Writing a good CV - curriculum vitae

I have been receiving between two and five curriculum vitae a day lately and they prove a source of entertainment and wonder for my colleagues and I. I don't want to upset the British on here, but the absolutely worse resumes that we receive are from the English. I want to be fair and mention that we do not receive as many applications from Americans so for all I know, Americans could be just as bad. But a few things that are worth mentioning:

Apparently, no one realizes that formatting is important. I read CV's that have formatting so messed up it makes you dizzy.

Why is it that people believe that a potential employer cares about their hobbies? Because, unless you do something truly notable like sky diving, your hobbies just aren’t that interesting. I had one woman from the Isle of Man write that her hobby was, “watching small children at play�. She was 40 years old.

Yesterday I read one that said his reason for looking for a new job is, “to find a new direction after a bad divorce and to put some distance between myself and the ex.�

A few months ago I received a cover letter from a man who said, “you would be a fool not to contact me for an interview�. Call me foolish but gave his CV back to my secretary for rejection.

The Germans aren’t necessarily that much better. But at least they don’t list their hobbies or the marks they got in kindergarten (one English woman actually listed her primary school marks). But in Germany a photograph on the CV is to be expected. One German man sent me a CV with his picture. The picture had been taken professionally but looked like a school picture. He was seated at a desk, with a notebook on it and a pencil in his hand.

Do people not learn to write a curriculum vitae in school? There are so many books on the subject you would think people would buy one (or at least go to the local library and check one out) and try to write a decent one.

It is worth mentioning that some of these wretched CV’s have been from very educated people. People with their Phd or MBA!

My biggest CV gripe is Comic Fucking Sans MS. It should not be used ever. If the look of it doesn't strike you as non-professional, the word Comic should provide some sort of clue.

A friend of mine sent me his CV once to pass on to some of my contacts. It was in Comic Sans MS...and Times Roman...and a bit of Verdana for good measure...and three different colours, one of which was purple. He'd been given this CV template by an American friend who allegedly had it professionally done. He'd been applying unsuccessfully for jobs for months. I gasped when I saw it, did up a new one and he had a job within about two weeks.

Speaking of funny CV pictures. Here is one from an American consultant who has his CV online:

Well at least the picture captures his hobby of juijitsu as well.

Was thinking more Tommy Cooper.

Or the King

I did some screening and interviewing of potential recruits back in the UK, and agree that the CVs were generally dire. Poor formatting, appalling spelling, completely irrelevent information. Pretty shocking.

Trouble is careers advice in schools is dire, and most people never use their uni careers service. Best CVs are sent in through recruitment consultants as they have a set format.

As for photos on CVs - these are not allowed in the UK because they can lead to discrimination. A German excolleague (who has thankfully now left - hence ex) printed his portrait photo he was using on his CV and left in on the departmental printer. Hilarious it was - Soft focus, 'flattering' angle, had his MBA certificate on the wall behind him. Soooo cheesy. I would reject it out of hand.

Hmmm I have a pretty good German style one, single page, but I basically use the same format in the English version too. Perhaps I should make some format changes to my English one too. Get rid of the photo etc. Any other hints about the differences would be appreciated.

A German style CV that is only 1 page ? wow, that truly is amazing, all the German CV's I see, are more like books.

I agree most people are bad at writing CVs, most have never learnt properly, though, but some just don't take the trouble to do it properly.


there is a reason you are told to include hobbies on CVs. Extra curricular activities, especially for new graduates, show a well-rounded personality. Team sports show certain character traits, individual sports other traits which might be what a potential employer is looking for. Granted, though, watching young children play as a hobby won't help much unless you are applying for the job of "Chief Paedophile".

I find German CVs worse than the English CV ... think of the Bewerbungsmappe which often includes certificates for irrelevant achievmenets & activities - that's worse than than just mentioning them under a heading 'hobbies'.
When I first came to Germany and recruited I made the mistake of throwing unwanted applications in the bin ... I was hounded for months on end by applicants phoning up to say that they got a rejection letter but not their Bewerbungsmappe!! hadn't the heart to tell them I'd trashed it ... hmm, lost in the mail I guess :-)

The lengths should be different between a c.v. and a resume. A resume should be one page long (two max), while a c.v. is a comprehensive listing of your accomplishments and may require many pages.

so what makes the perfect cv?

That's no consultant, that's DJ SlickRick demonstrating the "Air Scratch"

It depends on your field. My field requires papers and presentations. Every one would be listed on a c.v., and only the pertinent ones would be listed on a resume.

Difference between c.v. and resume

another site

One more

so what format is best then? mine reads as follows - personal details; goals; strengths; employment - latest first, some details; education - latest first, summary; interests.

the german ones i have received were usually book-like and very much as britMUC says, full of the most incredibly irrelevant minutae. also in chronological order, so you would have to trawl through their education from the age of 3 and their first jobs at mcdonalds, etc. until you actually found something relevant, by which time i'd frankly lost interest.

