I need some resume/CV advice

In My Humble Opinion
1

I need to make my CV comprehensible to people who are not me, basically. Preferably, I will also make it look good.

Last December (midway through my sophomore year), I decided to take some time off from uni, “find myself”, etc. So, I left school, quit my job out there, and moved home. Did Job A (data entry) from February to the end of April. At the beginning of May I started Job B (temp work, “various”) in Ireland. Quit that and moved to London in July, when I began Job C (Admin. assistant). Worked there until the beginning of this month, at which point I quit (because I hated it, no other reason). This week I began Job D (temping again). Come November I’ll be starting job E (either hospitality work at a tourist trap, or an admin. assistant job again, depends how my interview on Tuesday goes). In December I go home for a month and hopefully pick up an old job at a movie theater. Then I finally go back to school, and hopefully pick up my former job out there.

Job 0 - admin assist., Santa Fe, 8/04 - 12/05
Job A - Data Entry, Phila., 02/06 - 4/06
Job B - Various, Cork, 5/06 - 6/06
Job C - Admin Assist., London, 7/06 - 10/06
Job D - Various, London, 10/06 - 11/06
Job E - Hospitality, London, 11/06 - 12/06
Job F - Movie Theater, Phila., 12/06 - 1/07
Job G/0 - admin assist. Santa Fe, 1/07-?

So, basically, my entire resume consists of a crapload of short-term, low-paying jobs. Does this look bad? If so, how do I spin it so it doesn’t? If I get an interview, I can explain it easily (wanted to ‘see the world’, young and stupid, etc), but the problem is getting the interview. Is this going to haunt me until I actually establish a career?

Bonus question - how do I indicate that I took a year off from school entirely, not that I’m just taking the leisurely 5-year route to a degree?

2

I’m sitting on a panel at the moment. I think we have about 130 applicants. Today I think I got through about 90, maybe 100, scoring them on how they met the selection criteria. How many education and career histories did I read? 0. Nil. Nada.

All any of the selection panel care about is how well you can do the job. The job we are doing has one specific qualificatioal requirement. If, in addressing the selection criteria, you don’t say you meet the requirement you’re out. One of us will not bother looking through your history.

3

You can also put in your cover letter that you took a planned year off school and worked a variety of short term jobs to fund your travel. The positive spin being you took a planned year off, and worked to pay your own way.

4

For education, maybe you could list the time you were in school and then the planned completion date. As far as the jobs, stress what you learned (software, systems) and have experience in, and what you proved–you’re a quick learner, you were best at XYZ.

Don’t refer to yourself as young and stupid (I know you were kind of kidding, but don’t say anything negative about yourself or your previous positions)! Say you were taking time off to focus your studies later, travel, whatever, and as China Guy says, you supported yourself.

5

**China Guy ** and Gigi have some good advice. Unfortunately, many jobs are not nearly as focused on a specific skill as the one don’t ask is hiring for. A lot of employers, especially for entry-level, **are ** interested in a track record of stability. In the US, a resume need not include every employer, but most job applications do need to be correct and complete, and you sign a statement to that effect. If you were in the US, I’d say one or two lines at most should summarize these jobs, and definitely don’t give all the dates on a resume. But on an application you would need to include the whole thing. Consider how the situation in the UK is similar or different.

6

A few words from one whose wife is an HR professional. And has had a lot of bitty jobs.

Give a personal summary at the top - sum your work self up in three lines.
Give a list of your key skills.
Then list your employment history in reverse chronological order. Nobody cares if you babysat when you were 16 (a mistake many people make). Give a one-line summary of the job, then bullet the key functions and responsibilities.
Then list your educational achievements. (You may consider swapping this bit with the job history if your educational qualifications are more impressive than your job history.)
Then any other business.

Chances are the first two items will catch their attention in a “that’s who we’re looking for” way, and only then will they scan the employment history for proof.

I coped with my bitty jobs by listing my longer-term and better jobs as “full-time”, and my bitty stuff, if relevant, as “contract”.

Also, try to fit it to a maximum of two sides of foolscap.

7

I had to look up “foolscap” and it says ~13"x16"…advice over here is keep it to one sheet of letter-size paper unless you’re a real bigwig. I do for my pretty detailed jobs and the margins and font get a little smaller with each new job! Or I leave out the oldest job.

