Photo on your CV?

[Cirrus]

You sometimes simply cannot believe how much bigger other people's are

Back in the Wang era I was at a very large pharmceutical company and a new guy joined. His CV - and I had a printed copy - was 200 pages long. Admittedly the text was not exactly compact.

He was worldwide Head of R & D and almost all of it was references to articles and papers. Nevertheless: breathtaking!

He was of course American. Naturally he had lots of degrees but one of them he'd done on the train commuting.

[seanraaron]

@WTFH I took your advice and pared my CV down from five to three pages (a lot of excess spacing and blank lines were also removed, which helped). It's a much easier read now, though still no photo. Also put a description in for my work history on LinkedIn, though that's UK-only employment history.

My format has worked okay thus far, but contracting will make it completely unworkable in time. I'll probably start dropping the historical stuff after awhile to keep it brief.

I think part of why my CV had extra detail before was feeling a need to have a line explaining what each company I worked for was along with my role and duties - stuff they tend to expect in America more maybe and possibly 20 years ago? But really if the CV has what folk are looking for then they can always find out the detail in the interview itself.

Of course if my memory starts failing I'll have to carry crib notes on my own past. It's been so long since I've really read my older assignments, I was surprised to see how many consultant gigs for Morse Group I'd forgotten!

[jmo21]

Back in the Wang era I was at a very large pharmceutical company and a new guy joined. His CV - and I had a printed copy - was 200 pages long. Admittedly the text was not exactly compact.

He was worldwide Head of R & D and almost all of it was references to articles and papers. Nevertheless: breathtaking!

He was of course American. Naturally he had lots of degrees but one of them he'd done on the train commuting.

Seems like overkill.

[expat]

... Photos are a no no in the UK so should be removed. One reason they are a no is to avoid accusations of discrimination under equality laws. I've had to review CVs with names removed for this very reason.

Conversely, in some countries such as France and Germany, CVs without a photo are a no no.

[clearedforlanding]

Spain it's the norm. As a multinational we have to return CVs to agency with photos according to corporate policy, but this is exceptional for this territory. Spanish companies or Spanish managers in a multinational see them as mandatory.

I suspect the CVs are not returned, and HR are binning them, as I see very few Spanish candidates. Either that or all the good ones are working in Germany or the UK.

Conversely, in some countries such as France and Germany, CVs without a photo are a no no.

I have worked for every Telco in Germany and this is not my experience hiring or applying. Maybe different customs in different industries.

As above for one Telco in France. The big one.

[Bee]

Spain it's the norm. As a multinational we have to return CVs to agency with photos according to corporate policy, but this is exceptional for this territory. Spanish companies or Spanish managers in a multinational see them as mandatory.

I suspect the CVs are not returned, and HR are binning them, as I see very few Spanish candidates. Either that or all the good ones are working in Germany or the UK.



I have worked for every Telco in Germany and this is not my experience hiring or applying. Maybe different customs in different industries.

As above for one Telco in France. The big one.

I work for Telco and they never asked me for a photo. In Spain I don't know because I never applied.

[expat]

Deutsche Telekom and Bouygues respectively in my case, and every CV had a photo, but hiring was done by IBM in both cases so perhaps it was they who insisted.

But I did once interview with an SSII in Paris where I had submitted a CV without a photo, and it wasn't binned - but the agent pulled out a camera and took a photo without a by-your-leave.

[Boo]

My format has worked okay thus far, but contracting will make it completely unworkable in time. I'll probably start dropping the historical stuff after awhile to keep it brief.

IMHO it's better to have several CVs, each tailored to a specific field of expertise and drop the irrelevant roles from each CV rather than just to drop the oldest roles from a single CV.

This does mean that you will have to leave off dates and wrestle the agent into submission on that point though, which is a PITA, admittedly.

Boo

[seanraaron]

IMHO it's better to have several CVs, each tailored to a specific field of expertise and drop the irrelevant roles from each CV rather than just to drop the oldest roles from a single CV.

This does mean that you will have to leave off dates and wrestle the agent into submission on that point though, which is a PITA, admittedly.

Boo

My work history for nearly twenty years is fairly consistent. The pain in the ass part is my current gig which is outside my area and is unlikely to be much use in getting me another gig outside of saying "look ma, I had a contract gig!" and it was for another financial services institution. I can't see leaving it off though...sigh.

[Eirikur]

Got a few Indian CV's on my desk
They all mention star sign, secondary star sign and caste, which ones should I avoid?. Need an expert on Indian astrology and caste system to make a logical and scientific decision.