Americans don't write CVs. They write a "Resume." Especially technology professionals. In fact, the conventional, generally-accepted, "consensus," Whiz-Dumb holds that a resume, or even a CV should be one or, at most, two pages! For example see this, and that. But this is a huge mistake, and a long, detailed CV is important for everyone.
The essence of the brevity argument is that recruiters and hiring managers are too dumb or lazy to read much. They phrase it in euphemisms, but that's what they mean. For example, in the article above, they spoke of these inDUHviduals having "short attention spans." In other words, they are mental cripples, or too lazy to read more than one page.
TheHackerCIO begs to differ. I write what I want. What the reader does with it is his business and his problem. I can accommodate the recruiter's and manager's laziness, stupidity, and brain deficit by writing in the "reverse pyramid style" of the newspaper writer, where everything important comes first, and less and less important content follows later. In short, the reverse-chronology ordering tactic fits perfectly. I start with my most recent experience and work backwards.
But these are issues of scope and arrangement. This is all just formatting!
The more important issues are personal and substantive.
Since many readers don't know what a CV is, and almost no-one knows its meaning, advantages, and utility, I'm going to start off the year by explaining a bit about the good old Curriculum Vitae, why you need a long, detailed one, and the benefits that come from the exercise of producing one.
This is an excellent time to work with me through this exercise, so you can be ready in the new year for any new job searches that may arise. Or, just be ready so that you can take your career to the next level.
We'll see why the CV is crucial to this ..... in the next post.
I Remain,
TheHackerCIO
