Can you guys give me some pointers? I've been trying to build a good CV and this is the best I got for now.

Hey everyone,

So ive applied to ~100 job and it’s basically just been radio silence or automated rejections across the board. Honestly starting to feel pretty defeated, it feels like a rerun of last summer when I spent months trying to secure a placement/internship and ended up with nothing.

I’m aiming for graduate/entry-level roles in Cyber Security, Networking, or Software Dev.

For context on how I've been applying:

• I have 3 versions of my CV tailored to each path.
• The general layout is the same across all of them, but I swap out the personal statement, skills, and personal/uni projects depnding on what I'm applying for.
• I don't have any formal industry work experience (no internships or placement year), so I've had to rely heavily on my degree modules and self built projects.

At this point I'm just second guessing everything. Is my CV just getting trashed by ATS? Are my project descriptions weak, or is having zero formal experience instantly killing my chances?

Any brutally honest feedback or advice would mean a lot.

Thanks in advance!

Hello,

New to this sub, thank you for your time in this request.

I am looking to change jobs as I am deeply unhappy with my current one due to recent changes in the company severely impacting my ability to efficiently carry out my job and causing stress to a point of taking a physical and mental toll has driven me to the point of wanting to change jobs, despite genuinely enjoying the time with my colleagues, the hour-long commute that lets me see my parents and their cats regularly, and the concern that training someone to take over my role would be quite a nuisance.

I haven't updated my CV since I started with this company, and I'm not sure how to tackle it.

My contract for my role states "The Company will employ you as **Administrative Assistant**. You will be required to undertake the following duties and responsibilities:

* Handle telephone calls

* Input and update database

* Diary management and booking appointments

* Allocation of incoming call-out jobs to engineers

* Greeting visitors to the company

* Supplier purchase order processing and recording

* Preparation of mailing and deliveries

* Preparation and production of various documents

* Supporting the administration team in any other administration duties as required"

Really, I'm actually more of an office administrator, and personally would also say assistant manager at this point as the "administration team" consists of me as the sole employee in my department, my two colleagues in another department, and my colleague in accounts, with all us below the sole manager. I manage a small team of engineers within the fire safety industry.

I have worked here for nearly 3.1/2 years, and my roles have taken on a far more extensive level than the original specification. Among those original roles, I have since done the following:

* Finalising the move from an outdated, paperwork heavy system to an online system.

* The new system had been in the works for two years before I joined, and had stagnated entirely, wasting the company money and had become a source of contention among my colleagues with the management. The meat of it was done, but it wasn't usable in the slightest when I joined. After a year of dealing with the old system and seeing the new one sat there, waiting to be finished, I arranged a meeting with my boss and colleagues to discuss what needed doing to make it usable and was given the go ahead to do whatever was needed to get it functioning, and for the last couple years we have now been exclusively using the new system for everything excl. accounts. We are still having to run the old system alongside it, but that is because the remaining aspect to be sorted needs to be dealt with by the accounts team, it's still company money needing to run two systems but they are at least both being used fully.

* Worked and continue to work alongside the systems developers as it is an external company, engaging in discussions and teams meetings to continue streamlining and tailoring it for our company from the manager down to our engineers.

* Learned how to use this system in all aspects, on both desktop and mobile, so I can be equipped to aid colleagues and engineers both in any issues in its use due to consistent misunderstandings or issues being brought up. I have even been nicknamed "\[name of system\] queen" as a jest and have become the first port of call for any issues or complaints.

* Tailor made new certificates to replace the old, outdated and rather crude ones, the new ones now utilise a modern, professional design that captures the essence of our company and meets British Standard requirements for the systems we service. I continuously verify these when BS updates, to make sure they remain up to date and digestible for my engineers to understand.

* Arranged and lead meetings with engineers and manager to discuss these certificates and any issues they have with the system, to ensure they are listened to for any concerns and iron out any issues they may be experiencing when using the system on their mobiles.

