CV Refresh

[SimonMac]

Dunno if it was the CV refresh or just post Christmas surge in the market but I have been offered two jobs, one permmie and one a 6 month contract

[RichardCranium]

In my opinion, the top and bottom of it is I don't think there is a wrong and right way of doing it, it's just what the agent / client is looking for.

I agree.

While most agents want a 2 page CV, some agents working in niche fields, and some employers, want far more detail.

There are the allegorical tales of people working in academic or specialist fields with 12 to 20 page CVs, submitted on heavy paper and nicely bound. But if you're a generic PM / BA / C programmer, that would just be silly.

[ChrisPackit]

Beleive it or not, my CV is 5 pages long, has school / college / degree stuff on there, and all my previous roles going back nearly 20 years. Funny thing is, is that the agents always compliment me on having a strong CV and it's always done the business when getting a role...touch wood, never benched in 12 years of contracting...

So all this BS about a 2 page CV.... I'm just gonna keep adding to the bottom of it till it reaches 20 pages, THEN I might think about cutting it down.

In my opinion, the top and bottom of it is I don't think there is a wrong and right way of doing it, it's just what the agent / client is looking for.

[pojka]

After writing that post above, the very next role I applied for resulted in a grilling on my (lack of) education, and the shortness of my 2 page CV by the agent, and then another grilling on my lack of education by the client - sod's law.

Got the gig though! After 6 hours of interviews with 5 different individuals...

[SueEllen]

CV is in format of:
1. Personal info - name, rough location (which is sometimes removed), telephone number, email address
2. Personal statement - uses bullet points
3. List of skills - under headings by area of expertise
4. List of contracts/clients up to 10 years - I do this in two formats depending on whether it is direct or not
5. Degree qualifications and A levels - I was told by agents/others who recruit not to remove this info from my CV
6. Professional training and other relevant qualifications

Pages can be 2 - 4 depending on font size used. For example I can sent it in as a 2 pager but when I get to see what the client has it's 4 pages long.

Though on this recent main gig it ended up being 6 pages as the client demanded it in a very detailed format where I had to expand on client info for contracts/employment years ago after interviewing me with a shorter CV. The font size was point 8 as well.

[pojka]

My current client - IB - wouldn't touch people who didn't have a degree showing on their cv. I was even asked to take a copy of my degree with me on day one of the contract. I pointed out that I graduated nearly 25 years ago, and that computers had changed a little bit since then. Made no difference, they still insisted on seeing it. If you have a numerate/comp. sci. style degree, I'd almost certainly keep listing it on your cv. After all, you know how stupid most agents and HR Depts are.

Wow... to be fair i've probably been binned a few times then - guess I'd never know!

[nomadd]

Personally I don't cover education in my CV at all, having the opinion that >10 years work experience should cover my competence enough.

My current client - IB - wouldn't touch people who didn't have a degree showing on their cv. I was even asked to take a copy of my degree with me on day one of the contract. I pointed out that I graduated nearly 25 years ago, and that computers had changed a little bit since then. Made no difference, they still insisted on seeing it. If you have a numerate/comp. sci. style degree, I'd almost certainly keep listing it on your cv. After all, you know how stupid most agents and HR Depts are.

[pojka]

Personally I don't cover education in my CV at all, having the opinion that >10 years work experience should cover my competence enough.

Being honest, this started began because I only have GCSE's - but I must say I can't remember being questioned about a lack of education data on my CV - it certainly hasn't happened in the last 8 years.

To save space (I also keep to 2 pages) Everything except my last 2 or 3 roles is a one line with Date, Company, Role and Location. I have a large 'skills' section under my Personal Statement which details my specific experience in named programming languages and the length of time used on a professional basis. This means I keep job history to a page and a half.

It seems to get me in the door with minimal customisation to roles. (touches wood)

[Jubber]

Looks like I am on the right lines now after a few tweeks.

