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so i need to update mine and got a fresh reminder of how much i hate dealing with resumes.

do you find it is better to include or exclude an objective?
poking around the internet seems to say objectives are outdated but who knows...

i'm in a weird(well at least to me) situation where my employer has actually asked me to update my resume so i'm technically not applying for anything.
i cant think of what i should put in an objective in this situation.

i never know how much detail to include for previous jobs/positions.

any thoughts?

What I was told to do was this. For each job or role (state job title, employer, and dates), put three bullet points underneath, these say what you did, what you brought got to the role, what you learned. This focuses you into saying the right things, and employers find it very easy to read. I’ve had good feedback on my CV at several interviews for it being concise and easy to read.

Keep it to a single page.

Keep it to a single page.

Yikes, cant agree there and I've been doing recruitment/HR for 13 years.
The more (relevant) detail the better. Filling the CV with fluff/buzz words and non relevant stuff is obviously a big no no but if I saw a one page CV with a few bullet points, my immediate reaction would be "No depth of knowledge there / whats this person been doing for X years".

Always include your actual achievements. Anyone can "manage the IT procurement process". Few can "mange the IT procurement process saving 300k and ensuring optimal software support" etc etc.

A decent layout would be something like this:

PROFILE
It is important to get this part of your CV right. Often it is the first thing an employer will read and it should set the tone for the rest of your CV. This is your chance to highlight the value you can bring to the role and showcase your core competencies and skills. Be sure to mention the skills you have that the employer has specified in the job description. Your profile should be 8 to 10 lines long and do not use bullet points.


CAREER HISTORY
Start with your most recent employment first and work backwards. Make the description of your jobs strong by using active verbs. Remember to emphasise the key skills that are relevant to the role for which you are submitting your CV. Choose your words carefully to reinforce the experience that you showcase to the employer.

Title Held, Name of Company 12/12/2012
Insert further details of your key duties and responsibilities. Remember to use active verbs including sold, solved etc.
Insert further details of your key duties and responsibilities. Remember to use active verbs including sold, solved etc..
Insert further details of your key duties and responsibilities. Remember to use active verbs including sold, solved etc..

Key achievements
This section should include a list of 4-8 achievements and should be presented in bullet point format.
Use this section to highlight any achievements you may have had in a voluntary capacity.
You should include outstanding academic qualifications, results etc.
You should include details of group presentations that you have led, presented etc.
If you have employment experience then you should provide examples of your achievements, you need to show employers that you have solved problems similar to theirs and that you achieved the results for which they are looking.

What job/level of job do you currently do? A CV for a retail employee will look very different to a CEO which will look different to a charters engineer which again will look very different to a design consultant.

check your local library, some of them have people trained to help with resumes

I would definitely include your most recent army lists prominently at the top of the resume. If you're playing Guilliman / custom Land Raider with like 8 lascannons, people will want to know to appropriately bin it right off the bat.

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
so i need to update mine and got a fresh reminder of how much i hate dealing with resumes.

do you find it is better to include or exclude an objective?
poking around the internet seems to say objectives are outdated but who knows...

i'm in a weird(well at least to me) situation where my employer has actually asked me to update my resume so i'm technically not applying for anything.
i cant think of what i should put in an objective in this situation.

i never know how much detail to include for previous jobs/positions.

any thoughts?

Order Resumes That Knock Em Dead

 Ratius wrote:

Keep it to a single page.

Yikes, cant agree there and I've been doing recruitment/HR for 13 years.
The more (relevant) detail the better. Filling the CV with fluff/buzz words and non relevant stuff is obviously a big no no but if I saw a one page CV with a few bullet points, my immediate reaction would be "No depth of knowledge there / whats this person been doing for X years".

The American Resume is really vastly different than the European CV, with the length of each being just one of the big differences.

 usernamesareannoying wrote:

do you find it is better to include or exclude an objective?
poking around the internet seems to say objectives are outdated but who knows...

The objective really isn't needed, and it should be obvious that it would be "the objective is to get the job that I'm sending you this resume for". I think it's needed even less for your situation, since you are not really applying for anything (unless you are applying to keep your job in the face of planned layoffs or something).

If you are ever in a situation where you really feel that you need to include something like an objective, them you are almost always better served by doing an actual cover page instead rather than taking up valuable resume real estate. Instead of a short one or two sentence objective you can end up with a proper "Hey, I found out about this position via [source]. I think I would be a good fit because of [reasons]. It would let me meet [goals] and you would get [benefits]. My [experience] prepared me because [list specific example of how experience makes you a good candidate]. I look forward to hearing from you and will follow up."

This usually ends up as three short paragraphs in most cases.

i never know how much detail to include for previous jobs/positions.

That's also a benefit of a good cover page. You want good concise information on your resume, but you don't want useless clutter and fluff that means nothing. You also don't want to specialize your resume so much that it automatically excludes you from some openings. The combination of cover page and resume let's you keep the resume listing for a job general enough for many openings, and then you can use your cover page to be more specific for the particular job you are applying for. As a generic example:

Resume:
Project Manager: Managed a team of 20 people. Managed a budget of $X. Quality control management of industrial CNC processes.

