When I was involved in recruiting for a big Euro airline, we required a CV no more than one page of A4. If it was bigger, it got filed in the bin. At the time, we were getting over a hundred CVs a week, so we had to quick; if we liked the look of a CV in the first 2-3 seconds, it got our attention and we read it.
We generally never read covering letters, the CV has the data we need and we were too busy to wade through a bunch of covering letters.
Fancy binding, cute plastic files etc all got binned as the CVs were all filed in ordinary ring binders.
Turning up in person was a no-no, we were way too busy for that. If we want to see you, we'll call.
We were looking for people who were confident in themselves, and who trusted in their abilities and didn't resort to desperation tactics. Anyone who looked desperate got binned.
At the end of the day, as CV is simply a screening device. If you don't have the qualifications, you won't be considered no matter how much irrelevant crap you put in your CV. All we want from a CV is that it be clear, legible, to the point, well set out and have no grammatical or spelling errors. The point being that if a pilot can't manage to generate a smart, error-free CV with the relevant info, we aren't going to trust him with an aircraft.
All you really need is:
- Personal details, including contact info
- Educational info including highest qual achieved
- Flying experience, broken down appropriately
- Work history for last 5-10 years
- If you really must, a short para on why we should hire you, but any more than 3-4 lines and we get bored.
- And, probably most important of all - a photo of yourself in the top right corner. Try and avoid uniform shirts and four bars if you only hold a basic CPL... makes you look like a wally.
Make sure that you have the long CV (that's the one with your certificate from kindergarten and Diploma in Advanced Coffee Making etc) ready if requested. It should include a complete work history, with all gaps accounted for.
Having good referees helps too.