Is it compulsory for a c.v to be 2pages, Is a 1page c.v ok?

^^
Actually many multinationals require just a one-page CV, especially for entry level.
I'm not a recruiter, but as a hiring manager, I always switch off when i encounter CVs that are more than 2 pages long. You must be able to summarize your education, project participation if any, work experience, and personal information into a page, if you have less than 5 years work experience.

DOB on CV? That's so last century.

You are doing a good job, though.

Big thumbs up @mycvclinic
#Nigerianeedsmorepeoplelikeyou
who can just think of what to give to society and stay committed to it.

Hello Everyone,

Thanks for your emails. I actually got an eye catching email yesterday. Someone informed me that he/she got 2 interview invitations after using her reviewed CV (luck/God's timing or might be due to the review). Anyway, as a result, I am working on 2 posts based on his/her email - one of the posts will be on interviews and the other I will start up a new thread on (watch out).

Yet again, my inbox is FLOODED but it's nothing I cannot handle. I know I've said this several times but please if I have reviewed your CV before, the chance of me doing another review on your (already reviewed) CV is very very slim.

@Buskete
I have heard about the 1 page vs 2 pages vs more than 2 pages theories about CVs. I will advise you to focus more on the information you wish to convey to a recruiter. Can you capture it CLEARLY in 1 page? If you can, go on.
My CV is not one or 2 pages but 3 and I have not had any problem with the size not even from multinationals.

On a lighter note. I will hit 500 reviewed CVs by the end of the weekend

Screen shot of mycvclinic sent mail when you continue ...

Professional of The Week: A Marketer / Event Manager

This week , we’re featuring a Marketer / Event Manager as the "Professional of The Week”. It was yet another enlightening interview and I encourage every professional or budding professional out there to read on.

Name: Sharon O.
Location: Abuja
Profession: Marketer / Event Manager


1. Why did you choose Marketing / Event Management as your profession?
It wasn't my plan to have a career in the hospitality industry (Event Management). I read accounting and I always said I was going to be the best accountant in the country because I'm good in mathematics. But along the line, just like you find yourself blogging about careers and your CV review thing (as an interest), I discovered I had a flare and interest in meeting people. I tapped into this interest.

I like building relationships because when I do, there is nothing I ask of you which is within your reach that you won't give me. From building relationships you can get what you want from people and I apply this to the Marketing aspect of my job

Continue to read the rest of this interview using the link http://thekrine..com/2012/04/professional-of-week-marketer-event.html


Cheers

mycvclinic: Hi,

Thanks for your reply. A very common 'CV killer' is the act of merely stating skills without showing activities you do that demonstrate those skills.

For example, I have worked on several CVs with a Skills Section followed by bullet points of things like 'Good listener, team player, excellent communication skills' .
Anyone can write these skills. A good CV will instead state activities that utilize these skills. It's like an evidence.
(I've used the blue ink to highlight this on a CV for a person without work experience followed by that of a person with work experience)

Don't give the excuse that you have never had a job before. You can use you experience in other activities to complete this section of your CV.

Before landing my first job, I expressed my team work and communications skills using activities as follows:

Team Work
1. Group work assessment with team mates undertaking a research on mergers and acquisition. Meetings with team members which required collaboration in working towards common target.
2.     Member of the football team at my University. I was team captain for 2 out of my 3 years on the team (note that with this item I also am conveying to a prospective employer that I have experience and skills required to be a team leader and manager which is a key skill)

Communication – Verbal and Written
1. Gave a 25 minutes presentation followed by a question and answer section to an audience on a topic  – Mergers and Acquisition, do the Benefits Outweigh the Drawbacks.
2.    Volunteer student tutor for various study groups for first year students
3.     Prepared a 5,000words essay on Corporate Governance which highlighted various corporate failures and the development of the Combined Code (note that I have also showed here that I have research skills)
(if you wrote and defended a dissertation as part of your university degree, you can include that here)


You would expect someone that already has some work experience to easily portray his/her skills. I have seen people with several years of work experiences fail to express their skills properly.

As an example, if I wanted to let a potential employer know I have skills in report writing, I will be doing myself no favours by simply doing a bullet point stating 'Excellent report writing skills'.
Instead, at the section where I list my work experiences, I will state some of the reports I prepare. I can do this by stating, 'Preparation of monthly management reports for the company directors'.

Depending on your field/industry, an employer may want to know you have 'working knowledge' of some softwares. Stating that you went to a certain computer school doesn't give enough evidence of such skill (except it is an entry level role).
Instead, at your work experience section, you can convey this by stating 'Update of accounting records using Peachtree' . Now this employer will understand I have an understanding of accounting softwares and also possess IT skills.


If you can send a CV for review I can pull out more pointers and over time, post more points here.

Cheers

pls send md sample of a cv i am graduatd of elect/elect engr . Affliatemax@gmail.com

For those seeking career jobs in the lucrative oil and
gas sector projects(onshore,offshore). Forward your cv or request
for free profiling today to:plumcareer@gmail.com

Check out this CV I found on pinterest.
How's that for originality?

