Updating my CV for the first time in years, was always a two-page guy – but my business partner has gone down to one and I am very tempted to do the same.

Especially since I’m a hack who prides himself on being able to “write tight”.

What you reckon?

I have a succinct one pager, with an optional second page.

One page, with link to full thing online? Could be an idea…

If you can sell yourself adequately in one page then I would say go for it, high impact. If you are confident what a future employer is really looking for to hit the right buttons with something consise then it sounds good.

I try to write 2-4 key achievements in each role, together with a sentence describing role, accountabiliites and dimensions (staff, budget etc). It all adds up over a long career. First professional job 1 bullet, next 1 or 2 bullets etc.

I am not sure I would have the confidence to try to sell myself on one page.

If you are young enough, or done so little I’m sure one page is do-able…

Would it be acceptable to roll up the first three or four similar jobs (15yrs ago) into one entry? All largely similar and not very relevant to current roles.

If you are young enough, or done so little I’m sure one page is do-able…

On the contrary, my CV has been getting shorter for years as I become more aware of what potential emploters are actually looking for.

Get all the key stuff in there and they should be interested enough to have me in for interview if I’m a good fit for the role, eh?

The whole “one page” CV is misleading, IMHO. I’ve seen CVs where the candidate has aimed for one page when they really need two, and it looks bloody awful. A CV is as long as it needs to be.

chakaping – if your business partner and you are swapping CV’s I assume you are not “looking for a new job” but using them to promote your skills/experience to “clients”? In that situation I would say 1 page CV each is not only possible but highly desirable. By all means refer to it as a summary and allude to the fact that more detail is available on request. Both CV’s should also be in a similar style and format otherwise you don’t look like one organisation.

I quite often get proposals from organisations which include several pages of CV for each of the key people. Do these people really believe they are that important I want to waste my time discovering what their Honours project 10+ yrs ago, or their hobbies are? Actually 1/2 a page “bio” would probably be better still.

One page is fine, but do it A0 for max impact…

I used to go for two pages but now I think that one page is kinda money, y’know?

Seriously though keep it as concise as possible, nothing worse than reading a load of waffle. If that ends up being one page then great. Bullet points rather than paragraphs, makes it easy to read and leaves more info to ask questions about in the interview.

Last time I put my cv together it was 1 page and I was quite proud of it!

Crikey mine fills 3 pages if I include the last 8 years of achivements

Well, this.

If I list my relevant skills and experience, that’s a page on its own before I’ve started.

The best CV I had sent to me was in a ‘on her majesty’s service’ envelope. It was the first one out of the 80 envelopes that got opened!

It isn’t all about the CV length, it is about quality and presentation.

poly – something like that but it’s complicated.

pete – yes bullet points will be the other major innovation.

GJP – very useful comment thanks.

My C.V. has been three pages for a number of years, but recently I reduced it to two pages and I doubt if I could reduce it further. I removed a number of experiences and left in only the salient points I thought were appropriate for the role I was considering.

I also have a change of career in my C.V. from around nine years ago. Everything in my work life prior to this is condensed down to one concise line.

My boss told me this week that my covering letter got me the interview and virtually put me in a position where all i had to do was live up to it at interview.

keep the cv short, forget all that personal statement crap, i never used to read that bit when i was reviewing cv’s, just list the skills relevant to the job and your achievements, let’s face it that should be a pretty short list for most of us.

Also if you are sending hard copies you could send a double sided CV, worked for me a couple of times, but I have since cut it further to a page.

One pagers are generally good. Crisp piece of A4 from an A4 envelope with the pertinent facts about what you can and will do. The past is really dull, skills that you think you can offer and how that affects your future employer are exciting.

chapaking 1st post + 1

My industry’s very close, geographically and personally, so you get a new job through recommendation and reputation. Then a coffee or two and maybe a beer. The CV is often more for the HR people than for the person looking to hire you.

Add that to the fact that the job is fairly similar wherever you work, and that means there’s a limit to how much information you can convey in a CV. So for me, 1 page is plenty.

Speaking as someone who’s been through hundreds of CVs for whatever…..
I don’t care if your CV is one page or one hundred pages, if it doesn’t speak to me inside 10 seconds you are gone.

SB

I also think that there is some truth in in the view of a negative correlation between seniority and length of CV.

At the most senior levels CVs seem to be shorter, and probably less relevant. To me it looks like your Company, Job title will pretty much open a door or not.

However, my experiences may be biased because I have worked in huge Corporates all my working life

too easy to disapoint yourself by describing yourself on a paltry A4 page. it’s not easy describing your worth to a stranger either.

SB: interesting! What stands out in 10 seconds?

Layout/font/style? third of a second?

opening sentences of intro para – 5 seconds?

Top couple of bullet points from previous couple of jobs? – balance?

?

i look at cv’s quite often and 1 or 2 pages is irrelevant to me.
most cv’s i see are 2 pages. some 3 or 4, very very few are 1 page. often the lengthy cv are from contractors done many jobs that are targeting everyone without a tailored cv.

if you are shrinking your font/margins to get it on one page FORGET IT, i hate that!

edit: i should probaly say that i deal in mostly IT, but would be interesting to hear about other professions

I’m a recruiter, we look at dozens of CVs every day. Some good ideas here, but can I add a note on photos on CVs?
Please, no huge colour pic taking up half the page. It tells me you’re an egoist. And it wastes my toner if I have to print it out. Also avoid dark, moody pics. Or any attempts to be “arty”. (Unless maybe you’re going for creative type roles).
Most of all, for goodness sake, don’t take a pic of yourself sitting behind a cheap desk in your spare room pretending to make a phone call whilst signing papers. It just looks desperate.
A passport size/style photo at top right corner is good though – it’ll help me remember if I’ve met you before. I’m more likely to call you if I have.

