this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2025
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I've got a young housemate coming to me who is really vulnerable. She needs to do a CV and look for basic admin jobs but my advice is 20 years out of date.

Anyone got any ideas?

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[–] Cyber@feddit.uk 3 points 7 hours ago

I think the idea of having 1 CV can be misleading.

Generally, most people can do multiple things, so you should tailor the CV for the job - after all, it's only a stepping stone to an interview. The interview's where the decision is made.

(I had to interview people to work for me)

And experience - in almost anything - speaks louder than certificates.

I want to hire someone who likes doing things, is enthusiastic, etc. 6 degrees in rocket science is no good if they don't fit in with the others. Running the left handed blind tennis club is better.

So, have a bunch of skills, experience, etc. ready written down (where most people start) but then, instead of endlessly tweaking it to condense it down to one final CV, just pick out the relevent bits for a specific application.

I've heard people suggest to basically write the job advert out as your CV, but that's probably taking it too far.

And as someone else said... relax... it might take a fair few applications, so don't pin hopes on the first one.

[–] tetris11@feddit.uk 1 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

If she's applying via LinkedIn, then make the most basic Word document that recruiters can automatically parse via their AI parsing tools.

If it's something she's handing out to friends and family, she should pazazz it up a bit to look visually interesting (a skills block with experience bars, a couple of example projects, etc.)

Also mention the word "AI" and "LLM" in there, because why not it's the new "Office" keyword.

Also LinkedIn is terrible as half the jobs are fake (she will see the same jobs being posted month after month as companies try to project growth in this shitty economy), and there are zero ZERO IT jobs in the UK at the moment.

Ask her to reach out to her network. If she went to Uni, that means the Alumni network, or old Uni friends, or old high school friends, and family of course.

If she's not afraid to work outside normal hours, she should consider working for remote companies as other countries seem to somehow still have some money sloshing around

[–] AlexLost@lemmy.world 4 points 9 hours ago

Read over it once finished to make sure you have changed all necessary fields. Seriously though, just Google some examples and use those as a template, but use your own words and style. It is a terrible time to be looking for work, so don't be discouraged as it is going to take some time and effort to get through to anybody. Just keep at it, and get your foot in the door somewhere. Experience of any kind will only help your future prospects. Just avoid giving your labour for free.

[–] NKBTN@feddit.uk 1 points 7 hours ago

Sorry for the insta link, but this is good

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFe_GvqIh6x/

[–] cloudless@piefed.social 4 points 10 hours ago

Tip #1 - don’t use LLM to write the CV, it will be obvious no latter how you tweak it.