CV advice - what to include?

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tigercorp

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#296264 3-Jun-2022 10:11

Hi all, looking for some advice with how much historical info should be on a CV...

I have 26 years of work experience, 20 years in IT, in year 15 with my current company, and am thinking of applying for another job I've seen (also in IT).

While dusting off the 15 year old CV, it seems strange to include those first 6 years of non IT experience as they simply aren't relevant anymore. And in the education section it also seems strange to include things like high school qualifications (bursary for the oldies), even the BSC (from 1994) and various MS, SQL, and networking certs from circa 2000. But without them my education section would be frightfully bare, as while industry training has been abundant in my current company, gaining certs has not been a requirement or personally desirable (until obviously now, in hindsight).

Any thoughts on what I should include in the CV based on the above?

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#2922145 3-Jun-2022 10:35

Your CV needs to be tailored to the job you want to go for. I assume your next job will be similar to your current? I'd list the key skills required for the new jobs from your current position from examples of how you've used them.

If the other previous jobs are irrelevant, just list past 3-4 with only dates, doesn't take up much space.

Education wise - I'd list your BSC and any other newer and relevant certifications as this shows continuous learning and development. I wouldn't bother with high school as thats irrelevant.

Mine goes like this:

Quick intro of who I am and what I'm looking for.

Latest position and key skills/responsibilities with a short example of each.

Any professional development/certifications gained during that time

Previous roles, if relevant or skills you want to highlight then a short explanation.

Older less relevant jobs, just dates

Education - latest qualifications/degree

Any particular skills you want to highlight - maybe a good place to insert your various MS SQL skills

A few bullet point of strengths

End

xpd

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#2922148 3-Jun-2022 10:40

You have LinkedIn ? If so, I honestly just used that as my CV for last few job applications, with a few bits added in etc to give people what they normally expect in a CV.

But as mentioned, customize it a bit for the job you're looking at.

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pih

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#2922156 3-Jun-2022 10:56

Ignore high school, nobody is interested in that if you have decades of real world experience.

Include all secondary/work-related certifications and qualifications, they are valuable and prove that you've put effort into your education.

Focus on say a top-10 style bullet point list of your experience, listing technologies/platforms used. In a separate section list your 20 year IT work history with a focus on your time and what you achieved. Think of success stories and illustrate them with statements like: "Implemented a new asset management system on time and under budget, reducing asset loss by 20% and maintenance costs by 40%". Note the key parts:

What did you contribute?
How was success measured? If you can back it up with numbers, all the better.

Be prepared to discuss these in your interviews, as you may be asked about them.

Good luck!

Handsomedan

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#2922217 3-Jun-2022 12:05

I have a whole career in a completely unrelated field that I don't have referenced in my CV.

I concentrate on the last few jobs and then have a brief of the previous decade or so, with highlights only.

It's about relevant experience. I also tailor my CV to the job I am after - often applications and CV's are read by bots, so they filter out the ones that don't match the search criteria - use the key words etc from the job descriptions/ads to help.

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BlakJak

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#2922246 3-Jun-2022 13:48

I assume pih meant tertiary and work related certifications, not secondary. Actual quals and certifications are worth listing.

Agree with focusing on the last decade and in crafting your CV to align with the role you're applying for.
Work experience older than a decade or so is not worth making much of, unless it's directly useful to the role you're applying for.

My CV gives a decent amount of detail of my relevant experience in my last few roles (last decade or so) and then gives only a headline for things before that.

I also like to ensure i've included some stuff covering my soft skills and the more general value proposition I would bring for any employer... as a hiring manager in an IT field I like to see a well balanced candidate and get a bit of insight into the personality of a candidate, not just the professional certifications they hold. But you still need to hold to a max page count. It can be tough to get the balance right.

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elpenguino

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#2922249 3-Jun-2022 14:02

Handsomedan:

I have a whole career in a completely unrelated field that I don't have referenced in my CV.

I concentrate on the last few jobs and then have a brief of the previous decade or so, with highlights only.

It's about relevant experience. I also tailor my CV to the job I am after - often applications and CV's are read by bots, so they filter out the ones that don't match the search criteria - use the key words etc from the job descriptions/ads to help.

If an IT CV is read by HR, it might as well be read by a bot.

Cloud - tick.

SQL - cross .

or whatever buzzwords they've been told they need.

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#2922257 3-Jun-2022 14:08

I've had reasonable lucky with my CV, and also been on a decent number of hiring panels, so while I make no claim it's perfect I think mines not terrible.

