Too many jobs on CV

[JenniferYellowHat1980]

This was the unsolicited feedback I was given about a teaching post I recently applied for (unsuccessfully). I'm currently temping in the role but also have another perm job. I'm not staying as I'll be committed to a 7 month notice period if I don't give notice before May 31st. I don't actually need the job and I've almost decided on a career change anyway.

My dilemma is how to streamline my work history in future applications, if at all. There are certain things I do on a freelance basis on top of my contracted work which I could leave out. However, due to a move and subsequently finding myself in a school where my face didn't fit, then my last teaching role, which I left due to family illness, I find I have three changes of permanent employer in the last three years and my temp post.

I'm tempted to leave my current temp post off future applications and just list my perm role. I guess I'm stuck with the two previous shorter appointments (one of a year and another of eight months). Another think I was considering is whether it would be reasonable to exclude a year spent working elsewhere sandwiched between two long term spells with my old employer.

A number of public sector employers now also ask for all posts since leaving school. Well I had a year out before uni and another one after in which I temped in various roles. Is it really necessary to include all that?

I tend only to look at public sector but if I did find a post I could apply for with a CV I was wondering if I could summarise all my teaching experience under one heading, also listing names of and dates with employers.

Any advice please? I don't want to be dishonest but I do want to sell myself. The perm, non-teaching post I'm in now is something I enjoy but don't qualify to train in and therefore has very limited prospects for progression from my current very low pay. I'd stay in a heartbeat otherwise.

A CV cull is a good way to reduce its length and cut away 'dead-wood' roles that don't really add value. Beef up the important ones, and minimise what isn't useful.

You could group several temp positions under the agency who found you the work and include a comment "various assignments providing me with exposure to broad range of teaching experience"

If you had a gap that is less than a year, say 6 months, you could remove it if it was a role of minimal relevance to the job you are applying for and just say you took time out for 'personal projects'.

That could immediately remove 5-6 roles without much effort.

I cannot understand the point of listing every job, just meaningless bureaucracy imo. I removed most of my early jobs years ago and only focus on ones that relate to my career path. I've never been asked to explain the early ones, and I can't imagine anyone would be bothered to trace back and dig into that detail.

You could switch to a functional CV if you have relevant experience to the role you are applying for from multiple jobs. It's more often used for those with less work experience but as a hiring manager I've also seen it work very effectively for those with lots of genuinely relevant experience.

Why not switch to an infographic CV so you can list all your jobs but so you are using up less pages?

The infographic cvs are beautiful, am thinking about doing one myself now! Beware though, people can be a bit funny about 'jazzy' cvs if you're going for a non-creative role. A few years ago spent ages making mine more aesthetically pleasing in Indesign and my mentor at the time (a VP of a global company so trusted him) told me to go back to the bog standard version because it made me look like a try-hard. You can't win!

These are great suggestions and I appreciate them, but my LA and local NHS trusts will only accept their own application pro formas. CVs can be submitted in addition. As I live rurally, those organisations are really my best option (my Indeed search is a litany of min wage care work posts).

birds in my line of work (technology) it would unfortunately appear trivial to use anything too image rich. Which is a shame as I rather like infographics, I like images much more than blocks of text.

I've just done a web search and found a few nice templates, one with a timeline graphic and bullet list, which looks very professional. So I think it depends on the template how much " gravitas" versus "creativity" you need.

Daisy, do you have a couple of links to the ones you thought looked good please?

Here is a nice article from the Guardian website www.theguardian.com/careers/careers-blog/stand-out-applying-work-infographic

www.designbolts.com/2014/12/22/20-best-free-resume-cv-templates-in-ai-indesign-psd-formats/

speckyboy.com/free-resume-templates-designers/

Sorry to hear you're in that situation OP.

I think places can be funny about shorter posts in places. A friend of mine in teaching was told when she was rejected at interview that she's unemployable because she's a flight risk. Reason, she'd done 2 maternity covers.

I think on thr LA forms you will have to name each post you've had because gaps leave questions so I'm not sure a general 'a range of roles' works because they usually want dates.
Maybe look at your cover letter and specifically address it in there.

Where Ive worked through an agency I just list the agency as my employer for the full time. If I was studying or working two jobs I just list what is relevant so no summer jobs, bar shifts, secondments are mentioned unless relevant to the role.