CV - too long ?
Discussion
Im gunna start looking for other jobs, its turning into a rather crap place to work here, been here since Nov, so 8/9 months,
Is it bad form to have a CV longer than 2 pages? I have 7 years work exp, and have contracted quite a bit. Theres no way if I add a new position on my CV that it will fit on 2 pages.
Is it bad form to have a CV longer than 2 pages? I have 7 years work exp, and have contracted quite a bit. Theres no way if I add a new position on my CV that it will fit on 2 pages.
Stevenj214 said:
What industry are you in? How many jobs in the 7 years? All contract, or some perm? What job/industry are you looking at?
Web "Development" - im a server side guy (c#/asp.net mvc), most of my works been either in travel or ecommerce, this is my 3rd perm job, 4 contract (and one "trainee" job). More of the same really.Edit - And an active contributor to 2 open source projects
Edited by PintOfKittens on Thursday 5th August 14:51
PintOfKittens said:
Stevenj214 said:
What industry are you in? How many jobs in the 7 years? All contract, or some perm? What job/industry are you looking at?
Web "Development" - im a server side guy (c#/asp.net mvc), most of my works been either in travel or ecommerce, this is my 3rd perm job, 4 contract (and one "trainee" job). More of the same really.Edit - And an active contributor to 2 open source projects
Edited by PintOfKittens on Thursday 5th August 14:51
Original Poster said:
PintOfKittens said:
Stevenj214 said:
What industry are you in? How many jobs in the 7 years? All contract, or some perm? What job/industry are you looking at?
Web "Development" - im a server side guy (c#/asp.net mvc), most of my works been either in travel or ecommerce, this is my 3rd perm job, 4 contract (and one "trainee" job). More of the same really.Edit - And an active contributor to 2 open source projects
Edited by PintOfKittens on Thursday 5th August 14:51
At the top I have my name and contact details, then its a "personal statement" type thing, then its tech I use and abuse, work exp (which atm is 1 and 1/2 pages), a little bit about opensource projects (2lines), one liner about education and one liner about personal information.
zippy3x said:
My CV is 4 pages (C# contractor)
Everything you would need to know about my skills and experience is on page 1 other three pages are just examples of how i've used those skills for past clients.
This is how I'd go about it, as you're a techie. You need to tell them your skills on the front page, then it doesn't matter (within reason) how long your employment history is.Everything you would need to know about my skills and experience is on page 1 other three pages are just examples of how i've used those skills for past clients.
I sometimes am involved in recruiting people with your skill set and I'd like to be able to quickly work out
Can you do the job? - do you have the right skills and experience and theoretical knowledge about what you do?
Will you do the job? - will you fit in with the team and do you have the right sort of work ethic and a track record of getting things done?
I'd like to see on no more than 2 pages of normal sized and spaced text:
1) For your most recent 2 positions a list of the skills you used and a sentence or two describing the work you did day to day and your role in your development team. Don't exaggerate this or mention any skill you are not confident in talking about at an interview. I'd like to know the extent to which this is technical, managerial, business analysis or anything else.
2) A complete list of your other places of work with job title and dates (no need to explain these in any detail). This is to get a feel for the amount and breadth of your experience.
3) Your educational background so I can see if you got into the field through going to university or learned your skills a different way. If you attend courses to keep your skills up to date mention the types of things you study here.
4) Hobbies and interests so we can see what sort of person you might be (include your open source work and details of anything like a blog you write here).
5) If there are any gaps on your CV, an explanation of why. I don't mind if you have had a period of unemployment etc., but I'd prefer to see a complete history of how you have become who you are now.
I don't particularly read:
Personal statements.
Skill summaries (this can be worked out from your employment history).
The work you did prior to your last 2 jobs.
We're recruiting people with .NET skills (we'll soon be based in London) so if you want to PM me your CV, I'll review it and send it to my development manager if it's suitable (he will be pleased to save an agency fee).
Can you do the job? - do you have the right skills and experience and theoretical knowledge about what you do?
Will you do the job? - will you fit in with the team and do you have the right sort of work ethic and a track record of getting things done?
I'd like to see on no more than 2 pages of normal sized and spaced text:
1) For your most recent 2 positions a list of the skills you used and a sentence or two describing the work you did day to day and your role in your development team. Don't exaggerate this or mention any skill you are not confident in talking about at an interview. I'd like to know the extent to which this is technical, managerial, business analysis or anything else.
2) A complete list of your other places of work with job title and dates (no need to explain these in any detail). This is to get a feel for the amount and breadth of your experience.
