thanks off to re edit the edit and will upload it later on
An example of how little of a CV can actually be read or checked beyond scanning for 'buzz words'. A couple of us were expected to work with a 'consultant' who was provided by one of the big companies attached to accountancy firms. We were at a FTSE100 company, not a small outfit. The CV was passed as a courtesy to help us plan what they would be doing, the 'consultant' had already been assigned.
We noticed a 9 month gap in the experience, queried it with our general manager and he raised it with the assigning company. The 'consultant' arrived and spent a couple of days making contacts and bluffing what they didn't know (the usual). She then disappeared. We were later told they had been sacked because the 9 month gap was a prison sentence in the US for fraud. No-one in the big consultancy company or our own personnel department had spotted the gap or thought to question it.
If I can offer anything from what I've seen, every business has an expected format. To be honest I don't know what the building trade expects. In general, once you are past the 'out of education' stage it's experience that is expected up front. So the most frequently seen layout is:
* Name and contact details
* Work experience starting from most recent. Detail depends on type of employment but bullet points are going to get scanned more readily then paragraphs of text. Older detail that goes over a page can be summarised.
* Qualifications relevant to the business. Include general detail such as clean driving licence, CRB checks, status to work in the UK if work experience does not make that clear.
* Education, at least the highest level or two in reverse order. It can be relevant to list GCSE subjects to show breadth, e.g. modern languages for a post graduate level statistician, but keep it brief.
Anything else goes in a covering letter starting with why you are suitable for the post covering the points in the job as advertised. A covering letter is where any statements about your enthusiasm, interests or ambitions should be but only if you can make them relevant to what you're applying for. If there is anything you want to add about why your work experience is relevant it goes here although you might want to put a note in sequence in the work experience section of the CV if there is a long gap.
Offer references on request, you don't want them pestered. Many companies these days refuse to go beyond confirming your employment dates although references (or referees as they are often termed) are still rated in education.
Photos, in the UK anyway, are only expected for the entertainment industry (actors/singers) in which case you will already have paid for a stack of 8x10 glossy head and shoulder shots with your stage name on. There may be other sectors but I'm not aware of them.
Somehow Hedgerow Pete and sparkly bs don't go together...