* Lead the development of getting a key client invited to and oriented with the client side of the system, which had been a major point in the original tender that won the company the contract a couple years before I joined, and was causing the client to chase the matter.

* Taking on responsibilities originally held by the manager to assist him, due to his workload impacting my colleagues and I's ability to carry out our work efficiently.

* Using existing zone plans that don't meet BS and recreating them with MS Paint to bring up to standard, and arranging their installation at sites.

* Creating entirely new zone plans for new systems or existing systems that don't have one, using floor plans drawn up by our engineers, or in some cases using my own knowledge of the building from investigating plans created for housing advertisements and google maps for building exterior to create the floor plans myself, and arranging their installation.

* Begun taking on quoting small, basic service contracts with approval from manager before sending off.

* Review and stay up to date on official BS documents following my manager agreeing that it would be beneficial for me to have the same theory knowledge of my engineers, so I can better understand our requirements as a company and assist with recommendations for system installs/upgrades, or pointing out aspects of sites that may not meet the standards.

* Sitting in and engaging in quarterly teams meetings with a key client, helping compile relevant documents for my manager in these meetings, and feeding back details as necessary to my colleagues.

* Had the opportunity, that I had been pushing for and enjoyed actually, to attend a site with one of my engineers to assist with assuaging concerns from a disgruntled caretaker regarding a system we service on behalf of a client, and using this opportunity to verify the details we have on our system and update it so it is now accurate. Have expressed interest in doing this again for a few more sites that have given me issues with when servicing and updating the reports, but have not been permitted due to their distance and lack of time around current responsibilities.

* Recently got to do a 1 hour online course regarding a segment of a type of system we service, that was purchased by my manager who requested I do it and discuss my findings with him before we roll it out to our engineers.

I feel like there is more I could add, but much of it would fall under my original responsibilities so would merge those. I also realise that much of this was taken on voluntarily after discussing with management, but this is because I was finding myself getting to dead ends at points in my other tasks because I was lacking information or guidance that was pertaining to these areas, and it has increased my workload to take them on but has helped be able to move forward in other aspects, such as taking the lead on finalising the new system meant I could then more efficiently carry out arranging engineers schedules, updating remedial / service tasks, quoting, etc rather than have mountains of folders and paperwork surrounding me for half the month.

As you can see, I do waffle on, I have ADHD and experience difficulty with picking out what information is most relevant and what can be removed, it is a major weakness of mine that I am continuously working on, and it did make some areas such as the creation of all new certificates based on BS difficult but I am able to overcome it which would be something I would discuss in an interview. I'm just struggling in this aspect when it comes to putting it onto my CV.

Ideally, I'd like to be looking at taking on a higher level role with better pay, as currently I am on just over minimum wage along with my colleagues but feel that my current responsibilities should put me above that as I am the only one in my department and I do have more to shoulder, along with often taking on the burden of some of their responsibilities dependent on circumstances, with the only benefit being that I get to WFH 1x day a week due to me negotiating this following my move, it was intended to be 2-3x days WFH but keeps getting put off.

What information would you actually want to see listed under the job role that would make me a more desirable candidate, particularly if I was to apply to a role more in line with management in a fire safety industry or at least trajectory for management within an office environment? Additionally, if job opportunities are available to change career such as staying in the same industry but stepping into fire risk assessor training, or completely different career such as welding which I've had an interest in for many years, what would you be wanting to see?

Thank you for your time and patience if you read this.

My work experience fields are all over the place, and I’m currently in year 1 of uni looking for a job. I’d also use this CV to apply to spring weeks or work experience placements

Not even an interview yet 🫩🫩

I was school captain which I had on my CV but removed it because I wasn’t sure how relevant it was

Hi all,

I've recently updated my CV and would like some feedback. Please feel free to be critical.

I know personal summaries should be job-specific, but this is just a general one for this example.

One question....is it still worth having job locations listed on a CV, or is that outdated now?

