Do you....? [CV question]

Do you enclose such information in your resume/CV (or simply - are employers expecting that…) * high school information * date of birth * thumbnail picture * maritial status * single-sentence “OBJECTIVE” at the top of “Education” section * knowledge of unrelated foreign languages (i.e. intermediate german when applying for a US based job) Secondly, what’s the perfect lenght of CV/Resume, provided: a) 0-2 yrs exp b) 2+ yrs exp

They only thing I would include are your foreign languages. Your prospective employer does not need anything else and can actually get into trouble for asking you some of those questions. One page would be fine.

Rad Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Do you enclose such information in your resume/CV > (or simply - are employers expecting that…) > > > * high school information NO > > * date of birth NO > > * thumbnail picture Only if you’re applying to be a model. > > * maritial status NO > > * single-sentence “OBJECTIVE” at the top of Some do. I don’t. > “Education” section > > * knowledge of unrelated foreign languages (i.e. Yes. Languages never hurt. > intermediate german when applying for a US based > job) > > > > Secondly, what’s the perfect lenght of CV/Resume, > provided: > > a) 0-2 yrs exp 1 pg > b) 2+ yrs exp at 2 yrs, it would probably still be one page. exceptions apply.

OK, and how about “Nationality” or “Eligibility to work”?

Sometimes when you are applying online/form they will ask you for your nationality to fill an affirmative action quota (native american, etc), but those points are normally left out of the actual resume.

In the US, it is illegal to discriminate based on age, sex, orientation, race, marital status, and looks. Therefore people do not put this kind of info on their resume, and your resume will be noticeably different if you do put it on there. It’s a crap shoot about whether that info will help you or hurt you, but the general consensus is usually that there are more ways it can hurt you than help you, so you generally leave it off here. In Europe, it is more common to have this stuff on resumes, particularly the photo, so if you are applying for jobs over there, it’s a different story. For most jobs, high school is too far back, assuming that they want someone with a college degree (I think some pit traders don’t need a degree, and some sales roles, but most other roles do). Now, people still try to guess your age by looking at your graduation year, and they can guess your sex (usually) by your name, and of course they know what you look like when you come into an interview, so discrimination may still happen on this stuff without your knowing (or may not). But at the interview, at least you have a chance to present yourself as a person, as opposed to a sheet of paper.

>> Do you enclose such information in your resume/CV (or simply - are employers expecting that…) >> * high school information >> * date of birth >> * thumbnail picture >> * maritial status >> * single-sentence “OBJECTIVE” at the top of “Education” section >> * knowledge of unrelated foreign languages (i.e. intermediate German when applying for a US based job) I do a lot of recruiting for my company and when I see most of the above on a resume, I take it as a sign of unprofessionalism. Think about it: what does your HS info, DOB, picture, or marital status tell me about your ability to do a job (assuming you’re applying for a typical job in finance?) The answer- absolutely nothing. The objective MIGHT be useful if you don’t have a lot of experience on your resume. For example let’s say you are a brand new college grad with zero job experience. How do I tell you’re even applying for the right position? If your objective leads me to believe you’re looking for the type of job I’ve got, then it serves value - in other words it needs to be specific. On the other hand, if your skills and experience SCREAM “Equity Analyst” or whatever and that’s the kind of job you’re looking for, objective is not that necessary. But it can’t hurt. Languages are nice, but make sure you don’t do it stupidly. For example a lot of resumes I get have something like “Bilingual: Cantonese and Mandarin (or whatever)” which logically leaves no room for English fluency. However, speaking a foreign language DOES say something about your level of intelligence, so having something like English(native), German (conversational) would add a little something something to your resume. But the bottom line is - if an item on your resume doesn’t portray you as either qualified for the job (ie relevant skills and experience) or as a super-achiever (eg very high GPA), get rid of it. In terms of length of resume - there’s no guideline. Here’s what you do: 1. Write down all the relevant info 2. Trim out all the nonsense 3. Done. If you have 2 pages worth of relevant stuff to put on there, then by all means use 2 pages. If it’s 2 pages of nonsense, then get rid of the nonsense. Of course be reasonable - don’t make it 2 pages if the pages are full of whitespace. Having 2 years of experience sounds like it probably should fit on one page, but then again my resume was 2 pages long before I graduated college… To repeat the bottom line - get rid of the meaningless fluff and nonsense, make sure your resume conveys clearly why you should be hired, and then relax. If you’ve got a lot of experience, make your pg1 speak to it. Then you can potentially be hired w/o someone having to even look at pg2 for your education and other stuff. Hope this helps. Good luck! -Ed