Reply to: Why are so many contractor CVs still so badly written?

[northernladuk]

People always say not to include a 'Hobbies and Interests' section. But I do, and we often spend a good part of the interview talking about my trips in my VW campervan.
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But not much use if people interviewing you aren't also in to dogging.

[vwdan]

People always say not to include a 'Hobbies and Interests' section. But I do, and we often spend a good part of the interview talking about my trips in my VW campervan.

It better be aircooled...!

[psychocandy]

11 pages FFS.

How many times do you think the scrote agent is going to get past page 2? A clue - never.

Who cares what you did that long ago? No-one...

[MyUserName]

...
People always say not to include a 'Hobbies and Interests' section. But I do, and we often spend a good part of the interview talking about my trips in my VW campervan.

I got into banking due to the MD loving medieval history and the head of programming loving WoW.

[Contractor101101]

People who say CVs must be short are bulltulipters. A while back my boss's boss's CV was 200 pages long and he had just landed a job as a main board director of a Tier 1 Pharmaceutical.

Little jobs might work with lightweight CVs but big jobs are a different kettle of fish.

But on that level he was already well known and he was headhunted. I bet you anything you want that no-one read beyond the first 3-5 pages of his CV. They read that long because there would have been very few people considered for that position.

I'm in the max 3 pages camp as well. Though currently it's 2 pages because I've changed the margins and the font type so that I can fit as much as possible - while still easy to read.

I don't think your average contractor CV gets read beyond the 2nd page. Especially as tech changes so fast. I put a summary of my skills as the opener, the detail focuses on what is relevant.

[pauldee]

Given all the sensible advice available on forums such as this, I was staggered at how bad many contractor CVs were that I reviewed whilst trying to recruit PMs. For example:

CVs up to 10 pages long - who is going to read all that waffle?
CVs that list dozens of bland sounding responsibilities but hardly anything about tangible achievements or little in the way of context e.g. project size.

Most frustratingly of all is being sent these types of CVs in the first place by agents. It's almost as if they matched on a single keyword search and then just forwarded the CV verbatim. Surely they must know these CVs look terrible (even if the candidate might actually be fairly good?)

I was so desperate for one particular role that I actually did end up reading some of these lengthy CVs but it was painful!

This happened with multiple agencies and roles. My only thought was that as the roles were in quite specialist/in demand business areas, the candidates and agencies can get away with it because subconsciously they know they are in demand so don't have to try too hard.

I kind of sounds like you're complaining that people go into too much detail and then you complain they don't give enough detail.

I've taken advice from agents, employers and clients but what one person is looking for is different to another. Some people literally want a list of programming languages and frameworks, and how long you've used them for. Other's want a detailed history of exactly everything you did every day in each job. You can't please everyone with one CV. It's all guesswork really when it comes to what they want.

If I go into any amount of detail on my CV, it usually becomes clear in the interview they haven't read most of it, so I keep it to bullet points and headings mostly.

People always say not to include a 'Hobbies and Interests' section. But I do, and we often spend a good part of the interview talking about my trips in my VW campervan.

If you have an exact idea of what you want to see, why not draw up some sort of application form? Or at least explain to the agent what you want, and they can pass that on to the candidates.

And as others have said, if you don't like the services of a particular agency, then don't employ their services. For all our sakes - it might filter out some of the useless agencies.

[billybiro]

It's almost as if they matched on a single keyword search and then just forwarded the CV verbatim.

That is exactly the complete extent of how agents "match" candidates to roles.

[ChimpMaster]

The worst kind is those that under each "job" (as they call it) just provide a long bullet point list of tasks - "did this", "did that", "managed this", "managed that" - and have essentially the same list repeated over and over under each heading. They are unfortunately also one of the most common ones. I suspect the idea is to give as many hits as possible on keyword searches.

Having written that, my own CV is 11 pages long and only list parts of my career. I used to maintain a full CV that listed everything, to copy and shorten down for each opportunity, bit it got to more than 20 pages and it was simply too much work so I stopped.

That's one solution: your CV was too long so you stopped working



I haven't seen my CV in wayyy too long. But the work keeps coming, even though I am trying to quit IT. Not long now Rodders, not long.

[Cirrus]

6 pages on mine and it gets me work, so...

You must be good !!

Mine's only 5 pages (used to be more).

It depends on your role. A Programme Manager might be expected to have had lots of experience in lots of situations. When you apply you can't know what the client is looking for. Agents virtually never do.

People who say CVs must be short are bulltulipters. A while back my boss's boss's CV was 200 pages long and he had just landed a job as a main board director of a Tier 1 Pharmaceutical.

Little jobs might work with lightweight CVs but big jobs are a different kettle of fish.

[simes]

The worst kind is those that under each "job" (as they call it) just provide a long bullet point list of tasks - "did this", "did that", "managed this", "managed that" - and have essentially the same list repeated over and over under each heading. They are unfortunately also one of the most common ones. I suspect the idea is to give as many hits as possible on keyword searches.

Having written that, my own CV is 11 pages long and only list parts of my career. I used to maintain a full CV that listed everything, to copy and shorten down for each opportunity, bit it got to more than 20 pages and it was simply too much work so I stopped.

Mine is around 5-6 pages but one of things I am always told by agents to do, is almost exactly what you are decrying.

I am PM, Stakeholder Management is an inferred part of the role, which is to say, it doesn't need to be explicitly mentioned...?

Wrong.

I am told to liberally sprinkle it around the estate like sugar.

I dunno. I do as they ask and hope to get to the next round...

[northernladuk]

Well blow me, who'd have thought agents would use a single word search option!?

Tell you what pisses me off no end, people like you who receive these crap cv's from agents but dont reject them and tell the agents exactly why you're rejecting them ie too long, appear to have been submitted on a single word search option etc.

Bolshie!! Welcome back. Where have you been?

[BolshieBastard]

Given all the sensible advice available on forums such as this, I was staggered at how bad many contractor CVs were that I reviewed whilst trying to recruit PMs. For example:

CVs up to 10 pages long - who is going to read all that waffle?
CVs that list dozens of bland sounding responsibilities but hardly anything about tangible achievements or little in the way of context e.g. project size.

Most frustratingly of all is being sent these types of CVs in the first place by agents. It's almost as if they matched on a single keyword search and then just forwarded the CV verbatim. Surely they must know these CVs look terrible (even if the candidate might actually be fairly good?)

I was so desperate for one particular role that I actually did end up reading some of these lengthy CVs but it was painful!

This happened with multiple agencies and roles. My only thought was that as the roles were in quite specialist/in demand business areas, the candidates and agencies can get away with it because subconsciously they know they are in demand so don't have to try too hard.

Well blow me, who'd have thought agents would use a single word search option!?

Tell you what pisses me off no end, people like you who receive these crap cv's from agents but dont reject them and tell the agents exactly why you're rejecting them ie too long, appear to have been submitted on a single word search option etc.

[northernladuk]

2 pages. 3 max! Anymore and the person looking at the CV will bin it or switch off after page 3

And that is being optimistic..

[ContractorScum]

Having written that, my own CV is 11 pages long and only list parts of my career. I used to maintain a full CV that listed everything, to copy and shorten down for each opportunity, bit it got to more than 20 pages and it was simply too much work so I stopped.

Have you tried using size 6 font? Gotta get that paper round on that you had when you were 14

[ContractorScum]

2 pages. 3 max! Anymore and the person looking at the CV will bin it or switch off after page 3