On the 9th day of Christmas my true love gave to me…
…9 Ladies Dancing! How wonderful and cheerful, almost like too many eggs in a pudding – which brings us onto: On the 9th day of Christmas The CV Righter gave to me 9 pages too long, 8 mistakes of applications, 7 deadly sins of job hunting, 6 Key Achievements, 5 Golden Rules, 4 calling cards, 3 networks, 2 referees and a killer CV.
Yep, we are back to the length of CVs and believe me – I have seen CVs 9 pages long. The longest CV I have ever come across was actually 13 pages, but the longer CVs don’t tend to come in just over the recommended 2/3 pages they average 7 to 9 pages… Wow! I cannot stress enough how off putting a long CV is, put yourself in the shoes of the hiring manager – when faced with a pile of CVs where all they want to see is that you can hit the mark of their “wish list” they do not want to read beyond the first couple of pages.
It says a lot about a candidate when they cannot condense their skills and experience down to a manageable size, they will be thinking how you interview – and it is not uncommon for them to assume the shear length of a book length CV will mean a really long interview. Can this person get to the point whilst covering all that is required? No, he/she will be going around the houses for a good half hour on the first question and I have 20 to get through!
Here is an article written previously which talks through the length of CVs and what is expected.
On the 1st day of Christmas The CV Righter gave to me a Killer CV
On the 2nd day of Christmas The CV Righter said to me Two Referees
On the 3rd day of Christmas The CV Righter gave to me Three Networks
On the 4th day of Christmas The CV Righter said to me 4 calling cards
On the 5th day of Christmas The CV Righter gave to me 5 golden rules
On the 6th day of Christmas The CV Righter said to me 6 Key achievements
On the 7th day of Christmas The CV Righter said to me the 7 deadly sins of job hunting
On the 8th day of Christmas The CV righter gave to me 8 mistakes of applications