First page of mine is the usual name, address, a short "hire me because" blurb and a "Top 20" skills/certifications list. That first page is by far the most important, because they are only going to bother looking past that first page if it catches their attention.

Then I've got a page or two of "I worked here and my title was this and I did this sort of stuff" for the more recent jobs then I've got a blurb that says words to the effect of "I had a bunch of other jobs before this working in these areas, if you really want to know, ask", followed by a small assortment of possibly relevant non IT things at the end and "references on request"

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#2922302 3-Jun-2022 15:44

pih:

Ignore high school, nobody is interested in that if you have decades of real world experience.

...

Unless you're a certain large Indian IT contracting company. Had to tell them that I could no longer find those certificates and no one else had asked for them in the last 40 years, plus it seemed a little redundant when it was only a three month "out of retirement" assignment... 😀

tigercorp

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#2922344 3-Jun-2022 17:35

Thanks all, I appreciate the advice, it's been helpful.

The biggest takeaway is that people are adding things to the CV that I would normally consider part of a cover letter.

The last time I did this it was very much a case of "the CV only contains bullet points of skills, qualifications and technologies while the Cover letter contains all the personality, expectations, descriptive work history stuff that's tailored to the job". I see for this role they want a cover letter in the application.

Based on all the advice I think I'm going to add a bit more colour to the CV, tailor it more, remove the irrelevant and be really brief about the historically relevant.

Thanks again.

TwoSeven

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#2922346 3-Jun-2022 17:41

It has been a long time since I applied for a job, but I typically would use a resume when applying for a job and then take my CV with me.

The two serve different purposes.

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Inphinity

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#2922409 3-Jun-2022 19:37

TwoSeven:

It has been a long time since I applied for a job, but I typically would use a resume when applying for a job and then take my CV with me.

The two serve different purposes.

I honestly could not find you a single person who treats a resume and CV as different documents.

For the OP, the biggest things for me are

1) Make it obvious to me how your skills and experiences are relevant to the role you're applying for - don't expect me to figure out from your job title or an eight page essay what's going on. Bullet points of key aspects of your recent roles, especially those relevant to the role you're applying for.

2) Make sure your CV & Linked In profile match on job details - if you submit a CV that says you worked at Microsoft for 5 years, and your LinkedIn says you were working somewhere else at that time, I'm probably not going to the effort of figuring out which is right, and you'll go to the bottom of the pile.

3) I don't care about your age, gender, ethnic group, marital status, etc (there may be some exceptions where these matter, but I'm yet to see one in tech roles). Seriously, I have received some CVs where the whole first page is a completely-un-job-related bio. if you want to include some personal interest type stuff, cool, leave it till the end and keep it brief. I'm not hiring you because you play tennis, if the role isn't a tennis player.

4) Think about your layout. Ask someone to review it - heck, they don't even need to really be familiar with some of the tech, words, etc, but if they can help with 'What bits draw your attention" and it's the wrong stuff, your layout might be a problem.

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MadEngineer

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#2923304 6-Jun-2022 19:06

I layout my CV to match the job advertisement.

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Lias

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#2924051 8-Jun-2022 19:02

Also worth noting that more and more jobs can be had by having an up to date profile on LinkedIn/Seek. Certainly in my experience (IT) if you have <buzzword/skill in demand> in your profile you will get hounded by recruiters if you are showing as available. I didn't apply for my current job, I just updated my LinkedIn and set it to "Looking For Work" when my previous employer were being dicks and my phone/email basically didn't stop with recruiters getting in contact. Within 2 weeks I had 2 job offers on the table with substantial pay rises and several second interviews still in the pipeline. That's perm roles too, there was some really obscene contracting rates out there too.

WyleECoyoteNZ

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#2924097 8-Jun-2022 21:19

Seek has free templates for what a resume\CV should look like these days. Link below

https://www.seek.co.nz/career-advice/article/free-resume-template

Then also examples of what good & bad look like

https://www.seek.co.nz/career-advice/article/resumes-the-good-and-the-bad

Take some time to tailor your resume\CV, remember your selling yourself to the organization.

Oh, and even if you've worked in a team to deliver outcomes, don't use 'we' in your CV, use 'I'

Earbanean

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#2924175 9-Jun-2022 10:12

Another thing to keep in mind, it's good to not just say what you did - but what benefit etc that achieved. i.e the 'so what?' So for example, rather than saying "I upgraded the widgety widget doodacky system by implementing cloudy cloudbits++", say that bit, but also add "that uplifted system uptime from 72% to 95% and reduced customer response time from 30 mins to 5 mins" Not always possible for every role/project though.

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