Can anyone advise please? Out of touch with current CV ‘norms’

[NeedToPayTheBills]

I’m in my 50s and haven’t been in paid employment for over a decade (long story). I now need to find something due to the cost of living and the terrifying thought of pension age looming not too far away.

I have been doing some volunteering so I do have something recent to put on there but I’ve no idea where to start and what the conventions are now. I don’t want it to look too dated, etc. I don’t even know if you put your name on them any more.

I think this is probably a confidence thing too.

Can anyone offer any advice or point me towards useful sites please? Templates I’ve seen seem to be more geared towards American recruitment with photos, etc.

Maybe call some recruitment consultants working in the area that interests you?

Thank you. I’ll look into that.

Giraffe cvs are excellent

Depends what roles you are going for but in general UK CVs are 2 pages long.

Make sure you don't have your age on it or anything else that can be used to discriminate against you like your marital status.

You don't need to put your address on it as people contact you by mobile phone and email. And if you are uploading it to sites you don't want people to steal your ID. Make sure your email address is bland e.g. [email protected] rather than [email protected]

I'm not an expert but my CV has:

• name, email and phone number at top (no postal address)
• a 3/4 line summary of my top skills and the kind of role I'm looking for (tweaked for a particular role/sector if necessary)
• summary of my last 2 jobs (so last ten years or so) with key skills/achievements, again I tweak this depending on who I'm sending the CV to
• details of my professional training and degree (no school exams on there any more)
• a section summarising my IT skills (relevant for my sector, might not be in yours)

And that's it. Can't remember how long it is, but definitely no more than 2 sides of A4.
Good luck!

@NeedToPayTheBills I review many CVs for people in my workplace and beyond, if you want me to take a look then please PM me!

Thank you, this is all really useful information.

It wouldn’t have occurred to me to leave address off but of course everything is done electronically now! 🤦‍♀️

Thank you all for your help. And @Mountainormolehills thank you for the offer, I literally have nothing to show at the moment but I appreciate your kindness.

@NeedToPayTheBills no problem, I’m happy to help, even with a couple of templates if that helps

Thank you.