Terrible CVs

[PymChurchBeach]

Disclaimer: I know times are hard and shitty right now and a lot of people are desperate for work so probably chucking out CVs left right and centre at anything and everything.

BUT. I have worked in HR for nearly a decade now and it has always been the same. The general standard of CVs is bloody awful. I'm recruiting for a mid level role at the moment and I have seen the following:

• people using little hearts and stars instead of bullet points
• massive glamour model style photographs taking up the whole first page of a CV
• people's dates of birth and marital statuses written up at the top. Just no!!!
• wacky, colourful borders and fonts. Comic sans. Enough said.

Also - this last one is possibly controversial but when women have had a break to look after DC, there really is no need to list all the skills gained as a SAHM - e.g. "excellent time management skills etc". You can just say you had time out to raise children. That's all you need to say. I'm not going to think any the worse of you for it.

I am desperate to implement application forms rather than have CVs and cover letters but my CEO is old fashioned and will not have it.

we wouldn't ditch a cv because there's a line on hobbies.

Agreed, it’s about balance. If you have 20 odd years experience then most of your CV should be about that. With more detail about recent work and less detail about jobs that were further back.

I like a line or two on hobbies. It’s something to discuss at the end of the interview and asking people to talk briefly about their hobbies relaxes them a bit. It also shows that they are a well rounded person with other skills, particularly good social skills, if they take part in a team sport, for example.

I'm going to say it again; why doesn't each employer upload a CV template to their website?

If they're doing that then they might as well use an application form.

I've actually only ever used a CV to submit to agencies. In almost 25 years I have never applied for a job that accepted CVs, it has always been a form. Sometimes even when the agency arranged the initial contact, the company have still insisted on an application on their own form before finalising the interview.

I'm just not seeing a problem with employers offering a CV template specific to the role. But I am seeing snark about people who are unable to guess what you want.

The fact is, many people use a training service to help them learn how to write a CV (sometimes through the job centre), and some of the comments you think shouldn't be on a CV are the type of thing we get told to include.
They wont print the CV out if it doesn't match their standards.

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They wont print the CV out if it doesn't match their standards.

Why do they need to print it out?

I'm going to say it again; why doesn't each employer upload a CV template to their website?

Many do. It's called an application form.

But to be honest do I really want to hire someone who needs me to tell them what to put in a CV in order for them to apply?

I'm going to say it again; why doesn't each employer upload a CV template to their website?

When they want a standardised format, they do. It's called an application form. (Or sometimes an applicant management system).

A CV is actually easier for the applicant, because most people have a standard one which they can tweak and customise for the job. And employers basically want the same stuff, which is why CVs have a standard format anyway, and there are about a billion free templates.

I agree the job centre and career advice from school/uni is generally dire. If you aren’t sure if the advice here is good or not:

• Ask a friend/neighbour/family member who recruits (not HR but a hiring manager) to look over your CV and make suggestions
• If you’re a grad or have professional qualifications see if there’s a relevant professional body. They may have a student membership or be able to link you to a professional mentor.
• ask for feed back on your CV from jobs you don’t get. Lots of companies won't provide it but you might get lucky.

In general remember your CV and cover letter is a marketing document. Does your paper round at 13 belong on your marketing material? If you’re 16 it probably does. If you’re 36 it probably doesn’t.

Those of you based in the U.K., what’s your view on photos on CVs?

I don’t mind a professional looking LinkedIn style photo but I’ve seen some with obvious holiday snaps on.

Depending on age (I tend to be more forgiving when I’m recruiting apprentices, grads and junior staff), I’d look less kindly on a non professional type of photo then I would on no photo at all. In fact I wouldn’t differentiate between no photo at all and a professional type of photo but a bad photo would likely mean that the CV ends up in the reject file. I’ve seen some horrors, particularly the young girls in very small dresses - I think they are designed to appeal to a male interviewer.

Those of you based in the U.K., what’s your view on photos on CVs?

Complete and utter no no.

Ask a friend/neighbour/family member who recruits (not HR but a hiring manager) to look over your CV and make suggestions

Why not HR? We’re involved in a lot of the screening at some organisations.

Yeah there are a lot of shit HR people but some of us are actually quite good and do know what we are talking about!

Many people who have to use the job centre don't have access to someone who is in HR, and rely on the printing service offered by the service they have to use. The job centre won't print off a CV they haven't vetted.

People in hiring aren't coming across well on this thread. I don't understand the need for the snarky responses. You want people to guess what you want, and you want to snark about them when they don't guess correctly.

If you think there is a good guide to how to create a DV suitable for your sector then direct people to it instead of making them guess. That way if they are forced to use the job centre, they can show the staff that their version of their CV is correct for that job.

I'll leave you to it, I'm going to hide the thread.

I've just been screening candidates for an NHS admin role. The standard of applications is appalling!

We had a LOT of applicants. Only a couple were okay.

*Those of you based in the U.K., what’s your view on photos on CVs?

Complete and utter no no.*

Interesting isn’t it. In the US a photo on a CV is necessary and I think that idea has spread to other countries. As someone above said, there are loads of CV templates online but if you are looking for a job in the U.K. then make sure the advice you are reading is from someone who understands the U.K. market.

