Employers: What do you look for on a CV?

JethroUK

paddyrg wrote: »

..If you can't summarise in 2 sides of A4 why you should be called in for interview, it says something. Opinions may be split, ...

Number of pages on CV (Quality of/on the application) is directly proportional to the quality of the job on offer

One page CV will get 100000000000's interviews for jobs that "meet minimum wage" - hence we use these to get people 'back into work'

Two Page CV will 'at best' get you to an interview for 'a normal' job but wont get you to one single 'professional' job interview

If company are offering £30K+ salary you will need more than 2 pages (of experiences) to get the that interview

Common sense?? Maybe

dizzyrascal

JethroUK wrote: »

Number of pages on CV (Quality of/on the application) is directly proportional to the quality of the job on offer

One page CV will get 100000000000's interviews for jobs that "meet minimum wage" - hence we use these to get people 'back into work'

Two Page CV will 'at best' get you to an interview for 'a normal' job but wont get you to one single 'professional' job interview

If company are offering £30K+ salary you will need more than 2 pages (of experiences) to get the that interview

Common sense?? Maybe

As has already been stated. If you can't keep your CV to 2 pages in total then you are wasting your time.
There is no reason to go over the 2 page rule. Any more pages than this and I suspect that they just go straight in the bin.

Two4Tuesday

dizzyrascal wrote: »

As has already been stated. If you can't keep your CV to 2 pages in total then you are wasting your time.
There is no reason to go over the 2 page rule. Any more pages than this and I suspect that they just go straight in the bin.

I disagree. It does depend on the job. My CV is 4 sides long and has got me lots of interest, including 6 interviews within 2 weeks of posting it to jobsite.co.uk and a job I'm doing now at £45K per annum.

Even now, I'm fielding phone calls from agents almost every day, having to tell them I'm no longer looking for new work.

dizzyrascal

Two4Tuesday wrote: »

I disagree. It does depend on the job. My CV is 4 sides long and has got me lots of interest, including 6 interviews within 2 weeks of posting it to jobsite.co.uk and a job I'm doing now at £45K per annum.

Even now, I'm fielding phone calls from agents almost every day, having to tell them I'm no longer looking for new work.

Ah but you are the person who recently started a thread where you admitted to lying on your CV to get that job.
Not really the sort of advice the op on this thread is looking for

ktothema

MY cv is currently 2.5 pages, and that's which margins out at extremes! I work a very technical job, hence there's a lot of detail required per role albeit no task has more than one line, and they're as short and snappy as can be.

The major issue today is that people tend to move around to further their careers. That's what's pushed mine over onto a third page. No one has ever questioned the length of my cv. My work movement isn't horrendous either, shortest role was 18 months, it's quite acceptable for the work I do.

More people are realising this now and are more accepting of the more than 2 page cv. As long as it doesn't contain too much waffle obviously.

Sambucus_Nigra

Two4Tuesday wrote: »

I disagree. It does depend on the job. My CV is 4 sides long and has got me lots of interest, including 6 interviews within 2 weeks of posting it to jobsite.co.uk and a job I'm doing now at £45K per annum.

Even now, I'm fielding phone calls from agents almost every day, having to tell them I'm no longer looking for new work.

dizzyrascal wrote: »

Ah but you are the person who recently started a thread where you admitted to lying on your CV to get that job.
Not really the sort of advice the op on this thread is looking for

To be fair - if a lie is undetectable and gets someone the job; Then surely it worked?

JethroUK

dizzyrascal wrote: »

As has already been stated. If you can't keep your CV to 2 pages in total then you are wasting your time....

Says who???

I'm challenging YOUR 2-page rule! - Right Here:

JethroUK wrote: »

Number of pages on CV (Quality of/on the application) is directly proportional to the quality of the job on offer

One page CV will get 100000000000's interviews for jobs that "meet minimum wage" - hence we use these to get people 'back into work'

Two Page CV will 'at best' get you to an interview for 'a normal' job but wont get you to one single 'professional' job interview

If company are offering £30K+ salary you will need more than 2 pages (of experiences) to get the that interview

Common sense?? Maybe

Two4Tuesday wrote: »

...It does depend on the job. My CV is 4 sides long and has got me lots of interest, including 6 interviews within 2 weeks of posting it to jobsite.co.uk and a job I'm doing now at £45K per annum.

Even now, I'm fielding phone calls from agents almost every day, having to tell them I'm no longer looking for new work.

Thanks - I rest my case

Two4Tuesday

dizzyrascal wrote: »

Ah but you are the person who recently started a thread where you admitted to lying on your CV to get that job.
Not really the sort of advice the op on this thread is looking for

Irrelevant. The OP is looking for advice on what employers are looking for, and clearly having a 4 page CV is not turning off a lot of employers, so long as it's useful information backing up a concise half page profile detailing why the candidate is the perfect match for the vacancy.

If the employer gets the useful information in the 1st half page, the rest is supporting evidence, and the employer doesn't have to read it.

Yes, I lied on my CV but the lie was only to cover up a small but serious period of illness. Everything else on it was true and my CV is perfect for more professional jobs like project management, office management, company directorships, and software development.

JethroUK

dizzyrascal wrote: »

Ah but you are the person who recently started a thread where you admitted to lying on your CV to get that job.
Not really the sort of advice the op on this thread is looking for

Well he got the job - which means it's exactly the sort of advice this thread is looking for

You have just dug yourself into "TWO PAGE CV ONLY" hole - my advice is to stop digging

Sambucus_Nigra

Jobhunters...what people are looking for are solid CVs that meet the requirements of that role. So if you are applying for a role [rather than putting it up on a recruitment website] - it needs to follow the essential and desired skills and you need to show how you meet each and every one.

Often the feedback is that someone met the requirements better - well, they may not have, it's just they worded it better or made sure that every point on the requirements meant a tick in the box.