CV too wordy?

miss-p

I'm getting my CV ready to send off and I'm a bit worried. Its two pages long but there is quite a bit of text in it (about 800 words).
Most of the text is in my career history and I think (hope) I've it laid out clearly (bullets points describing each project I did per job).

So my CV is outlined as such

• Contact information
• Executive Summary (~200 words)
• Education & Training
• Career History (~600 words) (for 5 jobs/projects)
• Other relevant information

Basically I'm afraid someone is going to look at it and think it's a huge block of text and not read it. Is there a general rule of thumb about how many words a CV should have?

sopretty

Is it readable or is it a mad big block of text?

You could try focusing on particular projects depending on the job you're applying for. Obviously that will mean tailoring your CV to the job.

First thing to be read: Cover letter/email. Second thing: Qualifications: Third thing: randomly scan through company names, specific experience. You can be more wordy in your letter of application (but remain concise). Stick to bullet points on your CV if it's a little mind-boggling.

miss-p

Thanks for that working on the cover letter now, so will probably be able to reduce some of the main body text after I do that.

sopretty

miss-p wrote: »

Thanks for that working on the cover letter now, so will probably be able to reduce some of the main body text after I do that.

Keep even that concise!

Think about when you read a newspaper article and your eyes glaze over and you lose interest after the first line. You want to capture them. Correct use of grammar makes things more readable.

Get someone to read over it and then get someone who you don't know to read over it.

beauf

I think you should be able to see all the main point on a CV in a quick scan, like 5 secs. You shouldn't have to read it. If some place gets hundreds of CV thats how they seperate them. Detail is for the cover letter and the interview.

doolox

Keep your most recent experience at the top and work downwards. More detail on most recent experience. Summary on older stuff.

Tailoured CV for each application. Leave out or be brief on less relevant info for each application.

Bullet points. You can expqand on these at interview.

Purpose of CV is to get an interview. Interview then gets 2nd interview/test. Then your probation period hopefully gets you the job. Take each step one at a time and don't skip them. Be brief and punchy in a CV, more verbose at interview and highly detailed at 2nd interview/test.

Eoin

Unless your education is a lot more relevant to your role than your experience is, then I would have your work experience above that.

2 pages is fine, if you've been working for a few years. I don't know if the word count is the best measure to use in its own right. With the right formatting, you can get away with more words if needs be.

The executive summary - does it actually add anything to your CV? I had one in mine, but took it out. I just found myself putting in the usual vague self praise that people reviewing a CV tend to skip over. The cover letter / email with your CV is typically as good a place for that stuff, as has been mentioned.

miss-p

To be honest I have all that, I just wanted to know how much detail I should include when describing my career history. So per job how much detail do you give?

beauf

That depends on how many jobs you have. If you have 10 jobs maybe a line each with maybe two or three for those directly relevant. If you've only 2 jobs then you'll have to put a bit more in. But the person reading it will thank you if you keep it as short and relevant as possible. Remove all fluff and don't talk the roles up. Short and simple.

I used to bring a more detailed CV to interviews. But a much shorter one for applications.

Eoin

I have a short paragraph for my current and last role with 5 or so of the key aspects of it in bullet format. My current and previous job titles are not completely self-explanatory in their own right, so that's why I have a bit of intro text. The further back I go, the less detail I have. My first couple of jobs are just the job title, company and dates.

It's very hard to give a word count that you should stick to. It's more about ticking off as many of the bits they're looking for in the job spec.

I did a word count on my CV and it's about 900 words. But the layout makes it easy to scan and there aren't big blocks of text.

miss-p

Ok, thanks for all your points.

Eoin wrote: »

I have a short paragraph for my current and last role with 5 or so of the key aspects of it in bullet format. My current and previous job titles are not completely self-explanatory in their own right, so that's why I have a bit of intro text. The further back I go, the less detail I have. My first couple of jobs are just the job title, company and dates.

I have something similar in terms of the type of work, so I do think I need that extra detail to actually explain what the job was.
Format wise I have the job & dates highlighted, and then some description with a few bullet points beneath, detailing tasks and projects. So if someone wants to ignore the detail, my previous job titles are still highlighted.

I know word count is kind of arbitrary so judging a CV, but at the same time didn't want to overdo it that way.

blindsider

Eoin wrote: »

Unless your education is a lot more relevant to your role than your experience is, then I would have your work experience above that.

This.

As for job descriptors, bullet-points - 5 per job - 2 lines (max) per bullet point?

I'd try this and see how it works.....

......don't re-write the job description - focus on your achievements.

Boskowski

I'm not HR or a recruiter but I have been a hiring manager at times and imo wordy CVs are no good. Concise, bullets, clear structure and to the point please. You need your audience to capture your relevant experience in a quick scan because thats often all your CV is going to get, a quick scan no more.
I used to scan CVs myself and CVs with prose would immediately result in tl;dr, next.