To think that if connexions does a cv for someone

[MrsKravitz]

It shouldnt be riddled with spelling and grammatical errors?
Just re-doing ds' CV

Most Connexions staff are being made redundant or having to take big pay cuts. Maybe he/she just didn't give a shit any more

Think I will be in the minority on this one after looking at a few posts on this thread but as a secondary school teacher with a Year 11 form (10 going into 11 in Sept.) I am really shocked that people think it's ok to write a C.V. for anyone or even correct it for them... WTF?
I do both with my students but they produce all of the info. and I teach them how to organise and format this information.
I actually thought that Connexions did the same and it annoys me that some students are not being taught how to apply for courses/ jobs themselves either by connexions or school.

wires agree with your last post :(

Why can't you correct it for them? I do that for DH and he does it for me. We are both in our 30s!

IME in my town at least, connections are a shower of shite. sure they will do a cv - then not print it out when they do - i could have done better - target setting, numbers bullshit wankstain. if this is the public sector oliver letwin is talking about, he might have a point

Mind you if you think Connexions is bad, the Job Centre is worse. When I was unemployed briefly two years ago they were bugger all help. My CV was fine, I'd been networking and applying like crazy before I saw them, they were shocked.

Stealth, big difference between two adults reading through CVs/ application forms for each other and connexions/ mum / school writing it for someone.

At school/ college/ connexions young people should be shown the mistakes and how to correct them - not have it done for them.

Do you get the sneaking suspicion that bigbadwolfie doesn't like Connexions?

I agree that a year 11 kid should be able to write their own CV. DD wrote her own a couple of months ago, I gave her my CV to look at and to give her an idea about formatting. There are plenty of templates on the internet/Word to give a guide. I read it through afterwards and told her which bits were crap, and gave her some advice, but certainly didn't write it for her.

She didn't put her sats results in. Who gives a shit?

joric - yes i agree with that - show them where the mistakes are, advise how best to correct/amend. then let them do the final bit themselves.

I've learnt quite a lot from this debate; I had no idea that Connexions was a legitimate albeit old way of spelling Connexions. I thought the govt just made it up to devalue those of us who were made to transfer from the 'Careers Service' and who were no longer allowed to call ourselves 'Careers Advisers'. We are all now (regardless of our qualifications, and some have more than others) Personal Advisers. This means that we are now expected to provide a wide range of support for our clients. Some PAs are brilliant at providing a hige amount of personal support for individual clients and may not be as skilled in writing cvs. I will tell you what I do and I know I will upset some people here, but I could not let a client walk out the door with a cv containing spelling errors and which didn't look appealing to an employer. I am only doing what other agencies, would do and giving those who are motivated enough to walk in the door a bit of help. If accurate spelling was a crucial part of the job then I would discuss with yp as I have done in the past, eg signwriting, and counsel against that particular opportunity.

I don't like the fact that some posters are saying Connexions is CRAP and a load of shite without giving examples - I find that quite insulting to those of us who take pride in our work and want to help young people get on in life.

I agree with you gal - i used to work for the Jobcentre, and I get annoyed/frustrated when people just dismiss the ES as crap out of hand.
unfortunately, people go by their own experiences, and tar whole organisations with that brush.

It does follow, though, that if government agencies are getting a crap reputation from some advisors, then more resources should be put into their training, rather than allowing it to perpetuate.
From a long time working in the Civil Service, though, I also know from experience how hard it is to get rid of incompetant people from the job. And those bring the reputation of everyone else down. :(

i have a friend who's been forced to sign on because he just can't get a job (and he's quite old, too, so finds it difficult to pick up new stuff) - he already felt humiliated by having to ask for help, and the first advisor he had spoke to him really horribly, insinuating that he was sponging (his words), makign out that he hadn't done anything to look for work, making out that he just wanted to get as much moeny out of the state as possible.
he came out of that experience thinking/believing that the Jobcentre hated claimants, thought they were "scum" etc.
he got so upset about it, that he didn't want to go back the next time, and he didn't want to sign on, so he was willing to have to sell his house in order to pay his bills, because he had no means of getting any income.

thankfully, my experience managed to persuade him to stick with it, and the next lady he saw was really kind, helpful and sympathetic.

He still hates it when he goes to who he calls "the old battleaxe", becaus eshe kept telling him he had to go for jobs in a meat packing factory (he's vegetarian), a delivery job (where he had to use his own transport - his car was written off before he started signing), and other jobs that were unsuitable for him. and she wouldn't listen to him say why he couldn't go for them, she would say "you have to apply for this or we'll stop your benefit"

So, one good one, one bad one - both in the same office.

Yes I take your point Nickelbabe, we have one or two members of staff whose views on society are totally at odds with the job they are doing. They do not appear to have any empathy and in relation to some clients eg the 'hard to help' moan about their taxes etc, particularly with asylum seekers and those on benefits. It's horrible!

They don't write the CV's just give support and Guidance, I think you are being unreasonable to correct his CV it will give employers a false impression of his skills.

poor thing's just come in to see me after his latest appointment.
his advisor has changed.
his previous advisor helped him with his CV, and said it was fine, and the new woman's just ripped it apart, telling him that some of his job information is wrong (like, he had experience in one area, and she said "oh, that must mean you have management skills" - no, he did some technical work, nothing to do with management), and that some things were irrelevant to his jobsearch etc, and has basicalyl told him it's rubbish and needs redoing. :(

Honeymoon, there are young people who have parents who are willing/able to 'help' their dc produce a cv, I know many of them type it up themselves because they bring them in and it looks as if a 50 yo has done it. It's not a level playing field and I would have to refer back to OP who was dissatisfied with Cx effort. Why didn't they offer help in the first place. At least I wouldn't sit and type it up - has to be client's own work but I would ask leading questions about their skills and experience and help them produce a document that reflects this. Many young people haven't a clue about how to go about it and that's where we come in. Some people pay to have a cv completed - we don't charge obviously but jst try to help. We give support, we enable but we don't fo it for them!

When I worked in a recruitment consultants, we would take everyone's CVs and rewrite them into a certain format for clients. Some of the CVs were truely terrible.

I got 5 on my desk today for a job. Some had loads of experience and qualifications but the spelling mistakes were basic. People also dont realise what should and shouldnt be included, and that it should be 2 sides of A4.

I have helped write quite a few in the last 12 years. I have managed to get an interview on every occasion I have sent mine out.

But like I said, a lot of that is from the recruitment consultants. Wouldnt have had a clue how to write one before that - they just didnt teach it at school.

Oh, and YANBU. Surely Connexions is there to aid people to be shown as the best of their ability? "Helping" and making things worse is not the idea.....

Did he irritate the person who was writing it?
My df worked for a large international company and one time he picked up an application pack out of interest. He was horrified to find that it was full of really basic mistakes to the point he suspected that the admin who typed it out was doing it deliberately for some reason.
I think "check you're grammer and speeling cearfully" was one of the phrases used.

Dh has some imput on recruitment. They kept one covering letter as an example of everything not to do, but the cream was the person who claimed to have done a degree that according to the university did not exist and had never existed. The person refused to admit they'd made it up on the phone, then threatened to sue them for discrimination for not offering a job. Not the fact they'd lied about their qualification then.

smokin - two sides of A4, yes, but not one piece of paper - it drives me mad when I receive on that's printed on both sides.

oh! and they should staple their pages together!
Why should I spend time stapling their CV pages together, just so I can file it nicely? Why do people not think of this? (but not the covering letter- that should always be separate - I want to be able to look at the two at the same time)

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