May
06
2008

There’s a little place in the office of every hiring manager and HR person. It is a cold and dark place. An eerie place filled with shadows. A place swarming with the ghosts and spirits of missed “dream job” opportunities. A kind of job purgatory if you will. In effect it is actually a CV graveyard, needing only 1 excuse to lure its CV prey. In applying for a job you must avoid this place with all your might, and to aid you in your quest (or odyssey!) I have outlined a few of the lures and weapons the graveyard has in its arsenal. Beware…….

  1. The format trap - always save your CV as a generic and compatible file format. To be safe go with a .doc (note: avoid .docx as they are not always compatible with earlier versions of Word). The last thing you want is to submit your prized CV that you have slaved over making it perfect - only for it to be trapped by the graveyard because it is inaccessible. Read the entire post…

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Mar
19
2008

With a diverse population working in IT/software/telecom jobs in Ireland, a whole variety of CV formats are floating around out there. It’s a cliche, but even with great experience a confusing or inadequate CV can get you screened out early in the process, or worse, it can give the (mistaken) impression that yo have something to hide. Sometimes it’s just crummy CV writing you can see the world over, sometimes it’s adhering to a format that isn’t really common in Ireland/ Europe. To have a CV that gets positive attention:

  1. Thou shalt put clear and accurate contact info at the top- The first thing on your CV should be a block with your full name (first name first, family name last), complete address, mobile number, home number, and personal email address. Don’t include your work phone number or email address. Check your email several times of day, and for the love of Pete set up the voicemail on your phone. Read the entire post…

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