My rules – no photo, no comic sans, no personal statement, no detail on roles before 5 years ago. I also don’t need to know what grade you got in GCSE Home Economics.

Do a lot of people put pics on their cv then squidlord? I thought that was a strict no-no

I’m a recruiter

😆
THE expert on CVs eh?

Let me guess you wear pointy shoes, footballer knot ties and shiny suits from topman…

unfair sweeping generalisations?

it wastes my toner if I have to print it out.

[quote]It tells me you’re an egoist[/quote]

Please don’t judge on pre conceptions and generalisations, judge on merit and suitability. You’ll be a more sucessfull recruiter as a result.
Don’t tell me your too busy to thoroughly review CVs, its your job to do so.

I work in Prague, they do here. I quite like it, for the reason I mention above.

Woah, just saw Jackson Pollock’s post.

THE expert on CVs eh?

Never claimed that. I’ve just been looking at lots of them every day for 13 years, so I thought I might have something to add to the conversation.

Let me guess you wear pointy shoes

– no I have feet like barges

footballer knot ties

que?

and shiny suits from topman…

nope, I live abroad. If the suits are shiny it’s because I hate shopping for new ones.

Would you be happier if I got someone else to print it out a big photo of you for me using their toner? That would seem a little selfish.

Please don’t judge on pre conceptions and generalisations, judge on merit and suitability.

While I’ve only got your CV to go on, presentation will play a large part. (Some of the other comments here may have alluded to this.) So it’s best to avoid coming across as a bit of a idiot. Just a thought.

You’ll be a more sucessfull recruiter as a result.

Yeah, I’m just winging it, obviously. Do please enlighten me further.

Don’t tell me your too busy to thoroughly review CVs, its your job to do so.

I’m too busy to thoroughly review crap CVs, I can spot them pretty quickly. I’m only as good as the people I represent.

You sound very bitter. I hope this doesn’t come across if you’re looking for jobs.

Apologies, just read it back and it does sound a tad harsh, sorry.

Having trouble with recruiters at the moment. We have a ‘prefered supplier’ system which I was instrumental in implementing, ‘HR’ have put their prefered agents into it. I am looking to take someone on, but keep having totally unsuitable people sent… talk about hoist by my own petard! 🙂

Presumably they all have the ‘correct’ CV?

Jackson, who are you looking for? I have spoke to people about just by asking on here, must be worth a shot.

What kind of jobs do you recruit for in Prague Mr Squid?

No problem, and I apologise for being sarcastic.

Prefered Supplier can work well if you have the right agencies on it. But it can also be limiting. Do you really have no chance to go around it? For example, could you (informally) brief any recruiters you do like and trust to bring you the right people? HR won’t look good if a line manager can find someone suitable faster than they can – and they know it.

And in fairness, do HR really understand what you need? If you tell the HRM, who tells the HR assistant, who tells the recruiter… it can get a bit “Chinese whispers”. Frustrating for everyone involved.

I’m sure you’re busy, but it is worth talking direct to the supplier(s). There’s often an opportunity cost to having a role vacant for any length of time. I tell clients that it’s better for them them to give me 10 minutes of their time at the start of the project to explain what they really want, rather than have me waste 10 weeks of your (and mine, and the candidates…) time sending irrelevant profiles. It might sound like headhunter patter – but it’s true.

PS: Sorry for hijack, OP

Edit: Tails, I typically do senior commercial (eg sales/marketing) or support roles (eg finance, hr) for IT, pharma/medical devices, and sometimes manufacturing. Shimano have a factory in the east of the country, but I’ve not found a way in yet.

Gonna have a re-jig internally I think, don’t want to moan about my work resource woes it’s Friday!

Just making the point (rather grumpily :oops:) that rather than discard an application because you don’t like the layout etc, judge it on its content; the layout/presentation can always be changed/improved before the CV is put before the decision maker (the person doing the hiring).

I know takisawa2 was joking, but after laughing out loud, I’ve decided that could actually be quite a good thing to do. Assuming you weren’t planning to email it…

Yes,it’s Friday, so here’s a sketch about rubbish headhunters. I once worked for a guy like this. The day he got fired was one of the happiest of my career…
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esG6tzgSVpA[/video]

😆

Many pages are fine but the first page is the most important.
I’d never reject a CV because it was large but I would because the first page didn’t grab me. Especially if I have a lot to go through.

Sadly, my recent experiences with so many recruitment agencies recently suggest they do nothing more than run a search on the CV’s they have so size doesn’t matter there.

Plus, so many agencies now seem to refine CV’s before I see them anyway. I get five applicants from an agency, their CV’s all the look the same and all say they’re experts in exactly the same places that magically match the job spec.

If someone I interview turns up with their real CV in their pocket then I a) automatically consider them a bit brighter than normal and b) Will read through it even if it’s ten pages long.

HTH.

Resumes (in the US) need to be very short – 2 pages is considered ridiculous unless you’re CEO of GE or something. In the UK, 2 pages seems okay imho.

Layout/font/style?

Comic Sans and you’ll have an immediate impact.

(No joke – I just read a report from a paediatric occupational therapist that was entirely in Comic Sans. FFFfffuuuu…)