I spent a large part of today writing a new CV [that's resume to you American folks] which is something I had been planning to do for quite some time, but always pushed it off as CV writing is such a tedious job. One could say I have experience in it though; as I started this morning I had 28 [!] different CVs spanning seven years!
There were three main versions, several tailored for specific jobs and companies and about a dozen backups. In addition, about 75% had great filenames, such as ‘Cat CV, Sept 2007 (3)’ or ‘Backup of latest CV’.
So it was definitely time to create that one, definitive, up to date CV – the one CV to rule them all. Cutting out some of the fluff, reordering some jobs, putting more focus on skills and creating a better layout that will work across all the different Word, Open Office and Google Documents versions.
As I was looking through the CVs to use the dates and job titles I stumbled across one that was responsible for securing me two jobs in the last two years. It’s one of my better CVs and has circulated around a large number of agencies, headhunters, HR managers and the superiors I had at those two jobs. I would guesstimate that at least 30 people have seen and read this CV.
There’s just one problem.
According to that CV I was working in two full-time jobs in two towns at the same time. For a year.
And no one noticed this error or pointed it out to me in over two years!
Therefore, unless specifically required, I will stop with this crazy tailoring of CVs. There’s no need as they’re not being read. My one CV to rule them all shows my job progression, responsibilities, education, voluntary work and additional skills in a clean and easy to read layout. More should not be needed.
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