How long is a long CV? Work history since uni?

[BunnyVV]

Do employers expect to see work history from University onwards? I graduated in 2001.
I had quite a few overseas roles 2001-2007, before having children so my CV is long. I spent a long time in junior roles whilst I had my kids but since my youngest started school I’ve progressed quite quickly (my choice to stay junior whilst raising kids).
I am applying for some director roles (currently group head of) and some head of roles.
some of my earlier roles are interesting but I only list them to avoid “gaps” in my CV.
i have been headhunted for my last 2 roles so I haven’t updated my CV in a while…hence the question.
should I just label the period 2001-2017 “overseas roles, maternity, junior industry roles”, and not list them?
my babies were 2008, 2011, 2017 (a miscarriage at 17 weeks in 2015 so there wasn’t a lot of career focus going on anyway)

My CV has full details of my current role and 2 previous roles. Then a line which says "various roles in Financial Services between X&Y dates'. You could probably leave out dates tbh.

I would not mention maternity or anything related to caring responsibilities on a CV, personally.

Can I jump on this thread please. Also currently writing a CV and struggling to get it under two pages. I have a varied job history which is taking up room - should I leave some of the irrelevant stuff off? I also have three degrees - would you even bother with A levels/GCSE (which were 25+ yrs ago).

Lastly, do you include a personal statement at the end? If so how long should this be?

It's generally advised to keep it to 2 pages of A4.
When I'm looking through them to decide who to interview I'm not reading more than those 2 pages

Agree, 2 pages. No need to list a levels. Early career jobs can be bunched together with year start and end. Individualise each CV for the role you're applying for, so each job you did pick out a couple of key responsibilities/skills/role that matches what's needed for applied for role.

Thank you - the job is very specialised and I have some niche experience which puts me in a good position. However, this was specifically at the beginning of my career and it has been my voluntary work and side hustle which is most relevant now. I can't get all of this onto two pages along with a Personal Statement which is where I would include the details of the voluntary stuff.

When recruiting, we want to see ALL employment history. This helps identify any breaks that could be concerning/red flags etc.

Yes no more than 2 pages please, they all start to blur into one another when you're looking at a bunch!

Agree with PP to combine junior roles eg "various customer services roles between 2001-2008, details available if required"

Definitely use key words from the job spec, chances are your CV will be put through a bot at the first instance anyway.

Yes just a date range and a very brief overview - eg various roles in hospitality, please ask for more detail if required. I can’t believe how many 4 page cvs I see with great detail about the Saturday job at 16…

Depends how many roles you have had since then. I would want to see at least 4 or 5 jobs, evidencing a range of experiences and responsibilities. Even junior roles can tick boxes, showing knowledge and experience of X and Y - and show career development too . . . For me, having a director who has got their hands dirty at ground level us a positive.

For any earlier posts you could then add something similar to your suggestion but a little more positive: Junior industry roles with a variety of companies in Spain and Italy, plus 2 additional periods of maternity leave. Then in your covering letter make it clear that you were keeping busy developing a career, (and not doing a stretch inside for 5 years, not hiding a nasty long gap!)

Yes, agree with this. Especially if you are not long established in your career. Very minimal info required here (employer, dates, nature of the work) but enough to reassure me that I’m not overlooking any red flags please!

This could potentially be viewed as an opening to discrimination as clearly the age of the candidate becomes calculable. The Civil Service, for example, only ask for the last ten years.

It won't go through a bot - it's a very small team and a new entity so isn't established yet.

I have had two major career pathways but this job is in my passion where I started out. I literally could not fit my entire employment history on two pages - I've had 4 DC but I've always worked in some capacity around them. It was never about a career but about fitting in with their schedules so these would appear random.

Should I include a personal statement or just try and cover that in my cover letter?

Thanks

@EwwSprouts A quick LinkedIn or Facebook search would also give you that information.

I only put current role, previous role and role(s) before that if relevant within the last 10 years. Then put a general statement along the lines of various roles held within x areas encompassing y countries prior to (year x).

The problem is that if you list all jobs the CV would go for several pages and flag you are ‘old’ and you are not going to progress. Also putting Education and Qualifications as bullet points without associated dates, so it doesn’t flag to people that you graduated uni 40 odd years ago - again, will be subject to age discrimination. Obviously, all only relevant to older candidates, if younger then dates against historical jobs and uni degree/quals don’t matter.

What red flags?

If you had a 66 year old apply for a role, they could potentially have a 50 year career. Would you really expect them to list every job they've had since 1975?

I'd never put maternity on a cv!

Standard advice is to only go back 10 years.
Anything beyond that is likely irrelevant and, aside from DBS-checked roles, completely nosey on the part of the recruiter unless there's a genuine safeguarding reason to check this info.

Because people still see "gaps" as "concerning" rather than someone like me managing a chronic condition, then they can decide not to even interview a "concerning" candidate, pretend it's not ablism, and then sit around at lunchtime complaining on MN about the shocking amount of people out of work on sickness benefits. 🙄

I always reccomend having a master cv which includes everything and can be 4 pages which you then adjust for each role.
putting the job description and your cv into chatgpt and asking it to optimise the cv for that role is a great way to pull out what is relevant, and what to highlight.
But always edit to make it sound like you.
a summary’s paragraph at the start of a cv can help “ place” you - think of it like the menu description in a restaurant with the recipe in the body of the cv