Flexible New Deal: Criticism of Dan Owens CV written by Working Links

Posted on December 13th, 2009.

Post Categories: DWP • Flexible New Deal • Flexible New Deal complaints • Working Links • jobcentre Plus
Tags: Abertillery, Dan Owen, DWP, Flexible New Deal, jobcentre Plus, Working Links

Another Working Links Flexible New Deal complaint!

Typically with New Deal and Flexible New Deal we hear how bad people are treated including overcrowded rooms and 30 hour job search per week but we do not hear much about how New Deal and Flexible New Deal providers (Flexible New Deal prime contractors and subcontractors) try to help New Deal and Flexible New Deal participants back into work which is what they are paid to do.

Dan Owen from Claimants Action South Wales has uploaded Rachel Radeon’s (from Flexible New Deal provider Working Links) version of his CV which raises concerns about the lack of expertise and competence the employees of Flexible New Deal providers have.

If Flexible New Deal providers are replacing absolutely fine CVs (although maybe not perfect) with flawed CVs – how are the Flexible New Deal participants ever going to secure a job?

I think there is an extreme distinction between a no thrills CV a jobseeker has been using and a Flexible New Deal provider hindering the Flexible New Deal participants’ chances of securing employment to which they are paid for by enforcing them to use a poorly written CV with threats of sanctions or intimidating for not doing so.

Flexible New Deal Scandal investigates… (The full copy of Working Links’ attempt is at the bottom)
I am not an expert of professional at CV writing so many blog viewers may have criticisms to my approach however I ask the same critics to evaluate Working Link’s attempt and compare them.

PROFILE

This not only contains poor mistakes (like a missed comma and repetitive “I” at the start of every sentence) but seriously needs creative rewriting.

Firstly, never ever should personal profiles be written in the sense that you are writing them. It should always be written in the third person this also allows variation to avoid repetitive I’s.

Dan is …. He also is …

From a marketing perspective the third person is a much superior way – all good dating adverts and agencies always use this. It is a much more exciting way of presenting the information. In certain respects, subconsciously it becomes a character reference rather than a personal statement.

Secondly, I think the word “work” is far too repetitive – being listed 4 times (including “working”) especially for a quote which reads “towards work. I work well”. Work being split by the word “I” – although a full stop exists so it is a different sentence it shortly follows and reads badly. Yes you are looking for “work” the employer probably assumed that when they received your CV.

Reading very much into it sounds like you are just looking for a job rather than a career which in such a climate sounds reasonable but it also can seem like you won’t commit yourself long-term. If you really want to show you are a harder worker say you are an ergophile (“a person who loves to work/exercise”) but if you have any substantial amount (3months+) of unemployment you might as well not bother.

Thirdly, “am” without the “I”. Two instances: “and am keen” and “but am also”. There should always be an “I” before the “am” and even when you include it to improve the sentence structure, it could still be rewritten to be much more improved. As stated in my first point… it shows up too much as “me”, “me”……”meeeeeee”! It could also give someone the wrong idea.

Fourthly, I think the first sentence even when written in the third person could be improved. I feel that reliable should always be before hard working. “I am a reliable, hard working and enthusiastic individual” sounds better than “I am a hard working reliable and enthusiastic individual.” I don’t like the use of the word individual – it seems a lame attempt for a replacement word of “person”. In fact, I think you could even drop the words “a” and “individual” altogether.

I am reliable, hard working and enthusiastic.
Dan is reliable, hard working and enthusiastic.

I like the use of words like “enhance” and “performance” much better than using “improve” etc. Practical isn’t too bad neither.

Drop the sentence “I work well within a team, but am also able to work on my own initiative” completely that is one of the most common and lamest sentences that goes on CVs. I suggest anyone who wants to state about their abilities to work in a team to use the words “team player” somewhere in their profile description.

My personal opinion is just because you are working in a team doesn’t mean you aren’t working to your own initiative anyway, I guess it depends whether you are a leader or a follower.

So this section was piss poor however, let’s be fair to Rachel… she didn’t have “Curriculum Vitae” at the top so that is a positive point.

WORK EXPERIENCE

It is poorly written…

JPS Security Services

“My duties included:
• Working on various contracts, including shops, factories and building sites”

I think generally only use the word “included” when listing specific job duties that would be listed in a job description. In the above instance I believe it should state “My duties involved”. The only way you could use “my duties included” is if the above bullet-point read for example “Patrolling various different premises under contract ensuring employees and customers are safe from possible acts of terrorism, to prevent theft and to act as a visible deterrent to crime”. Rather bad example but you get the picture.

