1 Page CV or 2 Page Cv

lethal_2

I am currently a student as some of you may know, and would like some advise about my CV. A lot of people on this forum have said the shorter the CV is a better cv, and someone said in a post that they squeezed their CV into one psge and got numerous offers, Having read that post I tried to make an attempt to put my two full page CV into one and hey, it worked!

Instead of writing infomration about my job, I have neatly put in rows the dates. company, job title, and duration of the employment in said, and I think it looks good! I have not put any infomration about the job but it's obivous. The following is a picture from my CV about employment history:


(over 1page)

and this is how it was before:


(over 2pages)
which one would people suggest is better?

(sorry dates are wrong for Burnham News)

LittleVoice

Actually as far as the display is concerned, I'd suggest something of a compromise.

The second one wastes a lot of space because you have a column width just for the dates. This is especially wide because you are including months (because of the short length of the appointments this is OK).

The compromise is to put the job title and employer on the same line as the date but have the date flush with the right margin. Then begin the description of your work at the left margin. Eg
Shop Assistant - Burnham News Sept 04 - Mar 06 ****
Part-time with local newsagent, working on the till. Also involved stock
control, stacking goods on shelves and dealing with customers enquiries

I would put the dates at the end of the lline because they are not as important as the work you did.
I would give description of what you did (and you could use bullet points) as not all are clear and you may use some key words which will interest recruiters.
It's better to make good use of 2 pages rather than squeeze everything onto one page. For instance, do not have very narrow margins and use small point fonts just to get it onto one page - it's much easier to read in larger font and a wider margin allows recruiter to make notes.

**** The date is supposed to be at the end of the line but the text editor takes out the extra space after News.

bristol_pilot

The first one (1-page) works best at this early stage of your career, the second style (2-page) will be more appropriate when you have some solid experience in proper jobs under your belt, this will be the case for most of your career. You will know you have really arrived when you can revert to a 1-page CV - because you are a household name, or the equivalent in your industry. 3-page plus CVs are for academic positions only.

Incidentally, I would not mention anything to do with politics on my CV.

Oldernotwiser

You seem to be concentrating on the least important part of the CV. What are you putting for the rest of it?
(By the way, why are you distibuting leaflets for two different political parties? It seems to show something of a lack of commitment!)

lethal_2

I was waiting for someone to mention that up! its because I have freinds running for councilers and in order for me to persure a career in politics later on in life, I need these councilers helping me as and when is required I will change that though! thanks!

I will only be applying to retailers and possible some office junior positions, so I was unsure which one to use, or should I do a combinatation and make it just above one page?

LittleVoice

Don't do a page-and-a-bit CV. Either one page or two pages.

Make sure the first page has the information which will prove you have the basic experience they seek.

shameless-about-money

I have had one job for over 23 years.

My cv runs into three pages - of qualifications. I cannot reduce this at all since it has to be there.

LittleVoice

shameless-about-money wrote: »

I have had one job for over 23 years.

My cv runs into three pages - of qualifications. I cannot reduce this at all since it has to be there.

But - what sort of work do you do? The 2-page "rule" does have exceptions.

And - would all the qualifications need to appear for every job you might apply for? Eg an 'A' level wouldn't need to appear if an applicant had a BA/BSc or beyond in a comparable area; or a qualification in an obsolete computer application would be irrelevant unless you were working on retrieving long-archived data.

shameless-about-money

LittleVoice wrote: »

But - what sort of work do you do? The 2-page "rule" does have exceptions.

And - would all the qualifications need to appear for every job you might apply for? Eg an 'A' level wouldn't need to appear if an applicant had a BA/BSc or beyond in a comparable area; or a qualification in an obsolete computer application would be irrelevant unless you were working on retrieving long-archived data.

I am starting new work - totally new career path. All of the application forms I received required ALL qualifications back to "O" level!

I received my newly signed contract yesterday.

I have a PhD.

Oldernotwiser

Application forms perhaps; CVs, no.

Lethal, you need a section on your skills, whether specific skills or transferable ones. A CV shouldn't just be a list of jobs you've had and qualifications you've got.

shameless-about-money

cvs do require all the information re qualifications, otherwise they are simply not complete!