CV Question - me again

[MascaraOHara]

If my work experiences takes my CV over two pages should I..

a) Document only the roles relevant to the position I am applying for

or

b) Document all roles but only include responsibilities that relevant to the job that I am applying for

or

c) something completely different?

Thank you CV guru's

Message withdrawn

thanks.

should it be gurus'? guri? what is the plural for guru?

I would include all roles, relevant or not, including a brief precis of what the responsibilities were. Does the work experience alone cover 2 pages? How many jobs are you talking about (or is each job taking up a lot of space on the page?)

IMO a CV should cover about 2 pages max, really - anything more than that really won't be read.

Don't document each and every single job you've had necessarily - Saturday jobs, first jobs nothing to do with this one about 20 years ago (or whatever) could be left off. Don't leave gaps though.

Make it easy to read, make sure the relevant bits jump off the page. 2 pages max is right, but 3 pages well-spaced out, all relevant, bullets easy to read is much better than 2 pages full of waffle, difficult to read.

I've worked at the same company for 10 years but have had 7 very different roles. Some will be more relevant than others. Before that I worked for one other company where my experiences won't necessarily be relevant to what I do now.

Maybe I should describe the last 3 roles in detail but only summarise the rest?

I mean my current roles and responsibilties on my job spec take up two pages.

Of the 7 different roles, list responsibilities/achievements in detail where relevant, and/or for most recent couple of jobs. Otherwise just put job title/one line about what the job is. Presumably at least some of the jobs were similar anyway?

For previous company, put job title, brief one-line summary of what job was, and v brief bullet points about the most important responsibilities you had I reckon.

ok, will do that.. thanks

I can't do it

I still can't do it.

sorry have to run, back later

thanks. I'm still here pro-crastinating. I have written 3 brain dump paragraphs which have key points. there's just too much. my job is so difficult to exp[lain.

How you getting on Mascara?

Presumably as some of it is relevant the job you are applying for is similar or in a similar field? In which case you shouldn't have to go into too much detail explaining it. Alternatively you could give a bit of context/bit more detail about the important stuff in the covering letter if that's appropriate.

Thanks. Need to pick it up again today. I need one for a job I've seen but then I need a generic CV to send to agencies.

My job is quite specific to the company I work for very involved with internal processes and planning. Feel like I'm losing the will to live already!

If you're going through agencies, if they're decent you will have an interview with them and you can go through your cv and discuss how to improve it/make it more concise/tailor it to whatever job they are suggesting putting you forward for.

I would say the keep-it-short rule is less important in this case. You should also have an opportunity to explain your complicated job so they can work out the best way to sell it.

I'll be looking at London based agencies - I don't really want to though as I don't really want to commute but might not have a choice for the sort of salary I'm looking for.

Swings and roundabouts eh? Have you looked into how much it will cost you to commute? Once you add that to the inconvenience depending on the salary difference it may not be worth it. My commute when I was working in London cost me £4,800 for the season ticket plus £5 a day parking. It wasn't worth it financially, but was in terms of choice of organisations to work for etc.

It would be around £4k per year but I would probably be able to negotiate my travel costs into my salary package even if it's only for a set durations (e.g. 2 years) or something.

Realistically I could probably get 10k more per year locally. London I'm probably looking more in the region of 20k more.

Aha. Less of an issue then!