CV help / New job desperately needed

[Mandi26]

After 17 years with the same company working as a face to face customer service advisor ( we are talking 100 questions /problems a hour) I would now like to look for another job with a mixture of working in a office or at home.
I have never had to write a CV before and I was wondering what to and what not to include.
If anybody has any idea of companies that might be interested in my customer service experience that would also be great. The area would most probably be the southeast of England but if it was working 100% from home then I would love any admin type job.

I m in the second half of my life if that’s at all relevant.

It will vary depending on what industry you're applying to. However please start with your name and include correct current contact details. I work at a jobcenter and have seen cvs missing this info. And they were all well educated professionals!

Rule of thumb: work backwards chronologically. Start with your most recent job. Education after that. Depending on the industry the following may or may not be relevant:

• voluntary work
• driving licence
• languages
• IT
• interests/hobbies
• a profile

You will get lots of people telling you to tailor your CV, but not so much about how to do it. Imagine a triangle that's horizontal at the top like a give way sign. The most important info goes at the top, least important at the bottom. Think of a headline in a newspaper, down to the finer details. The job description is telling you what they think is important, so follow their order. If they list must have experience with telephone customer service as the first point, then you out it as the first point under your responsibilities. It's their agenda, and you have to follow it.

Another tip is to use their language. If they say dealing with customer enquiries then write that rather than fielding questions from clients. Beware of copying the whole job description though.

You can also do a skills based CV which won't be chronological but the triangle rule still applies.

I find it easier to delete what isn't relevant than to produce something from scratch every time. So do a template CV with everything on it. When you need to do an application you can copy the file and delete what you don't need. Move the sections or responsibilities up and down depending on the triangle. Name the file something obvious so when you come to attach it you can clearly see it's the right one.

Also copy your master CV into a notepad file. Some places want you to fill out a form online so it's a big time saver to have it all there not formatted.

There's a MNer called daisy chain or something and she is really good at this.

Easier way to do it, upload your CV to chatgpt, upload the job advert and ask chatgpt to re-write your cv aimed at the advert, that will get you past the initial screen out. But.... its a really tough job market, you might need to look outside admin/customer service roles, most of those are off-shored or replaced by AI. The good news is that you could probably double your income by cleaning / gel nails / dog walking and set your own hours.

Or help elderly people on a private basis.

Look at trying to get a job in construction. If you got an admin and document controller role you'd be looking at earning £35-£40 k easily for as little as 37.5 hrs a week.

DC'S are very much in demand and working on site is one of the most satisfying roles I've ever had as a freelancer. I enjoy a mainly male dominated industry, I don't like working with other women. It can be too back stabby/sharp fingernails for me, men are the opposite. I like the banter on site and the vibe. It's another world.

Have you considered trying self-employment? You could be a virtual PA or make calls, do research on the phone, loads of things. It is not difficult to set up a business as a sole trader and earn far more than in an employed role. And contrary to popular belief, Fiverr is a great place to get started.

It takes a few months to ramp up to being busy all the time but I have been self-employed since 2018, earning mostly there and the great thing about this, aside from the freedom, is that age will never be a barrier!

I also agree with HangryBrickShark; working with men is much easier than with women, I feel! But it does take a certain type of woman to do that because there is much teasing, and many women would get offended by some of the things men come out with (in humour)!

I think spend a bit of time doing the old-fashioned approach and take time to research CVs, answering selection criteria and interview techniques, before using ChatGPT to write it all up.

It’s obvious when ChatGPT has been used and the applicant has little understanding of the job they have applied for. Very clear to see they have copied/pasted the response and then they can’t answer interview questions related to the job.

Employers loathe receiving AI-aided or AI-driven CVs, that stand out for all the wrong reasons. We want to see and hear the individual and their style; this comes out from how they construct a CV and what they choose to put in it.

I know so many employers who immediately bin all the AI-aided CVs and letters. They are instantly recognisable for being formulaic, repetitive and dull, just the same way as when we watch a video, we can instantly tell that AI was used.

Each video begins to sound the same, using fragmented sentences and 'flowery' language, as well as being full of identifiable statements appearing in every video (or CV). The problem with people using AI is that the people who use it the most are those who lack confidence in their abilities, so they think the results look great by comparison to what they feel they can usually produce alone.

But sadly, using AI only exacerbates the flaws and shows up their weaknesses more, all the CVs and letters beginning to use the same phraseology and sentence structure. It almost becomes a game of CV bingo; spot the same things popping up time and again!

The great thing about human-drafted applications is that each one is uniquely styled. We can glean the applicant's personality through it.

We can also see who put the most effort into the application, which counts for far more than people think.

The last job I advertised got 1450 applicants on Indeed.

Telling the unique attributes, styles and personalities apart was crucial, and I hired on personality as well as skill set. AI also makes appalling grammar and spelling errors by misunderstanding context.

There's no perfect way to fo your CV - what's best for one employer and one industry won't be best for another.

Check your field. If you're going into education, you will need to jnclude every job ever. If you going into IT, you don't need to include the student jobs.

If you're fresh out of school,include exams. Otherwise- I just put "10 GCSEs, including English and Maths, 3 A-levels." Some organisations still want to know I've got English and Maths GCSE, despite having done at least 4 other other qualifications I wouldn't have been allowed to start without English and Maths.

You shouldn't include your date of birth or marital status. I thought everyone knew this, but going by some of the recent CVs I've read, they don't.

Don't write Curriculum Vitae at the top. If it's not obvious it's a CV, it's not doing it's job.

You don't need to include your address these days, but do include phone number and email address.

Proof read it. Get a friend to proofread it.

Use a clear font ' a sans serif one like Arisl or Calibri. Don't use fancy colours or effects or anything which makes it difficult to read. Do use white space and formatting well to help key points stand out.

There are loads of CV examples online, do look at them.