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resumes - too long or too short

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by pauleugene

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I have read alot on how to produce a good resume (or CV as we call them in the UK). Alot is contradictory.
E.g. keep them short, but don't leave out gaps. If you have a long career history, how can you keep it short?

Anyway I have designed my CV as a dual purpose document. On the first page I only concentrated on what my skills are, what my main achievements have been, what I am doing now and my objectives.

Hopefully when a prospective employer sees this they will immediately think that this candidate needs to be looked at in more detail and not throw it straight in the bin. But surely as soon as they are interested and want more details, they will expect those details to be contained elsewhere on the CV. Therefore after the first page I have reverted to a reverse chronological order of my employment history. Then I have listed my acedemic qualifications going back to age 16 plus a list of various courses that I have studied over the years.

So when prospective employers pick up the CV for the first time, it come to nearly 4 pages. Will this put them off. But if I just send the initial page, I may get there interest more at first, but will they also be put off when they cannot find more detailed information.

I also have an online cv. Should I keep the paper one short and say that full career details are available online?

Any suggestions

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by timwalsh

You should never have a single resume/CV that you use for ALL situations.

Each resume/CV you send out should be unique and highlight only that experience/academic qualification that is relevant to the job being applied for.

Common wisdom that I have read again and again is to keep the resume/CV to two pages maximum. You might use a cover letter as a third page. You can use the cover letter to discuss what your objectives are and more importantly what you can do for the prospective employer.

There is nothing to say that you MUST show your work experience in chronological order. As an alternative, you can create what is called a skill-oriented resume that highlights your skill sets, length of experience with those skills, and major accomplishments. For educational background, give priority to those degrees/courses related to your skills and the position being applied for.

Good luck.

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