Should I include the number of people I manage on my CV?

I’ve been advised that I should include the number of people I managed in each job on my CV. This has varied wildly from job to job. Should I include this information, or leave it out?

Stating how many staff you had is generally either immaterial or it is negative. This is because fashions for different configurations of business organisation mean that the popularity of wide and narrow spans of direct control wax and wane.

Sometimes it is perceived as very clever to have a small top team handling a massive span of control; at other times, the trend is for a ‘flat’ organisation with many people of the same grade.

You cannot second guess what the prevailing fashion is in the target organisation, so I always advise leaving numbers of direct reports out, and focusing instead on span of control and delivery of absolute figures. These are always in fashion.

October 19th, 2010 | Category: application, experience, job description, job role, Uncategorized | No Comments »

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