Tuesday, February 7, 2012

do I need a one page summary of my CV ?





A quick question. Do we really have to condense our resume to one page?
yeap

after 5 years working then not easy to do that

the term 'resume' means a summary. You don't need to include everything in your resume. You only need to give the information that your potential employer needs to get an idea about you, your best aspects, so to say. For the rest, you can tell them in an interview. Remember, the purpose of a resume is not to get you a job. It is to get you an interview.


It depends on what position you are applying. You will not send one page of resume when you are applying for a manager position for example. CV or resume is important for you to impress the protental emloyer and make them want to call you for an interview. I suggest not include every little thing in the resume and not try to make it long but include important things and make it longer than one page. ( Note to student who just finished school: Do not worry if your resume is short but make sure you have selling point in there. Maybe you can strongly mention about your academic background and if you have got good graduation GPA, make sure you mention it too. Talk about your internship as well. One page is fine for the fresh graduate.

HR   I was on MANY many interview panels and CV evaluation panels that preceded the interview....

Sorry to say this, but we took about 30 secs to scan the CV's
The idea that anyone actually READS those things make me smile.

Sure, if the summary grabbed us we'd have a closer look.

But the process is often like this(was in my experience:)
"Lets toss out the clear NO's"
scan all CV's for 15-30 secs.

now let's separte into
- Yes
- Maybe
- No
takes 30sec / CV

and so it goes and so it goes.
seleting people is a pain.
should be done fast.

all I lookedfor: is it clear and easy to find the info ?
if YES - does it meet the criteria ?
(3 or 4 key criteria max)

the last few, that are going to interviewed ok we'd read the CV ,sorta... sorta... flick flick flick....

So clear layout,
Clear info is good.

I guess my experience is not that unusual
but I'm older.

The key is simple: put yourself in the shoes of the other side.