h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've heard vague rumours of a "skill-based CV", rather than the usual timeline type one, and it seems like a good format for mine, since I've had a rather strange mixture of almost unrelated jobs lately and am looking for more via agencies.

But how do they work, and how does one go about writing one? Are they as widely accepted as regular ones?

I don't think you should be so eager to classify them. There needs to be elements of both.

List your places of employment chronologically, and add a line of dialogue under each one describing the skills you used. Tailor that line for each job and you're golden.

I expand on my strengths on page 2, but I think very few recruiters read that with any seriousness. It was noticeable how many more interviews I was invited to when I took the above approach.

B

They are the format usually recommended for people who have gaping holes in their work history. The theory is that it draws less attention to the gaps - but I don't believe people are that easily fooled, anyway, and depending on why the gaps are there and what they are, their presence isn't necessarily a disadvantage. (In your case any gaps have been well spent in education, right? Not doing time for embezzlement or anything. )

As with Mu Beta, though, I've usually had more success using the usual chronological format.

I never use that format anymore, I'm too old! I list skills, then at the end put a chronological list of my jobs. Who really cares who and where I've worked for, and what I learned at that place? Especially if it was 25 years ago. I've also had a mix of unrelated jobs!

I write a new CV for each job, so this was for an editorial assistant position, so I listed Areas of Expertise in the order I felt they'd care about most. I then list career history, the last five/ten years I put some info about the role and what I learned there, but anything older than 10 years is just 'earlier career' with the company names and my job title, then any training, then personal interests. The CVs have got me lots of interviews, when I left the BBC (the first time) I had about 6 interviews using CVs like this.


Areas of Expertise

Administration Skills

Information Technology

Editorial

Managing Communication/Customer Service

Career History

I have another CV saved which has Project Management in the skills, others have things like moderation skills, or interpersonal skills, just depends on what the job is.

I think that's a really sensible format. The only thing I'd add is a section at the top saying what type of job you're looking for and why. Motivation is as important as skills & experience. To the employer, finding someone with all three is the Holy Grail.

It does have its pitfalls though, Icy. It depends on how it's written, of course, but I know (from the horse's mouth - a large software house in that case) that a lot of recruiters in competitive industries tend to bin the skills-based CVs as the first round of whittling the numbers down.

It also depends on what country the job's in. It goes down a lot easier in the US than it does in the UK. But we're changing, I guess. Not before time!

Yes, that's the problem, it might look like desperation/trying to cover up for gaping holes...

But since I'm looking for a part-time job and don't mind if it's unrelated to my degree (all of my past jobs were unrelated to my degree) it sounded like the kind of thing that might show them I'm, er, versatile. Not indecisive. Of course not

I'd say my marketable skills are tour guiding, translation, conservation, DIY, working with horses, photoshop, and oh yes, there was that architecture thing, and trying to combine them into one CV just isn't working.

You realise that to recruitment agencies, multilingual = call centre, right?

But think about it. "Tour guiding", for example, isn't a marketable skill, it's a whole range of them. Similarly, "conservation" - that could mean anything from hoovering a curtain to running a wildlife reserve. Break these things down, and then you get to the abilities you have!

I spent 18 months out of work recently, but since I found work, I've recruited four IT staff into the department.

It's easy to get hung up about CV format, but all an employer needs to know is whether you can do the job (or whether you will quickly learn it), whether you will be happy doing it, and whether you bring additional useful skills.

All of this will come out at interview, so you have to be honest with yourself when you apply, so as not to waste everybody's time. Make sure the information you provide answers each of those questions, then provide the detailed evidence in your employment history on page 2.

So if the employment history is page 2, what's page 1? The cover letter?

My CV is 2 pages long. On page 1 I put my name at the top, then below it I have a short paragraph summarising me: "I am a client-facing IT manager", etc.

I then have a section bulleting my key skills: "IT Project Manager, IT Service Manager, etc"

I then list two career achievements, "I managed the XYZ project and delivered it on time and under budget..."

I then list my career objectives "...I am seeking a challenging role which uses my project management skills..."

But I do have some space at the foot of page 1, so I start my career history there, describing my most recent job. Previous jobs are listed on page 2.

At the foot of page 2, I list the software tools I've used, and at the very foot I have a short personal section: clean driving licence, security cleared, education, etc.

I've never been able to get my CV under 2 pages, it certainly shouldn't be more than 2, I do send a cover letter if I'm, say, grovelling for a job at h2g2. I offered to bring in biscuits every Friday. Guess that worked. although I don't think I did a skills CV back then.

I must have been lucky with mine, the 6 interviews were the 6 jobs I applied for, I got an interview for each one sent. And yes, I got one of the jobs!