In the previous post, I made the bold claim that I was going to share my three-page CV with you all. Well, I thought I had better have a look over it before I made such a move – and frankly I didn’t like what I saw. I thought I would have a go at trying to cut it down to two pages. It was painful, but I think the finished product looks a lot neater and tidier than its predecessor.
I did a general overall trim, to get down to the real meat of what I do and have done across my various roles on a day to day basis. The two-line reference to GCSEs (high school qualifications) were cut out, and I also decided to do away with mention of my eight-and-a-half wretched years at Morrisons (a supermarket chain). Although Morrisons was important in terms of gaining transferable skills, I feel that I now perhaps have enough directly relevant experience gained from within the Museum sector.
Of course, each CV must be tailored for each specific job application. This one would suit most collections-based roles. My main caveat here is that this two-pager hasn’t been tried and tested. My three-pager, on the other hand, has been very good to me in the past. It will need to go through a live fire exercise, and I will need to work out how to fit on my new 2nd other job (complicated contracts are a sad fact of the heritage industry) at some point! But for now, here it is. I hope it is useful, and I would also welcome any feedback anyone might have. NB – I have anonymised much of it, because I am paranoid.
To round-up this discussion about CVs and resumes, I would like to point you in the direction of a blog by Ruth Millington, who has written much more succinctly and elegantly on the topic than I have!
However, I should point out that I don’t agree with absolutely everything Ruth has said! Considering a summary statement at the front of your CV? Forget it – only so much hot hair (in my host humble of opinions).
PS – Are you a heritage professional with a job-winning CV you would like to share? Perhaps we could build up a bank of templates. Contact me at @TMPHopkins1 if you would like to get involved!
How to Emerge as a museum professional: a guide 
I’ve just come across this! I have found a lot of job applications do not accept CV,s… they want you to list the last 10 years of your employment history…. which usually means 1 or 2 relevant jobs and many of those that aren’t.
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The University of Gondor…if only!
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I think your CV format is great! The one thing I would remove if you were looking to trim a little more is the ‘references available upon request’ thing. It might just be my pet peeve but whenever I’m recruiting and reading through dozens of CVs I find the phrase oddly annoying. My unfiltered thought process goes something like: ‘Duh, obviously you’re going to give me references when I request them but…thanks for the reassurance I guess? Just give ’em to me or don’t waste my eye time.’
Then again, this might be more of a UK norm than my foreign tastes are used to!
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I agree with you Ashleigh. It’s a hangover from the time when I included my actual references on my CV (for padding when it was less filled-out with experience).
Now it’s pretty redundant. Of course I have referenced. Who doesn’t?
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