Hi,

It is interesting to see that there are some differences between the continents. I am working in an very international environment and came across people from US, Anglo-Irish and continental Europe as well as Australia and NZ. What I normally find is, that in continental Europe you understate on your CV. In Anglo-Irish and US you marketing more. So be aware of that depending on what region you are applying in.

US CVs tent to be crisp and shorter then their European counterparts. It is okay in Ireland to send a 3 page CV for a graduate just fresh with his degree. On the other hand I made the experience, that I personally like to read the important things. Spark my interest with it, point out what you like and what you are good in!

My CV is 3 pages and I am having work experience for 10+ years by now. I do not include a list of all projects but only point out major achivements with each job. Tell them what role you had, if you managed people, if you were responsible for budget. Maybe if the project was small or international.

A summary of your skills and a personal profile is something I have included and it has been proven well. People tend to read the first page and will continue only when it generates interest.

If you need more advise, let me know and I might dig out my own CV and generalise it a little bit...

Björn

I have to agree with Chris in regards to consultants having longer résumé’s. I have work a few years as a consultant and I always seem to dip my toes back to my chosen profession (Business Analysis). I actually have three different résumé’s, one for consulting (Professional Format 6 pages), one for contracting (8 pages)  and one for permanent work (4 pages, which I do not use very often). Having worked in a few different countries (the most recent Ireland, more of this in a bit) I have noticed that it depends on the interviewer and the need for them to want to find out more about you. I have always thought that the resume was the bait that gets people interested, but it gets a bit of a drag to attend coffee meetings and interviews all the time to get people to discuss your experience. So I always tend to opt towards my contracting CV, which in Australia they love because the info is all there and they just load it straight into their HR system.  But in saying that, the positions I normally go for are not the bulk recruitment drives and my resume is one of those that may just come across your desk when you actually have time for reading, so I can understand the dislike for résumé’s greater than 6 pages in recruitment drives (I have experienced similar pains).

In Ireland, it is very mixed on the resume side for contractors and in particular BA's. Here it seems that BA's are not regarded very highly (open to discussion on this), and as such, to get the money that I was on in Australia, I am currently working as a Project Manager. Given that I have some 8 years working as a Business Analyst, it frustrates me when a recruitment agent tells me that most BA's in Ireland have the bottom of the barrel roles and are generally limited to documentation review rather than analysis of requirements and system development. Going to interviews resulted in a mixed feedback of, "your resume is to long", or "I think this is a great format". So regardless of length, I believe it comes down to the fact that when you are looking through hundreds of résumé’s i.e. recruitment agents or bulk recruitment, the preference is to have a short resume. However, if you are going for a role that you know that not many people go for, the more detail (short of making a novel out of it), the longer it should be (6+ pages), to save you getting harassed whilst you are at work for additional information.