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Kick up the arse please

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Well, I keep trying to do a CV and then just close it because I don't like some obscure thing. I really have no idea where to start and I'm trying to take in all the advice I've had, include referees, tailor it to which job you're applying for, etc. etc. and it gets on top of me and grrh.

I've been out of work since 15th March now, and I do feel like a loser already. Haven't signed on because I don't think I can (registered student still), have lost my NI number, my motorbike (thus transport) needed it's MOT - had a look and it's got a punctured tyre, and somehow I've managed to spend £250 I do not have in 2 weeks. How, I have no idea. (lots of little spendings)

On top of that, mum is now putting extra pressure on me, picking up application forms which I am grateful for, but I said I didn't want to work in a particular shop because I had a bad exerience there (worked there before) and thats where she wants me to get a job.

Beggars cant be choosers though. I would like to try getting a job at a local engineering company - basically they solder PCBs and that kind of thing. They do refer hiring local people and don't require graduates so I might get lucky. I've walked past once or twice but get this dreaded anxious feeling and don't want to go up there. Asked mum (since she was so determined to get me a job) to pick me up an application form if she walks past and she said no. Which is fair enough really, but I mean I don't want to say 'woe is me' but I do suffer from anxiety and she seems to be working against me rather than with me. You know?

So I don't even know what to do first, been trying to write a CV since 10 o clock and have deleted it so many times, I've got a tight feeling round my chest and just sound a bit like a blithering idiot here. Can't do a CV without a NI number anyway, and god knows where the last Pwhatever form from my last job is.

Argh!

So, what do I do first? :(
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Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    stop procrastinating. Do your CV without the NI number! Now!
  • smitherzsmitherz Posts: 968 Part of The Mix Family
    Am i missing something? I have never put my NI number on my CV
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I haven't either, it's a procrastinator's excuse.

    You will feel better once you've done it shyboy, it's the worrying about it that's hard.
  • smitherzsmitherz Posts: 968 Part of The Mix Family
    Either get hold of a mates CV and use it as a template or download a CV template. Really only takes 20 minutes
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    smitherz wrote: »
    Am i missing something? I have never put my NI number on my CV

    I was going to say, I haven't ever put my NI numnber on my CV.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Ok well I don't know how to do a CV so am just trying to wing it. I thought you did need to put it on as it's related to work. Nevermind.

    Just got a fair way through;
    personal info
    education

    and then my computer crashed.

    Some days I feel cursed. Back to stage one!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    P.s. will some kind soul look over it when I've done a draft? I would post it up but it's got my contact details etc. and the danger or some random weirdo stalker isn't worth it!

    eta: I may host it for a limited time on googlepages, then I can remove it after a few hours
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I will give it a look over if you PM/email it to me. Never put you NI number on a CV, in case it ends up in dodgy hands. If you really cant remember it you can either contact HMCE and get a new NI card or if you start employment they can do an NI number trace. If they say they cant its bull, I've done a couple in my last job.

    Get a template from the internet and tailor it to your own needs.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Ah cool.

    So far it's at:
    [my name]
    [personal info]
    [education]
    [skills profile]
    [work]

    and need to do a volunteering bit and then a references bit. Still not sure what to put for that mind. Can you just put the name of your last employer or do you need to ring them first to ask if it's ok? I gave 4 weeks notice and he was all cool with that and said he'd miss me then on the last day I just bumbled off home. Never any mention of a reference.

    Though my brother is getting one of his sub commanders to give me a reference too :)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Most companies will give you a reference but it is polite to ask first if they havent mentioned it. You could always givea tutor at uni if you wanted. Explaining breifly that you have left uni for blah reason and are looking for a job til you go back might be a good idea as well.

    All your doing is reminding me I need to get my CV sorted out now I'm unemployed.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Hmmm I am going to need to work on the formatting. At the moment filling out my skills profile is taking ages because apparently, I can do everything. Think I might change it to single words, or short phrases at most.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Ok, ready.

    "CV.doc" [34k]

    eta: bear in mind it's not perfect, was just trying to get stuff down
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Okay

    1)Put english lit and lang seperate, it looks confusing otherwise.
    2)Skills profile is fine. Bullet points is a lot easier to read and cuts the crappy waffle most people put.
    3) Reformat, put one column of infomation only, it looks way too clutted. List your qualifications along a line rather then down columns to save space.
    4) You need to flesh out your work and other experience just a little bit more. Writing the bullet points into sentances without waffle will look better.

    Its not bad though, just needs a bit of adjustment.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Are you really sure you want to put all your personal details including your address online? :S
  • smitherzsmitherz Posts: 968 Part of The Mix Family
    Okay

    1)Put english lit and lang seperate, it looks confusing otherwise.
    2)Skills profile is fine. Bullet points is a lot easier to read and cuts the crappy waffle most people put.
    3) Reformat, put one column of infomation only, it looks way too clutted. List your qualifications along a line rather then down columns to save space.
    4) You need to flesh out your work and other experience just a little bit more. Writing the bullet points into sentances without waffle will look better.

