Curriculum vitaes - 2012+ style, how would you do yours?

[The Stig]

EDIT: Edited topic title because CVs might have confused people

This thread is about work/career RESUMES (known as CVs outside of the US)

CVs will get tailored to the job you're applying for, but I've been thinking of another idea.

Naturally these days, especially for IT related jobs, online presence (linkedin, social networks, etc) seems to be important.

Note that this is discussion/question on extra icing on top of a CV to make you stand out, not how to create a good CV to send to X company.

I've been thinking if this is a good idea, and was wondering if anyone would agree:

I have my own personal site/blog, entered via a "portal" site which also contains a mini blog and links to my own other sites, and with links to my Facebook, LinkedIn profile, etc.

Now, I've decided to build a mini site which is the equivalent to an online CV, but made to look fancy and interesting should my potential employer want to find out more about me. Although this not unusual and is infact fairly common, I was wondering if anyone had any opinions on the amount and on the content (within reason) that should go on it?

My own personal blog (not live, but will be, I've taken everything offline for retwigging) has my own reviews and opinions on games, life, society, tech, media, pretty much anything you would expect an all-purpose blog to have. This is not linked on the CV I post to the company/agency, but this blog can be accessed if you go to my "CV Site" and click on a tiny link at the bottom to get to the portal, and then get to the blog.

Now, onto the CV site. Since it's basically an online portfolio, how much content ("projects") would you put on there to show you've got interests, hobbies and things? One of my thoughts were to of course post a slightly more indepth profile of my skills and expertise from my previous work locations, as a primary "project" (although this is of course, a no brainer). The question comes what else can considered appropiate to you guys, to post?

I'll give some examples. This is of course too big to fit in the CV you send to them, but if this guy is interested in it for whatever reason, then going to the CV site would interest him even more and allow him to find more.

Example 1
You put "community building" and "event organising" as a skill. Of course, there's not much more you can squeeze in there but to give a tiny description of perhaps "Organised and ran a charity event at work to get everyone through an assault course"

On the CV site, you actually post a full day's log of what's happened, with photos, videos where appropiate, etc.

Example 2
You put "amateur games design and programming" as a hobby. Of course, this would be of no interest to the employer, unless for some offchance he also likes games, I dunno, because his son likes games.

On the CV site, you have your own custom Street Fighter clone, with some screenshots, a trailer, and a download to a beta of the game, and maybe some development notes or another link to a blog.

Example 3
You state "training people to use IT" as a skill.

On the CV site, you post excerpts/links/video links to something you created on teaching people how to take apart a PC, or upgrade their antivirus, whatever.

So the question is, of course getting the job is important, but how much is not too much in order to stand out from the rest of the people? Not only does doing this indicate you some sort additional skills not mentioned (website editing, html, php, image editing, programming, video encoding, etc)

Note that everything relevant and related to the job would be on the CV already, but I'm looking at this from a perspective of a person that is already impressed with your CV, and would like to find out more about you.

In my own opinion, if I was a manager looking to hire someone for my team, I would be as nosy as possible to get more insight on them. With information and internet being so accessible these days, I see no reason for a manager, who might be going through CVs on a train or remembering you had a site mentioned on the CV, to visit the link, and if it looks good, read more about it on the train or while on lunch, etc.

2nd question, a bit irrelevant to the above, but I wondered what are people's views:

My blog has maybe questional content (i.e. there's an article called "Dickheads on the train" where I talk about all the twats I come across on my commute, but in a humorous manner) that may not appear good potential employers, but my counter argument for this is that it's to show I'm not some brain dead zombie but I infact have opinions and am not afraid to show, for example.

Should the offchance they decide to view my personal blog (again, accessed via the portal site that they have to click on at the bottom of my CV site), is this too risky? Should I keep it apart entirely? Will this affect my ability to get a job if I am flaming something (moving away from the example above, lets say, criticising a movie) with light swearing? Would this be too unprofessional?

But in this day and age where people talk shit on Facebook/Twitter/equivalent, surely having a site like this isn't the same anymore.

But yeah, just a thought. Sorry if it's tl;dr, if anyone wants clarifications to what I said above, let me know. I'm just interested to know what people think.

[Maguspk]

Didn't know CV was the go to term outside the US. In the US a CV is mostly for academics and a 'resume' is what is used for mainstream job applications.

