How many page you CV is ..?

[xoggoth]

Used to be a TV series with Richard Boone, he had a great pithy CV on a card. Have gun, will travel.

[blacksheep]

Got mine to 3 pages, which seems to work ok. I think 3 pages is about the right length for a CV... and it's then time to work on the content of the CV!

I followed the following plan:

Introductory paragraph - about me and what I'm looking for (suitably generic!)
Brief list of high-level skills - intended to get me through the tick boxes of agents with limited intelligence

Brief listing of the the last 10 years history, most recent first, using the following formula

Name of company
- Quick description of the company and their aims
Name of the position I had
- Quick description of the position, and the aims of that position
- briefly list of 3 or 4 key achievements/contributions I made, that are relevant to the aims of the position/company.

(I found writing stuff out using that style a bit of a pain, but once its done, it does look good, and has received more positive responses than my "old style")


Then finish up with a few details on education/training, detailed technical skills, professional memberships etc.

Good luck!

[pmeswani]

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

Serious suggestion.. have you though about setting up a CV Tips website? This is far the best detailed advice I have seen in a while. If not, can I nick this and put it on my website?

[Fred Bloggs]

Serious suggestion.. have you though about setting up a CV Tips website? This is far the best detailed advice I have seen in a while. If not, can I nick this and put it on my website?

I agree, and quite by chance, it is very similar to my own home grown CV format.

[MarillionFan]

What would be quite useful, would be a tool where you can put in your main cv(mine runs to six pages) and you can then type in the basics about the role your interested in and it tailors it exactly.

Took me ages divving around recently to build up a library of different CV's

[scooterscot]

If it is a mass of text then no one will olook at it.

Roles and duties and achievements bullet points please.

Any work from pre 2005 summarised with names and dates of employers plus key roles and key achievements summarised together.

This is what agents like.

For me as an employer, it tells me nothing about the individual and trust is everything in my business.

[scooterscot]

3 pages max. Can you honestly say that what you were doing in 2000 is that relevant to the work you're doing nowadays?

Outside IT, yes.

In a niche engineering market like mine my CV goes back to 98, the knowledge and skills are just as relevant today as they were then.

2 interviews ago I was even asked about my experience in 98!

PS: My longest bench time in 10 years is 5 months

[CheeseSlice]

My CV is usually 3 pages.
Recently added a role and it spilled into about 3 1/8, so I need to trim and reformat it a bit. Haven't had a chance to do this yet, but still getting calls.

IMO the first 2 pages are the most important anyway. So long as they get through all of the achievements (50% of page 1 for me), skills and most recent role(s) then any additional pages (within reason) are optional reading if they're interested enough.

[edit] forgot to mention spending endless hours on margins, bullets, indentation, line spacing, etc. Not too much and not too little.

[Fred Bloggs]

The CV's that I upload to the likes of jobsite also contain a few paragraphs at the end in the smallest font, in white text (so the text isn't immediately, obviously visible in the white document) of all the keywords that I want to be returned when pimps search the database for potential candidates. I don't know how much, if at all, it helps my CV to appear in searches but I can't see it hurting. My LinkedIn profile also has a section stuffed full of likely keywords.

A CV I send directly to a pimp on request though doesn't have this keywords text in it though.

[Fred Bloggs]

Outside IT, yes.

In a niche engineering market like mine my CV goes back to 98, the knowledge and skills are just as relevant today as they were then.

2 interviews ago I was even asked about my experience in 98!

PS: My longest bench time in 10 years is 5 months

Likewise for me too but my CV says anything before 1990 on request, it's more of the same though. Process Engineering (laws of physics, I guess really) hasn't changed that much since I started work in the 70's. Just most of it is now happening overseas.