CV format

[NotAGolf]

I've had the same style CV for a good few years now. It seems to have done the job so far, but where my job history is growing, I can't fit it all onto 2 pages. I don't want it to spill onto 3 pages, so I either need to adjust the format, or trim some of the fat.

My current format is shown below. I essentially have a high level overview with some generic skills at the top, followed by the job history which describes the company and highlights a few skills that are unique(ish) to that role.

The voluntary work experience section is pretty irrelevant and would save a bit of space, but I've kept it in as it's a bit of a 'change of scene' from just a long boring list of skills.

My first couple of jobs were so long ago I can barely remember them, so I could potentially remove the 'responsibilities' section from each of them (but then why is it even there?), or remove them entirely (but then there'd be a questionable gap in my history?).

Any thoughts/suggestions on how to trim it down a bit?

 

[D.P.]

Seems a lot of redundant and repeated info. Just write the most important facts and keep the most recent and relevant employment history (just list company, role and dates for older employment).

 

[Rroff]

From just a glance - you'd really need to tailor it to whatever job you are going for with that kind of experience and the likely range of roles you might be applying for, so as to have the most impact and chance of someone taking onboard the important bits.

 

[throwaway4372]

Plenty of suggestions come to mind, will try to find time later.

Edit:
In the meantime watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qkf5JY0yxo8

 

[throwaway4372]

My feedback:

 

[dowie]

@throwaway4372 has addressed most things there I think

I'd just ditch the bullet points at the start tbh... in general, the CV seems to be a big mess of bullet points which kind of undermines the point of using bullet points.

If you're including a short intro section then just make it a couple of lines or so.

In general, you don't necessarily want a list of mundane stuff for each bit of work experience (a manager hiring a QA person is familiar with the general role) and it's only really your recent one that requires much detail, focus more on things you achieved, extra responsibilities you've had. Training and mentoring staff is worth nothing for example, I'd say those do in fact go together and you might want to add a little bit more there - like was there a time period where you were their mentor? How many staff? "Trained 4 new graduates and mentored them over a 6-month probationary period with weekly progress meetings and reports to management" etc. or something along those lines if applicable.

If you were lead for a particular project or made some significant improvement or saved money or got additional revenue somehow then note it.

That's what your (recent) employment should be about - actual quantifiable goals, real responsibilities etc. No one cares if you self-assert you have excellent analytical skills and you've got a technical section already so you don't need to include much jargon when talking about your work experience.

I'd disagree re: uni modules, you don't need to include the core ones but final-year modules and dissertation topic could be interesting and IMO school isn't particularly relevant once you've got a degree and significant work experience. Likewise, I'd second the app thing, link/name it... that's a good thing to include (ditto to a github).

Imagine someone is recruiting a QA guy and they want someone with programming experience too, some people might get through a CS degree with minimal programming so just naming the degree doesn't always show that but if you have an app published that demonstrates there was significant programming involved and your final year modules or dissertation clearly indicate that too then you're clearly backing up any claim to that skill set.

Lastly, GPT4 might help here... paste the CV in and ask it to suggest redundant stuff to trim down, help with rephrasing things etc.. and just get it to give you a nicer layout maybe. You could even get it to generate some latex code and put the CV into overleaf.com to make it stand out (though have a less slick word doc version too as some application portals etc. might not want pdf files).

 

[NotAGolf]

Thanks very much for the feedback all, especially @throwaway4372 and @dowie - really appreciate the time you've spent diving into it

Few thoughts...

I definitely agree with the 'quantify' points. I struggle with this though as I think it's very hard to 'measure' a QA, and thus prove you're a good one. There's no obvious KPI's you can use (which is also one of the reasons I hate doing end of year reviews), but you've given me some examples on a couple of points.

Duly noted on several of the 'meaningless waffle' points. The reasoning behind some of them was to make sure I was hitting any potential checkboxes that a recruiter was looking for when skimming the CV. If the recruiter understood the role, then they would skip over it, but what if it's a generic HR bod that doesn't know the differences between a PM/BA/QA/Dev?

I like the suggestion of condensing earlier roles.

I've not included my pre-uni education because my grades were not great, so I don't want to draw attention to them. I got a first in my degree (shown in the redacted) section, so I'm hoping that's enough to prove I'm not a plum from an education perspective!

I didn't mention the name of my app originally as I'd literally just launched it. It's a bit more established now so I'd be willing to include it. Would you recommend including a link to it in the CV, or did you just mean be prepared to share it come interview time?

The reason behind the intro section is to flag things/skills not tied to a specific job. Just a quick a quick highlight/overview to my background I guess. Perhaps trimming some of the redundant stuff might turn it into more of a highlights section than a long-slog.

 

[throwaway4372]

I wouldn't bother linking to an app, they can search for it if they care. Links in general can be iffy as you never know how the cv will be processed, links might do unexpected things.

 

[dowie]

I'd maybe include a link tbh. how easy is it to search for?

Also, do you have a GitHub? That can be useful to link to if there isn't some other means of doing so (like a specific field on an application form).

If you make a CV with LaTeX then you can whack in a url and make it clickable quite easily, if it's some word doc and you are worried about processing then a simple url, perhaps your own domain/homepage which contains your github, details of your app etc.

 

[HangTime]

Implement some of the feedback from throwaway4372 and give us another draft, a lot of the things I'd say are already covered there. In particular, the "Abilities and skills" section is full of fluff - at least half of it isn't actually abilities or skills, but rather behaviours or "how you go about things" listed in a very generic way that will have them glazing over before they've got halfway down the first page.

