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CV for the Guardian Newspaper's CV Clinic
Bradley CVs was asked to comment on Holly Wild's CV by the Guardian Newspaper for their CV Clinic. Holly graduated last year and is currently working
at Tesco (to pay the bills, as she put it). She would ideally like to work in the music industry, but her CV is currently letting her down. Below you will
find Holly's original CV, our critique of her CV and a new version of her CV that we produced after we had spoken to Holly on the telephone. Please note
that all Holly's personal details (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 our client's CVs - it is merely there to assert our copyright on this website.
Holly's Original CV
If you find the size of the text in Holly's CV too difficult to read please click here for a version
of her CV with larger text.
Critique of Holly's CV by Bradley CVs
Brief:
- Holly is seeking a job in the music industry, preferably within the alternative music genre (indie / rock music).
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 Holly’s CV hasn't had much impact.
- Holly 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 Holly'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 Holly has used a modern font.
Profile:
- The profile doesn't really say much about what Holly 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 Holly 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 - Holly 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 Holly’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.
- Holly 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:
- Holly 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:
- Holly 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, Holly really must make more of this on her CV and provide a better description of each role.
- Like a lot of people Holly 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.
Holly's new CV produced by Bradley CVs
To produce Holly's new CV we conducted a detailed telephone consultation with Holly (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 Holly's career aspirations, so that we could tailor Holly'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 Holly wasn't sure what to include on her CV. As skilled interviewers we uncovered
numerous important details that Holly hadn't even thought about including, which would make an employer / recruiter far more inclined to want to meet
Holly.
- Holly 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 Holly 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! Holly's profile was really letting her down - it's hard
to be objective about yourself, so we evaluated and analysed Holly's overall experience, skills and abilities.
- In addition, we also identified vital information that Holly 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 Holly'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 Holly down we completely rewrote it, injecting Holly'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 Holly's CV.
- We added in a new major achievements section and highlighted Holly'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.
- Holly'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 Holly'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.
- Holly 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 (Holly was completely
unaware of the mistakes she had made). We therefore identified and corrected the mistakes that Holly had made.
Below you will find Holly'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 our clients' CVs - it
is merely there to assert our copyright on this website.
Holly has since been offered a job with EMI (the major record label) - we wish Holly good luck for her future career with EMI.
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