Cover Letter:
As Project Manager I managed 20 people and a $X budget utilizing the SuperAwesome3000 CNC equipment which your company also utilizes. By improving quality control procedures I lead my team to improve efficiency by 5% resulting in $X savings and I believe that my knowledge of the SuperAwesome 3000 CNC equipment makes me a good asset to your team.

 Ouze wrote:
I would definitely include your most recent army lists prominently at the top of the resume. If you're playing Guilliman / custom Land Raider with like 8 lascannons, people will want to know to appropriately bin it right off the bat.

True that. Robby G players are a special kind that should not be allowed to interact and infect any other people.

Need to know what you do first before I can offer a recommendation. Standard issue US megacorp friendly rules typically include objective (read: bs) and no more than one page, prioritizing (in order) relevant work history, education, extracurriculars. Extracurriculars can help more than you'd think--when I got hired on with the nameless global news corporation I work for now after 10 years still, they told me later that they wound up going with me over the other guy because I was an Eagle Scout. Stuff like that and any honors type stuff counts more than you'd think, especially for anything entry level.

If you're going for a state or university job, I think the many-page report detailing every facet of your life is more standard. I don't really have any experience there though. Just going off what friends of mine have had success with.

Cover letter for all the details, the resume for high points.

I delete expired certifications and tickets off mine, but you could still say you had those for education if it's relevant.

My work asked me to update my CV recently as I was changing the conditions of my engagement at work. It was mostly a formality because my supervisor and finance manager were vouching for me at which point what's on my CV isn't really significant, they just need it on file if the question of why I was hired comes up later.

Anyway, I just updated it by deleting a couple of things that didn't seem significant anymore, as it was a research based job I updated my research interests and added major research milestones I'd been involved in (which were all with the employer I was resubmitting the CV to anyway) and updated my qualifications (deleted a couple of software packages that it's been so long since I've used I've forgotten how to use them, added some qualifications I'd gained on the job since I first started). Also changed my references from the guy who I worked for previously to the guy I was currently working under.

I dunno if it was the right way to do it, but it was holding up me getting paid more money so I just did it quickly and submitted it to HR

The American Resume is really vastly different than the European CV, with the length of each being just one of the big differences.

Learn something new everyday.
Disregard my eurocentric ramblings so. My 4+ page CV wont get you very far

 Ratius wrote:

Keep it to a single page.

Yikes, cant agree there and I've been doing recruitment/HR for 13 years.
The more (relevant) detail the better. Filling the CV with fluff/buzz words and non relevant stuff is obviously a big no no but if I saw a one page CV with a few bullet points, my immediate reaction would be "No depth of knowledge there / whats this person been doing for X years".

It rather depends on what you write, all my experience was in lab work and I detailed the specific techniques I was trained including the projects I worked on, a lot of content without having to write at length. It got me interviews and jobs. The one page thing has become somewhat more difficult in recent years as I’ve moved into teaching and my list of jobs and their different experience are varied. But I’ve not sent off a CV in years, everywhere has their own application forms and aren’t interested in seeing a CV.

 Howard A Treesong wrote:

 Ratius wrote:

Keep it to a single page.

Yikes, cant agree there and I've been doing recruitment/HR for 13 years.
The more (relevant) detail the better. Filling the CV with fluff/buzz words and non relevant stuff is obviously a big no no but if I saw a one page CV with a few bullet points, my immediate reaction would be "No depth of knowledge there / whats this person been doing for X years".

It rather depends on what you write, all my experience was in lab work and I detailed the specific techniques I was trained including the projects I worked on, a lot of content without having to write at length. It got me interviews and jobs. The one page thing has become somewhat more difficult in recent years as I’ve moved into teaching and my list of jobs and their different experience are varied. But I’ve not sent off a CV in years, everywhere has their own application forms and aren’t interested in seeing a CV.

I agree with Howard A Treesong here. If someone was applying for an academic / science based position using the formats and guidance given here, it would immediately start alarm bells ringing.

Really there is no one-format-for-all solution for this - we would need to know what field the resume is for and then people with the relevant skills for that sector can chime in.

Just as an example - my C.V. lists publications I have produced or been involved in. It also includes academic qualifications with associated skills and publications produced during the attainment of each qualification or tenure of research. That is vital to Bio-engineering and Physics based employers, but not so much if I was applying to work in a bookshop.

I personally keep my resumes to one page and include only information and experience that is directly relevant to the position I'm applying for. I've been hired at the interview for every job I've applied to in about 7 years, but every situation is different. Also, before I started my own business basically all of my professional experience was in one field, so that made it easy.

 Ratius wrote:

Yikes, cant agree there and I've been doing recruitment/HR for 13 years.
The more (relevant) detail the better. Filling the CV with fluff/buzz words and non relevant stuff is obviously a big no no but if I saw a one page CV with a few bullet points, my immediate reaction would be "No depth of knowledge there / whats this person been doing for X years".

You would not like our government forms that you hand in instead of a Resume when gunning for a promotion from within down where I work. (and, very frequently,, previous experience is seen as a negative quality, all they want is years in grade, and if you can't even read, so much the better.)

What about the kind of person who inserts an apostrophe where it doesn't belong?

It's really not a question that can be usefully answered without a lot more detail. Someone has mentioned above the difference between US and European CVs (a staggering difference in terms of tone) but they're also highly variable between sectors and fields. A general forum might be ok if you were writing a first CV straight from high school but you probably want to speak to colleagues.