keep getting distracted because it's such a boring application and I don't know if I can be bothered to do it right now. Maybe I'll finish it tomorrow.

Christophe:
So it's been like what, a little more than a week since I started this thread, and you guys have put a lot of awesome info on this.

My situation right now is that I sort of have two things all up ons right now: one being assistant to the sound guy (or assistant sound guy) at the local bar. 99% likely it's not a paid gig, hell I don't think the regular sound guys get paid, but it'll be experience working with something I'd love to be doing. I start tonight with the open mic night; probably won't be too extensive but at least it'll show me what's goin' on.

The other thing is that two professors from my alma mater are opening up a bookstore. I caught up with one of them last week, talked to them about if they'd need an extra hand, and it seemed like he thinks I'd be a good fit. I sent him my resume a day later, and I sent a message yesterday asking if they've gotten the keys to the space yet to start working in it and if he managed to get a look at my resume. Assuming I don't run into them downtown within this week (which considering the size of this town I probably will), that's pretty sufficient contact, right?

jhocking:

--- Quote from: StaedlerMars on 05 Jul 2010, 07:14 ---Your CV shouldn't be longer than a page for most 'career jobs' either. They don't want to know everything you've ever done, they want to know what you think is applicable, and why, and they want you to say so in as few words as possible.

My mom used to be in charge of the application process for people wanting to intern at the EU mission in New York, and she said that most CVs over a page long they completely ignored, just because of the sheer volume of applications they'd get.

--- End quote ---

The one-page rule is pretty iron-clad for internships or your first job out of college, because someone just out of college will have so little experience that if their resume is longer than a page then they have definitely padded it out with irrelevant fluff (eg. unless you were the financial officer and you're applying for a job as an accountant, nobody cares what clubs you were in.) Once you have a lot of relevant work experience to list out then you can go onto a second page, but even then be really ruthless about culling out irrelevant information.

I've had arguments with people about whether to list every summer job you've ever had, but I definitely fall on the side of "when in doubt, cut it out."


--- Quote from: öde on 05 Jul 2010, 07:17 ---I can't help my CV being two pages long. I think I need to reformat it just to be a list of things I've done and the skills used in them.

--- End quote ---

I work freelance so my resume fills up fast with a lot of small jobs, but even then I was able to restructure it a lot to be more relevant to recruiters. For starters, I lopped off everything older than 4 years (a LOT of small jobs) and used that room to expand a bit on more recent experience.

tania:
another way to shrink your cv: if you have a lot of experience that you feel is relevant but it's varied, try making specific resumes for certain jobs. i've had a lot of jobs and volunteer positions in different fields so i give a different resume depending on if i'm applying for a service industry job or a social services sector job, with each resume tailored to highlight the skills and experience i have that would make me suited for that job. it's a lot easier to get rid of jobs and trim your resume this way, although be careful about leaving funny looking unemployment gaps in your history when you do this as employers may question why you seemingly didn't have a job for that period of time.

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