Shooting on a CV ??

spideog7

Like it or not we all know how divisive shooting and hunting are as activities. So I'm graduating this coming year and I have started applying for graduate jobs in the engineering sector, both here and abroad. I've spent ages compiling my CV to try and make it as effective as possible, but I'm constantly wondering how to say I shoot and hunt on my CV, or if I even should. I also want to highlight my safety certification from the NARGC, is this relevant ??

I'm licensed on a shotgun and have been since I was 16 (4 years) and I'm licensed on and own a .22wmr rifle which I bought last year. Now in theory this should highlight that I have a mature and responsible approach to things, as a gun is not a toy.

I know employers are meant to be equal opportunities and all that but it has always raised eyebrows on my CV and been an interesting talking point in an interview. I've even changed it from "hunting" to "shooting" recently. Quite frankly I'm not too worried about it, I just thought it would be an interesting discussion point, how do ye all approach the topic, particularly with people who aren't familiar with it ?

Recently I went to the careers office in my college to get some advice on my CV and the guy pointed out that my interests "Hiking", "Shooting" and "Fishing" made my CV look like that of Sarah Palin :eek: I mean I thought what he said was funny but I definitely would not equate myself to her !!

Vegeta

If you're worried put down target shooting, field sports and clay shooting or something.

I definitely didn't say hunting in case some anti got hold of it in HR (paranoid I know) but you want every opportunity right.

Sparks

I've had olympic target shooting on my CV for years. Never done any harm so far, usually it's different enough to give a hook for the interviewer to use.

Grizzly 45

Put it on the CV.It at least shows that you have no criminal record in the fact you are liscensed to posses a firearm.Always had it on mine,and was encouraged to put it on ine by my CO long time ago.

I hate to say it but your careers officer sounds like a right muppett!:( Coming out with statements like that.

pullandbang

Put it on and be proud of it.

If I see an unusual pastime on someone's CV like Base Jumping or Pot Holing, then its a topic for discussion (other than the job in hand) which gives you an insight into the candidates personality.

Mind you, if I came across "Anti Hunt Sab" on someones CV then I don't think I'd look too kindly on them - they wouldn't get to the interview stage:D

Grizzly 45

Mind you, if I came across "Anti Hunt Sab" on someones CV then I don't think I'd look too kindly on them - they wouldn't get to the interview stage:D

[/QUOTE]

Ah! But that would be the first person you should employ,if they are competant that is.Make out you are realllly anti hunting,and brain drain the sod for all that they are worth,and paas the info on to the revelant bodies.:D:D

J. Ramone

Have had a little experience of this connundrum. I've enough interests to put on my cv as a hook - athletics etc but an interest in shooting can give a great impression at the end of a second interview (hush the hr consultants). hold it in reserve like dynamite!!!!!!!

chem

Would it be OK to take the guns in to show them

I have shooting and explosives (fireworks displays) on my CV. Still waiting for an interview!

TargetWidow

I wouldn't recommend bringing in the guns to the boss's office until your salary review day Put it on the CV and be done with it. If they ask you about it at interview use it to show that you have spacial awareness,(actually hitting targets - assuming you can!); technical ability (stripping, cleaning and fixing the guns), and that you are law abiding and "of temperate personality"!! To thine own self be true. And if they don't hire you then they would have been aXXholes to work for anyway! It's not as if you're muling drugs at the weekend for a hobby!

spideog7

TargetWidow wrote: »

It's not as if you're muling drugs at the weekend for a hobby!

You're right it's not just a hobby


Yea I'm not too concerned about it, just interested to see how ye all approach it. It's funny to see the reaction of people who are totally unfamiliar with guns other than in films or the media and other such "realistic" sources.

Tom Donnavan

Have had it on my CV for quiet a while now. At one interview that I got one interviewer also shooter talked quiet a bit about it to me.

Ned Muldhoon

in an ideal world I would say put it on your cv, Target shooting would illustrate a highly disciplined character, IPSC - problem solving under stress and hunting - tenacity and awareness, but in todays' market - keep it out. I spend one day a week interviewing candidates for the IT sector and have had numerous candiates turned down by HR consultants because of the " don't like the look" or "not very PC" etc.

We might think we live in a cosmopolitan & open society, but this does not apply to the target shooter / hunter.

Definitely, show pride in your abilities as a marksman / hunter - but leave it off the charlie victor.

Sad but true!

Sparks

Actually Ned, I've gotten at least one job because of the target shooting, and in another found that it was a hobby shared by management. I can see it going against you if your prospective employer was very opposed to the idea of firearms, but if so, they won't take kindly to it when you inevitably mention it after being hired...

Besides, a HR consultant who recommended not hiring a good programmer because of appearance would be roundly laughed out of it by pretty much every company I've ever worked for - it would be the professional equivalent of refusing to hire Michaelangelo to do the interior decoration on the grounds that he had poor taste in shoes...

(It may be different in other fields, obviously - but most professional fields tend to be just that, at least in the companies you'd want to work for)

Bang Bang

I've had it on my CV and the topic came up some years ago during the interview for my now professional career.
The topic of shooting came up in the interview and I felt it was a bonus as it shows responsibility.
One of the interviewers asked if i hunted and I answered yes. But i also pointed out that as a member of a gun club we are active in conservation, rearing and releasing duck and pheasent as well as providing and caring for the land that we use. Planting of and repairing hedgerow and trees etc.

IRLConor

Sparks wrote: »

Besides, a HR consultant who recommended not hiring a good programmer because of appearance would be roundly laughed out of it by pretty much every company I've ever worked for - it would be the professional equivalent of refusing to hire Michaelangelo to do the interior decoration on the grounds that he had poor taste in shoes...

It happens all the time where a recruiter will reject a CV due to not having the exact keywords he/she is looking for ("A kernel hacker for Linux? But we want someone who's a professional C programmer!"). The key point to take away is that you don't want to work for an employer who is that incompetent/unprofessional in their hiring practices. Odds are they're unprofessional in the rest of their business.

I've had shooting-related stuff on my CV for years and it hasn't hampered my career as far as I know. Again, anyone who holds it against you without at least chatting to you about it in the interview is quite likely to be unprofessional in the rest of their business and should be avoided like the plague.

Sparks

IRLConor wrote: »

It happens all the time where a recruiter will reject a CV due to not having the exact keywords he/she is looking for

Yeah, but the key word there is "recruiter"! And I've lost count of how many times companies I've worked for have changed recruiters in angry fustration because of exactly that kind of thing.

Our man in Havana

Perhaps they are afraid of hiring a Michael Douglas style person like in Falling Down.

Sparks

No, it was just that the companies' HR departments were in effect outsourcing their job to the recruiter, and neither had the skills to actually understand what it was that the engineering team were doing and so couldn't judge if a recruitment prospect was up to snuff. If I had a coffee for every time I interviewed someone who was woefully unsuited to the job that the recruiter had them put forward for, I'd be hanging onto the roof tiles right now with my toenails like Garfield; and I've been on the other end of it as well, sent by recruiters into interviews that were completely not what I had thought they would be and for which I would never have even bothered applying had I known what they were for ahead of time.

Recruiters. They're one of the main reasons that IT companies are always looking for good people!

Ned Muldhoon

Have to agree on the recruiters - problem is, with the amount of outsourcing of HR functions they've become part of the hiring process whether we like it or not. I work in security consultancy and like most consultants over the years you tend to stick with the same 2 or 3 agencies.