On your CV (at the top) do you put a summary of tech skills with actual usage time

[sbakoola]

On your CV (at the top) do you put a summary of technical skills with 'actual' usage time of those skills; essentially giving a hiring manager a quick summary of your skill set or do you not bother with that and instead incorporate your skill set into the brief description for each previous contract on your CV ?

I was just wondering because I think in the past I am suspecting that some managers and recruitment agents have not even bothered reading or considering my CV because of a lack of summary.

[Doggy Styles]

You can't put too much in a summary or it ceases to be a summary.

I just list skills as one or two word items. If it spikes their interest they'll read on.

[Scrag Meister]

I have a section "skills summary", separate to my personal summary at the top of my CV.

I highlight my main skillset in the "top summary" but everything I've used and can be used again is game in the "skills summary".

[SimonMac]

What I have taken to doing is a brief skills summary at the end of each gig in my employment history, literally just key words of the skills (including soft skills) used on each project as this also give the bonus of letting pimps know WHEN you last used a skill.

ie:

Jan 2011 - Nov 2012
Arse Ticklers Faggots Fan Club Ltd - London
Penetration Tester

• I did this
• And this
• Which achived this

Skills Used: Automation Testing, Load Testing, Project Management, Scripting, .NET

Rinse and repeat

[cykophysh39]

Usage time is a bit of a waste of time!
To my mind that smacks of a bit of "Graduate" contractor, trying to prove he's used a skill.

I generally only place something in my skills summary if I am proefficient at something, that way I know I can pass an interview test on it! :-)

[northernladuk]

What I have taken to doing is a brief skills summary at the end of each gig in my employment history, literally just key words of the skills (including soft skills) used on each project as this also give the bonus of letting pimps know WHEN you last used a skill.

ie:



Rinse and repeat

I hope you did a lot of rinsing before repeating on that gig!!!

[MyUserName]

I have:

Personal summary

Main achievements

Technical summary

Contract History

Perm History

Interests (I know people say you should not have this as a contractor but I still have it there, I have played sport internationally and currently coach a GB team so it is worth bragging about)

Contact details.

The cv comes in at about 5 pages but the summaries etc are all on the first page.

[minestrone]

What I have taken to doing is a brief skills summary at the end of each gig in my employment history, literally just key words of the skills (including soft skills) used on each project as this also give the bonus of letting pimps know WHEN you last used a skill.

ie:



Rinse and repeat

That is exactly what I do.

[northernladuk]

I have:

Personal summary

Main achievements

Technical summary

Contract History

Perm History

Interests (I know people say you should not have this as a contractor but I still have it there, I have played sport internationally and currently coach a GB team so it is worth bragging about)

Contact details.

The cv comes in at about 5 pages but the summaries etc are all on the first page.

5 pages is too many IMO. That will be a limiting factor to some extent regardless of how good the content is. I presume you have plenty of contracting history to be able to fill 5 pages so the perm history should be super brief. If not you must have gone back a lot of years in your perm history which again isn't that useful.

[Scoobos]

If i've even touched a technology it goes in my skills section.

I work on the principle that I can brush up and learn it to a good standard in the window between speaking to the agent and getting the interview.

Without jinxing myself , hopefully, I've never failed an interview ; so it works for me.