Anyway, I think most resumes, CVs in your case, are shit. How you stand out is largely based on your specific career. As a programmer I can show them the open source projects I've started and contributed to, along with my github profile, which is super sexy to most companies. If they want to see more of my work it's available to them but in the actual resume I keep it short with real metrics and published work, recently tried including screenshots but I'm unsure about how I feel overall about them. I've seen some creative portfolios but usually it's the result of a natural designer. Making something classy while informative is not simple.

While my field is suited for this sort of presentation, if you can come up with a cool way to demonstrate a real world thing you've done I see no reason not to include it. Something as simple as a screenshot to as complex as an animation, video or actual demonstration. The presentation here is mostly a design effort, at this point you're wow'ing them with something beautiful and the numbers really won't matter because that will have been in the resume.

[test123]

Make it short and clear, the reader will probably spend 3 minutes tops reading it. Bold your main points, like education and experience. Only have more then 1 page if you do "really" need to brag about all your papers, referances etc...

[The Stig]

Test123: hehe actually this thread was not about that at all, but don't worry, I admit it's too long to read so you might've missed some points.

Maguspk - Quoting war begins, but not for arguement, just to discuss points, thanks for taking your time to read it though despite the awkward topic title.

Didn't know CV was the go to term outside the US. In the US a CV is mostly for academics and a 'resume' is what is used for mainstream job applications.

I changed the topic title to reflect this, but the changes haven't taken effect. Probably explains the limited replies

Anyway, I think most resumes, CVs in your case, are shit. How you stand out is largely based on your specific career.

Agree, this is why I'm going to try my utmost best to be that special snowflake. Career wise, although this is more IT related. I guess it could work on other careers, but extra work is required.

along with my github profile

Never heard of github until now ._.
Going to poke around, although I don't think I will qualify as by nature I'm not a programmer, but a support person with a creative side for sites/media.
I CAN learn programming, but would prefer not to.

While my field is suited for this sort of presentation, if you can come up with a cool way to demonstrate a real world thing you've done I see no reason not to include it. Something as simple as a screenshot to as complex as an animation, video or actual demonstration. The presentation here is mostly a design effort, at this point you're wow'ing them with something beautiful and the numbers really won't matter because that will have been in the resume.

Yeah it's for bragging purposes but also to show the fact I will go an extra mile to get something, and in this case, show off what I've done.

The design effort doesn't matter, to me. Wouldn't you agree it's better to spend the effort to do this in order to further get distinquished from the crowd? This is to show off any meta-skills that won't fit in the CV.

Afterall, it's optional to view this "site". All relevant/important points are on the CV.

It's good that you agree though, I was worried someone might decide to say to me "well what's the point?" (I got several friends that know nothing of building a site or are very creative). It seems over the top, but I guess that is the aim.

[Hellfury]

whatever you do, make sure you have a key skills section, where you list straight out what you know, adhere to KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid).
Say you were in computers, you would have fields where you detail what you've done, say
2009-2011 - Alpha Omega Enterprises
Worked as QA on Project XYZ, responsible for ABC and DEF, used tools/languages A1, A2, A3 etc.

then later on a sum total of what you know for everything you've done.
Key skills: NoSQL, AJAX, SOAP, Python, C, ANSI C, C#, Ruby on Rails etc. etc. etc.

I spend a lot of my time reading peoples CVs at work, and I absolutely HATE having to search all over the place for the key qualifications.
Show me a shortlist, and if I see things I am looking for on it, THEN I will read your resume in depth. The EU standard for CVs isn't horribad, just don't do anything dumb with it, like this dude who made it with a horribad background that hurt my eyes.
Including a picture (if the laws in the country you're applying in allows it) is usually a good idea, but make it a serious, proper one.
Obvious party pictures will land your resume at the bottom of the pile at best.
etc.

edit: Also
Be realistic, yes, you're selling yourself, but if you start off bullshit detectors, recruitment agencies/seasoned recruiters will get very skeptical very fast.
The advantage of using a relatively standardised set-up is that it makes it easy for the recruiter, the recruiter knows where to look for stuff etc.
It's ok to be creative, but don't be TOO creative (unless you're applying to a creative position of course).

[solanis]

in my field, flashy formatting would be looked at as bizarre and unprofessional. that's finance though, I've known a couple front-end devs and they all had portfolio sites and online resumes.

