CV advice...2 pages or 1 page?

SideWinder · 6 Jun 2010 at 15:38

I am in the process of re-vamping my CV.

After speaking to a friend of mine, she put forward her theory that CVs should only be a page long. I have always been lead to believe a CV should be 2 pages but no more. However, what she said did make sense. I worked for Next as a 'Sales Assistant' and everyone would know what that would involve, so why should i use up 30 words explaining it? Surely those individuals doing the recruiting are aware already of what this sort of job would entail, especially as i want to go into this type of industry?

Below is my 2 page version.
(Bottom right hand corner, 'save file...')

http://www.2shared.com/document/ZbMogvMr/ocuk_2_page.html

And this is a work in progress, a 1 page version.

http://www.2shared.com/document/-Xjfc-JG/ocuk_1_page.html

Is it worth adding the 'Key Skills' section to the 1 page version or leaving it as it is with a section about hobbies added?

If i have missed any personal information, can you kind folk tell me asap.

OCdude · 6 Jun 2010 at 15:40

2 page is better IMO.

In general, i don't bother putting "hobbies" it's not needed and i leave that for the interview (same goes for referees, it just takes up room).

Freefaller · 6 Jun 2010 at 15:46

I think the etiquette for 1 page is long gone, I've received CVs of 3 pages in the past. As long as it contains the relevant info and doesn't waffle that's what you need to put in it. Concentrate on your skills, previous experiences and qualifications. Also include a short but succinct entry about hobbies, personal interests etc...

SideWinder · 6 Jun 2010 at 15:47

OCdude said:
2 page is better IMO.

In general, i don't bother putting "hobbies" it's not needed and i leave that for the interview (same goes for referees, it just takes up room).

See, this is what i first thought.

However, there have been situations where friends have told me that the interviewer has commented on a lack of "personal" information such as hobbies/interests. It is all very well having an amazing CV but personality is key as well, specifically when it comes to teamwork.

OCdude · 6 Jun 2010 at 16:06

SideWinder said:
See, this is what i first thought.

However, there have been situations where friends have told me that the interviewer has commented on a lack of "personal" information such as hobbies/interests. It is all very well having an amazing CV but personality is key as well, specifically when it comes to teamwork.

That's what I always thought. But now I think more along the lines of: the CV is there to give them all the technical details and your experience, qualifications etc. The personal/personality stuff surely comes out in the interview.

I also had my CV "professionally" done and they pretty much said that they don't put hobbies/references on the CV

meghatronic · 6 Jun 2010 at 16:10

It's largely irrelevant. Be succinct. If that's 4 pages, so be it. Never use more space than needed.

However, use that shade of yellow and I would bin your CV. You can also condense your A levels to one line.

OCdude said:
Now I think more along the lines of: the CV is there to give them all the technical details and your experience, qualifications etc. The personal/personality stuff surely comes out in the interview.

Assuming you get an interview. Skills need to scream out on a CV.

nydryl · 6 Jun 2010 at 16:13

I think you should include some personal information. It's fine to say that this will come out in the interview but you could be compromising your chances of getting an interview in the first place. If you have two candidates, both with equal qualifications, and one has nothing personal included whilst the other mentions he is a captain of some sports team (or similar) then at least he has something setting him apart. It all comes down to personal preference.

SideWinder · 6 Jun 2010 at 16:13

I'm offended by your comments about my yellow!

...I believe it's quite subtle and gives it something a bit different rather than the same old black and white format, can anyone else comment on this? I have used this before and got jobs using the yellow.

Will look into condensing the A-Levels...it does look quite tidy how it is but i'll have a play around.

Kemik · 6 Jun 2010 at 17:46

I'd look at it if I could download it. When ever I click on the page it just makes a ton of pop-ups. Sucky file service!

Edit: Bottom right, okay. The site design is awful haha.

SideWinder · 7 Jun 2010 at 11:28

...any more comments?

EvilOne · 7 Jun 2010 at 11:34

2 Pages, but as much of the improtant info on 1st page as possable. They will sometimes only look at page one.

Mark M · 7 Jun 2010 at 11:45

2 or even 3 pages and definately include some personal info including hobbies. I used to work in a finance department of a huge welfare company and the manager of the department used to always look for people who did something of a competitive nature as he said people need the "want to win" attitude to succeed in business.

[FnG]magnolia · 7 Jun 2010 at 11:45

Ok, summarising the previous stuff :

1. Yellow is doing you no favours. It looks unprofesional and dreadfully gimmicky.

2. A 1 page CV is just as bad an idea as a 4 page (4 page!) one. Unless you are really at the pinnacle of your career, you are certainly in no position to assume that the interviewer knows or cares who you are and what you can do (the 1 pager), nor should you think they have the time or inclination to read through 4 pages of your dross. Two pages is the standard for a reason.

3. Personal information can be fantastically useful in attempting to get the 'real you' across. Qualifications and achievements are dull; necessary but tell you nothing of the person. Tell them about who you are and what you like doing. Many senior roles (well, all roles I suppose) are looking for both the tick in the box, "Can they do the job?", quickly followed by, "So are they going to fit in my team or are they boring/mental/unable to talk to others/disruptive ... etc"

tl;dr - don't be gimmicky (art/marketing is different but not so much), get across what you really want to express, and be aware that you're sending it to someone who sees hundreds of these a month.

Good luck

Sp00n · 7 Jun 2010 at 11:47

2 pages is fine, try not to stretch it to 3, but if you do then just stick the less important stuff on the last page.

craptakular · 7 Jun 2010 at 11:55

OCdude said:
That's what I always thought. But now I think more along the lines of: the CV is there to give them all the technical details and your experience, qualifications etc. The personal/personality stuff surely comes out in the interview.

I also had my CV "professionally" done and they pretty much said that they don't put hobbies/references on the CV

+1

[FnG]magnolia · 7 Jun 2010 at 12:02

OCdude said:
I also had my CV "professionally" done

What does this mean and how much did you pay? I assume this was as soon as or just after you left Uni/college/whatever?

and they pretty much said

They weren't sure? Or were you not sure?

that they don't put hobbies/references on the CV

So, their firm had a procedure on how to process CVs? So they should. Are there other options? Yes, of course.

How much did you pay for this service out of interest?

ringo747 · 7 Jun 2010 at 12:06

I have done mine out in a clear, easy to read, table layout. It is 3 pages. My fiancee always goes by the 2 pages max theory but I've had lots of calls about wanting interviews etc so it couldn't be that bad having 3. If there is a lot of stuff thats relevant then it is worth including. There is no way I could condense it down to 1 page.

Smit · 7 Jun 2010 at 12:15

OCdude said:
I also had my CV "professionally" done and they pretty much said that they don't put hobbies/references on the CV

Problem being that each "professional" has different opinions and includes different information.

You should put yourself as the interviewer/HR person looking through CVs, each one will be different. There is no 'rule' when it comes to creating a CV

bigsharn · 8 Jun 2010 at 00:02

Being only 19 and not entirely being experienced for anything special I keep mine to one page.

Nexus · 8 Jun 2010 at 01:06

I think the other thing to bare in mind is that the way CVs are read has also changed to how they were in the past.

In my experience, the majority of career jobs these days are applied for online. Either through their own tailored forms you submit, or by being able to send your CV as a file.

If reading through a number of CVs on a computer screen, I think its a lot less bother than having stacks of physical CVs to go through, and it's not so much of an issue as to how many pages there are.

The only time I've used physical CVs in recent years is when you are actually in the interview, in which case you should always have two copies with you (incase the interviewer hasn't printed one off) as that's usually when they tend to actually go over what you've done in the past.