A Cv Should Be A Resum, Not A Life Story

A recent survey of 600 employers by the British Chamber of Commerce found that only 20% of them would be confident about employing people who had previously worked in the public sector.

On the basis of this evidence the BCC suggested that training in interview technique and CV writing should be given to all public sector workers, many of whom are facing redundancy because of the Government's austerity cuts to address the economic crisis.

If a recent quiz on CV best practise is any guide there are still many people who take risks with their CV and many who do not know how to compile one to show themselves to best advantage.

The first question in the quiz was whether it was actually illegal in the UK to lie on a CV. The correct answer was that indeed it is under the 2006 Fraud Act (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) and the maximum penalty is 10 years in prison.

If a job seeker has any doubts about their career history and experience and in the current climate is getting increasingly desperate to find work then the temptation to be a little economical with the truth may be great. Clearly it is not worth taking the risk.

The trick is to be truthful, to the point and to answer the questions posed in the job description with relevant examples and to avoid giving any information that could allow potential employers to exercise their prejudices.

For example, although age discrimination is illegal it may be wise to avoid giving dates for training or university or to include the whole of a 30-year career history. Both would provide the recruiter with a means of calculating a person's age and eliminating them before they even get to shortlist stage. The candidate may suspect this is the reason they haven't been invited for interview, but there is no way they could prove it.

Curriculum Vitae translates from the Latin and means Course of Life, but that does not mean an invitation to write one's life history. Possibly a better word would be resum;, translated from the French as summary.

To be sure that the CV is doing the trick it may be useful to have it checked through by an experienced specialist recruitment agency that is likely to know what information its clients want and how they want it presented.

Similarly employers are very wary of accepting a photograph with an application for fear that they could be accused of discrimination if the candidate is not selected for shortlisting.

They may have very fixed ideas about what they consider attractive, or the appearance they have in mind for the person they are recruiting as their PA or secretary, but if a candidate can get to the interview stage and appears smart and presentable as well as competent then they may well be able to overcome any fixed ideas the recruiter might have.

Some employers are very wary of modern innovations like the video CV although others welcome them, provided they do not include the irrelevant as one recent one did, showing clips of the candidate dancing with a scantily clad partner!

On the other hand innovations like the one used by a graduate who printed their CV on the back of a T-shirt may appeal to some who would give the person full marks for enterprise.


Copyright (c) 2011 Alison Withers