Working In The Creative Media Industry - Week 8 - Creating Your CV

Doubtless the CVs you might have created in the past have been fine for the kind of jobs you've been applying for. Time to step your CV up a bit, and make it a MEDIA CV which reflects the skills you're picking up. If you're thinking 'I've done nothing, there's nothing to put on my CV' you're probably wrong (think of the software and programmes you've picked up experience of at college) + you're forgetting what Curriculum Vitae means - Vitae means 'life', a CV is not a dead document to be stuck in a draw/hard-drive and forgotten about. It's a LIVING document that needs to be regularly updated and changed to reflect the changes in your life, learning and experience. Crucially it's your five minute (which is frequently how long these things are looked at) window to sell yourself. Best to get it right, or at least get a CV ready that can be adapted as time goes on.  

Get your CV together in the following order. If you've got an old one, feel free to edit it in this order but I think you'd benefit mentally from actually starting a totally brand new one. 

1. Find Out Who You Are. 

Do the personality test here.

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp 

Then, with your 4 letter personality type. Go here and find your profile. If you've done the test honestly it should be fairly accurate. 

http://personalitypage.com/html/careers.html

Copy the text of your personality profile, especially the bullet points into a word document for use  in your CV later. 

(btw you can find out which celebs share your personality type here although this isn't strictly relevant - https://www.thefamouspeople.com/personality-type.php)

2. START MAKING YOUR CV IN THE FOLLOWING ORDER 

Name/Address/contact details.

 At the top of the page and centre-aligned.  Give a sensible boring business-like e-mail address (if yr e-mail is Satan666@hotmail.com or Spliffhead@gmail.com probably best not to use it). Mobile number preferable to landline. Here will also be the place to put in a link to your Linkedin profile once you've created it (next session). 

2. Career Objective 

State, in a couple of lines, what area you'd like to end up working in and what you'd like to be working on. Don't be overly cocky ('I'm aiming to end up working as Bill Gates' boss') but be ambitious. What would be your dream role? Show you have a  goal. 

3. Personal Skills Profile. 

Remember the list of attributes your personality test generated? Use the POSITIVE ones that you agree with in a bullet-pointed list of your best qualities. Add your own if appropriate ('good dresser' and 'excellent at Call Of Duty' are NOT appropriate qualities). Good to show in the first few parts of a CV that you have a goal, and you're confident about yourself (even if you're not). This kind of bullet-pointed info is what a lot of employers/recruiters call 'high impact material' and is frequently the thing that is read first by prospective employers. Make it tight + positive but not overly smug. 

4. Career History 

A full list of any employment you've had, latest first, with concrete dates + at least a line on the roles/responsibilities you took on. Even if you consider the role irrelevant try and pull out the positive things you gained from the job (eg 'experience in teamwork', 'customer service', 'stock-taking' etc) and talk about them positively. DO NOT use your CV as a place to beef about previous bosses/employers - explanations of long-running problems at previous workplaces or anything that makes it look like you're a whiney sod who blames your own mistakes on other people is NOT a good idea to include in a document meant to secure you employment. Reason I say this is cos I've SEEN cvs with this kind of moaning on it. Don't do it. Accentuate the positive. 

5. Education History 

Again, concrete dates + latest first - so your first part of this should say what course you're doing now, perhaps mentioning some of the units you're studying and what software/programmes/skills you're gaining experience and knowledge of. Then list your secondary-school grades to GCSE/AS/A Level - BE ACCURATE about grades, they WILL be checked. In general DON'T LIE on a CV because (a) you want to be hired for who you ARE, not who you've PRETENDED to be and (b) you don't want to get a job where you're constantly thinking 'They've rumbled me' and are worried about getting the elbow. As always, accentuate the positive and be ready to explain missing dates if asked. 

6. Other Work 

A place to include any work you've engaged in on a voluntary basis for any organisations (charities/clubs etc). 

7. Hobbies & Interests 

You'll hear some people say don't include this section. They're wrong. Increasingly important I'd say. Think about what the job-ad you're applying for says they're after and make sure your hobbies/interests reflects what you are TRULY into (don't say you go white-water-rafting or parachute-jumping in your spare time if you don't). The only hobby/interest I would perhaps leave off this list would be Taxidermy. 

8. References

Don't name references on a CV unless the job-ad specifically requires it. The phrase 'References available on request' will suffice, but make sure you do have people who will give you a good reference in place. DON'T assume that just because your teacher knew you for two years they'd give you a good reference. I've had kids put me down as a reference without asking me first and I've been HONEST about what they're like. I don't want to lie to people or be the cause of problems somewhere because I give a good reference to an absolute nightmare kid. Make sure you have people who'll vouch positively for you. 

WHAT YOU SHOULD END UP WITH 

A CV comprising the elements outlined above in the order outlined above. Next week it'll be time to create a Linkedin profile + one of the first things you'll put on your profile is your CV so make sure it's ready.