The reasoning behind some of them was to make sure I was hitting any potential checkboxes that a recruiter was looking for when skimming the CV. If the recruiter understood the role, then they would skip over it, but what if it's a generic HR bod that doesn't know the differences between a PM/BA/QA/Dev?

Generic HR bods have read most of that a million times before, they weren't going to bin your CV because it didn't mention working in pressure environments to strict deadlines. That might come out in the interview process for sure but it's not a screening checkbox item, generally I'd expect your work history to infer this.

The bit about "reviewed" automated testing and "highlighted gaps" gives the impression (rightly or wrongly) you may be finding problems rather than solving problems; or at least, it doesn't really tell me anything that got better as a result of your actions. If you were involved with the resolution of the inadequacies, highlight that and what the outcome was (e.g. did it speed up testing, improve accuracy of testing, reduce defects going into prod, reduce need for manual testing etc etc). You want to be positioning your experience as much from the perspective of "I added X value" rather than just "I did X".

The voluntary work bit I think is fine to include, just keep it brief. It might pique the interest of some, makes you a bit less bland and could be a discussion point. Like for that awkward 30s when you are on video call waiting for the 2nd interviewer to turn up, they might do small talk like ask you about this. Or whilst escorting you out the building after a F2F interview, etc. It gives them an opening to latch on to something interesting that isn't delving into the core subject area of the interview.

More generally, think about what you want your next role to be and tailor it accordingly. E.g. do you want to stay within QA, if so are you seeking a QA/Test Manager role or another Senior/Lead role - you will want to bring different experience to the fore dependent on this.
Like maybe the way to go is, pick a job title(s) you'd like to have next, and give us draft 2 of the CV.

 

[NotAGolf]

I've had another stab at it. I've stripped a lot of repetitive information by focusing more on the highlights of each role, and I've tried to quantify things where possible. It's meant I've made space for my new role and kept it easily under 2 pages. Any thoughts?

One other thing... A few people mentioned tailoring it for a specific role. I'm not actually looking to move jobs, I'm just trying to keep it up to date. It's highly likely I'd be looking at staying in the same role. The natural step up is a team lead, but I've done that before and didn't enjoy it. I'm not sure I should update one of my previous job titles to demonstrate that? I was only team lead for a 1.5y and was senior for 3.5y at the same place.

 

[throwaway4372]

I'm not sure I should update one of my previous job titles to demonstrate that? I was only team lead for a 1.5y and was senior for 3.5y at the same place.

If it was a demotion then no.
If it was a promotion then yes. Progression is something I expect to see if someone's been at a company a while. Even if you choose to stay at Senior it shows you are strong enough to progress. For example I have 5 promotions at one company and I list them all.

Overall this version is a good content improvement, more value-per-word than before. I think you could cut it down even further if you tried, but you don't have to, it's decent, that can be something you do later as you add more experience and need to find more space.

Some observations on spelling, grammar, and formatting:

Review your grammar at the end of sentences, sometimes you have full stops, sometimes you don't. My preference is to add them, but it's the inconsistency that I noticed.

Review your spelling, e.g. Azure DevOps, JavaScript, TypeScript, TeamCity

I noticed the bullet point indentation isn't consistent:

 

[NotAGolf]

Thanks very much @throwaway4372. Really appreciate it .

Will definitely tidy up the formatting. The margins and spacing I've not looked at yet. Good call on the full stops.

It was a self demotion if that makes sense?! I started as a mid-level, was promoted to senior, then to team lead, but I didn't enjoy team lead so asked to go back to senior. Rather than try to explain that on a CV, I figured I'd just include my 'leaving' position.

If I put team lead on one of the roles, but not the later ones, might that throw up some red flags that I'm not capable enough for a lead? Especially as it was an earlier role I was a team lead.

 

[throwaway4372]

It was a self demotion if that makes sense?! I started as a mid-level, was promoted to senior, then to team lead, but I didn't enjoy team lead so asked to go back to senior. Rather than try to explain that on a CV, I figured I'd just include my 'leaving' position.

I see. In that case simplifying it to Senior makes it easier to understand so that's okay.

If I put team lead on one of the roles, but not the later ones, might that throw up some red flags that I'm not capable enough for a lead? Especially as it was an earlier role I was a team lead.

I don't think that's a red flag, trying a lead role and choosing not to do another one happens all the time. I've done it before because the extra money isn't worth the hassle.

 

[Quartz]

Any thoughts/suggestions on how to trim it down a bit?

I'm late to the party but you should have 2-3 achievements and 4-6 responsibilities per role. Any job more than 10 years ago condense to a single line.

Add a summary of Lowers, Highers, & Advanced Highers, or equivalents noting English & Maths.

Your voluntary work experience sounds like an excuse for an extended holiday, I'm sorry to say.

Good luck!

 

[nam]

resume.ai
Teal

Both useful to begin , then use bard, bing or chatgpt to align CV to the job description

 

[HangTime]

New version is a lot better as it highlights the impacts you made.

One other thing... A few people mentioned tailoring it for a specific role. I'm not actually looking to move jobs, I'm just trying to keep it up to date.

That's fine but when you do apply or a job make sure you tailor it, don't take the tack of "oh I updated my CV 6 months ago and haven't changed jobs since so I'll just fire it off".