How many page you CV is ..?

[Fred Bloggs]

• 35+ years experience, two page CV.

• Anything before 2000 is one liners, everything before 1990 is available by request.

• CV is all bullet points, no sentences.

HTH.

[VectraMan]

"How many page you CV is?". Do you use better English on your c.v.?

I spent ages getting mine to fit onto two pages once, and getting the page break in a sensible place, only to turn up at an interview and seeing the interviewer with my c.v. on three pages. The agent had added a big footer to every page.

At another interview I realised the interviewer was looking at a 2 year old c.v., despite me sending the agent the latest.

I got both those jobs. If you're right for it, it doesn't matter, and if you're wrong, it doesn't matter either.

Mine's now 2 1/2 pages, because I've just added the new stuff to the top. I probably should reduce the older history, but I'm more proud of that than the last couple of boring jobs.

[MarillionFan]

Got mine down to 3 using the format

Personal Information
Name, Age, Address
Personal Profile
Couple of small paragraphs in the format


• An experienced and successful <INSERT ROLE HERE> with over 10 years experience of <APPLICATIONS OR SKILLS> in <BUSINESS FUNCTIONS> within <BUSINESS VERTICALS>
• An additional fluffy guff line which it tailored to the role requirements

For example

• An experienced and senior BI/MIS Manager with a BSC in Business Mathematics, strong analytical and IT development skills, coupled with a strong commercial business acumen in Software & Retail Sales, Channels, Marketing and Finance.
• Highly driven, focussed individual with an open & ‘get the job done’ attitude. Strong mentor to others, with the ability to manage complex stakeholder groups and deliver tangible results.

Major Achievements
Three major achievements, specifically tailored at the requirements, so for example for a retail dev role, I pull out any Category Management Software I may have developed, for a Service Operations role, I focus in on reporting/SLA gumpf, for management role, setting up/managing a team etc


Professional Experience

Again, this is accurate, but the job title may change slightly. I am a senior manager, but if I am applying for a techy role, I change it to Lead Analyst or Lead Developer slash Manager.. The tagline, ie, managing a team of x developers stays the same, but the actual role title changes. Again, if's a BA role, I change it to Lead BA/Manager

Education

Two lines. Ie. Name of University, Number of A'Levels, Diplomas etc. Obviously this need not apply for the likes of Sasguru or ATW.

Best not to put 'University of Life' in either.

I have tailored my CV (only on the opening page) now for a dozen different styles, specifically aimed at Job(BA/PM/Manager/Developer) and then by Industry(Retail, Banking, Software)

HTH

[basshead]

Mine is 3, up from 2 a year ago. Bullets near the front with achievements and main skills followed by my education etc, sections after that per-gig with more detail about the role etc.

[paddytheirishman]

20 years experience in 2 pages. Can be done!

[MarillionFan]

20 years experience in 2 pages. Can be done!

I suppose if all you do is Print Monkeying, then I would say 2 pages is a little long.

[al_cam]

I've often thought that as most CV's are handled electronically these days, why not just have a single pager with controls to expand and collapse sections?
That way, a reader can skim the single page quickly and if they see the necessary buzzwords, they can expand to get more detail as required.

It might put people off a bit at first but I think it would catch on very quickly.

My last gig takes up 15 lines on my CV. Very roughly, this could be summarised something like this (3 lines at 10 point) -

+ Project Manager - client - dates
£xM HP server & SAN implementation - Windows Server 2008, SQL Server databases & web servers.
2500 seat PC replacement, Large Ricoh MFP/equitrac installation, Rightfax implementation.

My address and contact details are 3 lines - just need 1 "contact details" line for that. Qualifications are 4 lines - again just need 1 line.

Good/bad idea? - anyone brave enough to try it? Dodgy - what's the agent's view?

Could also password protect sections - means pimps wouldn't have to edit your CV to give to clients, and you could have a "pimp section" which details rate expectations, locations prepared to work, type of work wanted etc.

Al.

[malvolio]

Bearing in mind I have over 30 years expereince...

First page - Contact details, brief profile, key skills, key acheivements (these last two being variable to align to role requirements)

Second page - last five years, bulleted as Role Profile and Key Acheivements for each

Third page - one or two line summaries of remaining freelance assignments back to 1996 for perspective.

That's it. Nothing on permiedom, and since I'm primarily a people manager, nothing on tin and wires or the 13 programming languages I've used.

Seems to work...

[oracleslave]

Well judging by all the other responses mine seems to be the exception. It runs to about 5 pages. Just for balance, I probably receive around 10 cv's a month from agents and most are around this length.

[xoggoth]

As previous. Drop any irrelevant old stuff. This has the advantage of concealing extreme age.