Could you help me with my CV please

[Freeurmind]

I have the shittiest CV and I am trying to fluff it out as I have large employment gaps.
I am currently stuck on Skills and personal statement.
I left school with alright GCSEs but then dropped out of sixth form as I got pregnant.
I set up my own business two years ago which is more like a hobby sometimes.
My children are in primary school now apart from the youngest but I have childcare available for her if needed.
What could I say my skills are?
I worked at a hairdressers for a few weeks when I was younger and have done some office cleaning jobs here and there.

What type of jobs are you applying for? There's probably lots of skills you've picked up with your business that will be transferable to an employed position and you're better off targeting your CV to specific roles.

I'm applying for anything part-time. A few jobs require employment references which I cant supply though.

Generally jobs don't require employer references at the start of the application process. If you were running a business, no matter how big or small, do you have clients or suppliers who could provide a reference instead? Perhaps think about all the skills required to run a business e.g. sales, marketing, business development, supplier management, negotiation, etc.

hope that helps.

and if you worked for a hairdresser, that required customer liaison and customer service skills

Skills wise also look at what they want
Think of it like this... When you were running a business and you wanted to employ someone what kind of person would you go for? Of course someone who could do the job well rather than someone who just adds more work and doesn't do the job properly:

So some things could be ;
Communication
organised
prioritising
Teamwork
And much more.....

In job Applications when answering questions don't just say I'm a hardworking lady or I'm good at team work give examples of this

Have you signed on at the local job centre? They may be able to help you. One lady gave me some paperwork on words to avoid (cliche's). My local library has someone that helps with CV's etc. Though I have to say, we had some 'professional' cv people in at the job centre - I had to totally retype it as there were huge amounts of typo's and they had missed out quite a few important things. Don't whatever you do look up online because it is all american and they are different to us English - very confident sounding in a way that would put off employers here! Who wants Superman to sweep the floor???!!

I think if you have young children, are running you own small business ( even as a 'hobby') and are now job hunting you have many skills -
time management - e.g. getting everyone up and out on time
planning - e.g. getting a meal on the table on time
communication - e.g. negotiating everything every day
organisation - e.g. childcare as required
first aid? - you have kids
cooking?
driving?

I'm sure there's lots more too

Very often when applying for a job they tell YOU what they want in a person. So pick up on that. If they want someone with stong organisational skills - put that in, etc and if you enclose a cover letter explain how/what you organise. Think of tasks that had to be done on time and what you did to prioritise things, communication skills etc.

Really it depends on what sort of job you go for but as I say they normally tell you in the job advert/job description.

Good luck!

So first question what type of jobs are you looking to target? Its always best to know what jobs you want to target before updating your CV.

Once you know what jobs you are targeting, next is to find out the key skills they are looking for? Usually you can get this from the job descriptions.....

Now update your CV to reflect the skills they are looking for. Of course don't fudge it. I am sure most of can demonstrate skills /experience to reflect what a company wants.

hope this helps!