A good CV makes a clear presentation of the applicant in an easy to read format that lists their strengths relative to the position being applied for. Introduction here, experience there, education over here. 10 font styles and sizes kills the "easy to read" part. Rambling dissertations on the entire life of the applicant is not relevant.

First thing I look for is if the cover letter addresses our firm directly, and pays attention to the specific job we're looking to fill. Generic cover letters show a distinct lack of interest.

really? I thought the only difference was that CV was British English, whilst Resume is used by the Americans. Certainly when a Brit says CV (or Curriculum Vitae) they mean a 1-2 page summary. The word Resume is not used by Brits unless communicating with americans.

I thought resume was the American word for CV? German CV's should never be more than two pages apparently, with the so called "Dritte Seite" now being favoured by most employers, outlining why you should get the job and what makes you special (and not just cos your mum says so).

My CV is all over the place i think, i've had lots of jobs since leaving uni, mainly cos i've travelled so much. hard to know what to leave in and what to skip over. as i'll be looking for a job when i get back to Munich, any tips would be greatly appreciated, cos it's true, in the UK at least, that career advice/cv writing advice is non-existant.

Second thoughts, I'll just get Keydeck to do one for me!

Edit: OG, too quick!

goals and strengths are bollocks, they are always the same and noone reads them. I stick to the basics.
Personal Info
Work History, newest first
Educational History, newest first
Languages
References

I should really put the 2 papers I coauthored at uni in there too but havent as of yet as it would only really be relevant for academic world jobs which im not qualified for anyway.

And thats it. I dont want my employers to know what my hobbies are. But if its a programming job I tell them that programming has been my hobby since I was 7 years old and that makes me better at it than anyone who has only learnt it at uni.

As a contractor it delights me when I hear how many bad CVs are out there.

Disagree. CV/resume should never be more than 2 pages long. And should follow general format of:

Name
Address, phone, email
Work experience (incl. company and dates) - for the two most recent, list key roles, responsibilities and projects, for other previous jobs just dates and companies. Not summer work while at uni!
Qualifications/education - starting with professional quals, then post grad quals, down to A-levels/Abitur/High school leaving cert thingumybob (just prof bodies/uni/school, dates, subjects and grades)
Then more personal details (DOB, marital status, drivers licence, and criminal convictions)
Agree with OG about hobbies - only list three which make you look good
Then current salary

This came from an informal chat with the UK chief exec of Michael Page who looked over mine last time I went for a job (which is the one I'm currently in) so guess it works.

EDIT - and the covering letter should be short and to the point - what job you are applying to, why you want it and why you would be good. No more than one sheet of paper including address etc)

i'll have to disagree there kza. i think that your goals and strengths can tell a potential employer more about what motivates you and what use you are than a list of facts and dates. the facts and dates are important but my goals and strengths were pretty personal and uniqie to my situation. mind you, no cnut has offered me anything, so perhaps you're right mind you it could have something to do with applying for marketing positions (5 years managerial experience) without the bit of paper saying i went to university, so beloved over here. hey ho, i'm setting my own business up now, so knackers to it

I'd double check yours. I hear there are occasionally spelling mistakes here.

I never bother putting mine down

That's because they'd take up ten pages by themselves yeah?

In future I shall take as much care with my TT posts as I do me CV... arse

I used to build HR systems, so I've seen a fair few CV's in my time. They are all full of shit.

Disagree. Seen shitloads of German CVs listing irrelevant crap like a 10m swimming award.


I'm with Pepper on that. 1 page in Germany?!?


That you will do as you are told, and will happily devote chunks of your private time to shitty extra curricular work crap like "team building". Fuck that shit.

Its TOTALLY dependant on the job in the end is it not? Think about an IT skills section, which are now ubiquitous on every CV - half the time, its simply a list of MS office products. Is "MS Word" a skill??!?! Then you get tech CVs with stupid lists of names of languages they may (or may not) know.

Basically, I think moaning about CV quality has to be balanced out by looking at the quality of job postings themselves. Just like people listing buzzwords and bullshit "strengths" like being a "team player" on CV's, job ads are no better, and in fact often worse.
"IT Consultant und Project Leiter"
Fuck you fritz! You have your own fucking word for consultant, so don't go mixing it up with mine you prick.

I had a recruitment company before & it is really incredible how stupid people can be with their CV. THE most common mistake is that people don't actaully write their job title/description at the top so you have to guess. It helps to write "Design Engineer" or "Stress Engineer" or whatever, nothing worse than trying to guess what they do cos it ain't always obvious.
Good point though, they should teach this shit in school. You spend all your childhood learning so that you can get a good job and fuck it up by writing a shit CV cos no one ever taught you any different. One cv we got said under hobbies "I like to write music in my spare time and am learning to play the guitar. One day I hope to be famous" yeah right

I write my job title on my CV, but job titles are now getting also too strange that a Job Title along will not explain anything. Today I am called a Solutions Architect, whatever the hell that is !

