[firestorm]

I am about to leave the Forces and am currently writing a cv ready for applying for jobs online.

I have been told by some agencies that my CV should be 2 pages but I can't keep it below 3 and i'm worried that it will be discarded if I appy for jobs?

Can you advise?

[Google]

[thecvstore]

[quote="firestorm"]I am about to leave the Forces and am currently writing a cv ready for applying for jobs online.

I have been told by some agencies that my CV should be 2 pages but I can't keep it below 3 and i'm worried that it will be discarded if I appy for jobs?

Can you advise?[/quote]

This is a common misconception!

Many sites will have you believe that your CV [b]has[/b] to be no more than 2 pages. This is untrue. Sometimes, there is a need for your CV to stretch to more (especially for jobs such as Doctors or people with an extensive employment background.)

What is more important is how you display this information. For example, if the 3rd page is mainly old experience, rather than keep listing all your jobs, why not create an "Early Career" section which highlights the main points? This will not only reduce the length of your CV but will better highlight your achievements and prevents you looking like a "job hopper".

Feel free to contact us if you need further advice or would like us to take a look at your CV in more detail.

[nancy_kelpie]

It's not necessary, but it is recommended.
If you have more than 2 pages see if you can remove some jobs that doesn't have anything to do with the job you are applying for. This way people can much quicker see what relevant jobs you had.

[longman]

[quote="nancy_kelpie"]It's not necessary, but it is recommended.
If you have more than 2 pages see if you can remove some jobs that doesn't have anything to do with the job you are applying for. This way people can much quicker see what relevant jobs you had.[/quote]

I wonder if someone can help me...i have had 7 temporary jobs in the past year which pushes my CV into 3 and a bit pages. I also find that I am repating myself in the description of each job - should I just cut out some of the jobs to stop it going in to page 3?

[thecvstore]

[quote="longman"][quote="nancy_kelpie"]It's not necessary, but it is recommended.
If you have more than 2 pages see if you can remove some jobs that doesn't have anything to do with the job you are applying for. This way people can much quicker see what relevant jobs you had.[/quote]

I wonder if someone can help me...i have had 7 temporary jobs in the past year which pushes my CV into 3 and a bit pages. I also find that I am repating myself in the description of each job - should I just cut out some of the jobs to stop it going in to page 3?[/quote]

Longman, if each of these jobs are identical, the easiest thing to do would be to group them together as one job. For example, you could put:

"Name of Agency" 2006 - 2007
Temporary Administrator

Then, in the job description, you could state which companies you've worked with. This way, it will prevent reptition, keep your CV in 2 pages and will generally look better.

[QuietLunatic]

I think I once had mine down to about one page, depending on what I was applying for. Mind you, now I'm self-employed and have been for eleven years, so it would be a little longer if I were to suddenly decide to work for someone else.

[britjojo]

Really I think it is a common sense issue. People who are hiring for some positions may have to read three or four hundred CVs in a short time, and there will be certain basic things that they use to eliminate some. These might not be fair, but in my experience length is one of those issues.

[randle]

Your Cv doesn't have to be 2 pages, not in the personal area anyway. That has to be as long as it should to explain your background. But you would want to do a cover page, now that is where you get 2 pages from. And you don't really have to have that.

[busybeehelpers]

I think the two pages is primarily a general rule of thumb. You should be able to give a basic overview of why you are the person for the job or at least the interview without being two lenghty.

[etali]

If you are going for high level positions then you may need to use three pages to explain certain aspects of your work history and qualifications in great detail, but, for most jobs, I'd agree to try to stick to 2.

If it's been a while since you were at school, trim your qualifications down to '8 GCSEs, Grades A* -C, 3 A-Levels' and leave it at that - there's no need to say you got a B in Home Economics when you're applying for a job as a Telephony Engineer, for example.

I find it helpful to just rip apart my CV and re-build it for each job, including only stuff that is relevant or that you feel might be a nice bonus to the employer. As an example, if you're applying for a job with a company that you know has its main HQ in Spain, and you speak fluent Spanish, mention that - it may not be directly relevant to the job, but your team lead might think 'Great, I could use that person to help me out when my boss visits, his accent is really hard to understand'.