cv help needed

[phila66]

Hi,

I have not done any paid work now for 7 years due to ill health and personal problems. My life is a lot more stable now and I am looking to get back into work. I was previously a consultant software developer for Logica.

This is proving very difficult after such a long time out of work. I am looking to do some voluntary work and have discovered a useful website that advertises online voluntary opportunities in IT.

I have to upload a copy of my cv but do not know what to include after I left my last position. I have done a small amount of development work for a charity as well as developing some of my own sites/applications. Unfortunately I let my hosting account lapse and so have lost a lot of my own work.

I'll paste the top portion of my cv to illustrate what I have so far:


BUSINESS EXPERIENCE
 Oil Majors
• Merchant Energy
• Defence
• E-Commnerce

EDUCATION
MSc. Object Oriented Software Systems
City University, London 1999
BA Business Information Systems II.ii
University of Leicester 1997

CAREER HISTORY
DATE ROLE PROJECT/CLIENT COMPANY
Jun 05 – Present
I left Logica in 2005 to pursue other things and moved down to Somerset in 2008. I have been involved in a few web design/development projects over the last few years, mostly for friends, family and voluntarily for charitable organizations. I have now decided to go back into the industry full-time as a freelance developer.

Mar 05 – Jun 05 Technical Consultant/
Senior Developer
Emissions Logic. Utilities Division LogicaCMG, London
Emissions logic is an application developed by LogicaCMG in Australia to enable firms to comply with the requirements of the Kyoto agreement with regard to energy emissions. The application covers emissions inventory, emissions trading, compliance management and scenario planning.
This is a Java/J2EE-based web application whose architecture is strongly based around the struts framework. The current version uses a MySQL database, but the architecture is designed such that it can connect to any RDBMS with minimal configuration.
The role was to conduct a source code review of the application against a representative sample of 10% of source code files and make an assessment against a number of different criteria, including recognised coding standards, J2EE design guidelines and broader object-oriented design guidelines such as maintainability, extensibility and scalability. A number of recommendations were then made based on the findings of the review. I was then responsible for implementing some of the recommendations made in the assessment with a view to marketing this application in Europe.

Jan 05 – Feb 05 Senior Developer Centrica Customisation Project. Vidus, Ipswich LogicaCMG, London
Customisation of the Taskforce application for Vidus to meet specific requirements of Centrica plc.
The role, based on client site in Ipswich, included the design and implementation of a generic customisation framework covering aspects such as database access, connection pooling and transaction management as well as the specific requirements for Centrica. The customisation app was developed in Java on a Unix platform and interfaced to the actual Taskforce application through the use of both CORBA bridges and JDBC to directly access the Taskforce application Oracle database.



Sorry about the formatting - copied straight from word doc.

Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

[ResumeWriter]

Good morning, phila66.

Dealing with gaps in employment can get tricky. The extra challenge with your situation is the brevity of your two 2005 positions. I suggest a tri-fold approach.

1. Secure as many volunteer roles as you can find at this point to help build out the resume. It’s great that you’ve already found a service that advertises volunteer IT roles. When you get a moment, could you share the URL with the forum? I think others might find value in such a service as well.

2. Build your LinkedIn page in addition to the resume. Within LinkedIn, do several things.

First, build out your network to include IT recruiters and start following companies you’d like to work with.

Second, get involved in some relevant groups and maybe answer some questions under the Q&A section.

Third, utilize a service like SlideShare Presentation (through your LinkedIn page) to provide individuals with screenshots of the projects you’ve worked on over the last few years. You still have backups, right? Basically, the presentation adds validity to what you claim in the resume and adds a visual element to your LinkedIn page too. Incorporate some graphic design — research online to find inspiration for your presentation, if necessary.

3. Once finished with the presentation, rework the content for your 2005 – present work history to include scope of projects, clients you’ve worked with, whether you worked under a budget/timeline, time spent working with contractors or other service providers, and so on.

So, your content might end up looking something like this:

DATE ROLE PROJECT/CLIENT COMPANY
Jun 05 – Present
Designer/Developer, Various Clients
Managed several key development projects, such as ...
To review a portfolio of projects, please visit the SlideShare Presentation at http://www.linkedin.com/in/...
Worked with non-profit and business clients that has included ... (mention charitable organizations, not your friends unless they have business tied to them)

Regards,
Teena Rose