CV - Section Order Recommendations?

[LWA]

Hey all,
I'm happy with my CV, though I'm unsure of the order of the sections. At the moment I have the following:

1. Heading - name, address etc
2. Summary
3. Achievements
4. Key Skills
5. Courses
6. Education
7. Employment History
8. Personal interests
9. References

Any thoughts / comments as to how you would rearrange this order? Or is it suitable as it is? (For reference I am an IT manager).

Many thanks in advance,
Leon

[Salazaar]

Looks fine to me. Does the order really matter that much, so long as the information is all there and concise?

[LWA]

That's a fair comment - I'm just interested in peoples opinions to ascertain whether my order is clear and concise.

[finlay666]

Hey all,
I'm happy with my CV, though I'm unsure of the order of the sections. At the moment I have the following:

1. Heading - name, address etc
2. Summary
3. Achievements
4. Key Skills
5. Courses
6. Education
7. Employment History
8. Personal interests
9. References

Any thoughts / comments as to how you would rearrange this order? Or is it suitable as it is? (For reference I am an IT manager).

Many thanks in advance,
Leon

What are or IT are you managing? If it's a specific area I would suggest

1. Heading - name, address etc
2. Mission statement (short bit about yourself... treat it like a 2/3 sentence movie review)
3. Work experience
4. Key Skills
5. Courses
6. Education
7. Personal interests

Personally I would leave references out, as they are usually requested later on.

That was the format I used for positions I have been applying for and it has worked pretty well since I changed it

The other thing that I found REALLY makes the difference is the covering letter. I think the CV might not even be read (especially for online applications) if you don't have a decent covering letter.

[Phage]

I'd say the order does matter, you need to catch the eye of the reviewer. ie I'm looking for a qualified Java developer who's got experience in X and would like to do Y.
1st page would be a summary. So I'd go for

1. Heading - name, address etc
2. Summary of yourself in terms of key skills and even personality.
3. Education - esp professional Quals

2nd page onwards would be work history, beginning with the most recent, with key achievements in each role,. I probably wouldn't bother with the personal interests at all.

Of course YMMV.

[finlay666]

I'd say the order does matter, you need to catch the eye of the reviewer. ie I'm looking for a qualified Java developer who's got experience in X and would like to do Y.
1st page would be a summary. So I'd go for

1. Heading - name, address etc
2. Summary of yourself in terms of key skills and even personality.
3. Education - esp professional Quals

2nd page onwards would be work history, beginning with the most recent, with key achievements in each role,. I probably wouldn't bother with the personal interests at all.

Of course YMMV.

I don't agree with this, especially for a qualified developer position such as the example as it means the reader has to read past a page of guff and filler (as that is what it mostly is to someone looking at your CV when they are interested in key parts of it) just to get to what they care about, qualifications and experience.

[Phage]

Wouldn't that be summarised in point 2 ?

[TheAnimus]

Ok, I used to have to sh!t sift through too many CVs, after about 10, and you see the 80 odd left..... This was for technical developer + mathematician roles but this is what I like.

Heading, name address, all on as fewer lines as possible, do I care what your name is, where you live, NO, only if I like what I read next.

Personal profile, 3 sentences maximum, absolute max, say what you are and what you want, what you have done comes later, its not war and piece either so simplicity rather than embellishments win.

Qualifications. Very important as often they are pre-requisites, so here they go!

Technical Skills bullet points here, justify them all later in your CV, just not here. This is the tick list, there are plenty of rolls you won't have the right skills for as much as the ones you will, this lets them quickly tick off the boxes.

Key Skills, less important than technical in a technical roll, so obviously technical first.

Work experience, list each job, with a 3-6 sentence summary of what you did, again short is sweet, have a bullet points of notable achievements or skills demonstrated. Bullet points are nice, they are easy to read.

Then put notable achievements, and the whole "on weekends I like climbing trees whilst ironing" or whatever personal crap you put to make you look like a well balanced human.

Then come the referees, but these come right at the end, almost like an appendix. You don't want people to read through them unless they are sold on you, so very end.

[finlay666]

Wouldn't that be summarised in point 2 ?

That was your point 3 and second page, so there is say 2/3 of the first page that is irrelevant....

[LWA]

Thanks all for the comments. Based upon them I'm am now looking to reorder the layout to: (I've left the original order numbers intact for reference)

1. Heading - name, address etc
2. Summary - 3 sentence summary
4. Courses - courses I have attended throughout my working life to enhance my skillset (e.g. Finance for the Non Financial, French lessons, business improvement technique NVQ etc)
7. Employment History - speaks for itself
6. Education
4. Key Skills
3. Achievements
8. Personal interests
9. References

Thanks again all for the input.

[Barrichello]

A few months ago we started having CV writing classes through a outsourcing company hired at work due to our current merger and restructuring. Quite surprised to see how things have changed in order to try and produce the most acceptable "standard" of CV.

Ironically i used these tips to create a new CV which has resulted in leaving my current employer and got a job elsewhere, not sure if that was meant to happen

But anyway this is the format i used from their advice......


Page 1

-Name/Address/Email/Phone (was told to leave out Age/Nationality/Marital Status etc which used to be on my old cv)
-Profile (brief paragraph to summarise my career so far)
-SkillSet - detailed breakdown of key skills/experience
-Current Employer job role/details

Page 2

-Previous History of Employment,list of employers (told to list last 10 years)
-Academic and Professional (including education/courses etc)


I found it really hard cramming everything on 2 sides of paper, as informed this is the optimal size, but can run to 3 sides if necessary. I had to cut out allot of old tech stuff and bits and pieces and streamline, use bullet points etc

[Salazaar]

Going completely off topic for a second, weren't you Big_Leon first thing this morning...?

[finlay666]

Going completely off topic for a second, weren't you Big_Leon first thing this morning...?

Judging by the quotes.... yes he was unless there is a bug :S

[LWA]

Going completely off topic for a second, weren't you Big_Leon first thing this morning...?

Yes - it has been changed

Regarding the CV, I've done some tweaks and I now have the following sections:

1. Heading - name, address etc
2. Summary - 3 sentence summary
3. Education & Qualifications - Education history & courses I have attended throughout my working life to enhance my skill set (e.g. Finance for the Non Financial, French lessons, business improvement technique NVQ etc)
4. Employment History - speaks for itself
5. Key Skills
6. Achievements
7. Personal interests

Notes:

• I've combined education and courses into a single section
• Personal interests remains as I've been asked questions many times in interviews relating to comments in here
• References have been removed and will be supplied when asked for

Thanks to everyone for the comments. Much happier with the layout now.

[cookie365]

Erm, I know you've got a layout you're happy with, but ...

... why would an employer care more about where you went to school (3) than what benefit they'll get from employing you (5)?

Personally I'd go:

1. Heading
2. Summary
3 & 4 together. Key Skills and achievements
5. Employment History
6. Education & Qualifications
7. Personal interests

[finlay666]

Because 3 gives a summary of 5 so they can quickly look to identify your skills, then if you are still what they are looking for they continue