Separating and clarifying your messages
The first element that a recruiter will take notice of in your CV should not really be the trivia about where you live, how old you are and what schools you went to. Far better to create a brief sketch of yourself that positions you at the right level so that the reader knows at once that you are a relevant candidate for the job.
If you do this well you will probably never need alternate versions of your CV for different applications because your main message will be so clear and on target. If you happen to locate a job with a different emphasis all you need change is the tone of the opening summary or the application letter you send with your CV.
When you come to describing your jobs you are looking to build a story of your career in which the strongest, most recent experience has priority and the rest of the story goes back in time without repeating the minor roles over and over. Here I am using the same information as in the previous example, arranged in a different way.
Example:
SOLUTARY VOLUTIONS UK LTD. SINCE 1996
Sales Manager, Volutions Division promotion 1999
(previously Assistant Sales Manager 1998; Team Leader 1997; Sales Executive on joining)
Leader of a dedicated sales team of 15 with dotted line influence over technical input to the process of developing high value, long term accounts (average value £300K pa.); control of a £1m budget.
Four times promoted within 5 years; national award winner 4 times; average +6% against an industry norm of –4%.
Then you would go on to describe the actual roles and evolution of roles with this employer in slightly more detail but not too many more bullet points.
Then tackle the previous job, treated in a similar way but more briefly…
Summary: