Last night saw another incredibly successful Girl Geek Scotland event; the workshop on effective CVs. Modulr were our hosts for the evening and sponsors of the pizza and drinks (pre-panel talk glass of wine was especially welcome!).
The panel was made up of me (representing Agency Recruitment), Eva Meikle from Craneware an extremely experienced Recruiter who works in-house, and Dave McCraw Director of Engineering at Calero. I hope that we managed to give a balanced view on what Recruiters/Hiring Managers are looking for when they view your CV and some handy tips from our many years of combined experience in recruitment!
1 Your CV is a marketing document. Its purpose is to sell you enough to secure an interview. It may not come easily to you to big yourself up – but you need to do it. Ask friends/colleagues for help with words that describe you.
2 An obvious one; check your spelling and grammar.
3 Your CV is probably reviewed for 6-7 seconds – make sure your vital information is front and centre and easy for the reviewer to access.
4 Be concise. Choose your words wisely. Write in a succinct manner – and then take more out. Like, Coco Chanel said “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off”…but for CVs.
We then broke into smaller groups for a more focused discussion on CVs. Hot topics covered included; how to address gaps on your CV, how to format your CV if you’re a career changer and CV writing for those in the early stages of their career.
I recently wrote a slightly more in-depth article recently (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/crafting-perfect-cv-jobs-tech-rhona-kennedy/) on CV writing which might also help anyone revamping their CV, or anyone who missed last night’s session.
To the Girl Geek members for being such a kind audience – public speaking is not my bag and your smiling faces really helped!
Here’s to another brilliant event next month when Girl Geek Scotland will be tackling “your online self” – I look forward to some tips on curating a professional yet authentic online persona!
Feel free to chip in with any other tips you picked up from the evening, or advice for crafting the perfect CV!