Hi AjanleKoko,

I wish you could give a link to the location of this CV. The image is blurry and I can't read the content.

Cheers

^^

Go here.

Hi AjanleKoko,

Great attempt at originality. I'll assume a CV like that will only work at a certain statge of ones career (perhaps entry level). It's certainly an interactive one but with a lot of room for improvement in terms of clarity.

It strikes me as one of those things that fall into the 'you either hate it or love it' category . One thing I like about it is how interactive it is. Feels like I'm having a conversation with the owner (which really is an important characteristic of an effective CV).

I believe it may work for someone in a creative field like fashion/lifestyle/designing (perhaps not for the accounting lot).

^^
Correct.
You can only submit this kind of CV in a creative agency. Maybe not even in Naija, we're not particularly creative people

Hi A,

You know I just tried to avoid mentioning 'Not in Nigeria' but that is the truth. Perhaps in a couple of years time one can give it a shot.

@All, what is a possible career path for somebody with a BSC in educational management and a master in information science?

AjanleKoko: ^^
Actually many multinationals require just a one-page CV, especially for entry level.
I'm not a recruiter, but as a hiring manager, I always switch off when i encounter CVs that are more than 2 pages long. You must be able to summarize your education, project participation if any, work experience, and personal information into a page, if you have less than 5 years work experience.

For me, as a job applicant, even though I have less than 3.5 years work experience, most multinationals I have come in contact with had no problems with my 2 to 3-page CV. If I trimmed down my CV to one page, then I would be doing myself a huge, huge disfavor. There are many things that set me way above the competition; trimming down my CV will exclude those very unique things. I would therefore risk not being invited for ordinary test or first stage interview.

Notwithstanding, to corroborate your submission, there are still some very strict multinationals that stick to the one-page CV theory. Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm of Barclays, is majorly one of them. At the time I applied for a position on their global markets team, I was forced to reduce my CV to one page. In the process of doing this, many vital information were excluded. I was subsequently not invited for an interview.

Although I completely agree that one shouldn't go overboard, I think excluding vital information from one's CV, in a bid to reducing the number of pages, is what I consider dangerous, in my view.

But you guys who are seniors in the industry know what you want sha. This is just an applicant's perspective.

T22.

I believe trimming of C.Vs to a page is completely disadvantageous,if you have to do that,then you exclude the necessary parts like illustrations of skills that you have,which i believe is the main that will reveal how qualified u are for the job applied for.

Nb: all this not from experience but lil knowledge acquired cos am just been shot into the coporate world.(u guys should knw what i mean).

^^ huh? what does am just been shot into the corporate world mean?

@topic, I've always read that a CV that exceeds 1 page, is a big "NO". . . I believe job seekers are expected to only include their important accomplishments. Leave the story for the interview stage.

I find it hard to understand why you should get stuck on the number of pages of your CV instead of focusing on the content.

My first ever CV was a one page document which I later sent in for a review by the Career Advise Service at my university. After incorporating the suggestions, I ended up with a 2 page CV. All through my contact with her, we focused on the content of the CV. It had nothing to do with the fact that my older CV was 1-page or a focus on getting to 2-pages.

I advise you to ensure the content of your CV fulfills the primary purpose of a CV which is to convey information about your RELEVANT abilities and skills through your Education, Work Experiences, Professional Certification etc.

I have reviewed CVs and cut down from 5 pages to 2 pages. On the other hand I have reviewed a CV from 1 page up to 2 pages.

A lot of us include such irrelevant information on our CVs and defending number of pages is an uneasy task hence my focus on the content. For instance why should you include the class of your driving license on your CV when you are not a driver... Why??

If I should open up your CV and you have spent the first half of the first page with details like your place of birth, LGA, State of Origin, Nationality, Languages etc... of cos I will be bored sick to imagine what is to follow on page 2.

All I'm trying to say is... Keep the content relevant and effective; if you can achieve this within 1-page, go ahead. And perhaps, only send in a 1-page summary when a recruiter insists.

Cheers

Shola2009:
@topic, I've always read that a CV that exceeds 1 page, is a big "NO". . . I believe job seekers are expected to only include their important accomplishments. Leave the story for the interview stage.

then one might be at a risk of not being picked by recruiters for interviews.

pls check T22's last post on this thread.

Please,can you send me a sample of a CV? My mail is beautyjo@rocketmail.com
thanks

mycvclinic:
I find it hard to understand why you should get stuck on the number of pages of your CV instead of focusing on the content.

My first ever CV was a one page document which I later sent in for a review by the Career Advise Service at my university. After incorporating the suggestions, I ended up with a 2 page CV. All through my contact with her, we focused on the content of the CV. It had nothing to do with the fact that my older CV was 1-page or a focus on getting to 2-pages.

I advise you to ensure the content of your CV fulfills the primary purpose of a CV which is to convey information about your RELEVANT abilities and skills through your Education, Work Experiences, Professional Certification etc.

I have reviewed CVs and cut down from 5 pages to 2 pages. On the other hand I have reviewed a CV from 1 page up to 2 pages.

