"Dumb down your CV" - jobseeker told

[The Pastor]

Lol cant get a job at maccas lol

[spacemonkey]

So in short a political science grad makes political hay out of a politically incorrect suggestion?
*meh*

For a short term job on a supermarket checkout of shelf filling role until your intake in the navy I don't see the problem in dumbing it down to make it quick and easy for yourself.
Hell I know I waaay dumbed down my CV when applying for a job at my current company..... And they still thought I was overqualified by a long way so offered me a different job (further up the ladder/higher payed) to I applied for.

[Bren]

Fark, if I dumbed down my CV I would be a retard.....wait, Maybe I am one already!!!

[rainman]

Turns out you have to make passionate love and finish their sentences to make some recruitment agents feel like they could hire you.
Job market is nicely fucked in NZ. Recruitment agents have done a good job at this.

Amen brother. I've had recruiters refuse to entertain applications for roles I'm eminently qualified to do because "this job is not the right aspect for you'. They are generally morons and do nothing to justify their exorbitant fees. One or two exceptions, of course.

And apparently I'm too highly skilled to do anything anyone wants in NZ at the moment. WINZ told me to consider going to Australia. How's that for ambitious for NZ?

Doesn't EVERYONE leave their job when a better role comes up, regardless of their qualifications??

Or do companies pride themselves on hiring people with no ambition??

Ah, someone who believes market mechanisms work for employment.

Leaving roles every few years (in IT) for better ones, aka climbing the corporate ladder, is only a good thing while you are young, apparently. As an immigrant, I did a bit of this to get established in NZ - started in a more junior role, climbed often (headhunted from time to time), stayed at some roles for up to 5 years, but sometimes only about 2. Apparently this is a bad thing now though, as "clearly I'll just bugger off when conditions improve". So "The Market" does not work, and it is not actually possible to take a lesser job at a lower rate... I have lost count of the roles I've applied for where I have been prepared to meet the market $-wise (~50% of what I was earning is still better than what I am earning). These are roles I can do or have done, not speculative applications, but in most cases I don't even get a response.

[oldrider]

Fark, if I dumbed down my CV I would be a retard.....wait, Maybe I am one already!!!

Yep, you and Nick Smith both but look where it got him and look where "he" has got us!

[avgas]

Fark, if I dumbed down my CV I would be a retard.....wait, Maybe I am one already!!!

Don't feel too bad. Turns out if you have "B. Engineering" on your CV people think you are retarded.
They are only half wrong.

[StoneY]

I got turned down from 500 applications - .

500?????? Surely your inflating that number, or your applying for shit way outside your square (like in another universe, LOL)
Seriously...........
I use recruiters and mate, never had to send the CV more than 5x for a strike, 10x for a catch maybe your CV needs a 'dumb down' ???

[avgas]

500?????? Surely your inflating that number, or your applying for shit way outside your square (like in another universe, LOL)
Seriously...........
I use recruiters and mate, never had to send the CV more than 5x for a strike, 10x for a catch maybe your CV needs a 'dumb down' ???

Good point. When I look at my emails during that time I had about 500 application.
I was getting desperate for work - as was living off savings. Applying for pretty much everything.
Of those applications I would say probably at least half didn't get back to me in 6 months. Had "Interviews" with about half a dozen recruitment firms. Had a few face-to-face's at a couple of companies, most of whom didn't know what they wanted, or send the wrong person to interview me.....F&P even gave me a phone interview, where they had cocked up and short listed me for an I.P. role after I had applied for an I.T. role.

I stopped applying for jobs as my MBA had started, within 1 week I had an interview for a job I had applied (directly to the company). Did the interview, they were dumbstruck that I did not have work. I had the contract in my hand that afternoon. I asked them why they didn't deal with recruitment agents - they said they paid for value added, and saw no value in recruitment agents.

