It was discussed at the out to lunch bunch monthly meet, we were all in agreement that no one reads the telephone book type CV`s. Keep it short and factual, no one cares if you won the egg and spoon race at school or what you did on your gap year. I have never had to write a CV but I am sure if I did I could get it onto one page. I get the " professionally written" CV`s to read on a regular basis and I can assure you my eyes glaze over after about five minutes.
Bob
I don’t agree with that....
I don’t agree with that.
min my time I’ve looked at more than my fair share of CVs and hired / fired lots of folk
I think it’s an urban myth this one page cv stuff.
If your going for a first ever Saturday job then a one pager will be enough. If on the other hand your applying for a senior management role then 2, 3 sometimes 4 pages has to be
My shortened professional CV is 3 pages long. I will be reading it out in court in a little while when I get my ass in gear
I might be wrong on this but from what I know, CV is to get you an interview, interview is to get you the job.
My CV is pretty much 2 full pages and has been tailored to the job I've been applying for. Made easier by the fact it was an internal application both times but still enquired a CV good enough to get you an interview.
Fired lots of folk! must mean you were fooled by quite a few CV`s Parm
Our out to lunch bunch as a group employ about three hundred staff, I am only a minnow amongst them with fifteen or so. None of them like long-drawn-out CV`s, perhaps its because we are just a bunch of oikes
Bob
Exactly. With a normal firm you talk to the Forman, engineers. Basically they people directly involved with your job title.It really depends on the company big "professional" firms like gumpth
Normal companies dont.
mine would be short id come in and see u and ask if there's a job going got a job doing electrical emergency out of hours callouts and I didn't even ask for it. I just had a weeks holiday and a guy asked if i could work a couple of days wiring out an office in british steel as there lads were working away .did the job and he asked if I would do some callouts for a week .ended up doing them for 16 yearsI only read the cv`s that are on one page, they really do need to be very short and to the point.
Bob
Nope, having interviewed a fair number of people in my previous job 2 pages was about the max I would read. If you have more pages on it then in my opinion (and 99% of the other interviewers) you couldn't be bothered in tailoring it for the job in question so why should I put any extra effort into filtering it. If you've got something genuinely useful that's been missed off then it'll come out in the interview. If you didn't get to the interview then, well, you didn't do a good enough job filtering your CV and do we really want to interview you...Does that not depend on the position? Mine is on 2 pages, to make it any smaller would mean missing stuff off
Emphasising my point above - tailor it to the situation. In your particular situation in a court of law then every item would be relevant, even if you only summarise them vocally but have the full blown version available "for the record".My shortened professional CV is 3 pages long. I will be reading it out in court in a little while when I get my ass in gear
ThisI might be wrong on this but from what I know, CV is to get you an interview, interview is to get you the job.
Not sure whether BAE Systems could be considered a large corporate but just before I left the division I worked in had more or less fired all the recruitment agencies and automated stuff after it was pretty much a complete waste of time. The only people who got a job tended to be from personal recommendations / direct applicants.If you are applying to a large corporate first you have to get through the Automated Applicant Tracking system
.... a recent passport sized, but colour, photo attached to top right hand corner (most visible place when flicking through a pile...
Interesting... do you think the photo thing is a good idea for most CVs? I must admit I've never heard of doing this before... I always thought it was maybe discouraged...So: Two pages maximum, bullet points of key features right up front, and a recent passport sized, but colour, photo attached to top right hand corner (most visible place when flicking through a pile.
@doubleboost Good luck with whatever to decide, John.
Another thing which can be helpful, depending on the size of the Company/outfit, is to know something about them and their operation - and not to be afraid of asking them questions, as well as the other way round.
All the best.