moderncv

Specifying Date of Birth in personal data

Asked by Wojtek

Hello,

would it be possible to add special command (newcommand) for date of birth information ?
I know this can be specified in additional information but it still is a work-around,
since in some countries this should be the first entry in personal data.

Sorry if this feature is already supported.

Regards,
Wojtek

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moderncv Edit question
Assignee:
Xavier Danaux Edit question
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Xavier Danaux
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Xavier Danaux (xdanaux) said : 		#1

Hi Wojtek,

Normally, you would indeed simply use the \extrainfo command.

Is the issue for you that this information absolutely has to be displayed before your address? I would love to understand this better, as I have always seen it displayed after contact information so far, together with things such as driver licence...

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Wojtek (w14152) said : 		#2

I've seen some sample CV's on the web and some tend to list date of birth
as the first info there, example: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4025249/curriculum_vitae_phd.pdf

But as I thought about it a bit more today, it occured to me a bit silly to include birth information
alongside with the group of a big load of contact data (and contact data only),
but you wrote that it is a typical pattern, so maybe I'm wrong.

I thought maybe it would be better to include date of birth, martial status and so on
in a separate section, entitled, for instance: "Personal"?
But on the other hand such information
doesn't suit the rest of stuff listed below, namely: education, experience, skills, ... ,
which all can be classified as "achievements" which cannot be associated with personal data.

Or maybe moderncv provides another way of placing such information ?

P.S. I guess this isn't an appropriate place for such a discussion, since it is only a tool (magnificent by the way), not the CV planning standard.

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Best Xavier Danaux (xdanaux) said : 		#3

I have also seen both, and to be honest it depends on
1) Cultural habits, different across the globe
2) The amount of personal information you want or need to show

Moderncv offers both options: either you show your personal info at the reserved location, using the appropriate commands (\address, \phone, \extrainfo, etc), or you create a (usually) first "Personal info" section, with the different elements organized through various \cvitem.
I believe the first option should be the default, while the 2nd only makes sense if you have to show a lot of personal information (e.g., date of birth, driving licence, marital status and security clearance).

For my personal taste, I would rather limit the amount of personal information: my view is that employers are interested in your education / experience, not your personal data. They will most probably anyway get a sense of your age given how much experience you exhibit, and they won't decide to interview you based on your driving licence, marital status, etc. Even if some personal information might be relevant (say your visa status in the US, if you are an alien), they will simply contact you and ask if they like your profile enough.
More generally, try to limit the information you provide to what is relevant for the recruiter to screen your resume and decide on whether you should be granted an interview. The rest is just noise that will make your key "selling points" less visible.

Just my 2 cents :)

Kind regards,

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Wojtek (w14152) said : 		#4

Nothing more to add,
I think that fully illustriates a balanced-taste-techniques in writing a CV

Many thanks,
Wojtek