Posted By peter gotch 1
Paul,
My advice as a regular recruiter [though not at this time] is that you need to be scrupulous with your communications whatever the media.
Please do not take the following in the hypercritical way that some posters have commented, but rather as a constructive suggestion as to how to improve your prospects...
Just because chat forums are generally fairly lax with spelling and punctuation [hence my user names in all lower case] does NOT mean that those looking for work on forums such as this should be equally lax.
You should treat posting on this forum as akin to sending a job application letter. "i" instead of "I" is liable to end up in the bin, without adequate investigation by an employer as to what you can offer.
So draft your posting in Word, spell and grammar check it [worry about whether your computer is defaulting to American rather than U.K. English] and then cut and paste to the forum.
Oh, and for the benefit of our readers, my English Master was a stickler, so.....
1. NO ampersands [&] except in titles such as Health & Safety Executive, or if you can justify an abbreviation such as H&S which is VERY rarely going to be the case in a CV.
2. NO abbreviations at least until you have spelled each out the first time. Readers of your CV may not as be familiar with HSE jargon as you are. Even when the reader is a H&S professional they may not understand jargon from other sectors, e.g. construction employer with "HACCP" - which might add a complementary skill set to what they have at present.
Exceptions, standard educational quals, e.g. O Level and HND, and [depending on your understanding of employer] - IOSH and NEBOSH - NOTE that in client bids etc I still usually assume that I should spell out BOTH, despite the fact that well over 90% of our communications are with "blue chip" clients - remember that a lot of a majority of the review will be with their procurement people not their in house H&S team [assuming there is one, and assuming that procurement want to talk to that team - not always the case!]
3. If you have joined a mickey mouse so called "professional body", or bought a "qualification" with similar characteristics that has minimal Google recognition then leave either out of your CV. Either liable to be seen negatively either by the experienced H&S professional [e.g. me] or anyone else who ends up doing a Google search - most recruiters are not naive!!
4. Dates - consider reducing to year only. Definitely not day. The reader is interested in my H&S career starting in 1979, NOT the 2nd of April [which incidentally was the date of a national civil service strike!]
5. If you are longer in the tooth [I don't mean like an elephant like me], are the grades you got in quals 5/10+ years ago still of interest to the reader? [of course if you got virtually straight As and Bs you should probably keep these in your brag file and CV]. Generally the space you take up with grades would be better redirected to giving the reader more information about what you have done since [exception - if you have not been in the work environment e.g. as bringing up children, then grades may still have more relevance]
My work CV [whose format is consistent with our 6000 U.K and Ireland staff including recent e.g. graduates] does not mention what A and O Levels I have. It does state my degree and post graduate diploma, but I doubt that many of our clients spend much time on reviewing this part of my CV - relying instead on the textual commentary as to what I have DONE.
6. For the same longer in the tooth people, treat the advice that your CV should not extend beyond 2pp with a large pinch of salt.
My company "full" CV extends to five pages including one devoted to "professional appointments, presentations and papers" [company standard format] - actually need to review to keep to one page whilst demonstrating that I am still doing this - cos this particular page should not overrun [my perception, not Jacobs]!
But [should not start a sentence with But, but this is a chat forum where I am NOT looking for a job!} overall length of anyone's CV has to reflect e.g. investigation of some 40 fatals and other incidents such as fairground ride collapse, and proactive work such as audits of all aspects of the operation and maintenance of the London Eye site, of Network Rail health and safety management systems, and health and safety standards of an integrated iron and steelworks in Ukraine. [Even here, I spend time making sure that 5pp covers the highlights - AND we tailor CVs to reflect specific clents]
7, If H&S was not your first career, recognise that your past brings skills and understanding that are transferable. Do not omit reference from your CV as I see all too often - this week when someone was apparently not working when I guess that they had been in the Forces for 20+ years.
8, Whether or not, comments at 5-7 seem vaguely irrelevant to you, one final message, which some of you might feel is patronising, but which message I can assure you is a repeat problem from a recruiter's perspective....
Tailor your application and CV to the specific role.
There are aspects of your CV which are of particular relevance to the recruiter.
[Stress the experience you have of e.g. specific types of risk, incident investigation that has cross-sectroral relevance, noting that should NEVER blame your current or previous employers! - there are ways of doing this at interview - but not recommended]
Equally some aspects of MY CV may be of less relevance to a specific client [hence why we have flexible CV formats]
Good luck to all of you who are currently job seeking.
Regards, Peter