Iāve moved back into testing after a break, and Iām setting up a team, obviously getting a lot of CVs.
Now, Iām used to most applicants not being great at CV writing, but so many of them are poorly laid out, and run to far too many pages - 8 pages for one I got yesterday.
My HR consultant advises that ātester CVs tend to be longerā, which I canāt quite believe. General consensus is to aim for 2 pages Iāve always worked with and expected - maybe run to three if thereās something really exceptional you need to detail.
So just after some general feedback from real testers - is 2 pages an unrealistic expectation and they really do all run longer nowadays?
I try to stick to two, but Iāve run over to three before, especially when itās in German, which has longer words lol
Thereās a lot of conflicting advice out there about CVs, and I think if one were to include everything that everyone giving feedback says they want to see, then it could go to eight pages easily. I guess editing and knowing how to communicate via a document is part of the assessment.
Generally it depends but when Iāve been reviewing CVs for roles I usually look at the most recent job experience for relevance to what I want. I tend not to care so much what you were doing 10 years ago and donāt go too deep into those.
So I guess I really look at the content in the first 1-2 pages really and am looking to get a good flavour for whether youāve worked on things I care about. If that needs slightly more words to explainā¦ I donāt mind.
I think 2 pages should be enough for (most) people to convey what they want to in a CV. When Iāve seen ones going on 5 pages, thats because they havenāt thought carefully about what they want to say, or done strange formatting (so a bulleted list may have 1 column not 2), so with better formatting they could have reduced the length and improved the readability.
I do see CVs not just a great way to see what experience a candidate has, but how their written communication skills are. Can they be concise and get their point across clearly? (A CV is a test of that IMO)
Hi, my CV was 8 pages long, after 35 years of working in IT, much of it contracting. I recently took advice and have cut it down to 3. Basically, I feel that recruiters want to see what you have been doing in the last year, plus highlight any particular experience that is relevant to the job youāre applying for. Just list the rest with dates. This will mean that you have a master CV but may need to add detail depending on the job youāre applying for. Also, lists and bullet points are better than longer sentences.
1-2 pages is usually okay, but if you have some experience working for several companies with different product tech stacks, tools, responsibilities, and accomplishments it would not be easy to fit in 1 page, so go with 2 (personally Iām okay with longer resumes if it worth it, I mean if you have lots of experience and skills and each one is quite unique and worth mentioning, has values, etc). Do not try to fit a particular template and make your resume somehow āuniqueā, if it is a boring template, with all the info necessary, bullet points, and simple formatting then itās fine, itās good when itās boring without graphics but clean, easy to read and get/find the info from it. Try to stick with your latest and/or most valuable experience if you canāt fit everything on 2 pages and just omit other stuff
Some additional points: have some intro/summary section, general skills section, and info section (you donāt need to put your address, just location - City, no photos, relevant contacts but only professional ones, no personal social networks). Remove as much as possible info that does not actually show your experience and skills. Some people say that you have to put results, achievements, numbers, etc only but itās kind of bs, I would suggest stating your responsibilities and achievements/results in any way. Do not try to use language that makes it overcomplicated just for the sake of sounding cool. Use AI for verification, but use it smartly in moderation and review the result just to make sure that it still sounds like you, as a real person
The main point keep it simple, dry, and formal in the general template (you can tailor it for each particular position if youāre going to apply rarely for a couple of them once a week but in the reality of the current market itās insane so I wouldnāt bother to tailor it for each position)
If you have lots of stuff to share, you can separate content and you can have different info on your LI profile, on your website, and other platforms and just give a link in your resume so if recruiter/HRs want to know more about your professional experience they will check the links
Thanks all - I think Iāve established that thereās nothing particular about tester CVs that would make them longer than generic advice indicates. Contractors for example might warrant longer CVs, but that would be equally applicable to PMs and other roles.
That depends on the tester and the roles they apply to.
One can customize a CV per application, or leave it generic enough for internal/consultancy/contracts, different domains, private or public/governmental/global institutions functions, different tech stacks, different roles occupied, achievements, specific role and responsibilities details, various keywords and phrases to pass automatic rejection engines or get through HR/Recruiter filtering layer.
I had more luck with a bigger CV(3-4 pages) rather than a smaller one(2 pages), in regards to being contacted back after the initial filtering.
Do people increasingly use their LinkedIn / Websites / Github as a part of their CVs? You could make the actual CV short and sweet with a lot of links to follow if you were determined to make the document smaller.
I have the opposite experience.
For many of the latest applications Iāve done, I had to use a custom service, like a platform for inserting my resume details, with predefined forms for studies, experiences, roles, responsibilities, tools, questions/answers, expectations, and so on.
It can take a few hours to fill in some of them. The most I needed was about 6-8 hours to apply for a job at the EU Public Prosecutor office using a word template they have given me. It ended up being an 8 pages document.
Itās very interesting to see all the perspectives because here in Belgium when people are hiring and especially experienced consultants, the longer the resume the better.
It often contains all the projects theyāve done with a detailed description, skills & tools used etc etc ā¦ but yea for me itās the same I also like this kind of resumeās because it tells a lot about a person instead of having ātest co at X or Yā
I personally dislike 1-2 pages of resumeās, if I have to interview someone and I had to choose between a 1-2 page resume and a 10 page resume both with 10 years of experience, I would blindpick the 10 page resume.
Our ālargeā resumeās with 15-20 pages is always a big hit, always get good feedback and companies are impressed with it. I never ever have heard āyour resume is too longā
I used to say 2 pages like most people here. Mine is that too. Then 4 months ago I became a consultant. Now I say have two versions of your CV. The 2 page version for those skimming keywords. The 5 page version of more detailed listing of tech you worked with and stories of impact you created. The 5 page version gets you assigned easier at different customer projects.
When everyone else does the 2 pages, being good different can help you stand out in a crowd. Good different means there are keywords and experience lengths your recruiter is skimming for, but also something that says you get some specific aspect of testing.
At most places, the resume is being asked which is usually 1 page as per the current market demand because recruiters donāt want to read the multi-page resumes.
Only some of the recruiters in the marker who asked for a CV prefer to see a CV not more than 3 pages because after that itās kind of boring. Repeating the same thing wonāt make sense, so keep the detail to the point and concise which makes it interesting to read.
The content should be such that the reader doesnāt lose focus mid-way, I have seen people creating CVs of 6-7 pages which become uninteresting to read after a certain page or section. People think adding all the project details that they have worked on will showcase the diversity of their exposure but that doesnāt necessarily happen.
Once the CV is created then self-read and analyze if it is worthy of reading till the last page or not.
One should keep in mind recruiters donāt give much time in reviewing so focus on creating CVs accordingly.
so I wouldnāt bother to tailor it for each position)