Multi-page CVs - contractor/tech

[hornetrider]

I've been IT/telecoms contracting for 8 years now, albeit only had 4 long-ish term roles in that time. My current contract is drawing to a natural conclusion so naturally I'm brushing up the CV to apply for various roles.

Problem is, try as I might, I can't keep it short to the traditional 'two pages'. It is 3.5 pages. Is this really still a no-no bearing in mind recruiters will be dealing with experienced contractors?

To head off various questions it's in the format of:

- Contact details
- Very brief personal statement/profile
- Key skill list (several skills per line - quite important for a techy/testy type)
- Recent role #1
- Less recent role #2
...etc
- Education and qualifications
- Achievements and Interests

That's it.

Also - anyone looking for a superb technical test lead?!

[Burrow01]

hornetrider said:

To head off various questions it's in the format of:

- Contact details
- Very brief personal statement/profile
- Key skill list (several skills per line - quite important for a techy/testy type)
- Recent role #1
- Less recent role #2
...etc
- Education and qualifications
- Achievements and Interests

That's it.

Also - anyone looking for a superb technical test lead?!

Whats taking it up to 3.5 pages, the format looks OK
How long is each section?

Can you tailor the CV for each job - remove skills etc that are not relevant

3.5 pages is too long I think, you need to capture attention within a few lines then give some background on your fit for the role

[rog007]

When constructing your own CV, it's really difficult to drop stuff that you think is important. The trick when writing an outcomes based CV is in the wordsmith, and no matter how long you've been in employment or how much impact you've made, 2 pages for a standard CV submission is best practice. Happy to have a quick scan if that would help (it's what I do).

[hornetrider]

Thanks for feedback. In terms of lines on the page:

- Contact details - 12 lines
- Very brief personal statement/profile - 4 lines
- Key skill list (several skills per line - quite important for a techy/testy type) - 10 lines
- Recent role #1 - 8 lines
- Less recent role #2 - 10 lines
...etc - roles vary between 2 and 12 lines - 8 roles in all
- Education and qualifications - 11 professional quals, further education details, A-Levels/GCSEs are not individually listed just numbers noted.
- Achievements and Interests - 3 lines

Each role looks like this:

CV said:

Feb 10 – present: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Ltd
Industry: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Position: Recent role #1 (Contract)

Test Lead for multiple projects including integrating and upgrading various platforms within the xxxxxxxx network. This included a major migration of xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx between vendors, impacting the xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx services xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Responsibilities included writing test plans and scripts, co-ordinating onshore and offshore testing resource, managing the test environment, negotiation with key teams across the business regarding resource and environment issues, raising and tracking defects through to resolution, vendor liaison, single point of contact for all test related issues, live test organisation, co-ordination and lead of multiple teams in the change windows.

Not sure whether I'm being too verbose or whether I should structure the 'long sentence' better, but I'm trying to make it sound like bullet points without them actually being bullets. Hmmmm.

[rog007]

Contact details is 3 lines max; bullet points are industry prefered for role outcomes as they're easier to read; if you have a first degree, you drop GCSEs but keep A Levels. If you have a Masters, then you drop A Levels usually. If you mail across, I'd be happy to critique it.

[hornetrider]

rog007 said:

Contact details is 3 lines max; bullet points are industry prefered for role outcomes as they're easier to read; if you have a first degree, you drop GCSEs but keep A Levels. If you have a Masters, then you drop A Levels usually. If you mail across, I'd be happy to critique it.

Many thanks - drop me a PM and I can mail it across in reply

How do you get contact details to 3 lines??

MY NAME HERE
1 Acacia Avenue
Somewhere
Near there
PH-shire
Postcode
Mail: [e-mail]
Mobile: +44 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Date of Birth : xxxxxxxxxx
Nationality : British
Marital status : Married

[rog007]

Name
Address
Tel & email


The rest is superfluous and indeed not best practice due to discrimination laws.

[ewenm]

Contact details in header or footer on one line - saves loads of space.

[hornetrider]

Hmmm, I've lost my full address and DOB/marital status stuff, had a minor snip here and there and got it down to 3 pages. I can't see me whittling it down to 2, to be fair.

Rog - looking forward to seeing how you'll hatchet it on an objective basis

[davepoth]

My question would be - how much duplication is there in the skills list vs. the responsibilities lists for the various jobs? If the jobs show that you have all the skills in the skills list there's not much point having the skills list.

[spikeyhead]

hornetrider said:

CV said:

Feb 10 – present: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Ltd
Industry: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Position: Recent role #1 (Contract)

Test Lead for multiple projects including integrating and upgrading various platforms within the xxxxxxxx network. This included a major migration of xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx between vendors, impacting the xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx services xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Responsibilities included writing test plans and scripts, co-ordinating onshore and offshore testing resource, managing the test environment, negotiation with key teams across the business regarding resource and environment issues, raising and tracking defects through to resolution, vendor liaison, single point of contact for all test related issues, live test organisation, co-ordination and lead of multiple teams in the change windows.

So many lines, done of which actually tell me what you achieved and how you achieved the results.

[72EuropaTC]

hornetrider said:

How do you get contact details to 3 lines??

MY NAME HERE
1 Acacia Avenue, Somewhere, Near there, PH-shire, Postcode
Mail: [e-mail] Mobile: +44 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

all nicely centred on the page. If you're applying for jobs in the UK, the reader will understand the single line address. For international applications, some I've seen use a columnar format (name as the header, address on left, contact details on right)

hornetrider said:

Date of Birth : xxxxxxxxxx
Nationality : British
Marital status : Married

You don't usually need to provide this info these days.


