tnman wrote:See, the weird thing about that is that I noticed it broke a 'golden rule' I was taught immediately upon opening. I've always been told that a CV, under no circumstances, should be longer than 2 sides of A4.
So much CV advice out there is shite. Not that I'm applying that statement to Eighty and Millsy, but it is very difficult to actually choose what advice to follow, let alone then pumping out a good ol' vitae from it.
It entirely depends on the position you're applying for. If you're after an entry level job and you're in your late teens or early twenties, then anything over 2 pages looks overblown and nuts. But if you're going for a £50k systems analyst role or something, then two pages would be ridiculously short.
I'm good at CV advice simply because of my wife, who has had to rewrite thousands of them over the course of her career for every level of role, from total foot-in-the-door £11k jobs right up to 6 figure salaries. If anyone has any specific questions that I'm not sure about, I'm more than happy to direct them to her.
You're right, though, tnny: a lot of the CV-writing advice out there is total shite.
If I can direct you to Millsy's CV for a second, his personal profile has gold filling in a cliche sandwich: "...passion for attention to detail, an ability to rapidly learn and implement new skills and knowledge" - that's great, that's me actually learning something about the way he works. The bits that surround it, though, I must have read on practically ever CV I've ever seen. They're necessary things to say, mind ("Ooooh, he hasn't said he's a team player?! He must HATE teams!"), but I'd make the less generic stuff jump out as much as possible. Also, the third part of the sentence is a bit clumsy. Apostrophes? Hmmm, maybe slightly too informal.
I'd change it thusly so it's not a run-on sentence and the team player aspect is reinforced:
Millsy mash up wrote:I am a confident, driven and professional team player who is able to quickly build rapport with new people using my highly effective communication skills. I have a passion for attention to detail, as well as the ability to rapidly learn and implement new skills and knowledge.