Page 1

Personal Details - Name, Contact Number & Email address
Personal Statement - 6 bullet points outlining my attributes (also covering SC clearance and availability)
Technical Skills - Advanced, Administration, Working Knowledge
Qualifications & Professional Memberships
Courses an Training

Page 2
Experience History - Quite detailed on most recent gig, 4 paragraphs covering two years. After that just bullet points, decreasing in number to single line description for jobs over 9 years ago. As for details on the company its a single line with dates / organisation name / location

Sounds good --- now to Jobserve my man !! Punt it freely !!
(but my experience is not to make it searchable, all I get is fishing)

[SimonMac]

Looks like I am on the right lines now after a few tweeks.

Page 1

Personal Details - Name, Contact Number & Email address
Personal Statement - 6 bullet points outlining my attributes (also covering SC clearance and availability)
Technical Skills - Advanced, Administration, Working Knowledge
Qualifications & Professional Memberships
Courses an Training

Page 2
Experience History - Quite detailed on most recent gig, 4 paragraphs covering two years. After that just bullet points, decreasing in number to single line description for jobs over 9 years ago. As for details on the company its a single line with dates / organisation name / location

[eek]

I do exactly that - Advanced / Intermediate / Working Knowledge

CV - two pages long

Page 1
Personal Info -Area I live, mobile, email, nationality
Skills summary - Lets them know exactly what I do.
Eduaction - School / College / Uni
Main Software, Op Systems and Languages
(this is where I put the Advanced / Intermediate / Working Knowledge bit)
Then I list the recent projects I've been working on, role and duties.

Page 2
Detailed recent projects -- couple of paragraphs for each project explaining what I've been doing.

It works - been getting good agent calls lately (not fishing) -- been put forward for half a dozen and have an interview/meeting booked.

I think I might do that to mine. I took a glance at it for the first time in ages today and to be honest its crap (I don't have a problem getting work from it but getting past agents at the moment is proving a real pain).

[jmo21]

I never have my address on my CV, it is irrelevant to my ability to do a contract in a location, and I don't want an agent to exclude me without talking to me because of it.

And for 10 years into your career, it was daft having your GCSE's on there. When I left my first job (I was there 3 years) I didn't bother with school qualifications.

If you really need to save space, you can remove some skills on a per application basis, if you think the role will not need them.

On my last revision of my CV, I realised I was wasting a number of lines for role headings, doing something like.

Software Engineer
Big Company Ltd
London
May 1999- Dec 2002

I now have a much more consise version.

[Jubber]

This is where I have a problem though, I have a broad range of technical skills at varying levels, would it be best to just list them all, or "group" them into Advance Administration, Administration & Working Knowledge?

Any feed back would be welcome.

I do exactly that - Advanced / Intermediate / Working Knowledge

CV - two pages long

Page 1
Personal Info -Area I live, mobile, email, nationality
Skills summary - Lets them know exactly what I do.
Eduaction - School / College / Uni
Main Software, Op Systems and Languages
(this is where I put the Advanced / Intermediate / Working Knowledge bit)
Then I list the recent projects I've been working on, role and duties.

Page 2
Detailed recent projects -- couple of paragraphs for each project explaining what I've been doing.

It works - been getting good agent calls lately (not fishing) -- been put forward for half a dozen and have an interview/meeting booked.

[SimonMac]

After taking a back seat for Christmas / New Year I am kicking off searching for a gig again and decided that a refresh of the CV might be worth while after getting some feed back from agencies last time I was looking. I still think I want to try and keep it to two pages as it seems thats the nicest length for my experience (nearly 10 years but only a handful of companies). As space is a premium I have decided to annex my address from the CV so its only my name, telephone number and email address as this is normally taken off anyway when forwarded to the client so leaving the address just on covering letters. I've also trimmed back my academic qualifications (dropped the GCES as they are too old, and too low to be relevant) meaning I can add more technical skills to be picked up if key words are scanned. This is where I have a problem though, I have a broad range of technical skills at varying levels, would it be best to just list them all, or "group" them into Advance Administration, Administration & Working Knowledge?

Any feed back would be welcome.