Ready to rip my CV apart?

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Right, I'm 16... and desperately need a job for the summer. There seems to be very little summer work available this year and I had to start searching late (very late) due to family stuff. I've attached my CV (zipped up Word document) and I'd appreciate any constructive criticism any of you can offer.


Just a couple of my own wonderings about it:

1. The 1/2 and 2/2 on the top right hand of each page... yay or nay?

2. The headings under the Achievments section, "Ecommerce" and "Legal Studies" don't sound right as standalone headers... anybody got any suggestions?

3. A couple of minor details (my phone numbers and addresses, company numbers and addresses) have been changed for obvious reasons.


Thanks a lot lads,
Bob

mavedic

I had a look at it there, and I really can't give you any advice on it. It looks great to me, much better than the CV I had at your age.

Probably the thing to do is just send it out to as many people as possible. Pound the pavements and hand it in directly to the managers of stores, email it to human resources in companies, post it off to the county councils.

I don't know what kind of work you're looking for but generally directly speaking with the manager of wherever you're interested in is a better idea than just mailing in a cv, as its much harder to say no, and they will see what an enthusiastic and enterprising person you are.

Best of luck!

p.pete

Don't rip it apart, it'll change so much over the next ten years that it really would seem a waste of effort.

First off it depends on what kind of work you are looking for - lots of jobs that the average 16 year old would be going for won't require a CV.

You seem to have quite a lot of decent experience, you could try bullet pointing some the more important points so that they stand out - people may not have the time to read the whole paragraph and if they do they may miss the most important points.

Dont worry about making proper sentences eg.
- Created customer tool for database.
- Harmonised usage between old and new databases.
- Developed using C#
- Built on previous P.O.S. experience.
That is enough to get them interested and you will have plenty left over to talk about if they want to interview you.

Next point, let them know that you have just finished the transition year but don't tell them that you are about to embark on the Leaving Cert., they can probably figure that out. They don't need to know the subjects that you will be doint - no knowledge has been gained from them yet.

Also for JC results you just need the bare info i.e. Maths - A (honours).

Sleipnir

hi OrangeRhino,

yeah your C.V. is ok but it wouldn't jump out at me from a pile of 50 cv's (which is what most employers get for a job at the moment)
The 'preferred' format of the C.V. has changed in the last couple of years e.g. instead of all your personal details being on the Front page, that all goes on the last page now (let's face it, at the C.V. stage, your name is somewhat less important than what you've done!)
The other thing I would suggest is less paragraphing, you could use bullet points etc to get you across. Again, if someone has 50 C.V.'s to go through, they'd rather not read paragraphs & paragraphs; they just want soundbites really. The chat is for the interview.
I wish I had my own to send you but it must be at home somewhere. If I remember/can find it, i'll post it as an example (although some people will spot errors I'm sure!)

Lenny

There is way too much reading on that CV, someone going through a cv wants to scan it really quick and catch points,
bullet form is good as already pointed out.
About your junior cert results, do not tell your results in a story,
Just put it down in a table (without the table)
Subject (tab out twice) Level (tab out twice) Grade/Result

Wheres the social part in this when your interviewer wants to get to know something about you?
He'll think your a boring dry ****e if you don't put down any intrests, I see you have no other intrests in there but computers, this would mean the interview can be quite limited on what your interviewer can bring up.

This is all I can offer, hope it helps and g'luck