The 2-3 page CV...when you're in your 50s.

ohreally

sitesafe wrote: »

Would you tend to put a head and shoulders photo also? It's not something I've done before but am being asked to.

No. Whos asking?

beckysheffield

Lorian wrote: »

Do you still have the job description? That's sometimes a starting point if its been written well and has a decent duties section.

No.....do I list duties is my point or tell them how fantastic I was and didn’t generate any complaints (eg customer service).

Doshwaster

Lorian wrote: »

Personally I'd always want to see A-level/higher subjects where relevant. I'd say most people still include their grades on CV, whatever their age. For me I like to see school subjects, particularly for English and Maths if not taken at a higher level.

Hobbies don't really play a part in our process, but if you list something like LARPing we'll notice ;-)

When you did your school exams 30-40 years ago it can be a struggle to remember what grades you got and what with grade inflation and so many changes to the curricula over the years I'm not sure that the relevance of a C grade in a subject from 1986.

sitesafe

ohreally wrote: »

No. Whos asking?

Thanks.
The agency are asking

z1a

"surely in that time you've had more jobs and attended more courses than you normally would have in your 20s say."

Not necessarily.

In my case, age 16 - 32 in defence industry, age 32 - present (58) in Aerospace industry. Plus relevant qualifications.

redpete

I would want to see a list of all the jobs someone has done (within reason, working at a petrol station when 17 wouldn't be needed!).

Anything over 10-15 years ago I would just want to see dates , employer and job title so shouldn't fill lots of space. Each job might have been important to you but think about the person who has maybe 30 CVs to sift to select 5-10 to interview.

Photos on CVs are unusual these days and I would question the professionalism of anyone who insisted they were included.

Savvy_Sue

redpete wrote: »

Photos on CVs are unusual these days and I would question the professionalism of anyone who insisted they were included.

Me too, they are a direct route to discrimination, and so is asking for your dob.

For most of my working life, the first 'job' listed has been "various temporary and vacation jobs" with a range of years.

xapprenticex

if more than 2 sides im not interviewing you, if you have a picture ill assume youre full of yourself and im not interviewing you

another_casualty

Having left school in '79 and constantly in employment either perm or temp , my cv could be like a small booklet .
I believe the rule of thumb used to be just to list your previous 3 permanent positions , and your hobbies .

After taking approx 18 months off due to health reasons and relocation , I am now in the process of rejigging my cv .
After spending various amounts of time trying to trim it to 2 pages( which was becoming a pita) , I asked my friend ( who is a web designer) to tidy it up .
He said that it looks like I haven't done anything since 2002.
I asked him to please just put " full employment history available on request ." I did the covering letter , but my last attempt put it just over 2 pages by a couple of lines :mad:

One of the main issues I had with condensing the cv, was from 2006 - 2016 I did a lot of temping and got a permanrpent position through temping also.
When I was discussing this with another friend on Saturday , he just said that 1 page is enough and that potential employers would just gloss over it in a minute or so.
I think a covering letter is more important in our age group ,as it's an uphill struggle the older we get .
Wishing you all the best

Tabbytabitha

Write a proper skills based CV with all the important stuff on the first page in case that's the only page read and adjust the skills you use for the jobs you're applying for. Traditional, chronological CVs went out of favour years ago and are well described as "a dull backwards plod"

If I weren't retired and was job hunting I'd only list half a dozen jobs on the second page of my CV despite having had well over 30, if you include student work