The shoplifting being the first word of that bullet-point indirectly implies at a quick glimpse that you were involved in shoplifting which could be the reason you left the employment. Especially in the current job market with all the extra CVs and the pressure in short listing applicants, employers will just have a quick look at CVs meaning poorly written CVs could be worse than a good written CV where the person has less skills and qualifications. That is why all sentences must be easy to read and flow well – if they are complex that is a negative point. Words themselves can be complex/long.

The forth bullet point doesn’t read well. When listing via bullet points where such bullet points do not make a sentence (i.e. “You are eligible if: 1) You are over 18; 2) Live local; and 3) Have a right to work in the UK.” – makes a sentence) the prefix sentence when read must correspond to each bullet point individually.
Therefore you can’t begin with “Responsible” as you can’t say “My Duties included/involved responsible”. I suggest perhaps a word like “Being” would be a great addition to the start of such bullet point. Hours definitely doesn’t have an apostrophe (i.e. hour’s is incorrect).

I would drop the word general from the last bullet point…

Prevention of theft and vandalism

This makes it sound like you are good at your job. “General” in addition makes it seem like you prevented it only at selected times when you could be bothered to. Basically, in this context it means casually. This is fine to use if you are covering for another position (i.e. “General housekeeping duties (from time to time)” when the cleaner is on Annual Leave) but for a security officer it is pretty much something which is an instrumental part of your job.

Stagecoach Services

If the only activity Dan done was PCV training (which Dan Owen on his blog stated this wasn’t the case) at Stagecoach then surely this would come under Skills and Training – not employment?

If you are to include this, it must contain the other duties too such as cash handling, customer service (i.e. timetable enquiries) and of course learning the routes!

Employment Agencies

This is generally why Employment Agencies are a bad thing. 5 completely different roles in just over 2 years. However, looking at his CV you can see he has adapted to many different types of jobs over the years but there is no mention of this in the personal profile! Something which comes to me as a big concern.

Started off by listing the roles undertaken but then she forgets what she is doing and lists tasks – these weren’t even in a sentence but using forward slash to divide them which should have been incorporated in with the Factory Work bullet point.  I also dislike the title – I think the agencies should be listed i.e.  ”Employment Agencies (Recruitment Services/Jobs r Us)” etc.

Ice Cream Rounds man

No mention of procurement (Stock control isn’t the purchasing of goods), hygiene, and marketing (i.e. finding the best place to sell ice cream).

SKILLS & TRAINING

Forgetting another full stop! Listing forklift licences which have expired. Assumingly listed as of their training purposes but appears that the person has the licence. If not checked at recruitment stage for a factory job, could result in the loss of the job for lying on the CV. I would probably consider appending “(expires soon – intend to renew)” to the end – although it has already expired they have been alerted to the possibility it will expire soon within the duration of the job and there is nothing wrong with including a not-so-up-to-date CV lol, so they couldn’t sack you for it.

Education

Not uppercase or a mistake by Dan Owen? Sticks out like a sore thumb if it is on Rachel’s copy of the CV. Perhaps it is lowercase as of being under Skills and Training section although Education should be separate.

References

I would drop the references from the CV as Dan Owen doesn’t have the recent work references. The reference section is a formality anyway, if they like what they see they will contact you and then ask for references at a later date. It used to be advised to list references on the CV – now it is just a sentence telling them 2 references are available. There is no need to. I would say make use of the 3 or so lines wasted by including more in other sections of your CV.

Review

So Rachel Radeon (not a real name in case you wondered) is employed to be a professional to help people like Dan into employment. I am a strong believer that CVs shows a lot about people so a full stop missing could differentiate between someone with an attention to detail and someone who doesn’t.  This isn’t a critical flaw though – doesn’t eliminate you from the maybe pile.

Dan Owen might be alarmed that if I was an employer and given a copy of his CV (the one Rachel at Working Links made) I wouldn’t consider him at all. Whereas knowing him from Claimant Action South Wales and being open minded looking at his CV he created and Rachels version in respects to his qualities and skills etc. I would definitely be requesting an interview.

