Work Programme Visit 4

CV WORKSHOP

So today bright and early I had a CV workshop, it was one of the three, specialist appointments I guess you could call them. It started straightforwardly we had an adviser not my regular one but he seems to have some sort of specialism. He basically went through CVs and their purpose and highlighted various approaches to CV design. I didn’t agree with all of what he said but I can’t say that his advice would be damaging.

My issue with the 3 hour long session is that my CV was not in need of work, of the people at the session there was two without CVs and one who needed guidance on things like dealing with gaps. In discussions with my advisor, they never stated that they thought anything was wrong with my CV the only real discussion was me outlining in detail the fact that I was not happy with them doing with it whatever they wanted (more on ROUND 2 of that fight later).

Part of the CV session was a one to one opportunity where the advisor personally looks at your CV and rewrites it, there doesn’t seem to be a choice in the matter. It was at this point that IT happened. First I was asked if I had a CV on file which of I did, as a watermarked PDF with ‘do not copy’ written all over it. When the advisor asked if it was a PDF to prevent them messing with it, I said simply ‘yes’. I was at pains not be rude about it still left him a little stunned, he looked through the CV then suggested he wanted to make changes to it at which point I said I was more than happy with it.

This was the moment where after some back and forth he said something along the lines of “Well you know you signed the waiver so…” to which I responded “No I didn’t”. That left him flummoxed to say the least and he went in a bit about how they need the waiver so they can apply for jobs on my behalf, I said if they find a job they can get in contact with me, what if I’m busy they said? I patiently explained about wanting to be in control of my job searching.

Another interesting thing that happened was during the CV Workshop the manager of SEETEC came into our session and tried to get me to sign the desk register I just initialled it but that wasn’t good enough for the Manager and I was told that “We would have to have a talk”. So that is something to look forward to.

Tomorrow is my next meeting where I have a meeting with someone called a business adviser but I don’t really know what it will be about.

Next update should be up soon if you have any questions about my experience you can leave a comment and I will get back to you or contact me on Twitter.