Stick to a single page CV （527 words）

By Mrs Moneypenny

Thirty years separate the two groups of women I met last week. But to both, my career advice was surprisingly similar. The 14-year-old St Paul's Girls' School pupils were there to get my help with writing a CV. Yes, you can — and should — write a CV at 14. I told them that I favour the one-page variety, something which I believe works at 14, 44 or 94.

CVs are important. This week we have even been able to put a monetary value on them. LinkedIn has just over 100m active users for whom Microsoft is paying $26bn, so I make that about $260 a CV.

LinkedIn profiles might be enough for Microsoft, but for us individuals they are not. The format of LinkedIn is one-size-fits-all. A 14-year-old will have a very different CV to someone 10 years older. Also, being 14 may itself mean that you cannot use LinkedIn — in the UK you can post your CV on the site from the age of 13, and in the US from 14; but if you are Dutch it is 16 and in China 18.

Almost everyone's electronic footprint now extends well beyond LinkedIn, of course. Just as many parents check their children's Instagram posts and credit collection agencies look at social media (are you are having a holiday in Mallorca while pleading poverty?), so prospective employers check recruits out extensively.

I have known clients of ours decline to interview people because they decided that the way the candidate described themselves on Twitter was inappropriate.

So while you polish your CV, go and clean up your virtual existence too. You might even want to set up a Google Alert that nudges you every time your name pops up on the web. A week after my visit to St Paul's I spent an hour with a small group of members of Women in Advertising & Communications London. All the women were in senior positions and in many cases had already embarked on non-executive director careers in parallel with their executive roles.

In our session I also stressed the value of a single-page CV, even for those at the top of their career. A CV, after all, is rather like a 14-year-old girl — it is rarely going to be out anywhere alone. It will be accompanied, either by a covering letter or by the recommendation of a head hunter. So it does not need to do everything because those supplementary documents will be there to augment it.

I admit that talking about CVs with adults seems more relevant than doing so with younger teenagers. At the start of secondary school, a career may seem a long way ahead. But our children's work life is likely to take on many different forms over many years, so it is never too early (or late) to plan a CV and think about where a professional life may lead. And while my group of 14-year-olds prepare their first CVs, the prime minister has appointed their headmistress, Clarissa Farr, to be a trustee of the British Museum. Guess what? Even for that top appointment she will have needed a CV … ideally made up of a single page.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1．Which one is right about the author's career advice among different years old people?

A．similar

B．different

C．exactly same

D．various

答案

2．How many active users does LinkedIn have?

A．76m

B．over 100m

C．over 125m

D．260m

答案

3．Which one is right about the age of the children can use LinkedIn in Dutch?

A．10 years old

B．14 years old

C．16 years old

D．18 years old

答案

4．Which one is the platform of business networking?

A．LinkedIn

B．Instagram

C．Twitter

D．Facebook

答案