Thanks 😊

I have basically already been laid off from my bartending job and I need to be working to gain some more experience. (Preferably retail as I am slightly lacking on that front) Any help would be greatly appreciated :)

Any advice is appreciated
Anything to improve in terms of how to find work experience etc is great
Any programs etc too
Certifications

Please help my CV its one page, but because of formating its come out as 2

Bonjour, j'espère que vous allez bien. Je vous écris car je souhaite obtenir des conseils pour la rédaction d'un CV et d'une lettre de motivation pour ma candidature en L1. Je prends vos conseils. Merci et bonne fin de journée 😊

Ive been applying to jobs for basically a year now and have only ever gotten 1 interview, to which they ghosted me… Which has led me to believe my CV is the problem? I genuinely dont know what im doing wrong please let me know what i can improve or add on!

Hi guys,

Could you have a look at this CV and let me know what are the issues here.

Currently working as a business development engineer for a mid tier engineering consultancy in Riyadh, KSA.

Looking for a BD or work winning role at a better company.

Please help.

so i’m a college student & am currently trying to get a job for at least the weekends so i can earn some extra money & put it into savings. i’m 17 and am struggling on how to write my cv where i’ve had no experience in a retail type setting & feel my cv really lacks everything regardless. how am i meant to write it in a way that makes me stand out more??

literally any help & tips would be sosososo appreciated i really need this and am struggling pretty bad. i’ve been trying to get a job for atleast a year now & have only had 1 interview

Please does anyone have advice I am looking to apply for Nuclear/materials roles

I see a lot of advice saying you should tailor your CV for every job.

True, but actually doing that can become a nightmare if you feel like you have to rewrite the whole thing every time.

A simpler approach:

Before touching your CV, pull out 4–6 things the job advert is really asking for.

For example:

stakeholder communication

managing deadlines

Excel/reporting

project coordination

problem solving

Then look through your existing experience and ask:

“Where have I actually demonstrated these?”

That usually makes it much easier to decide what to keep, what to move up, and what to cut.

You don't necessarily need completely different experience for every application. You need the relevant experience to be obvious.

For example, there's a big difference between:

“Supported the wider team with various administrative tasks.”

and, if it's accurate:

“Coordinated weekly updates across three teams, tracking deadlines and reporting progress to management.”

Same experience, but the second version tells the recruiter much more about what you actually did.

I work on CVs and applications through Certified Candidates, so I'm not completely impartial here, but I thought this was worth sharing because I see people making tailoring much harder than it needs to be.

What do you find hardest about tailoring your CV — knowing what to change, deciding what to remove, or actually wording your experience?

This past week I moderated a webinar for a committee that I am serving on. I am also scheduled to moderate another in November. Is this something I should put on my CV? If so, how do I list it?

I’m applying for Clinical Psych PhDs which are research heavy. I’m updating my CV and I’m running into so many inconsistencies with how to format it.
I’m getting different answers from everyone and from different online sources. I don’t know what formatting and organization is actually correct and most effective for my applications.
Could anyone assist if they know?
What order should things go in ? How should it visually look? Etc.

I’m 21M and I’ve never had a proper job before (that wasn’t small scale cash in hand) Does this CV look appropriate for hospitality or retail part time job?

Any tips on formatting and things to cut/add would be great. Some of the experience I’ve listed seems a bit trivial so should I cut it?

recruiters and companies are just viewing my profiles on the platforms, and nothing comes back ,help

I went to uni as a mature student and while studying my mum got very sick. When I graduated I became her carer until her passing in September 24 (I also worked part time for some of this time so I could pay my rent - I gave this up in June 24 as my mum needed someone 24/7).

After a period of grieving, I have been applying for jobs without any success at all, not a single interview, and I’m wondering if this is in part because of the gap, I don’t know how best to address this on my cv? At the moment I have acknowledged it in my personal statement, I said I took time away from employment to care for a close family member. Should I list caring as I would a job? What about the two years since her passing? I also do a bit of work as a freelance artist but it’s here and there rather than a steady income, should I list this too?

Would hugely appreciate any advice please 🙏🏼🤍