[Closed] 1 page CV / Resume?

My advice would be to stick to two pages, but put the job history on the second page. They will want to know it anyway, but focus on your skills and qualities on the first page.

My advice would be to follow the advice above. Run the job history to 2 pages if you have to, but definitely 2 parts - 1 you and your skills 2 job history

Go on, i'll offer up an alternative after sifting through thousands of CV's over the years. The problem with the conventional format of listing skills, jobs and qualifications is that it just starts to look like 95% of all the other CV's out there that look all the same and it doesn't really say anything different about you as a person and how you go about things and get things done. I'm only really interested in your last qualification and maybe last few jobs - listing every single job of a 20 year career isn't that helpful...verbalise 15 years in a few sentences and provide the last few jobs. I'm never sure how useful a list of skills is....i'd rather see real examples of what you've done, things you've achieved, what you've delivered, how you've handled difficult situations etc. What are your core competencies and behaviours rather than skills. And don't just limit it to work examples. If you run a club, or are active in the community or something then all those are relevant examples. That is far more valuable and provides something a bit more useful to talk around in the interview. No time to be modest, the language is about what YOU have done, what YOU'VE achieved, how YOU resolved a difficult situation or made something happen etc. What difference did YOU make. And obviously try to tailor the examples to be most relevant to what qualities you think they're looking for.

You want to stand out from the crowd not be just one more CV in amongst all the other's. It needs to be something they'll remember. The CV is just a formality to get you into the interview or the next step of the process that really matters, so not a time to be shy and retiring. It's like the News at Ten headlines....an attention grabbing headline to kick things off, start with what you've done then later expand on how you've done it, and grab peoples attention and stop them from turning over to the next CV for a moment. You can go into more background and detail in the next steps, but you need to grab their attention initially.

A mate of mine did his CV on a sheet of card folded and spring loaded with an elastic band so when they pulled it out of the envelope it sprung into a cube with each side summarising something. Was brilliant and worked for him, but it was for a design job, so not necessarily something that would work for every situation...but don't be afraid to be different and deviate from the old format. They need to know about the person and a simple list of qualifications (which most other candidates will also have) and a list of skills (which most other candidates will also have equivalent) isn't necessarily going to impress.

Maybe tailor it to each job? If you applied for a finance job at a retail company then you would list the details of different jobs than if you were applying to coach retail management (or teach finance).

I have a 2 page CV because I know recruiters search for engineers that have previously done similar projects so listing everything is important. If it's going on a website then more words are better than less, no one except a search engine will read it.

My full CV is about 5 pages long, I just cut it to the most relevant 2 pages for each application. But stick the whole thing on indeed, CV library etc.

I like CVs that all look the same. It means I can skim read the several hundred applications for each job to quickly into sort into Yes/No/Maybe piles. It's not designer jobs that we advertise and anyone sending in a pop up card as a CV would be in the same pile as the ones written in crayon. That said, the jobs I interview for normally include report writing and those reports need to be brief and to the point

1 page cv is a US thing - I tried it once but it didn't go down well so back to 2 pages...

I'm with wobbliscot - it's got to be about you, what you've done and how you've done it. I not interested in a load of "skills" (enthusiastic, conscientious, good team player, blah, blah, blah). Most CVs don't go into the detail of HOW - "i was involved in project X for 25 years, a global multi-billion pound, first of a kind answer to world peace" tells me nowt about the person or what they did.

wobbliscot's advice is very good. The only thing I'd add is, a CV is as long as it needs to be. A CV from a school-leaver applying for a supermarket job is going to be very different from an engineer with 30 years of experience and qualifications.

A 1-page CV is great if you can comfortably fit all the info you need to portray onto it, but I've seen ones where a candidate has clearly been told that a 1- or 2-page CV is some magical goal and achieved it by printing the whole thing in 5-point Flyspeck with no margins or white space. That went straight in the bin.

Where practical, tailor it to the individual role you're going for rather than having "a" CV. You may have skills which are more or less relevant to a given job. A CV isn't necessarily your life history, it's a sales document and it has one job which is to get you an interview.

Google "skills based" CV - lots of advise / templates. As said, tailor your CV to suit the role - it might mean your complete CV is 3-4 pages but then edit it down to 2 pages to suit the role / reflecting the key points and competencies of the ad.

I not interested in a load of “skills” (enthusiastic, conscientious, good team player, blah, blah, blah).

Is it still the trend for most CVs to start with a 3rd person elevator pitch style thing eg "Highly motivated, goal orientated crayon fondler with a penchant for monosyllabic speech."

When I applied for a job at Citroen I had to give 2CV's

This...

My advice would be to stick to two pages, but put the job history on the second page. They will want to know it anyway, but focus on your skills and qualities on the first page.

And this.

Maybe tailor it to each job? If you applied for a finance job at a retail company then you would list the details of different jobs than if you were applying to coach retail management (or teach finance).

A god idea is to have a 'master CV' with all sections detailing all of your skills written out, which may be 2 pages worth on it's own - you then pick whichever sections are relevant for the particular job you're applying for.

The job history would be the same for each CV, on the second page, with a job title, company name, dates, and a brief description of what you did there, no more than 3-4 lines.

Athy62 wins the internet today! I look at a lot of CVs. You need to do what the recruiter wants for each post. We advertise essential criteria and ask for CV and personal statement. The number of people that don't bother telling us how they meet the criteria is astonishing - straight in the No Chance pile.

Put a picture if you can and use a well designed template, with some colors - I know there are many schools of though on that but it humanises the CV.

"I am the resurrection"

This thread is nine months old. The opening statement "I’m looking to get out of retail as its not a great place in the current climate of store closures and online migration of customers" is nine months old. Am I in some weird vortex?

I smell Hormel's finest. I'm going to shut this now.