Sitting at home

[venta]

This entry is very dull, I just need to record some stuff somewhere.

It's now two weeks since I've been in work - the week before the company folded we'd been sent home by the Administrators while they counted things and archived hard drives. Two weeks off work is nearly half my annual holiday allowance, so that'd be, like, loads of free time. So I can do all those things like tidying my room that never quite happen, yeah ? Well, no, I seem to have been really busy. So I feel I ought to keep track of what I'm going with my time before it all slides away from me.

Week 1
Mon-Tues: sitting at home trying to write a CV. Deeply unpleasant experience. Ended up with a first draft.
Wed: Early morning meeting at work, employees decamped en masse and spent the rest of the day in the pub.
Thurs: Helped Frances make banners. Painted a flag to take to Glastonbury (which reminds me, must sew it up and find a flagpole).
Fri: Travelling to the Lake District.

Week 2
Mon: AM - filling in redundancy forms at work. PM - futile trip to jocentre.
Tues: AM - on phone and on hold to jobcentre and various other people who want to know I'm out of work. PM - Reading a write-your-CV book and applying for BCS membership.
Wed: Rewriting of CV in accordance with feedback from various sources. Much gnashing of teeth.
Thurs: AM - Further CV rewriting. PM - sold textbooks to Blackwells, made quiche/cake/brownies.

Comments

[kissifa.livejournal.com]

I enjoy sorting out CVs (why, I don't know).

If you wanted someone to have a look at it and have a rabid stab at a rewrite, then please consider me a volunteer. :)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Thanks, that's a very kind offer. However, one of my main problems at the moment is that several people have been kind and offered advice/feedback/rewrites - but they've all said diametrically opposed things. At this stage I think any more suggestions might make my head explode :)

[kissifa.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, the joy of CVs! Head-splodey goodness!

Well, the offer stands. :)

[davefish.livejournal.com]

I'd listen to the one who has the most fun job.

Good luck with all the re-writing, finding jobs, and stuff.

[condign.livejournal.com]

I would make a similar offer, given that I've written more CVs than I've had birthdays. Then again, you might want to question the wisdom of my help.

Good luck: job-searching is always an awful process.

[pm215]

Yes, I've been finding CV writing pretty soul-destroying stuff (indeed, I'm reading LJ rather than working on it right now...)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Funnily enough, soul-destroying has been my adjective of choice as well. I now feel like I've hammered out something I'm happy with, but sadly several people seem to be strongly of the opinion that it ought to be more challenges-I-faced-and-problems-I-overcame orientated, with snappy personal statements at the top and the like.

Trying to compromise between a CV which will get me an interview and a Cv I don't hate myself for writing :)

[pm215]

Yes, I've been doing a personal-statement kind of layout, along the lines suggested in this handy CV writing workshop page.

On the subject of adjectives, I rather like 'intricate' which is one that uitlander suggested as part of the rephrasing of the personal profile bit at the top of my CV.

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

Challenges-faced-and-problems-overcome would deprive interviewers of one of their favourite interview questions, though!

I do projects-of-note instead.

[uitlander]

Its a horrible thing to have to construct from scratch. I said to pm215 that once I had a working version of mine, I've updated it every three months or so (thank you staff development session at Newcastle Uni for that suggestion). It proved useful. I have a master word document that is about 10 pages long with everything I can think of in it, and now when I apply for jobs I cut n'paste the relevant bits into a fresh word document.

I'm sorry to have added to the confusion - I know its a right pain in the backside going through all of this, but it is worth it.

Something to watch out for is that word preserves metadata about track changes/edits, even when you haven't turned that feature on. In Word 2003 onwards, a security setting is turned on by default which will open a word doc with any metadata showing track changes automatically turned on. This means people will see what looks like a dog's breakfast with multiple edit histories if they have the default word setup on their PC. Cutting and pasting loses all the crud, and having learnt this I always cut n'paste my CV into a fresh doc before sending it off for jobs. Thanks M$, nice one.

Additionally, format your contact info at the top in such a way that recruitment agent can safely butcher it (they want to keep it secret) without wrecking the layout of the rest of the CV. It actually worth asking them what they do to modify a CV before sending it onto a prospective employer (they usually stick their company name and logo on it, and ruin your page breaks). Also always take an original print out of the CV you submitted to an interview - in the worse case scenario you can say 'well this is what I sent them'. (I've had tech author interviews where they tell me my CV looks awful, and this has always been due to butchering by agents)

[ringbark.livejournal.com]

Why the BCS and not the IMIS? http://www.imis.org.uk IMHO the IMIS is more appropriate as an organisation for real practitioners rather than ivory-tower dwellers. YMMV.
Also, if you want an example of a CV I paid real money for from a CV writing company, let me know and I'll email you a copy.

[pm215]

"Management of Information Systems" sounds to me like systems administration and corporate IT departments, rather than anything to do with software development. Are they just hopelessly misnamed?

[ringbark.livejournal.com]

Are they just hopelessly misnamed?
It would seem that the answer to that one is, unfortunately, "yes". From their "about" page:
The Institute for the Management of Information Systems is the leading independent professional association for both users and developers of today's information technologies.

IMIS is known for its focus on the practical issues involved in the application and management of information and communication technologies. These issues are now moving into the forefront of public awareness and debate, demonstrating the importance of the work of the Institute and its members.

And from the current journal's contents page, if it survives the journey through cut and paste...

4 The Big Debate ~
Computerising National Healthcare
A healthy future?
Shirley Redpath looks at the issues which
make this so contentious
8 Taking care
John Riley talks to industry leaders and
analysts about health insurance
11 Watch out for skullduggery
Professor Dan Remenyi investigates the
latest ‘boiler room’ internet scam
14 Technical hitch
Terry Riches looks at technology and
small and medium-sized businesses
16 Store wars
Patrick Dowling explains the benefits of
protected data lifecycle management
18 The final frontier
Keri Allan reports on the amazing deep
space InterPlaNet protocols project
21 Virtual solution
Paul Klinkby-Silver on virtual storage
22 Be prepared!
Steve Wallis deals with the Database
Development module of the IMIS syllabus
25 Refreshing change
Part six of Chris Tiernan’s series on
accounting for IT in the 21st century
IMIS REGULARS
27 IMIS update 31 Legal Notes
29 ETHIcol 32 Class Act

[pm215]

It would seem that the answer to that one is, unfortunately, "yes".

Hmm. Not convinced; looking at that contents list, none of it particularly sounds like the sort of thing venta or I do (er, did), and indeed it sounds roughly like what I'd expect a MIS journal to be dealing in. It's all about use of technology rather than creation of it.

[ringbark.livejournal.com]

That's fine. Personally, I have found it a more useful organisation for what I do/did than the BCS. On the other hand, I am probably more of a MIS sort of guy that a bleeding edge developer.
I found after years of BCS propaganda that IMIS was much more what I was looking for. But as I said in the first comment, YMMV.

[pm215]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a BCS enthusiast either. The IMIS web page is at least a little better than the BCS one at answering the key question "why should I give you my money?", although I'm still far from convinced -- a subscription to Dr Dobbs or similar looks like better value to me :-)

[ringbark.livejournal.com]

As I said earlier, I found the IMIS more to my taste. (Personal disclaimer follows:) My dislike of the BCS also stems from the fact that after gradating and working in the industry for two or three years, they wouldn't upgrade my membership beyond student member.

In other news, have nothing to do with the IAP.