Amongst the mistakes Flexible New Deal Scandal has picked up and those Dan Owen had noticed, I am confident that the introductory paragraph – “personal profile” – is enough to eliminate him without even looking at his skills and work history.

This raises HUGE concerns. In the current job market you are required to stick more effort in to be able to stick out of the pile from the rest. No offense to Dan but with Rachels CV he has absolutely no chance. I am trying to work out why they want to screw Flexible New Deal participants over like this. They dont get commission from sanctions. They are paid service fees regardless of participants attendance. If the person doesn’t get a job they get no outcome bonus – although they have 12 months to initiaite a job outcome. Is there some financial benefit through proposed training? Is it to fiddle with statistics to show that more participants secured employment after 6 months than before (i.e. with their help)?

Below is Rachel Radeon’s attempt at Dan Owen’s CV…  To view Dan’s CV and his concerns click here to view his blog article

The CV

Daniel Owen

[Address and phone number]

PROFILE

I am a hard working reliable and enthusiastic individual. I enjoy new challenges and am keen to learn new skills to enhance my knowledge and performance.
I have a practical approach towards work. I work well within a team, but am also able to work on my own initiative.

WORK EXPERIENCE

JPS Security Services – Maesycwmmer
February 2003 – April 2006
Security Officer
My duties included:
• Working on various contracts, including shops, factories and building sites.
• Shoplifting detection and prevention.
• Patrolling sites.
• Responsible for access control, out of hour’s vehicle movements and deliveries.
• General prevention of theft and vandalism.

Stagecoach Services – Brynmawr
July 2004 – October 2004
Bus Driver
My duties included:
• Undertaking and passing my PCV training.

Employment Agencies – Gloucestershire
August 2000 – December 2002
My roles included:
• Farm worker.
• Gardener.
• Grounds man.
• Night watchman.
• Factory work.
• Production/packing/labelling.

Ice Cream Rounds man – Gloucestershire
April 2001 – October 2001
My duties included:
• Serving the public ensuring high level of customer service.
• Cash reconciliation.
• Stock control
• Driving and maintaining the van.

SKILLS & TRAINING

Full clean driving licence – category A, B, D (motorcycle, car, PCV)
Reach and counterbalance forklift licences.

Education

Gloscat, Gloucester 1999-2000
NVQ1 Carpentry and Joinery.

Sandford School, Cheltenham 1994 -1999
GCSE English, Maths, Science, Art, Design and Technology.

References
Excellent references available on request

Make a Comment

12 Responses to “Flexible New Deal: Criticism of Dan Owens CV written by Working Links”

1. 1

   

   Dan Owen says:
   

   December 14th 2009 at 1:32 pm  

   Yes, putting Education as a subsection of SKILLS AND TRAINING is exactly how the person you call “Rachel” (A) put this together, and no, I don’t like it either.

   I don’t agree with everything you say about CV writing in general – I don’t suppose any two people do, really – but then you have given me a couple of ideas too, so thanks.

   One day I might get round to posting the other CV that another member of Working Links staff (a failed greengrocer who I call D on my blog) did for me in Employment Zones days… it’s just as inept. Trouble is I would have to do it manually as I don’t have an electronic copy, and there are bigger fish to fry right now.

   • 2

     

     Flexible New Deal says:
     

     December 14th 2009 at 3:26 pm  

     hehe, I think its just people who love to disagree with me! lol

     • 3

       

       Flexible New Deal says:
       

       March 5th 2010 at 10:10 am  

       Any chance of seeing the older CV?

2. 4

   

   Dan Owen says:
   

   December 14th 2009 at 1:36 pm  

   Another thing – I’m not altogether convinced that they don’t get commision from sanctions, though I know we’ll never find evidence that they do. They certainly put a lot of effort into trying to get people sanctioned, and can’t easily hide their delight when they do.

3. 5

   

   Gerry Attric says:
   

   December 14th 2009 at 5:49 pm  

   About the only thing most people agree on when it comes to CVs is that they shouldn’t be any longer than 2 pages!

4. 6

   

   Dan Owen says:
   

   December 15th 2009 at 2:32 pm  

   And yet only yesterday I picked up a book by a guy who purports to write CVs professionally – he reckons 3, or even 4 pages in exceptional cases, is fine.

   I think I’m going to ask the local library to get hold of all the books on CV writing they can – locally, to keep the numbers manageable – and do a little informal research on this. I’m beginning to think that about the only reliable rule of CVs is that the spelling and punctuation should be correct, and the composition reasonable – something that the staff at Working Links don’t seem able to manage.

