Quote Originally Posted by J T View Post
ALWAYS put at least two references on there, make it as easy as possible for the reader. Any excuse can be used to disregard a CV, and the 'effort' of having to request references from you may well be enough for them to pick another CV out of the pile, particularly if they have a big pile of them.
Interesting. I have been advised in the past to not put references on a CV, but I can see why it would make things easier for the employer.

Have you considered the covering letter? You MUST ALWAYS do a covering letter if this is for a serious career job.
Not yet, as this would have to be unique to the job being applied for. I am really just trying to get the CV looking/reading good at the moment as I needed one to give to the signing on job centre this morning. As it is computer based it can easily be modified for certain jobs.

If you are submitting electronically, consider doing it by PDF as well as .doc, just in case formatting goes awry (it often does with word).
Very true. One of the reasons I am very reluctant to either accept or send any communication via the internet with people who may not know what they are doing. Although having said that, I asked for some feedback on some work from my old college teacher, who is very good at using Microsoft Office, and it arrived as a 'DOCX'. Fortunately OOo rendered it fine. I noticed a big increase in the amount of DOCX and similar files, as well as an increase in the use of Calibri since college changed to Office 2007 .

'Grade: Distinction Distinction' is that a typo or are you referring to two asssessed components? it doesn't scan too well.
Nope, that is the grade I got. On a National Certificate you get two grades which will be a combination of passes, merits and/or distinctions. DD is the highest possible .

Other things are maybe you should consider spicing up your language a bit more, as some of it sounds a little too passive. Instead of, for example, 'Kept the sales floor tidy. Assisted with customer's enquiries' you could try a something a little more dynamic.... let me think.... 'Responded to customer queries, assisted fellow staff and learned how to resolve problems encountered in a retail environment, as well as maintaining the quality appearance of the shopfloor'
Has someone been training you on how to write CVs?
I'm not sure if there is a name that anyone else uses, but I'd say that your idea just borders on what I tend to describe as 'CV crap'.

It would probably be OK to say something like that if I was there longer, but I was only there for three days, and all I genuinly did was tidy the stock, and tell customers where the downstairs escalator is. Why they don't put a sign up, I don't know. When I was a customer there for the first time a few years ago, I couldn't find it and almost had to walk down the upstairs escalator.

Hmm, it was quite a long time since I disected someone's post like this.