Software Personnel one of the largest recruitment consultancies in information technology keeps all of its

Software Personnel, one of the largest recruitment consultancies in information technology, keeps all of its candidates’ CVs on a database, amending them every time they are sent out.If, say, someone is experienced as both an analyst and a programmer, it will be the former experience that will be pulled out for an analyst’s job and vice versa. Everyone should know the basics of producing one, but an enormous number of people ignore the rules. When Real Life went in search of examples of poorly presented CVs it emerged that all employment consultancies keep a stack of them in rogues’ galleries.So, briefly, this is what you should do: keep details of education to a minimum, just list your qualifications, only going into detail about specialist courses and do not lie. As Bob Nelson, head of human resources at the BBC, says: “You may not be detected immediately, but you will be eventually, and it is ridiculous to start your working life based on a lie.”Work experience should be listed from present to past.

It is not such a crooked game when you know how it works.
Your brilliant career should start with a strong CV. He broke down the fortress by channelling his rage into an iconoclastic play. To get out of your own Gas World it is better to play the system. He bitterly contemplated the offices of the Daily Telegraph “a closed fortress like an Oxford College or the Inns of Court”. Less than a decade later he was famous at what many would consider the sickeningly young age of 27 He was John Osborne, author of Look Back In Anger So fortunes do change. But Osborne’s disdainful words capture the frustration of starting out in a world where some people are apparently handed everything on a plate.

In the bleak winter of 1947, the office junior at the trade magazine Gas World was not happy. Although he was geographically in Fleet Street he was still on the outside looking in. Waiting three months to get paid, waiting for the phone to ring – it’s that kind of thing which is irritating But it still beats working for a living.Matthew Brace. It used to be a real girl-puller, saying you’re this yuppie with a flash car and pots of money.

Now girls just want to know if you’ve been rock climbing or scuba diving or something exciting like that. But it’s a job, isn’t it? More than most people have, I suppose.JOHN GOSLER, freelance illustrator: The actual work is enormously entertaining. I find it difficult to be part of a system that is discriminatory – that’s when I feel uncomfortable.JONATHAN, mortgage adviser: I hate telling people what to do with their mortgages, it’s so boring. Many are keen to change and the cause of their crimes is as complex as the solution. As soon as you do that you better start looking for a new job.EMMA DAVIES, probation officer: I believe in my job, it’s worthwhile and I think society needs this kind of work It’s rare that I find people that scare or revolt me. When I was, I got on and everybody stared at me as if I was mad. I knew what it felt like to be a tramp.RICHARD, defence lawyer: I deal with some real toe-rags sometimes, like kids who enjoy burgling houses and stealing cars, but you can’t let your emotions get in the way.