   • 7

     

     Flexible New Deal says:
     

     December 15th 2009 at 9:12 pm  

     A perfect CV apparently is one page.

     Up to two is the common standard.

     Having a generic CV is a general no-no. You should customise it to the types of jobs you apply for. This allows you to shorten a 4 or so page CV. Also, you only need to list the most recent jobs. If you are in your mid-30′s what you done between 16 and 23 years old isn’t relevant unless your work history is that short. Same for qualification such as GCSE’s… if you have PhD, professional qualifications and other degrees there is no need to mention GCSE’s and A Levels.

     After all a CV is just an Executive Summary of the potential job candidate (jobseeker) to either get an application form or an interview – typically the latter.

     So although Curriculum Vitae translates to “Course of life” (or something similar) it is only intended as a brief summary of you and not an autobiography.

5. 8

   

   ken says:
   

   December 16th 2009 at 10:23 am  

   the issue with cv’s is that everyone has their own way of doing them,one that was prepared by one provider is pulled apart by the next,some say no more the one page, some say no more then two and have completely different layouts’.

   the only thing to beware of is spelling mistakes anyone can make one but these are always picked up on but should not be such a problem now with modern computers’.

   there is in reality no easy answer as when i had mine done by a pre main new deal company,this was pulled apart by the new deal provider who in turn brought in a business manager and he pulled it apart again.best advice just let them play while their quite.

   • 9

     

     Flexible New Deal says:
     

     December 16th 2009 at 12:54 pm  

     It reminds me. My New Deal provider on Gateway 2 Work criticised me for making effort on the covering letter.

     It was instructed and enforced that everyone solely used two lines in their covering letter:

     The first was to say what type of job you were looking for (or if it wasn’t speculative, state what job positions you are applying for).

     The second was “I have enclosed my CV for your consideration.”.

     What a bunch of nonsense… a covering letter is intended to present your CV – thus it is the first thing they will read when they open the envelope – you can compare this to the first 10 seconds or so of an interview. It is first impressions.

     The covering letter gives the ability to briefly sell yourself in an additional summary than that of your CV. It also specifies your letter manner and how good your literacy is (although you will probably use a spell checker). I mean for the covering letter you were meant to use… it is very rude.

     So I was branded a fool in front of everyone for “writing an essay”. No… I simply wrote a short paragraph about myself and I also mentioned I am available for a work trial etc. and politely ended the letter. Although in the credit crunch I had most employers responding but sadly they didnt have any vacancies. As I was approaching employers for an administrative role – a poor letter means absolutely no chance of the job. This might be different for some other types of jobs like more manual work but generally it applies for all jobs.

     So YMCA Training who wanted to mess up everyone’s chances so they can get paid for you to do the 13 week course, would be disappointed to hear that the 40 or so speculative letters I sent off was my initial letter not their weak pathetic attempt to get money out of the Government. If I kept with their version of the letter I wouldnt have heard anything back from any of them.

6. 10

   

   Dan Owen says:
   

   December 16th 2009 at 8:39 pm  

   I remember a teacher at my old school who said it should be one page… But he was a middleaged guy 10 years ago, and I can’t help thinking that’s much more applicable to the old manual typewriters (which, yes, were in common use at that particular school) which could do much clearer small text than most modern printers seem able to manage, and with smaller margins to boot. Probably I could get a CV on one page even now using my old typewriter – £5 in a charity shop many years ago, still occasionally useful – but using it would likely mark me out as a luddite, which isn’t going to impress the boss much either.

   There is another issue around length of CV which I pointed out to this useless woman at Working Links. Since CVs will often be emailed these days, I fancy length is even less critical now than ever it was – most will never be printed, but read straight off the screen.

   I think most inquisitors for FND are chosen solely on their perceived ability to intimidate people – any other skills seem to be entirely secondary.

   • 11

     

     Flexible New Deal says:
     

     February 18th 2010 at 6:07 pm  

     Also to add… these days most CV’s requested by email are filtered by a computer.

7. 12

   

   Kyron says:
   

   March 21st 2010 at 2:09 pm  

   My cv to be fair is about 1.5 pages in length. I could thin it out a bit more but thats my generic cv. I change the cv to meet the job I am applying for

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