To most people in IT, and indeed to all of business, updating and refreshing your CV is, at best a burden and at worst torture. Particularly, if you have moved from role to role on the basis of reputation. This means that long periods can go without you having to sit down to rationalise and justify your knowledge and skill base.
This is a poor state to be in, as for most of us, our skills and abilities are what we are selling and you need the marketing for your “product’s” kept up to date and relevant.
I was once told that you’re supposed to redo your CV every six months, and yes I do normally do that, but I don’t do it with the same vim and vigour that I really should.
I’ve decided to change that. And given that I’m in the middle of looking at new roles I figured a proper sit down review of my CV was worth the effort, and it’s amazing what it turns out you’ve done in your life.
Not only does this point out items that you need to address and learn in the future, but It also gives you confidence in the sheer volume and amount of stuff. you have piled through in your life. I’ve been doing this nonsense for 25 years now and it really has been a busy couple of decades.
Filtering the hundreds of points of view and ideas on writing a CV, a few stood out
- Keep it to 2 pages, no one is going to read a 10 page CV.
- Companies are not going to read more than a couple of paragraphs before making an initial decision.
- Agents, HR and job sites are going to mangle it anyway, so keep the format simple.
- Don’t just edit it in place, copy and type it up in a new file, it helps to shake out the useless bits.