They are as trustworthy as a dating profile and too often read like something written by the worst of all Apprentice candidates. What are CVs really for in a zero-hours age?For some strange reason, I find myself having to write a CV at the same time as my teenage daughter. I find this demand as ridiculous and unwieldy as she does. She could just send a Snapchat or something, whereas I wonder if anyone actually needs to know the course of my life, which is the rough translation of curriculum vitae. In this world of portfolio careers and zero-hour contracts, what does a CV really achieve? At her age, she has to exaggerate her experience: at mine, I have to gloss over certain years. Does anyone need to know about my short-lived career selling encyclopaedias in Louisiana? I think not. My time as a trainee audiology technician is as relevant as the O-levels I got in another era.The shorter the better anyway, apparently, as the average boss looks at a CV for three minutes. This seems unnecessarily long to me. What with the personal statements everyone is now required to write, applying for jobs is a job in itself. If you are old, if your name doesn’t sound “English”, if you have had time out having kids, all these things make you less appealing. There is instead a dreadful homogenised jumble of jargon; so many CVs read like the worst Apprentice applicants on glue. Continue reading…
Source : theguardian.com
Read more…How to write the perfect CV – first, refuse to play this stupid game