3) Your educational background so I can see if you got into the field through going to university or learned your skills a different way. If you attend courses to keep your skills up to date mention the types of things you study here.
4) Hobbies and interests so we can see what sort of person you might be (include your open source work and details of anything like a blog you write here).
5) If there are any gaps on your CV, an explanation of why. I don't mind if you have had a period of unemployment etc., but I'd prefer to see a complete history of how you have become who you are now.
I don't particularly read:
Personal statements.
Skill summaries (this can be worked out from your employment history).
The work you did prior to your last 2 jobs.
We're recruiting people with .NET skills (we'll soon be based in London) so if you want to PM me your CV, I'll review it and send it to my development manager if it's suitable (he will be pleased to save an agency fee).
purplepolarbear said:
I sometimes am involved in recruiting people with your skill set and I'd like to be able to quickly work out
Can you do the job? - do you have the right skills and experience and theoretical knowledge about what you do?
Will you do the job? - will you fit in with the team and do you have the right sort of work ethic and a track record of getting things done?
I'd like to see on no more than 2 pages of normal sized and spaced text:
1) For your most recent 2 positions a list of the skills you used and a sentence or two describing the work you did day to day and your role in your development team. Don't exaggerate this or mention any skill you are not confident in talking about at an interview. I'd like to know the extent to which this is technical, managerial, business analysis or anything else.
2) A complete list of your other places of work with job title and dates (no need to explain these in any detail). This is to get a feel for the amount and breadth of your experience.
3) Your educational background so I can see if you got into the field through going to university or learned your skills a different way. If you attend courses to keep your skills up to date mention the types of things you study here.
4) Hobbies and interests so we can see what sort of person you might be (include your open source work and details of anything like a blog you write here).
5) If there are any gaps on your CV, an explanation of why. I don't mind if you have had a period of unemployment etc., but I'd prefer to see a complete history of how you have become who you are now.
I don't particularly read:
Personal statements.
Skill summaries (this can be worked out from your employment history).
The work you did prior to your last 2 jobs.
We're recruiting people with .NET skills (we'll soon be based in London) so if you want to PM me your CV, I'll review it and send it to my development manager if it's suitable (he will be pleased to save an agency fee).
I'm not saying you're wrong, as interviewers are all very different, so your advice may be spot on in some cases, but....Can you do the job? - do you have the right skills and experience and theoretical knowledge about what you do?
Will you do the job? - will you fit in with the team and do you have the right sort of work ethic and a track record of getting things done?
I'd like to see on no more than 2 pages of normal sized and spaced text:
1) For your most recent 2 positions a list of the skills you used and a sentence or two describing the work you did day to day and your role in your development team. Don't exaggerate this or mention any skill you are not confident in talking about at an interview. I'd like to know the extent to which this is technical, managerial, business analysis or anything else.
2) A complete list of your other places of work with job title and dates (no need to explain these in any detail). This is to get a feel for the amount and breadth of your experience.
3) Your educational background so I can see if you got into the field through going to university or learned your skills a different way. If you attend courses to keep your skills up to date mention the types of things you study here.
4) Hobbies and interests so we can see what sort of person you might be (include your open source work and details of anything like a blog you write here).
5) If there are any gaps on your CV, an explanation of why. I don't mind if you have had a period of unemployment etc., but I'd prefer to see a complete history of how you have become who you are now.
I don't particularly read:
Personal statements.
Skill summaries (this can be worked out from your employment history).
The work you did prior to your last 2 jobs.
We're recruiting people with .NET skills (we'll soon be based in London) so if you want to PM me your CV, I'll review it and send it to my development manager if it's suitable (he will be pleased to save an agency fee).
If I only listed my last two roles, you'd only have about a quarter of my skill set.
In my experience, agents and employers/clients like skills summaries (I agree personal statements are a bit naff).
A CV isn't designed to get you a job, it's designed to get you an interview.
In general, think about what you would look for as an employer/client. For example, On my contracts, I give details of contract extensions, as I would look for that myself. If a client paying good money keeps extending your contract, then they're obviously happy with your work.
2 pages maximum. Remember that it's your last year or two of experience that will get you the interview 9 times out of 10. Unless something before that is specifically relevant to the role you're applying for then the only purpose is to complete the story.
Something like: Graduated 2003, got into company ABC as an XYZ, worked there 3 years then he moved to his current company as Senior XYZ, moved up to XYZ manager in 2008, so what's he done in this role.