The reason you get this is because there were a lot of articles doing the rounds a few years ago that agencies were filtering CVs using keyword searches.

Actually Exile, I think this still happens today at a lot of agencies. So the CV is usually entered into the system, and then only a keyword search is performed when finding the right person.

And copying and pasting the same bullshit they read in a job ad. Most larger companies doinf extensive CV searching request info in a set format these days, because it was crap trying to do full text searching on uploaded docs.

I get the impression that Mrs Coulter works for an Employment or Recruitment agency. This particular phenomenon has had as much benefit to the prospective employer (and employee) as the atomic bomb had for Hiroshima. A cv is designed to get an interview with the prospective employer not the middleman. I am amaged at the number of recruitment agencies who send prospective employees, with wonderful cv's, who are not equipped to perform the job and these people are supposed to have the skills to vet them. Conversely, it is the person with the less than polished cv that is often better suited to a particular job. Anyone can write a brilliant cv (just as anyone can read it) but that does not mean they can do the job well. Only the person who knows what the job actually entails on a day to day basis can determine if the candidate is suited to the post and a cv on its own is not going to do that. There is too much emphasis on buzzwords and bullshit and this has been created for the most part by the employment agencies themselves.

Dead right topcat1.

I've worked in my industry for a while and I know that if someone wants skill A they don't also want skill B, but the agency ads ask for both, and often skill C as well. Convincing the rec. agent you should be put forward is often the hardest part.

As far as I know, a résumé (nowadays usually written without the accents) is the North American equivalent of a curriculum vitae.
I can't think of a single CV I've read that listed every detail of a person's educational and professional background.

I think you'll find that your impression is wrong but thanks for coming out.

as an american, i know for a fact that a curriculum vitae is reserved for academic types, generally PhD onwards because they list their publications, etc. on them & they are expected to be more than one page. for us normal american joe-blows, we use a resume, which should be a maximum of one page.

i've applied for many o' jobs in germany & was surprised at the (1) photo, (2) thickness of bewerbungsmappe. my ex (who helped me out at the time) said i need copies of everything & really classy folders! post ex, i decided all my relevant stuff, including pic, stay on the first page + at the very top that i have permanent residence and work permit (I exclude my age, who the f*ck should care).

all my objectives crap go in either an intro e-mail or a cover letter.

Have always stuck to the same format, 1st page personal details ( name, address etc ) and Qualifications with a max 2 paragraph summary of your skills and working experience thusfar.

2nd and 3rd page a brief (one paragraph per project performed ) outline of companies worked at, start and finish dates, project worked on and position / task undertaken. Last post first in chronological order.

Any more is not req'd by a prospective employer to gauge your suitability for a specific task, if they require further detailed information or wish to utilise psychometrics or some other form of evaluation they will be in touch and provide you with their own customised forms to fill out.

The above has always worked for me in 20 years of subcontract / freelance job hunting and was the formula used in 3 different Agencies that i had a hand in running.

Is it weird that this kind of talk just makes me melt?

Question for future CV writing:
What's the plural of CV then? one things for sure it does not end in 's.

I'm glad you asked. It should definitely be CVs.

My Latin isn't up to much but I think the plural of curriculum vitae is curricula vitae.

I agree. Never heard of a CV until I applied for scientist jobs in Europe. My CV is 3 pages and holding and my resume is two pages. I have always heard that it should never be more than two.

I see tons of resumes/CV and I look for the ones that don't look like some robot did it. The German ones I find totally stupid because I don't want to know who and what your parents and siblings are and I don't give a shit about your religious leanings. Hobbies are ok to list, but not every single boring one! Personally, I like people who include community involvement on theirs. My German colleagues are always interested in the grades, but I am not so much. The worst co-workers that we have had were "A" students, but couldn't do shit in the lab.
I look more for what they say in the cover letter and if there is anything different about them. I called one for an interview simply because I wanted to see what an aerobics instructor scientist looked like. She turned out to be one of the best co-workers we have had at the institute.

Dead right, have a gold star.

When used in English, the abbreviation - CV - takes an 's' in the plural.

But no apostrophe.

Just like when one talks about the seventies it's actually 1970s NOT 1970's.

Of course there's no apostrophe. Look at post #42.
I guess you were referring to my use of single quotes. I'd gladly go and put double quotes to make it perfectly clear, but my 20-minute editing limit for that post seems to be up.

yeah, sorry, a few pints at lunch and I can't pick out the number of apostrophes!

Yes! Damn it, I know that it's CVs and PMs. That was a stupid mistake. But the Latin plural for CV I did not know!

I had a few pints for breakfast