[The Stig]

hellfury: yes, the resume I send across will contain everything "as usual" and quick to the point. Everything needed to know about the position I apply for will be on
it. This is just a talk on how much more evidence is reasonable to give beyond the CV if links were to be provided. I'm already aware of what should go in a CV to get all the points across

Be realistic, yes, you're selling yourself, but if you start off bullshit detectors, recruitment agencies/seasoned recruiters will get very skeptical very fast.

Yeah I know. I do not dare to tell something that is not true, or exaggerated. However, if I do mention anything, I'm confident I can talk passionately about it.

The EU standard for CVs isn't horribad

O_o I was under the impression US/EU CVs are somewhat no different, just each made to look their own. Is there something else EU or US does that doesn't share?

in my field, flashy formatting would be looked at as bizarre and unprofessional. that's finance though

That's interesting. With the exception of a normal CV with an impressive history (i.e. worked at numerous banks..?) what would be considered exceptional? It's unlikely I'll ever tap into finance, but just incase I randomly end up somewhere which involves supporting a bank's IT system? (for that is my field)

[Hellfury]

There's plenty of ways to shape a CV as you already know. The EU has made a suggested template available @ http://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/en...plates/doc.doc it's easy to read. The concept is the same, just variations in structure.

[solanis]

That's interesting. With the exception of a normal CV with an impressive history (i.e. worked at numerous banks..?) what would be considered exceptional? It's unlikely I'll ever tap into finance, but just incase I randomly end up somewhere which involves supporting a bank's IT system? (for that is my field)

working at numerous banks isn't what's impressive, it's what you did while you were there. investment bankers list their most important IPOs or bond issuances, analysts list their most impressive ratings as well as their prediction record, executives write about their duties and the departments they oversaw, etc. 99.99999% of us in this field just have extremely simple, straightforward word documents as our resumes, which never exceed 1 page.

[Hellfury]

I know most the people I work with get frustrated when CVs start getting 4 pages+, 1 might be too little (in the tech sector), 2-3 generally does the trick (note that my bias comes from us recruiting a lot from other countries, so we have to deal with tonnes of different languages, projects etc. etc. so we generally want a fair bit of information.) Some cultures have a habit of... exaggerating

[Viena]

I'm under the impression that CV is not just another word for résumé, they tend to be longer by definition, google seems to back this up. The difference of the US vs elsewhere lies in the kind of document you are expected to provide in most occasions, rather than in the meaning of the term itself.

I've the feeling that the more exhaustive CV tends to be used in Europe for the simple reason that foreign language skills are greatly valued in many occasions, and providing good accreditation of those skills is also essential. I just took a look at mine, which I updated recently using the Europass format. While it has two pages, the second one is entirely devoted to state and certify my competence in different languages by listing courses taken, experience, certificates and test results.

[kyod]

If I'm reading this all correctly:

I work in the PR/Marketing world, so it's incredibly commonplace for applicants to have an online portfolio/website. On their hard copy/PDF resume/CVs they place a link to their website/portfolio along with any relevant social media presences. 90% of hiring managers will probably end up looking you up and Googling your name if they are interested based on your resume/CV.

For the online portfolio/website, it needs to be professional. Include relevant work samples (i.e. if you helped execute an event, show photos of the event and go in-depth on its background and what role you played). Make sure your examples are relevant to your industry/profession and are clear and concise. If you blog, make sure it is regularly updated (i.e don't have an update from yesterday and then the update before that is 8 months prior). Nothing annoys me more when hiring interns is when they say they can blog and I see them with a post in January and a post in June. Or when they say they know social media and I see updates that only consist of Foursquare check-ins.

On your blog, do not post anything you might consider inappropriate. If you have blog posts where you are even questioning whether or not they could raise flags, make them private. Don't take the chance.

You say you want it to be known that you aren't a zombie and have opinions. That's great, but when you start swearing or call people dickheads, I'm not sure I would want a team member who says that stuff in public. (Example, if I'm hiring someone to help with client work and I know my client is a dickhead, I wouldn't want you on my team because you might post something on your blog/social networks where you call the client a dick. If the client ever saw it, the client's business would be in jeopardy and might cost everyone their job depending on how big the account is. You probably would never do something like that, but I have no idea of knowing that.) If you have a blog post with a criticism of something happening in your industry that's tactfully stated, that's fantastic (and as a hiring manager, I'd probably mention it if I brought you in for an in-person interview).

tldr: Add a link to your online portfolio on your paper/PDF resume/CV. On the portfolio website, play it safe and take anything you might consider questionable off of it.

[The Stig]

kyod: I read all of your post with fascinating interest.

