Leo Fellmann wrote:
> Summer holidays are drawing near and (with a sort of latin timeliness)
> most of my French collegues, all students, are realising they might need
> a summer job* (strangely enough, even the ones who are (not badly) paid
> civil servants).
> Anyway, I got a mail this morning asking me to correct a friend's CV and
> letter of motivation; she's applying for a summer job in London.
>
> Now this CV and the accompanying letter are quite a good as far as
> French CVs and letters of motivation go. Thing is, best practices for
> such do***ents vary wildly from country to country, and I'm not 100%
> familiar with how you write these things in the UK. I'm pretty sure that
> - unlike France - putting "Reading Proust" and so on as a particular
> interest is probably not going to help you that much, for instance**.
> Certainly wouldn't here :)
>
> Does anyone have any idea of what sort of thing you're meant to
> write/emphasise in the UK? (preferably from the receiving side ;))
>
>
> * Lucky sods. I applied far earlier and then found out to my great
> horror that the exam dates have been switched around again and I don't
> actually have time for a summer job. Had to turn down quite an
> interesting one, too :(
>
> ** Although getting through all of "A la recherche du temps perdu"
> probably counts as a significant personal achievement.
So in my current job I view and rearrange about 150 CV's a week...
My preferred format:
Personal details
Personal Statement / Summary / Intro paragraph
brief education summary
Details of jobs in date order, most recent first - if more than 5 or so
jobs, summarise the earlier, tem****ary, or otherwise less im****tant ones
Details of education if needed. Training courses, etc
Keep the CV three pages or less
Job layout:
date - date company, location
job title
responsibilities:
blah blah
achievements:
blah blah
Including achievements for each job is something HR candidates always
do, so I propose copying them.
The most cultural mistake French people make is to list the year of a
job and the length in months, but not the actual dates, ie
2006 EvilCorp Ltd (3 Months)
Administrator, Shark Laser Project
Instead of the more British
Jan 2006 - Apr 2006 EvilCorp Ltd
Also it's far less common in Britain than on the continent to put a
photo on your CV.
Other than that, just make sure it's cleanly laid out (only one font,
consistent layout etc)
HTH
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