ETA my CV goes back to mid 80s. Mid 1990s onwards has detail, before that is pretty much 1-liners (company name, date, job title). I flesh out as needed per application but manage to never go over the 2 page mark.

Edited by 72EuropaTC on Monday 2nd July 20:05

[DJRC]

3 pages is fine Hornet with contracting, its almost expected now due to the nature of having that many jobs. I can no longer keep my CV to just 2 pages.

The techy/engineering job market is different these days to 10 yrs ago. My technique is always that my CV follows after an initial telephone discussion with the poc for the job after I establish first of all what it is they either want or think they want. After that I can do a little tailoring to my standard CV just to spoon feed the poc a little more of what they think they want to see. A good 5-10 initial conversation with the poc will easily tell you whether you and the job are a good fit, your CV should then become superfluous to getting the interview, it just confirms to the poc what you discussed on the phone. A more detailished CV then comes back into play at your interview where your new boss to be can take an interest in it and see what you have done. At that point they wont give a rats arse how long it is.

[theboss]

Maybe this 2-page 'rule' is a concern when you're applying for a job in your local chip shop or similar... but as a fairly specialised contractor I would just ignore and put as much detail in as is necessary to convey your skills and experience. Mine is 4 pages and most I've seen are 3-5.

I did work for an agency once and the longest CV I ever saw was 21 pages long - okay so completely excessive but the guy was a UNIX veteran who had engagements on his CV going back to the mid-60's and was clearly at the very top of his field, so a prospective client dismissing his CV because of some 'traditional' aversion to >2 pages would be dim to say the least.

Edited by theboss on Tuesday 3rd July 14:43

[hornetrider]

Thanks for inputs guys - I'm now down to 3 pages as I mentioned above.

spikeyhead said:

hornetrider said:

CV said:

Feb 10 – present: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Ltd
Industry: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Position: Recent role #1 (Contract)

Test Lead for multiple projects including integrating and upgrading various platforms within the xxxxxxxx network. This included a major migration of xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx between vendors, impacting the xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx services xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Responsibilities included writing test plans and scripts, co-ordinating onshore and offshore testing resource, managing the test environment, negotiation with key teams across the business regarding resource and environment issues, raising and tracking defects through to resolution, vendor liaison, single point of contact for all test related issues, live test organisation, co-ordination and lead of multiple teams in the change windows.

So many lines, done of which actually tell me what you achieved and how you achieved the results.

That's interesting and I hear where you're coming from. At the end of the day that is what I did, but not how I achieved it. How would you word it?

[ewenm]

hornetrider said:

That's interesting and I hear where you're coming from. At the end of the day that is what I did, but not how I achieved it. How would you word it?

IMO how you achieved it is something I'd expect to come up at interview.

[hornetrider]

ewenm said:

hornetrider said:

That's interesting and I hear where you're coming from. At the end of the day that is what I did, but not how I achieved it. How would you word it?

IMO how you achieved it is something I'd expect to come up at interview.

Yeah that's my thoughts too. I'm not about to write on my cv that I shmooze/badger people on the phone and go and sit on their desks until they agree with me

[MagicalTrevor]

Your CV format is not too dissimilar to mine (also techie). I imagine your work experience takes up a great deal of the space? Can you restrict it to the last 10 years with 'previous work experience available on request'? Maybe even 5 years if you've done many different contracts

Having said that, mine's recently extended to a 3rd page so I adjusted the margins to get it all in. Who cares about having a large margin?

[spikeyhead]

hornetrider said:

Thanks for inputs guys - I'm now down to 3 pages as I mentioned above.

spikeyhead said:

hornetrider said:

CV said:

Feb 10 – present: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Ltd
Industry: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Position: Recent role #1 (Contract)

Test Lead for multiple projects including integrating and upgrading various platforms within the xxxxxxxx network. This included a major migration of xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx between vendors, impacting the xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx services xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Responsibilities included writing test plans and scripts, co-ordinating onshore and offshore testing resource, managing the test environment, negotiation with key teams across the business regarding resource and environment issues, raising and tracking defects through to resolution, vendor liaison, single point of contact for all test related issues, live test organisation, co-ordination and lead of multiple teams in the change windows.

So many lines, done of which actually tell me what you achieved and how you achieved the results.

That's interesting and I hear where you're coming from. At the end of the day that is what I did, but not how I achieved it. How would you word it?

What you have stated is what you set out to achieve, however I'm not sure that it tells me how you succeeded. It tells me that you've written test plans and managed those that were following them. I don't see anything that tells me about success, or customer satisfaction. Had you mentioned that your management of resources had improved changeover windows by 10% without increasing allocated resources, or reduced defect resolution time by 30% for those classified as serious, or reduced the number of defects post release by 16% through the introduction of an improved testing method then I'd get an idea of what you'd succeeded with. As it is, I can see what you've set out to do but not whether you'd succeeded and how much things have improved under your management.

I hope that makes sense, I'm sure you're good at what you do, it's just that I can't tell that from the paragraph you've written.

[Pickled Piper]

CVs are skim read for keywords. This is done manualy, the old fashioned way or by computer software. Sending in a multipage CV just demonstrates an inability to identify the pertinent information and condense it into a usefull form.
pp