Length of CVs

[psychocandy]

Resurecting a bit of an old thread here but rather than start anohter...

Recently trimmed mine down to 2 pages. BUT now I get agents telling me it needs more in it.
You can't win. Seriously thinking about increasing back to 3/4 now.

Trouble is 25 years is a lot of stuff to go in at times. Having a CV more than 4 pages is nuts IMHO. Can't believe someone had one 10 pages - surely no-one will ever both to read that!

[northernladuk]

Resurecting a bit of an old thread here but rather than start anohter...

Recently trimmed mine down to 2 pages. BUT now I get agents telling me it needs more in it.
You can't win. Seriously thinking about increasing back to 3/4 now.

Trouble is 25 years is a lot of stuff to go in at times. Having a CV more than 4 pages is nuts IMHO. Can't believe someone had one 10 pages - surely no-one will ever both to read that!

My CV has kept me in contracting for plenty of years so I won't be changing my approach from the misguided comments of one agent.

Could he mean there is too much filler in your two pages? If he doesn't think you are the man for the job after the first page then a) Your CV isn't targetted or detailed enough and b) he is an arse and I know which option my money is on. I mean, agent reading 4 page CV? Yeah right.

I wouldn't worry about this too much at this point.

[VectraMan]

I made sure mine was 3 pages, but I feel it's a bit terse. As you say, after 20 years and 8 or 9 or whatever it is different jobs/clients, what are you going to do? Cutting it down to 2 would be silly, unless you're going to use a 4 point font.

But I do have the important stuff on the first page where people are going to look.

[SueEllen]

Resurecting a bit of an old thread here but rather than start anohter...

Recently trimmed mine down to 2 pages. BUT now I get agents telling me it needs more in it.
You can't win. Seriously thinking about increasing back to 3/4 now.

Trouble is 25 years is a lot of stuff to go in at times. Having a CV more than 4 pages is nuts IMHO. Can't believe someone had one 10 pages - surely no-one will ever both to read that!

My CV is 3/4 pages which includes the most recent stuff.

Generally agents aren't interested in the detail of roles over 5 years old and aren't interested in roles over 10 years old being mentioned.

I also have a longer version of it which includes more information about roles I've done at the start of my career.

Agents get the first one and then if they ask I send them the second one. (OK what I actually do is cut and paste information of old roles into the currently formatted CV for them.) Some random clients will ask to see your entire career history while others won't.

[MPwannadecentincome]

I was benched in May and had to update my CV which was 4 pages long with 3 more years experience (2 major projects). It was a struggle to get it down to 3 but managed with the help of a friend who used to do professional CV writing as a business.

Even at very senior roles I don't think there is anyone who reads more than the first 2 pages.

[Taita]

Having spent the last few months getting much more involved in searching through the CV database to find CVs I find it incredible in this day and age that contractors are still producing Cvs of 9 plus pages . There is also a direct correlation between the contractors who are available and the length of CVs. So the chances are that if someone is available who appears to have the skills that are required the chances are ruined by a long CV.

To be fair I have reviewed a good number of CVs of CUKers and have found almost all of them to be really good.
I have also found that the majority of contractors who I leave a message with or send an email to never call me back. initially frustrated at this and knowing how you guys feel about agents I now just happily assume that if they were available then they would call me back

If you are looking at my CV how can you tell that I am a CUKer?

[northernladuk]

If you are looking at my CV how can you tell that I am a CUKer?

You haven't thought about this very well have you?

[Taita]

You haven't thought about this very well have you?

Didn't think about it at all Northernladuk. The question just flew out of my keyboard. What have I missed, please?

[northernladuk]

Didn't think about it at all Northernladuk. The question just flew out of my keyboard. What have I missed, please?

That CUK's might have sent him the CV's to look at rather than him identifying us from CV's?

[psychocandy]

My CV is 3/4 pages which includes the most recent stuff.

Generally agents aren't interested in the detail of roles over 5 years old and aren't interested in roles over 10 years old being mentioned.

I also have a longer version of it which includes more information about roles I've done at the start of my career.

Agents get the first one and then if they ask I send them the second one. (OK what I actually do is cut and paste information of old roles into the currently formatted CV for them.) Some random clients will ask to see your entire career history while others won't.

So are you saying you totally leave out roles more than 10 years ago? I put them on but with just a title so it doesnt look like I've been bumming around for that time.

Does seem a bit of a waste though because no-ones that interested. Certainly an interesting idea though. After all, who gives a tulipe if I was a COBOL programmer in 1988 (I was though!)

Tried the 2 page idea as an experiment because it seems that a lot of agents cant read more than 2 pages anyway, but I think I'll go back to 3 pages.