Forums

 Hello,  I know this topic has been covered a lot, but I am getting conflicting advice.  I am embarking on my glide path to leaving the British Army and entering civilian employment.  I have produced a CV in line with the advice provided on Manager Tools.  However, a British CV website has commented on my CV and suggested the following:

  • Needs to be on 2 pages.
  • Needs a profile, key skills, interests, full detailed list of training.
  • Lots of spacing.
  • Larger title.

Others have also agreed with this advice.

This goes against the specific advice on this website, so I am wondering if culturally the UK is different to the US or if I am missing something?

Please advice!

Lloyd

wendii's picture
Admin Role Badge

I'm british, and most of my recruiting experience is in Britain, and there's nothing different culturally between british and american cvs/resumes (apart from the words we use to describe them and the spelling :-) )

Hiring managers want to know what you've done and how well you've done it. That's universal. Different people have different opinions about format, but there's nothing about a Manager Tools resume as far as formatting goes which will get the resume rejected.

Wendii

PS.. if you want to send me your resume and the specific advice, please do, at [email protected]. My guidance won't change though :-)

delete_account_per_reacher_145083_dtiller's picture
Training Badge

Hi Wendii,  I had the same issue here in Canada when I was looking for a job.  The top recruiters who would be best at connecting me with the best employers insisted on the same things as Lloyd above.  I was forced to change my resume from the MT way.  Fortunately I got a job and so not sure what impact that had overall.  It's very confusing.

lloydhankins's picture

 Wendii, I would appreciate the advice and will send my CV.  I have no experience of looking for jobs so trying to get the right advice before I take the plunge.  So really grateful.

Lloyd

timrutter's picture

Welcome back to the civilian world Lloyd, enjoy your gardening leave and take Wendii's advice. It works in the US as well as the UK (I'd caveat Australia, but that's nothing unusual!)

If you haven't had an interview for a while, why not post up in the Forums? I'm sure one of us would be happy to help run you through a mock interrorgation

Tim

A Pomme, in Australia working for an American Company

lloydhankins's picture

 Great thanks Tim, that sounds like a good idea.

"Welcome back to the civilian world"?? Not sure "back" is the right word, surely school was just another institution that I became indoctrinated in?

WarrenReilly's picture

Hi Lloyd,

In my previous lifetime as a hiring manager in Ireland (very similar to the UK) I had much experience in rejecting/accepting CV's. Really the content wins out over format. Don't worry as much about one page with little whitespace versus two page with lot's of pretty whitespace. Worry about communicating your accomplishments. I am changing career at the moment and just refreshed my CV. With 15 odd years as a retail guy I still turned out a one page CV (with some sweat involved).

Best of luck with the job search.

Warren.

peterddw's picture

Hi Lloyd

I have come to find that there will be more opinions on how to format and write your resume than there are advice givers. I endorse the guidance that you have received from Manager Tools.

Peter

Den's picture

I reviewed  a number of CVs in my line of work for a variety of roles and what I noticed is that I'm always looking for information, roles, experiences and achievements, of course : ). The format is really secondary. I rather have a long CV with everything I expect to find, then a short essence that glances over activities, and responsibilities.

I tried to cram my CV into 1 page and 100% of reviewers said it's too buys, too little space, and unreadable.

I personally believe that 1 page CV does not work in Europe for people with more than 3-4 job or 10 year of experience.