It's interesting you say about the "gap" blogging actually. I never considered that possibility. I do blog often enough but I never taken into account of some people that claim they blog and only blog twice a year. It's good to know that this is a possibility, gives me another aim to go for in terms of standing out.

Social Media updates, however, I am 50/50 on those. On one side, you get all these bullshit nonsense updates "going on the train" "going out" "fantastic night out!" or the other side, updates on things happening as they unfold, for example, some live polictical debate. Naturally, the latter seems more attractive, but in the end, I don't think this is much of a tipping point.

I have a question though. I understand what you mean by the "risky content", but I personally never talk about work/clients on any public channel. Although my prospective employer does not know this, would such a person be quick to draw the line, assuming he pokes around the blog in-depth and sees some random articles on the general public/society? (amongst other articles such as tutorials, news, personal events, games, game reviews).

Also, from your perspective, said "personal" blog is on a different site to the CV/Portfolio blog, but can be accessed via 2-3 extra clicks (tiny links at the bottom of the site, think of a network). Would you go that extra mile to "explore"? My personal blog will never be linked on the CV, only my portfolio website. So basically at the bottom of my portfolio site, it'll say "part of the ACME COMPANY NETWORK" where ACME COMPANY NETWORK = link to a portal site, where you'll find additional websites.

You might be thinking "why do you need it there?" Naturally I can remove this, it's no big deal, but just to give things a bit more of a "corporate" feel? (Hard to describe this). Also to give the feeling I do a lot more other things.

This is just a thought of course. I completely appreciate your comments and will take the care in retwigging my own articles to be slightly more jestful, or just completely slice it out from access (I might buy another domain name just for this in this case, as currently it's on a sub domain of my blog)

(time to remove the "c__t-o-meter" I guess ) lol

Hellfury: You're correct, the "UK" format is 2 pages long. Breaks into 3 are acceptable I've seen, if you've got a long history/experience list. This is generally from older people, I know one guy who's 37, but in IT, and he is unable to keep it in 2 pages.

Viena: Interesting read, I really had no idea of the difference in the terminology!

[kyod]

It depends on the hiring manager. Some will dig deep, others might not even dig past your landing page and maybe look at one sample. You never know.

But if your personal stuff is easily Google-able or findable on your site (even if it's at the bottom or takes a couple clicks), then you must assume a hiring manager will look at it. It depends, though. For example, if I'm hiring a college intern, I wouldn't go very deep looking at them (i.e.: if they make no effort to hide pictures of them doing keg stands, we have a problem). If I'm hiring for a full-time position (they almost always interface with clients), I'll do more deep-digging. Ultimately it's my reputation as a manager on the line, and I want to get someone on my team who I can trust.

But yeah, never assume because you didn't specifically link to your personal blog on your CV that it won't be factored in when someone goes searching for you. Everything public on the internet about you is fair game. Do yourself a favor and Google your name and the email address you will use to apply for jobs. See what the results are. Because 99% of HR or hiring managers will be doing the same thing.

If you feel questionable about any content you have public, make it private. Don't lose your potential dream job over something as stupid as a blog post.

Note: All of my experience relates to the PR/Marketing/Advertising world. I have no idea what industry you have a career in, but I'm confident my advice applies.

[The Stig]

I see. My industry is IT but it's definitely similar up to a point. I agree with your advice and have taken it in.

I'll review my own materials and tone down the stuff significantly if required.

On the other hand... I don't suppose you've got any materials (sites) on hand you can show publicly? If it's against your rules and regulations I understand, but I'm curious to see first hand what some of these sites might look like.

[Hellfury]

I can't show anything actual alas, both laws and company policy prohibits.
I believe most recruitment companies have samples and tips both on blogs and their homepages though.

[Ddz]

I work at a software development consultancy and help out with a lot of the sourcing for resumes around here. When I read through a resume, I want to know what skills you know, in order of proficiency (Expert, Intermediate, Beginner - how many years experience, etc) and for work experience I want to know what you built and what you used to build it. Talk about the project and your role in the project. Did you develop automation tools, a framework, own a few features, or did you just do some test scripting? ("Using Visual Studio, I created a web service using WCF. The service did this - x, x, and x and tied into the project like this" would be a wonderful example of work experience). A lot of employers like to see GitHub accounts with sample code and stuff, so that's an idea too. If you're looking to create an interactive CV page, that's cool too. You can find a lot of personal websites for ideas using a simple Boolean search on Google these days.