I have also had bad Ju-ju with HR. Right now my wife cant get back into banking due to HR in various banks. Turns out 5 years banking experience only 3 years ago isn't good enough haha. I have also dealt with an engineer who was hired by HR in a company - the guy was the dimmest individual I have ever met. Took him 2 weeks to calculate 12m of electrical cable from a diagram.

So actual number of declines during that period more likely was around the 200 mark. All declines from recruitment agents, most usually sent as an automatic response for applying for a job, I must not have had the right 'key words' for their word search to pick up. And they are too lazy to read CV's.
If you want a job through them, to get anywhere - copy their job sheet onto the first page of you CV and say you can do all of that.

[StoneY]

Good point.

yeah I gotta admit recruiters can be misleading, im leaving my current job coz I was sold a lemon by a recruiter (I WAS best fit available but its soured 9 months later) but due to connection right here on KB I aint gonna be out of work for long....muwahahahahaha

[SlashWylde]

Turns out you have to make passionate love and finish their sentences to make some recruitment agents feel like they could hire you.
Job market is nicely fucked in NZ. Recruitment agents have done a good job at this.

I concurr. Had a damnably hard time dealing with a few recently. Managed to convice one that I could do the job advertised and eventually got through to a job interview with the company that was hiring. Didn't get the job as the sole other applicant had more direct experience in this field. But a few months later, the company head hunted me (at the same time another company was wooing me) and made me an offer. I start on Monday! :-)

[SlashWylde]

All declines from recruitment agents, most usually sent as an automatic response for applying for a job, I must not have had the right 'key words' for their word search to pick up. And they are too lazy to read CV's.
If you want a job through them, to get anywhere - copy their job sheet onto the first page of you CV and say you can do all of that.

YES, exactly!

[mashman]

I used to be the "pet" for a recruitment agency, the solid guy that makes them money... constantly on the phone offering me new positions... I told a mate to submit his CV to the agency, personal reccomendation and all that... He was constantly harassing the agency to find out the outcome of his interviews... never heard back in ALL cases... they're there to make money and treat people like shit that don't earn them anything...

As for WINZ... ahahahahahaaaaaaa they're wrong in so many ways... but that's only because employers most are stupid... I mean why would you want to hire someone that's applied for the job and come for the interview and could bring so much more to the job than the unqualified person as they class the person as over qualified... not exactly sound business sense... more like utter idiocy, but that's the way we seem to do business these days... Employers seem to value a face that fits over the skills that a person can bring...

[rainman]

500?????? Surely your inflating that number, or your applying for shit way outside your square (like in another universe, LOL)
Seriously...........
I use recruiters and mate, never had to send the CV more than 5x for a strike, 10x for a catch maybe your CV needs a 'dumb down' ???

Recently? I haven't applied for 500 roles but probably more like 200. That's recruiters and direct. There's not a lot out there ATM, for some skillsets, although modest signs of improvement. CV has been engineered to within an inch of it's life, multiple versions highlighting different skills, etc.

[NighthawkNZ:Me]

Im 100% behind the WINZ person (fucken stupid media beatup).

She is offering great advise - Set your CV (and covering letter) to the position you are applying for.

I have to agree I use to always take out or add the bits as required depending on the position I was applying for.

They didn't need to know I was a graphic artist a a bit od a wiz kid on computers when I went fruit picking... But when I was building the you would think what could fruit picking over... well it showed I wasn't to scare to get up a ladder or affraid of heights, but again nothing about my computer skills

and now like wise I am now a graphic artist again I don't mention either the fruit picking or building skills... but mention the the graphic and computer skills including navy info...

I entire depends on what the job is and how bad you want the job to how you write up your CV

[avgas]

yeah I gotta admit recruiters can be misleading, im leaving my current job coz I was sold a lemon by a recruiter (I WAS best fit available but its soured 9 months later) but due to connection right here on KB I aint gonna be out of work for long....muwahahahahaha

I am waiting until mba is sorted (should be finished early next year). My current role pays the bills - and I can't be arsed dedicating time to something as fruitless as recruitment agent applications right now.
Speak of the devil - looks like a recruitment agent is head hunting me right now.....