    Its not bad though, just needs a bit of adjustment.

    I agree, also your font needs to be Ariel or Times New Roman. It does look way to cluttered, keep it simple!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    silverhalo wrote: »
    Are you really sure you want to put all your personal details including your address online? :S

    Lol yea it's my own thing, will just take it down when I need to.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    second revision (haven't implemented changes yet, just formatting)

    http://raoneill.googlepages.com/CV1.1.doc
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/cv/cvexamples.htm

    Take a look at this website- there are examples of cv's there so you can get an idea of other ways of laying it all out :)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    My computer is being quite nicely broken and keeps restarting.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    If it was my CV then I would not split the page as you have, put one lot of details section by section.

    I would have my name, address, dob and contact number at the top of the page and centred, the contact number and name in bold.

    I know it sounds silly but people do disregard CV's if they look cluttered, the contact details are not easy to find or the information they need to see cannot be looked at easily without having to read the whole CV.

    Is it a general CV or are you applying for a specific job ? If you are applying for a specific job that has been advertised then try to adapt it so that the skills they are looking for are more readily highlighted and make more of you recent work experiences in that area.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    several bluescreens later, nearly done a bit more. It's 2 pages now mind.

    1.2
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Is it a general CV or are you applying for a specific job ? If you are applying for a specific job that has been advertised then try to adapt it so that the skills they are looking for are more readily highlighted and make more of you recent work experiences in that area.

    I have no idea...

    I have little work experience. Not sure how to explain the large gap that was university. Either I say I changed courses (to which an employer will see as failure, as most people I've met so far do lol) or just leave it blank in which they think I'm a lazy so and so.

    Catch 22 really....
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    ShyBoy wrote: »
    several bluescreens later, nearly done a bit more. It's 2 pages now mind.

    1.2

    Thats a lot better. You just to get it onto just two pages with a bit of tweaking and reformatting. And put the GCSE results together some how, in the one colnum, its confusing otherwise. You dont have to put your AS results if you have the full A level in the same subject (well thats the advice I had at sixth form)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    ShyBoy wrote: »

    I have little work experience. Not sure how to explain the large gap that was university. Either I say I changed courses (to which an employer will see as failure, as most people I've met so far do lol) or just leave it blank in which they think I'm a lazy so and so.

    Catch 22 really....

    I have bolded what you need to put. I wouldnt see it as a faliure. You made the wrong choice and you've changed it. That shows your mature enough to make changes rather then out up with something that isnt right for you.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I totally agree that its not likely to be seen as a failure. You took action to ensure that you didnt waste your time completing a course/degree that was not suited to your future goals.

    People change what they want to do all the time and your goals and aspirations for your career and continually subject to change. Its not a bad thing as long as it doesnt happen too often.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Heh, computer died. Each day is just a little better than the last :yeees:.

    So I've got a document now and no way to edit it anyway :p. Will take it all of google for the time being.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Opportunities come from the most random places.

    Ok, my girlfriend's mum's friend works in the city council and my girlfriend's mum mentioned to her that I was looking for a job in idle convo, and then my girlfriend said what kind of thing I was looking for and what kind of skills I had and the friend thinks I could pick up a temp contract quite easily :yippe: she's just going to go to the relevent people.

    So I do need to get this CV sorted. Worked out though that the problem was my memory, it may be dying :( I set the fsb to 400 and the multiplier or whatever to 2 so it was running at 800mhz which it is rated at but it was throwing blue screens. Now it's down to pc5400 levels (slow :() it's working fine.

    But I do miss that 1.86 - 2.8 overclock (x2) on my e6300. Last time I pay £200 for a matched pair of ram!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Get it all done and get yourself into employment you jobless scumbag, do you want to be a doley for the rest of your life, scorned by the rest of society, constantly out of pocket, spending what little money you do have on Tesco own brand beer?
    No? THEN GET TO WORK.

    (sorry for being harsh, you aren't really a scumbag)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Ok, I took the plunge and have signed up with reed. There are a lot of good jobs though. (This was after the local firms I phoned all said 'we recruit through...' - seems every job except very large places that recruit themselves goes through an agency now)

    One of them I'm really interested in :p possibly wouldn't be suitable but:

    http://www.reed.co.uk/job/details.aspx?JobID=12097535

    it's literally round the corner so no need for excessive travelling, nobody has applied in a week for it and also the pay is good.

    Problem being I can only work for 5 months, not 6 (serves me right for sitting on my arse). My CV is uploaded and explains the reasons why, so should I just have a crack at it and apply anyway? I don't want to be committed to work through september when I'm supposed to be at uni!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Apply for anything you may be vaguely suitable, stop being so damn picky and get your arse into gear. :p

    Until you get to the bit where you agree to take the job for 6 months you are not commiting yourself to anything and if you're what they want (or they're desperate) they probably won't mind anyway.
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