If you moved from graduate to senior to manager then the details of the junior roles don't matter so much - you obviously performed them well enough to get to your current position so that's that. They can ask more in the interview.
2 pages. The rest will not be read.
Something like: Graduated 2003, got into company ABC as an XYZ, worked there 3 years then he moved to his current company as Senior XYZ, moved up to XYZ manager in 2008, so what's he done in this role.
If you moved from graduate to senior to manager then the details of the junior roles don't matter so much - you obviously performed them well enough to get to your current position so that's that. They can ask more in the interview.
2 pages. The rest will not be read.
When I interviewed for the job I'm in now, despite having 7 years experience on top of my degree the MD still wanted to know about my A-Levels and was annoyed that they werent on my CV.
I'd worked for 4 different engineering companies in contract and permi roles since graduating and could have had well over 2 pages on my CV. In the interests of space I'd dropped my school qualifications as the degree was over and above these.
This one guy clearly wanted to see more which I found odd.
I'd worked for 4 different engineering companies in contract and permi roles since graduating and could have had well over 2 pages on my CV. In the interests of space I'd dropped my school qualifications as the degree was over and above these.
This one guy clearly wanted to see more which I found odd.
zippy3x said:
A CV isn't designed to get you a job, it's designed to get you an interview.
That's spot on. I've got 18 years worth of experience and many clients and my 'profile' (ha!) is still only 2 pages. Never failed to get me a face to face, and that's when you can expand on the summary detail. There's no way anyone could write down all the things that *might* be of interest to whoever you're talking to, so stick to the appropriate, salient points on the CV.Although I am a contractor, so all the client really cares about is what you can bring to the party there and then, not "where do you see yourself in 5 years?". They care about:
how current is your skillset;
how relevant is your skillset to them;
who else have you been whoring with;
and for how long (especially, how many contract extensions)
PintOfKittens said:
Original Poster said:
PintOfKittens said:
Stevenj214 said:
What industry are you in? How many jobs in the 7 years? All contract, or some perm? What job/industry are you looking at?
Web "Development" - im a server side guy (c#/asp.net mvc), most of my works been either in travel or ecommerce, this is my 3rd perm job, 4 contract (and one "trainee" job). More of the same really.Edit - And an active contributor to 2 open source projects
Edited by PintOfKittens on Thursday 5th August 14:51
At the top I have my name and contact details, then its a "personal statement" type thing, then its tech I use and abuse, work exp (which atm is 1 and 1/2 pages), a little bit about opensource projects (2lines), one liner about education and one liner about personal information.
It is a bit of a myth anyway.
PintOfKittens said:
Original Poster said:
Simply ignore the "2 page rule"
It is a bit of a myth anyway.
It is a bit of a myth anyway.
AJS- said:
2 pages maximum.
- snip*
Most will give a few minutes reading to the most recent job and a cursory scan of the previous history zooming in on anything especially interesting or relevant. In my experience, which is quite a lot in recruitment, most like a short summary with some relevant details about the last year or two, and an outline story of what led you there. I've seen this for fresh graduates with some part time/internship experience, and I've seen it for big schwingers with 20+ years of experience.
If 2 pages are enough then that is = better than 3 or 4 or 10.
Why? Because while the point of the CV is mainly to get you an interview, it also serves another purpose. It provides some direction and some topics for discussion in the interview. By having a short and concise CV you can know these, limit the number of likely questions and prepare good answers for them. If you have in depth details about projects you did 5 years ago, or what your dissertation was about then whatever details the interviewer picks up on (and you won't know what they are until the interview) will probably be far from your mind, and in answering them you will sound vague and hesitant.
Of course it's perfectly ok to say you have forgotten some detail of a project you did years ago, but then why put it on your CV? It's ok, but it's not as good as having clear and concise answers to those questions, and it depletes your capacity for answering the other surprising questions that interviewers do ask.
I know with any interview I go to I will be asked where I went in Australia and New Zealand, I will be asked about one job I had when I left school which gets most people's interest, and I will be asked what I got from studying Economics. I know one of their reservations will be uncertainty about whether I will stay around or want to move somewhere else, and I know they will ask (to check for consistency) about my targets and sales figures for my previous 2 relevant roles, which I know off by heart.
On the other hand I can be fairly sure they won't ask what statistical methodology I used for my dissertation or what safety training I received during my 3 month (fairly disastrous) welding apprenticeship, because it's not there on my CV.
Gassing Station | Jobs & Employment Matters | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff