I recently helped my team interview a candidate with an 8 page CV. My first response was, “who’s got time to read 8 pages?”. Now they still interviewed well but it was a poor first impression.
I like having a 1 page CV that’s very focused. Even though I’ve worked in tech for 10 years, there’s only very specific roles I’m looking out for and my CV is tailored for them.
![](https://bughuntersam.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image-4-1024x318.png)
Table of Contents
Using Canva for design
I used canva to create this 1 page CV. Here’s a PDF version. They have a ton of beautiful designs you can experiment with. In fact I’ve experimented with several designs over the years.
![](https://bughuntersam.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Engineer-in-Test-Sam-Connelly-791x1024.png)
I’ve only included roles that relate to mobile test engineering and finance. I’ve included my current contract and the tech I’m working on. I am hoping to moving to the mobile team here in a few months once we deliver a micro service digital transformation back end system.
There are many roles I haven’t included but if you want to know what they are, you can always explore my LinkedIn profile.
Having a profile on Seek
I have this CV uploaded on seek.com.au, as well as a profile that is a gold standard in terms of filled in details. From this alone, I get approached by a recruiter at least once a month. I often get an email notification when a recruiter downloads my CV and I often get a phone call from said recruiter 5 minutes later.
![](https://bughuntersam.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/image-5-1024x464.png)
Now I’m not currently looking but I’m now enjoying contract work. In 6 to 9 months time I may be looking to expand my skills on a new project. Having a warm lead every month within my salary expectations is nice. It means I know my skills are in high demand and the CV is working.
Included salary expectations
I’ve included my salary expectations as an experiment. The last thing I want to do is waste a recruiters time. Unfortunately there are tons of testing based contracting gigs out there that are under paid compared to equivalent software engineering/developer roles.
I once had a recruiter call me for a test manager role, their budget for the role was 600 per day (including super), that wasn’t paying much more than my full time bank job if I was to take into account the lack of benefits as a contractor.
Managing my own business
I’m currently on $850 per day (including super). I’m really proud of how well my business is going and it was surprising the difference going from a full time position to contracting. I was previously on a 120K annual salary plus super. As a contractor I’m projecting around a 170K salary plus super for this financial year (assuming 44 billable weeks in a year).
That’s a 40% pay increase for a similar role. Now I have to manage my own super, sick leave, holidays, taxes and pay role but I think that’s worth it. What am I doing with all of this new found wealth? I’m paying down debt, saving for a home and working towards financial freedom.
I don’t need to keep my salary secret, I’ve blogged about how it’s grown over time here. I hope it inspires you to appreciate your own worth and value.
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