Single-sided single-page CVs only, please! As Daifly suggests earlier, nothing more will get read. If, after 25 years in aviation, I can get the salient points of my career on to a single side - so can you!
The important thing is that only the information that the potential employer needs to be sure you fit his requirements is presented on the CV. Anything else is extraneous, although you might feel it's worth bringing up at interview - if it's relevant. Remember, he doesn't need your life story. He only needs to know enough to make it worth him asking you more at interview.
For instance, so what if you have type-ratings on 35 light piston aircraft and have flown from 120 different light-aircraft fields? If you're applying to a company that operates 737s out of 3000m fields, these facts are hardly relevant, are they!? Having said that, note that it takes just one line to say:
'rated on 25 GA types, flown from 120 European airfields'.
Your employment history should really only show those things, again, that are relevant to your potential employer. It's of no interest to him that in 1988 you ran a software development team of 25 people, whose every need was your task to satisfy. A simple '1943-1997 various management posts in Computer Industry' will suffice. Hard on you - I know you deeply want EasyJet or Ryanair (or whoever) to know every detail of your success in developing graphics sub-routines for Acme Software, but the Chief Pilot of these airlines doesn't give a !!!!!. He isn't looking for software engineers! He wants to know that you have an ATPL, the right number of hours, a current IR, you've flown in the last six months, and you can start yesterday - and how to get hold of you to tell you.
If, on the other hand, you have a 25-year history of flying various still-current jet types for other organisations, it's relevant and should be included - but only in the broadest terms. Such as:
1977-81. RAF. Various types. 1500 hours.
1981-88. Laker Airways. DC10 f/o & capt. 4000 hrs.
1988-90. Dan Air. BAC111 f/0. 1000 hours.
1991-92. Air Europe. B737-100/200 f/o & capt. 1000 hours.
1993-2001. Virgin Atlantic. B747-200/400 f/o & capt. 6800 hours.
Keep it brief, keep it relevant. Make an impact with only the essential facts.
Last edited by scroggs; 29th May 2002 at 18:53.