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Hi All,
I am back on the Job Market again. I had a phone call yesterday from a Recruitment Professional out of the blue (apparently I had click on the review my CV button(?)) He told me while I was not in a good position to take it in that my CV contained too many personal details and so on. Now I do agree but the 'recruitment agents' will not often entertain a CV without them. I get a feeling that was the set up for I can alter it but it will cost X pounds for it.... any idea if these so called services are worth it?
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Years (many years) ago, I hired a professional recruiter to help me write my resume. She taught me some really good [resume writing] lessons, and she even found me a job!
Nowadays though, 99% of them are vultures. Fortunately, I happen to know a couple that are actually decent human beings.
Marc
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The idea of a CV is to get some personal details; the clou is in the name.
Anything else in there is "noise".
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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If you need help with your CV, then email it to me. I would be more than glad to review it and give any "advice". I have never had any issues or complaints with my CV or CV format.
Good luck. 
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Yeah, that's pretty much what I have done. I think the point about letters after your name is a good one, I mean this 'guy' said what can you put after your name other than BSc. I replied MIET, Cert Something I have forgotten and he said I should use them all......
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I went through a redundancy process some time ago and the firm paid for consultants to come in, tell us all about CVs, jobs and stuff. One of them said that if a recruiter was charging you for the service then steer clear. There are plenty out there and the better ones charge the companies an introduction fee rather than the individual.
I've also been in the situation where an Agent "adjusted" my CV for a specific job interview. The questions in the interview were so off-target I had to finally ask "is that actually my CV you have there?" When the interviewer said "well, it's got your name on it" I just handed over a copy of the original (always take a copy with you!) and got the post. The adjusted CV looked the business and read really well mind - it just didn't relate to anything I'd actually done (and missed off some rather pertinent facts too)
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Pretty much the same thing happen to me, In one interview they had 'my' CV and from the brief look of it the agent had completely reformatted it and added some extra experience with the parent firm!! I did ask him about it, as he had to give me a lift to the Railway Station, his comment "Well you will thank me if gets you the job!"
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That's what I said to him!
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Unless your CV s completely sh*t, and you can't be bothered, of course they're not worth it!
I had feedback from two agencies on my CV.
- Too wordy - need to be more succinct. bullet points not prose.
- To much like a list of bullet points - need to expand and put experiences in a personal manner.
That tells me I have it about right!
PooperPig - Coming Soon
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I think all agents have a secret style of CV they just don't tell anyone else! I mean I have seen over wordy CV (such as one guy who told the world 'I was afraid of heights, so I learnt to parachute to over come it', why? would working at a desk be subject to working at heights?). The problem in the UK (at least) is the Arts grads and failed engineers who recruit for these roles you have to get the CV past them and on to some one who knows what MIET stands for! 
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To be fair, taking up parachuting to overcome fear of heights tells you a lot about a person.
They watch too many "xxx's got talent" auditions, and confuse this with the real world
PooperPig - Coming Soon
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I picked up a book entitled "What Colour is My Parachute" a few years back which contains sound advice regarding writing a CV. It was so effective that my CV has been used by prospective employers as an example of staff they have at hand when bidding on projects. Imagine reading your own CV among bid proposals for projects your clients are funding. (Strange -- none of the proposals were successful.)
The difficult may take time, the impossible a little longer.
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Thanks for the title, just ordered it from Amazon 
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Be advised guys, in the UK lies on the CV:
Theft (Amendment) Act 1996, it read:
(1) A person who by any deception dishonestly obtains services from another shall be guilty of an offence.
(2) It is an obtaining of services where the other is induced to confer a benefit by doing some act, or causing or permitting some act to be done, on the understanding that the benefit has been or will be paid for.
(3) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (2) above, it is an obtaining of services where the other is induced to make a loan, or to cause or permit a loan to be made, on the understanding that any payment (whether by way of interest or otherwise) will be or has been made in respect of the loan.
So that ruddy bloke altering your CV isn't doing you any favours.
Like wise lying on job applications.
Good luck.
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My experience is that the CV is used to filter applicants. You tune it to get into the interview shortlist. It's really the references and the interview that get you the position.
I have seen cvs from glossy brochures to hand written notes. Most of them ended up in the bin.
The best advice I have is keep it short and succinct, i.e. one A4 page. Managers don't have time to read War and Peace.
I may not last forever but the mess I leave behind certainly will.
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I think it's insane I had a one pager, rejected by all, the problem is I am having to through agents who presumably take my two pages listing nearly every qualification I have (alright the two swimming metals I won at 13 aren't on there yet) and condense it down to a page I'm guessing but I'm sure certain things aren't on there because it doesn't make sense to them... 
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These days it looks as if you have to second guess what the HR department want.
What is flavour of the month? Do they have a pet curve ball test? Are they interested in swimming medals or do they focus on qualifications related to the post? Are they looking for someone who will be a team hi fiver or someone who can go it alone?
Maybe an agent will know the answers to these questions but frankly, I doubt it.
I may not last forever but the mess I leave behind certainly will.
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You & me both!
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Mmmm, interesting 
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The most important advice I ever got on creating a CV is that it should be one page. No more, no less. If it's less, it'll look empty. If it's more, well, you can pretty much guarantee that any additional pages will be lost as it gets passed around to the various people that might review it. Plus, with only one page you get to avoid the endless war between office drones who prefer staples and the ones who prefer paper clips (and no matter which one you pick you'll always be wrong).
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The problem I have is that I 'have' to go through 'professional' recruitment agency, I have done a one pager and had that rejected as there was not enough detail. I have tended to avoid the staples or paper clips by sending it as a Word Document (.doc not .docx as that can cause problems). Last week I had a professional who proceeded to rip my CV to shreds while offering 'free' services who then would not send me an E-mail with his recommendations as it was a 'free' session (his main justification was well what I am saying is right I have a job you don't!  ). People wonder why this country is in the bucket they need to employ people for what they are good at.
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...I've been looking at this one problem.
Why would a simple Linq Except with a trivial IEqualityComparer always return all input objects instead of the "new" ones?
And then it hit me...
public int GetHashCode(CompareFile cf)
{
return cf.GetHashCode();
} 
Instead of returning the hash code for the item within the class that is going to be the same...
Five hours.
And all I needed was a "." and a property name...
Please, call me an idiot - I deserve it today. 
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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OriginalGriff wrote: Please, call me an idiot - I deserve it today.
I already accused you of something today and that didn't end well, so I'm staying out of it.
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