And now for something completely different....

[BluesDave]

Based on my CV and the rather unique work experience that I have what would you say I should be doing for a living and what changes would you make to the CV apart from removing Nationality and date of birth.

I won't be answering questions as all the information is there. I have not pasted my name, address, club memberships and phone number for reasons of confidentiality and security.




Personal Details:

Nationality: British
D.O.B. : 21-04-1975
Key Skills:

• Extensive building trade sales, marketing & practical experience.
• Highly Self Motivated.
• Established management skills.
• Able to work well in a team & on own initiative.
• Excellent organisational skills.

• Excellent telephone manner.
• Client/ customer liaison/service in varied environments
• Ability to adapt to & communicate confidently with businesses and personnel at all levels in all situations.

Employment History:


Aug 08 – Present
Self employed Painter & Decorator/Builder trading as
Aug 05 – Aug 08
Full time Father and House Husband.


March 01 – Aug 05

Self employed trading as
Duties and responsibilities:

• Property Restoration/ Refurbishment.
• Estimate & specify for decorating contracts.
• Purchasing materials.
• Engaging other tradesmen such as plumbers, carpenters , plasterers or electricians when necessary.
• Accounts including cash flow & basic accrual bookkeeping.
• Time & personnel management ensuring projects are completed to schedule.

Jan 99 – Dec 99;
Trade Counter Supervisor
Goodbody Supplies Ltd, Plumbers Merchant, New Malden.

Duties &Responsibilities:

• Customer service to trade retail and contract client bases.
• Running of trade sales department & warehouse.
• Telesales/ Marketing/ Arranging Promotions.
• Purchasing & Sales Reports.
• Budgeting & Cashing up.
• Arranging deliveries.
• Stock management.

Jan 98 - Oct 98;
Senior Counter Salesman
Merton Timber Limited, Tooting.

Duties & Responsibilities:

• Customer Service.
• Estimation & Quotation.
• Cash Handling.

Dec 96 – Jan 98;
Temporary Media Sales Positions
including:
James E. James Publishers - telesales & marketing of advertising space in emergency services publications.
Virtual Internet - promotion & sales of internet domain names to both corporate & local businesses.

Prior to this I held a number of Sales & marketing positions including Builders Merchants, Telephone sales & marketing of various advertising mediums at local & corporate business levels, Retail sales, Drycleaning. Also painting and decorating/ skilled labourer working with builders.

Education:
G.C.S.E.
English, History, Geography, Combined Science, Mathematics, Art.

Hobbies & Interests:
Reading, music, writing, sea angling, cycling, gardening, cooking. Decorating, design, architecture & building (interior, exterior and landscape).

Clubs & Societies:
RSPB
& others.


References are available on request.

 

[akb]

Seems as though you have a lot of experience in the buidling/construction trade, from a sales POV. Have you considered a role in the manufacturing/production for construction?

 

[akb]

And totally agree with "ands".

 

[screenman]

Sorry, but with all those excellent key skills I would wonder why you were looking for a job. You should have 10+ people working for you even in today's economical climate. So many interests, have you got time to work?

I also agree with the "ands"

 

[Mad at urage]

David, with the information you put up there, I was able to find your address (and if I'd looked for it I'm sure your tel.no) with a simple google search.

 

[BluesDave]

David, with the information you put up there, I was able to find your address (and if I'd looked for it I'm sure your tel.no) with a simple google search.

I've removed my business name and hopefully that will counteract the issue, I don't think anyone on here would be beating a path to my door in order to take umbrage with me though.
Google is clearly the devils sperm when it comes to maintaining ones privacy as I assume is facebook.

 

[Archie_tect]

Dave, I would look at approaching the technical departments/ sales for the national paint maufacturers, like Leyland, Dulux, Crown, Tor Coatings... with your practical experience you could work with their technical /spec departments advising on paint manufacturing specification/ testing, wholesale contract sales, DIY stores advisory service, English Heritage/ National Trust advisor. Work to your strengths and get talking to people about what you know and can advise on.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Well, if you are as good as you say you are with those skills then why don't you just carry on and expand your current business?

I think that your CV is lifeless really - it's a list of things you did and does not state any real achievements and lacks any personality.

As an example, take this line here:

"Engaging other tradesmen such as plumbers, carpenters, plasterers or electricians when necessary."

That's either.....you picked up Yellow Pages and dialed a few numbers or your excellent interpersonal skills enabled you to maintain a contact base of highly skilled professionals that enabled you to complete projects on cost, to spec' and with no over-run eg a £250k residential refurbishment in May 2011 blah blah blah.

It also looks like you are bundling up things for the sake of it eg "Budgeting & Cashing up." - two tasks that just do not sit on the same line for me.

Cashing up is simplistic task that the company cat can do whereas budgeting implies some real business oversight. What are you trying to say here? Did you really do both. If yes to budgeting, I'd expand on that and ditch the cashing up.

Finally, CV's need to be targeted towards specific jobs - if you are seeking a certain position then find out all you can about it and in a sense work backwards from there - it's all about fitting your attributes into the role/business.

Hope this helps & good luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

[fossyant]

Budgeting and Cashing up - change to Financial Management of Business - one line means the lot. Add in any successful projects. fluff up the managing 'sub contractors' bit !

 

[TVC]

Personally, I would always put my nationality and date of birth on my CV.

David, just one small thing - I'm not being a grammar fascist but I would change the "&"s to "and"s.

I've just been revamping my CV. Age and nationality are not needed these days since age discrimination laws came in, and race laws were qualified. Anyone can have a good stab at your approximate age based on when your employment history started.

 

[screenman]

I am 55 and have never written a CV, what I would say though if ever had to I would certainly listen to some of the excellent tips given here.

 

[Trembler49]

To DD and Screenman, you have to aim your CV at your target employer, so you really need to decide what you want to do fist and then target them appropriately.

DD, you are obviously a salesman, the world is your lobster.

 

[BluesDave]

There has been some excellent advice given here so I'm going to make some changes to this CV overnight and post it on this thread in the morning. So please do have a look and continue your constructive critique.
I'll answer a couple of questions that have been thrown up. 1. My interests and hobbies are something I like to indulge in in my spare time and have nothing whatsoever to do with work.

2. I put my nationality and DOB on there because employers "want" to know the age of the person they are employing. Also as you have to prove that you are eligible to work in the UK (or so they say) and you are asked this question anyway it is most sensible to provide the information imo.

3. Lastly I've heard it said a lot but when you are applying for us to 30 jobs a day to rewrite the CV to suit each induvidual one would take forever and drive me finally round the bend so I've created a generic CV which covers the all the sectors I am seeking employment in. Also I am always honest in my approaches there is nothing worse than telling an employer you can do something and them subsequently finding out that you can't the analogy being over egging the pudding makes for flat cakes.

4. Ok so it wasn't lastly. The personality in a CV theorum. A CV should be a list of your skills and employment history, address etc. To convey your personality on a two page document mucked in with all that other information would be very difficult indeed. I let employers know what skills and experience I can bring. My personality is what they see at the interview. Y'see?