Open Forum → How to write a CV?

Though of course I could just research this on my own, I thought rather than trusting my own research skills, I'd ask you experienced folks first. Some of you may have valuable links bookmarked that could come in handy concerning this topic. I've been browsing the on campus job listings recently and have found more than one attractive job offering. Assuming that they will all want to see my CV, I need to have that written and ready for use.

I wrote a CV a while ago, but the CV's I've recently come across, (from friends, for instance), and just from what I know subconsciously.. standard practice seems to be to have the CV be ONE PAGE long. The CV I wrote a while ago is more like 3 to 4 pages. Is that a bad thing? I might have to leave out a few things from the one I already have. In any event, the question is.. do you know of reliable online resources with accurate information about how to write a good, clean, correct CV?

Thanks.

Whatever it is that you are writing, make sure you don't use acronyms that the reader is not intimately familiar with. For instance, what is a "CV"?

Curriculum Vitae. Mostly known as a résumé in the US.

I assumed that was common knowledge. But you have a point. To be as clear as possible is definitely desirable.

It depends on which syllAble one puts the ac CENT.

Depends on the job. Mostly should be one page, unless it is a more detail for something like Management. If multiple job positions in one particular period that are pretty much the same, you can lump into one description.

Careerjournal.com has a lot of good info on it.

short
Its not a novell .

One to two pages is typical, longer only if you are Gods gift to your chosen field.

Think of your Resume as a sales tool. You have to grab the mind of the person reading it in the first few seconds or it goes into the "pending pile," never to see the light of day.

Focus on how hiring you will make money for the company.

/Tom

Actually they are not one and the same.

»www.careerbuilder.com/Jo ··· 0600.htm

2 pages are probably good enough. your skills and work experience are the important things. you can change a little bit according to the job description, meeting the job's requirement.

True. While they are written similarly, the CV (Constant Velocity joint? ) is geared more towards academic and lifetime achievements rather than actual work experience.

[edit]Now, having gone and read the info at the link, I very much agree with what is said there when dealing with U.S. companies and resumes and CVs. Send the resume type information to U.S. companies unless specifically asked to send the CV. Having looked at several hundred (thousand?) applications in just the immediate past 3 years I can tell you I've only seen one CV - and that was at our request for a position required to be filled by a very highly qualified person, in terms of both experience and education - to the point of requiring a PhD in the field with no less than 20 years experience to back up the 'book learning'.

While it is a good idea to have a standardized, boiler-plate resume available, it is not a good idea to submit it to anyhone unless you're just shot-gunning for a job. Take the basic contents of that boiler-plate document and tailor it specifically to the position you are seeking.

A resume is a work and educational outline and shouldn't go longer than a page. A curriculum vitae is a history of education, professional positions, and scholarly works. I've read many that are tens of pages long. List schools, dates, and degrees earned, special awards, special licensing, etc. You can truncate your c.v. if you wish and include only relevant publications or if they are numerous, include them all. Sometimes a brief statement about areas of interest can be beneficial. A c.v. is much simpler and straight forward and you don't need to be concerned so much about all work history because is it s professional time-line and not so much related to who your employer was and what your work was.

I've always understood that a resume should be no more than one page long. If they (the interviewer) want more information on a particular subject then they will ask for it.

As for references ... don't send them with the resume. Have them availble (printed) at the interview.

Of course, this is based on the requirements of the employer and could change. They may require you send the references with the resume.

just my 2 cents

JCR

Another high quality thread at DSLR! Thanks a ton, guys. I was able to dig up the CV I was talking about yesterday on my external hard drive and have it available. It's a mess, using tables and whatnot for organization, which of course takes up a lot more space than just making it all text. I'm in a rush right now, but I'll get back to this ASAP.

I greatly appreciate you all sharing what you know about this.

Have a great day!