I am updating my current CV as I need to produce it and I was wondering how far back you should go on education? Would you put your schools years down there if you are over 40?
I have actually gained more qualifications since leaving school!
Regarding education, you only need to put the relevant, most senior qualifications you have..
If I was applying for an accountancy role with a CV I would only include my accountancy degree, CIMA Advanced Diploma and AAT membership. I would not include A levels and O levels. I have an A level in Accountancy and a BTEC National in Business & Finance, I would not include those for example.
coming to this from both sides of the desk in my own CV I don't put any secondary education at all but I do include relevant memberships and awards.
The structure that I use is :
Page 1 :
Heading (Name with any letters after it)
Telephone number & email
Linkedin Profile link
Intro (Very brief overview. Mine is four short paragraphs taking up about a third of the page)
Technical Skillset (try to seperate out the different software that you use by category. i.e. accounts software/Payroll software/Tax software/microsoft product/ etc.)
Core Competences (I use a three column table with the lines removed to list competences)
Memberships & Awards
Other information : (UK Citizen, full clean driving licence, Security clearances, etc.)
Page 2-3
career history, newest first.
No matter how much experience you have keep the career history down to a maximum of 3 pages. Any more than that and it won't be read anyway. (agencies vary in their advice for maximum CV length. Personal view is that a CV must be at least 2 pages and should never be longer than 4 pages).
You have to read your CV from the perspective of the intended Audience and that may involve removing things (such as hobbies) that you are proud of.
Generally, unless relevant to the role that you are applying for, employers are not interested in hobbies.
Also, unless its your first job oe University the reader of the CV will not be interested in pre university education.
Have different CV's for different roles. I appreciate that sounds strange as you have to tell the truth on your CV but, there are different ways of angling the same truth depending upon what you feel that the person looking at the CV will be looking for.
Personally I have a highly technical skillset and for some jobs its great to emphasise those skills but for others emphasising certain technical skills would pigeon hole me and see my CV hitting the great round under desk filing cabinet for a role that I could do in my sleep.
Oh, and one final thing. never, ever use the services of one of the CV writing companies. If they are so good at writing CV's why haven't they managed to get a real job themselves, lol.
Hope that you find something useful in the above brain dump Amanda,
kind regards,
Shaun.
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
All depends on how much you've done Matt as to the minimum space requirement.
As I said in my original post the CV will be between 2 and 4 pages. Page one always covers the skillset, awards, memberships, contact details etc. Page 2 onwards a very brief resume
To keep mine down to three pages I don't cover bookkeeping on the CV at all, my first job even though still very relevant has been dropped off the CV. For older projects all that I basically do is list clients, projects, dates and position held. That alone still fills a page of my CV.
I cannot see how I can make my CV and smaller and still give a resume that covers the basics.
One point that this does raise is that you can make the font too small and that puts people off more than too many pages.
__________________
Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
All depends on how much you've done Matt as to the minimum space requirement.
As I said in my original post the CV will be between 2 and 4 pages. Page one always covers the skillset, awards, memberships, contact details etc. Page 2 onwards a very brief resume
To keep mine down to three pages I don't cover bookkeeping on the CV at all, my first job even though still very relevant has been dropped off the CV. For older projects all that I basically do is list clients, projects, dates and position held. That alone still fills a page of my CV.
I cannot see how I can make my CV and smaller and still give a resume that covers the basics.
One point that this does raise is that you can make the font too small and that puts people off more than too many pages.
This surprises me, you being a man of so few words normally
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
In my opinion anything over 2 is too much. It will leave you with nothing to talk about at the interview.