8

Sorry, I incorrectly thought foolscap was US letter size. Ironically I used to work in print production…

9

I look more at content of experience and knowledge than job history. But more than either, I look for a concise, well thought out explanation of qualifications for the position. Make doubly or tripply sure that your resume has no typos, questionable grammar (in the local language you are applying in, ie American english for a job in the states), or completely irrelevant information. I have seen objective statements for a job nothing like the position I was hiring for, I have seen resumes that list entire pages of irrelevant ministry experience, I have seen people tell me all about their personal life. None of these make a good impression.

If it were me, I would highlight what you learned in each position, what experiences you gained, or how you were challenged personally at each position.

“Sold burgers and shakes at the local McD’s” vs. “Learned about customer service and teamwork while serving sometimes difficult customers” IOW, spin, spin, spin

10

I just went through this after getting laid off. I took advantage of the professional coaching that my former company paid for.

In your case, I have 2 suggestions for cover letters. 1st, it should be worded to reflect that you are a student. Working a lot of jobs over a short period looks bad but if you can mentally attach it to being a student then it looks like you’re an industrious little beaver.

2nd suggestion is to use a “T” account at the bottom of your CV. On the left side you list the job requirements the employer is specifying and on the right side you list matching skills that you have which fit the requirement. What you are doing is the mental work of the HR department to match up potential employees for an interview. If you do a good job on this it will actually outshine your resume’.

example:

------Job Requirements--------------------Special Skills

Must be familiar with spreadsheets-| Experienced with MS Excel, and
and medical accounting software----| ABC Med software
___|

Must be able to work independently-| Worked as Quality Control Liaison
to produce weekly reports on client–| with Medco Accounting Department
delivery summaries ----------------|
|

11

I’m confused, I think of CV=resume. Where are you suggesting the chart go?

12

Maybe I’m the one confused but let me clarify. I took CV to mean cover letter. From what I was told by the hiring coaches, a good cover letter can exceed the value of the actual resume. By using the “T” account style what you are doing is matching your skills to the employer’s requests. It gives you the opportunity to sell yourself directly and it is also an eye catcher next to resumes’ that have plain cover letters. I just accepted a job and I’m dying to ask if my resume was the reason I got an interview but unfortunately it will be weeks before I actually sit behind a desk. I just started the background check procedures.

13

CV stands for curriculum vitae. In the US it is primarily used by those with a doctorate, or at least working in academia or research in some fashion. It is a long resume which should be complete in terms of listing all publications, conference presentations, etc. It can run as many pages as necessary, 10+ pages is not unusual for a senior person. In Europe a CV is more widely used, but I’ll leave it to someone in Europe/the UK to fully explain the usage. On a US resume in a business field, the recommendation is 1 (or at max 2) pages of highlights that best market your skills.

A cover letter can accompany either. If you have a brief resume, the cover letter can be used to elaborate on something you couldn’t include in detail on the resume. If you have a long CV, the cover letter can be used to point them to the really meaningful parts.

14

And let me further clarify what I mean by “T” account. It is a visual reference (from accounting) where you make a “T”. On one side you list what the employer is looking for and on the other side you list your qualifications that match. See rule #2 here. It should divide the page equally and it should be drawn in so it looks good. You can do that using tables in a Word Processing program and then just darkening the parts of the box necessary to make it look good.

The closest thing I came to on the net was this. It is exactly what I’m talking about minus the graphics. If you do it right it will do a better job getting you an interview over what is on the resume itself. I still have dial-up so I’m limited on the time I can research this but you get the idea. There is a ton of stuff on the net on resumes so you can hunt around at your leisure. I had originally resume software and it walks you through the process by asking questions. They can tailor the type of information to include based on your experiences. I have a phobia about fill-in-the-blank software but you’d be surprised about the tips this kind of software will give you.

15

Don’t get me started! I’ve been dying to show my old boss the pure beauty of T-accounts but he says he still isn’t ready. /geeky accounting hijack

16

Aagh, yeah. I’m (obviously) no expert, but IME:
Resume: (American) Document listing one’s work history, education, awards and honors, etc.
CV: (UK/European) Document listing one’s work history, education, awards and honors, etc. (American) Longer document listing one’s education and honorary degrees, published academic works, notable previous employment, etc.

I’ve learned that here in Euroland they look at you funny if you try to apply for a job with you’re resume. I expect that if I would get similar looks back in the States if I applied for a job with a CV, because if I’m remotely close to qualified for the job, someone with an American-style CV would be grossly overqualified for.