I worked in Australia for a while and 15 page CVs were normal. In the US the advice is to keep it to a 2 page document, as a resume is supposed to be a snapshot to be discussed at interview. I’m just highlighting this to show that job applications can be country specific, so it’s important to make sure you are reading advice based on the country in which you are applying for a job.

(Training services / Jobcentres) wont print the CV out if it doesn't match their standards

Trouble is that rather depends on the standards of whoever vets the CVs, or even just their level of basic education

I've received more CVs "okayed" by the Jobcentre than I care to remember, and still shudder at the memory of far too many

I'm in my 50s, at school the top sets were taught to write CVs, the rest of us application forms or a letter asking for a job. It was a 'job' too, a 'career' was for top sets.
We were told to list hobbies, age ,DOB, marital status. asked at interview if we had a boyfriend
A cover letter consisted of To Whom it may concern, 'Please find attached my application for 'Junior Pen pusher at Dept of timewasters' Yours Sincerely.'

To those who say it should be taught that's great at the time of being in education but requirements change over the years.
My first ever job F/T was application form. The part time jobs before were knock on door and ask.
My present job was a online questionnaire then an interview.

I have had 1 CV (I was looking for another job), and I struggled to write that enormously because of the conflicting advice. The years of childrearing plus then caring for elderly relatives kept me out of work for a long time. My draft was less than half a page.

If I ever need to update it I would probably age 20 years

@theinebriati

There have been posts by a lot of people who have experience recruiting into commercial organisations. If you are applying for a job in a commercial organisation then you would be wise to take their advice, over what the job centre advises. The job centre isn’t fit for purpose (if that purpose is helping people find jobs, as I said above, I think they are there to administer benefits and monitor claimants behaviour).

In my experience of trying to partner with the job centre, I found them quite rude, as well as clueless. There is no obligation for a private sector employer to work with the job centre when recruiting. Few do because they are known for being difficult to work with and not being able to supply suitable candidates.

We were told to list hobbies, age ,DOB, marital status. asked at interview if we had a boyfriend

As someone above said, that is now not acceptable due to inclusive hiring and the equality act. Some places request “blind” application forms / CVs, so that an applicant can’t be discriminated against due to their name (female or foreign). Unless asked for a blind CV, I personally would just put my name, location, contact details, driving license and car owner. I do also write a line about hobbies and voluntary work (the voluntary work is related to my job).

be honest do you think there is any hope for the older person who has been out of the job market for 10 yrs, due to caring responsibilities.
and if so, where/ what apart from supermarkets, call centres or paid careworkers.
used to do a responsible job but no way back and out of touch. also references would be a problem. even when i applied for a volunteering role, it was quite difficult to find an acceptable referee. they wanted a professional person not related to me.
I had exactly this trying to volunteer for a particular activity for disabled adults. They were about to reject me when I found out I knew the parent of one of the participants, who was a senior nurse.

In my experience of trying to partner with the job centre, I found them quite rude, as well as clueless. There is no obligation for a private sector employer to work with the job centre when recruiting. Few do because they are known for being difficult to work with and not being able to supply suitable candidates

I couldn't have put it better myself

IME they may be good as a source of jobs to pretend to apply for for benefits purposes, but the general lack of mental agility or gumption renders them pretty well useless for anything else

IME they may be good as a source of jobs to pretend to apply for for benefits purposes, but the general lack of mental agility or gumption renders them pretty well useless for anything else

Yes, that’s all they are good for.

The job centre is ripe for automation in my opinion. There are a lot of people working there who will struggle to find themselves a new job.

A friend of mine used to work in the job centre in the mid-2000s and was pretty honest about the fact that they couldn't do anything for people applying for anything other than unskilled work where they just wanted people who would turn up. He used to just leave those people alone but he said a lot of colleagues would find some way to 'help' them no matter how unnecessary, which I think is where a lot of bad advice was given, with people tinkering with CVs for the sake of tinkering. He left because he was being given less and less autonomy which meant that he felt he was no longer helping anyone and in fact his main job seemed to be to make people's lives harder. I don't think things have improved in that regard in the last 15 years. Also - and I say this with great affection for my friend - it was his first job after drinking his way through a degree and then being unemployed himself for about a year, so I think he'd be the first to admit that he wasn't in a great place to advise others on getting jobs.

I have friends from Germany and Austria, there it's common to have to put a photo and list your parents' professions on an application!

I don’t understand listing your parent’s profession. I worked for a company that supplied staff to the oil and gas industry in the ME. It was common for applicants (from India in particular) to list their parents profession, as well as their religion.

I didn’t realise it was common in Germany and Austria too. Is it to show how middle class you are perhaps? Parents were doctors and applicant is a solicitor (for example). That’s one of the reasons why we are moving towards blind hiring, we’re more interested in what the applicant can do, no matter what their background.

I actually think cv's are much better than forms, as it tends to wheedle out the crap. If someone can't put a decent , professional CV together then I wouldn't trust them communicating with customers.