Teryl @ Work

How accurate are CVs/Resumés? Once, a long time ago, I knew a young man who had come to South Africa from England.  He was a television technician who landed up sharing a house with two draughtsmen.  They were earning better salaries than he was, so he decided that it was an excellent career choice. They taught him the basics and off he went and got a job as a draughtsman.   He was fired at the end of the first week!  Undaunted, he tried again.   Six months, and 5 jobs later, he was a draughtsman and still is today. I am not sure if this would still be possible, nor if there is a moral to this story, maybe amoral is more like it.   He did work extremely hard to improve his skills, though, and shared his questionable career path with the final company.  They decided to take a chance, and the rest is history. The value of secure employment within challenging economic conditions creates an environment where people resort to...

Everybody talks about how important a good CV is but how do you define good? The CV Clearly a good track record with excellent references is key, but so is the way it is put together. Take the time to do a personalized covering letter for each company Set it up as a standard with some career highlights Align some of your skills with their requirements as per their job specification It takes time, but personalise your cv for every opportunity It’s not a complete rewrite Highlight the skills that are most relevant to the position you are applying for Bullet points and short paragraphs are easy to read Place your most current employment first Check that your references are available Include special interests, achievements and leadership outside of business, (charity and industry bodies) Read it carefully and run spelling/grammar checks Get an objective person to read it, if possible A photo can be good, my preference is at the back with the references, but this is sub...