MAKING A C.V. (page 2)

tijkmo

thanx to katey and others who pm-ed

i will give your thoughts some consideration

but will have to be tomorrow

im off to bed now

If you were self-employed, what about contacting some of your repeat customers and asking them to provide a reference? If you had a fairly consistent clientele, you must have built a rapport with some business owners or managers who would have been your contact people.

These are legitimate contacts to use in your CV as references, and also on applications for bursaries. Just make sure you get in touch with them first and find out if they would mind if you included them as a reference. Some might even write a brief letter on your behalf.

Good luck!

talesin

It is sad, and I have been there. Good suggestions there from Scully, use a former client who thought highly of you. I'm sure if you give them a ring, they will be more than happy to give you a glowing reference!

Don't let it get you down, things will change in time. Tis true!

xo

tal

ballistic

For references for a college bursary, they actually like at least one professional person who can vouch for one you say you are, i.e. a doctor or solicitor. I'm sure you can find one of them!

For the CV, well CVs have changed nowdays, employers want to know less about what you did at school years ago, and more about you, your drive, ambition, dedication.

Put in a section called : Personal qualities, with bullet points all about your amazing team work, determination, and organisational skills.

Then, under experience, put that you have gained experience in management, accounting, logistics planning and all the other things you did as part of running your own business. And if all you did was run your own business - the employer will be pleased to see you stuck with something rather than switched jobs every three months.

There's a few tips to get you going.

Simon

Make 'em up! ... employers rarely check out references - it's a throwback to a bygone era when people were employed somewhere 'for life' and leaving to go somewhere else was a big deal. Ye Olde Bos Owner must be given respect or else ye shall not get a good reference ... doesn't quite work now when people move about a lot more (like the passport stuff where they want signatories who are responsible pillars of the community who know you like the local bobby or JP ... yeah, right!).

Focus on what you did. Collecting money can become "was responsible for all cash transactions and handling" etc. tallying up becomes "accounting duties" and so on. Hell before you know it you'll make George W Bush look like an idiot ... wait, scratch that ...

Remember, a good CV is not about getting you a job ... it's about getting you an interview.

Sunspot

TIJ,

When I had to list references (after leaving the WTS) I ended up putting down the names of some people that I had been involved with while getting into the Child Advocacy field.

A few of us had gotten together more than a few times at these "workshops" and seminars and had gotten to feel at ease with them.( And they with me) I had no one else either, and I used some of them. I got the position I asked for and there were never any questions asked. Maybe you have something similar that you could draw from and do the same.

Just my 2 cents!

Annie

SixofNine

I hate to be a name dropper, but using "Jehovah" as a reference is pretty impressive, and has always worked for me.

Scully

Simon writes:

Make 'em up!

For some reason, I am reminded of Seinfeld's George Costanza and Vandalay Industries.

Eyebrow2

DO NOT make up references...Simon is right that a lot of employers are lazy about it...but here is the thing:

if you do get a job, and they do eventually check references and find out that they are fake, they can fire you for that. Many companies will hire people before they finish checking references. You don't want to lose out because you lied. And never put anything on your CV/resume that is bs. I cannot tell you how many times I have caught people making up crap, I don't care what it is, if they falsify their resume, and I find out it is bs, I put them on my do not use list. You wouldn't want to work for an employer that tells you bs about a job, so why would you expect the employer to want someone full of bs to work for them?

sorry...off my soapbox...=)

Scully had some good advice. Have you never had a job before? how about volunteer positions (excluding door to door, haha). You must know some people that aren't witnesses? how far out of school areyou? you can use teacher references if you don't have employer references....just a thought.

Sparkplug

in a section on skills i put...self taught computer basics
and i cant even paste the freakin cv!!!!!!!

Now that is funny!

IG...I had the same problem. Fortunately/unfortunately, I have had the same job for 8 years. I am not sure it would be too much easier if I had to fill out a resume.

MAKING A C.V.

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