A lot of us include such irrelevant information on our CVs and defending number of pages is an uneasy task hence my focus on the content. For instance why should you include the class of your driving license on your CV when you are not a driver... Why??

If I should open up your CV and you have spent the first half of the first page with details like your place of birth, LGA, State of Origin, Nationality, Languages etc... of cos I will be bored sick to imagine what is to follow on page 2.

All I'm trying to say is... Keep the content relevant and effective; if you can achieve this within 1-page, go ahead. And perhaps, only send in a 1-page summary when a recruiter insists.

Cheers

Please,can you send me a sample of a CV? My mail is beautyjo@rocketmail.com
thanks

^^ why don't you just Google it? Seriously . . . .

Hello everyone,

This one is a little out of topic. My laptop has decided to go on a little vacation; basically it's just stuck at the black startup screen. It's been down for close to 1 week now cos I've not had the time to go over to someone to work on it.

I'll sort it out by the weekend.

Meanwhile, I've noticed it's still the same issues with most CVs...(Irrelevant information) I wish you could work through this thread before sending in your CV. I already know that some people simply use the illustration on this thread without the need of sending in their CVs for review cos I've gotten some emails to that effect (which is my ultimate target).

Achieving a great CV is not really rocket science, it just takes patience and perhaps googling to read various career advice website.

Soon as I get my laptop back, I'll upload more illustrations to this thread based on reviews I've done.

Cheers

CREATING A MORE EFFECTIVE CV - ILLUSTRATION 3

Find attached pictures showing an illustration of how to achieve an effective CV.

I have used a CV I received, making some changes for privacy reasons.

The first Image is the original CV that was received and the second image (see next post) is the reviewed CV. Can you notice any differences?

PS: There is a limit on the size of files I can attach to each post. Scroll to the next post for image of reviewed CV

CREATING A MORE EFFECTIVE CV - ILLUSTRATION 3

Here are some pointers on the CV review illustration above (please refer to post 121 and 122 with pictures of a CV).

I chose to use this particular CV for 2 main reasons:
1. To deal with the issue of number of pages of a CV
2. To highlight the importance of planning your career.

If you look at the CV in this illustration. you will notice that the original CV sent to me was a 2-page document. However look closely at the content of this CV.

The owner of this CV appears to have a Career Path in finance. The most important items of this CV are:
1. Degree in Management and Accounting (finance related)
2. Industrial Training (IT) Work experience in an Accounting firm (relevant work experience)
3. Ability to work with an accounting software (Peachtree) plus knowledge of data analysis tools like Excel etc (very key for the finance field)

If you look through a job advert to fill an entry level accounting/finance related position, you can tell the the owner of this CV has met the typical requirements as stated in 1 - 3 above.

That said, I deleted every other bit of the CV which just seemed to fall into the category of unnecessary information (junk). I may have considered leaving the skills section if the Industrial Training work experience was not directly related to the career path of this individual. That said, always ensure that you write your activities (duties/responsibilities) in stated work experience to incorporate the core skills for a role in your chosen career path.

It is very clear from this illustration that a single page CV is achievable. However, focus on the content of your CV.

(I highlighted the Career Objective in red because there is a lot of room for improvement there. Again, I am not a fan of this section of CVs but it seems to be popular. If you must include it, please ensure it is sending a message)

Finally, I advise you plan your career properly. Do not give the excuse that you are still at University. I believe that the Industrial Training Scheme was created for the purpose of giving you the opportunity to learn more about your chosen career. Don't have the single focus of getting into the big firms and companies that will pay you a lot during your Industrial Training period. At the early stage of your career, what really counts is that you have the necessary skills that make you employable.

The owner of this CV gained vital work experience while at university. I have come across a few CVs from individuals that have taken the steps to plan their careers appropriately (this appears to be more common with those in the Information Technology field).

Please make the effort to learn and acquire skills; it gives you an edge over others and also is an avenue to explore your Career choices.

Cheers

hello..
pls i just sent my cv to your mailbox for review... i look forward to your reply.. thnks

WANTED Urgently.

Our client, a reputable travel and tour company have vacancy for BRAND AMBASSABORS.
Minimum Qualification is HND/B.Sc (Male or Female) with 2years experience.

Interested and Qualified Applicant Should come with their CV and copies of their credentials for a JOB CHAT

Date: Tomorrow, Wednesday 2nd May 2012.
Venue: 7a, Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way,Airport Road; by Olowu Junction, Ikeja Lagos.

Time: 8am Prompt

Regards

Tanks dear, pls pals i ned ur help, som1 promised me to help me financial to startup a bz bt i shld first send him d FEASIBILITY STUDY Of d bz. i want to undago trainin on laptop maintenance n software engr n dn startup mine. Pls pals al i wnt is d format on hw to write it. Tanks in anticipatn

Toomaxi: Tanks dear, pls pals i ned ur help, som1 promised me to help me financial to startup a bz bt i shld first send him d FEASIBILITY STUDY Of d bz. i want to undago trainin on laptop maintenance n software engr n dn startup mine. Pls pals al i wnt is d format on hw to write it. Tanks in anticipatn

Why not try google? Am not joking about this.