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CV for the Guardian Newspaper's CV Clinic
Bradley CVs was asked to comment on Helen Shaw's CV by the Guardian Newspaper for their CV Clinic. Helen had graduated the previous year and was
working at Tesco (to pay the bills, as she put it).
She needed a music industry CV as she wanted to work within the music industry, but her current CV was clearly letting her down.
Below you will find Helen's original CV, our critique of her CV and a new version of her CV that we produced after we had spoken to Helen on the
telephone.
Please note that all Helen's personal details (name, address, telephone number, email address and date of birth) have been changed to protect her
identity. The copyright statement that appears on the CV below does not appear on the CVs we produce for our clients - it is merely there to assert
our copyright on this website.
FREE Guide: Is your CV letting you down?: How to dramatically improve your CV (click here
now).
Helen's Original CV
If you find the size of the text in Helen's CV too difficult to read please click here for a version
of her CV with larger text.
Critique of Helen's CV by Bradley CVs
Brief:
- Helen was seeking a job in the music industry, preferably within the alternative music genre (indie / rock music) and therefore need a music
industry CV that reflected her existing experience.
Overall:
- As a professional CV writing service we see CVs like this all the time - it just fails to grab the reader's attention.
- Competition for vacancies in the music industry is fierce, which explains why Helen’s CV didn't have any impact.
- Helen has lots of relevant music industry experience, but this doesn't come across on the first page of her CV, which is a real shame!
- There are a number of basic mistakes on Helen's CV, the type of mistakes that a lot of people make on their CV, which can cost you interviews.
- However, it's not all bad news - the layout of the CV is crisp and clear and Helen has used a modern font.
Profile:
- The profile doesn't really say much about what Helen can do for an employer in the music industry.
- It needs to be far more dynamic and really engage the reader and make them want to invite Helen for that all-important job interview.
- In the profile you must talk about the skills and experience that are relevant to the job that you are applying for - Helen therefore needs to
make far more of the excellent experience she has gained in the music industry.
Major Achievements:
- There is no major achievements section on Helen’s CV - this is a vital part of any CV and should come immediately after the profile.
- Just because you are starting out in your career, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t include what you have achieved so far.
- Helen has lots of relevant music industry experience – so she must highlight this experience on the first page of her CV within a major achievements
section.
Education:
- Helen had missed out her degree classification, an excellent 2:1, this is a very serious omission, her 2:1 must therefore be added to her CV!
Work Experience:
- Helen needs to bullet point the sentences within each job, this breaks up the text and makes it far easier for someone to read her CV.
- With plenty of music industry experience, Helen really must make more of this on her CV and provide a better description of each role.
- Like a lot of people Helen has missed out lots of relevant and interesting facts that would make her CV far more exciting and really make someone
want to meet her.
Helen's new CV produced by Bradley CVs
To produce Helen's new CV we conducted a detailed telephone consultation with Helen (this is included as part of our professional CV writing service).
The call lasted approximately 45 minutes, so we have only included a brief summary below:
- We discussed Helen's career aspirations, so that we could tailor Helen's CV to the vacancies that she would be applying for - this is vitally
important if you want to increase your chances of securing interviews.
- The work experience section needed to be improved - like most people Helen wasn't sure what to include on her CV. As skilled interviewers we
uncovered numerous important details that Helen hadn't even thought about including, which would make an employer / recruiter far more inclined
to want to meet Helen.
- Helen hadn't listed any achievements on her CV, this is vital as it tells an employer the benefits of employing you. Deciding on your achievements
is the one thing that almost everyone seems to struggle with on their CV. During our consultation with Helen we uncovered a number of really good
achievements that would really make her application stand out.
- The profile section on a CV will be the first thing that an employer / recruiter reads (after your contact details). Identifying what to put
in your profile is therefore vital - if you get it wrong no one will bother to read the rest of your CV! Helen's profile was really letting her
down - it's hard to be objective about yourself, so we evaluated and analysed Helen's overall experience, skills and abilities.
- In addition, we also identified vital information that Helen had left off her CV - there are some things that only a trained interviewer can
spot!
After the telephone consultation we set about producing a CV that would do justice to Helen's unique talents (in our view everyone is unique and
it is important that you convey what you specifically have to offer an employer - if you want to get interviews and get ahead of all your competitors).
Here's a very brief summary of what we did:
- As the profile was clearly letting Helen down we completely rewrote it, injecting Helen's enthusiasm, experience and skills that had really came
across when we talked to her on the telephone (none of these had come across well on her original CV). This will make an employer really sit up
and take notice of Helen's CV.
- We added in a new major achievements section and highlighted Helen's excellent achievements that we had uncovered during the telephone consultation.
Your achievements give you a chance to shine, so you must make the most of them if you want to attract attention to your CV.
- Helen's work experience needed to be rewritten and we have conveyed a lot more about her experience and transferable skills, which we identified
during the consultation. You must always tell an employer about the skills and experience that you can bring to a new job.
- The CV overall was too passive, so we described Helen's experience, skills and achievements using more active and action-centred words. To get
a job these days you need to be seen as being active rather than passive.
- Helen had made a number of basic mistakes on her CV. This can cost you interviews and mistakes are not always easy for you to identify (Helen
was completely unaware of the mistakes she had made). We therefore identified and corrected the mistakes that Helen had made.
Below you will find Helen's new CV. If you find the size of the text too difficult to read please click here
for a version of her CV with larger text. Please note that the copyright statement that appears on the CV below does not appear on the CVs we produce
for our clients - it is merely there to assert our copyright on this website.
Helen has since been offered a job with EMI (the major record label) - we wish Helen good luck for her future career with EMI.
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