Getting a better job...

[rah]

Leave the locations in, You don't want them to look fictitious. A city name is fine.

You only need to list other jobs if you need the experience listed, need a recommendation, or filling a gap in time (this being the big one).

If you need none of those features, feel free to leave them off. A time gap will usually illicit a question. The ones you'd prefer to avoid.

[Dauphin]

Locations is not something I would omit unless it's a bad thing. It can speak to the perceived quality of experience. I've never seen or heard of anyone losing out on an interview because they are out of towners, but it's possible someone who has experience in a cosmopolitan finance hub would probably be picked up more readily than someone who lists an unknown town in a backwater state/country. I have no experience of hiring in the U.S though.

I'd leave irrelevant experience off, maybe (under advisement of the groupthink) change "Experience" to "Representative experience" to indicate you have others skills and experiences, and that it's not your full CV.

To cover rah's point, have a timeline summary of employers, but no other details. That said, the only gaps are pre-2012, so they could assume that is the start of your career.

[kentonio]

Yes, a single page CV with a single page cover letter. Electronic is slightly different but the same concepts apply. SHORT IS SWEET.

If it takes multiple pages to impress me, you're not very impressive.

That might be industry specific though. In my industry it would be damn near impossible to do a single sheet I reckon.

[Spaced Cowboy]

Don't you still put your current address on the resume these days, most I saw did?

Was not talking about where the jobs you had were, only that via your home address, you could see that the person was not local.

Not trying to change anything about your resume, only stating what I did when sorting.

[Al B. Sure!]

Don't you still put your current address on the resume these days, most I saw did?

Was not talking about where the jobs you had were, only that via your home address, you could see that the person was not local.

Not trying to change anything about your resume, only stating what I did when sorting.

I don't have my address on my resume or cover letter. Seems useless to have. No one is going to mail you anything.

[lightblue]

Having any gaps of time is a big flag; I wouldn't try to leave out dates etc. When I worked (only as a holiday job/data entry) at a corporate headhunter I was given a list of things to judge incoming CVs by, and any that had gaps of more than a few months were straight for the reject pile and didn't even get entered on the system. This was an agency which specialised on finance/insurance etc., be it in Luxembourg.

[rah]

If you do have a gap of 6 or more months, you can list that you were running your own consulting company. It's hard for them to check. When they ask why you gave up you can say the next job offer you got was just what you were looking for and you discovered that you preferred to feel part of a team. Also that it was more hustling to get jobs then doing jobs. Most will understand that. Some will think that makes you a bigger go-getter too. win-win

[Al B. Sure!]

Having any gaps of time is a big flag; I wouldn't try to leave out dates etc. When I worked (only as a holiday job/data entry) at a corporate headhunter I was given a list of things to judge incoming CVs by, and any that had gaps of more than a few months were straight for the reject pile and didn't even get entered on the system. This was an agency which specialised on finance/insurance etc., be it in Luxembourg.

Omitting jobs prior to 2012 removes employment gaps. So you're saying I'm right to omit them?

[rah]

Yeah, and you can drop the selected courses. If they're part of your major I wouldn't bother listing.

[Al B. Sure!]

That was a recent addition to add some more credibility to my quantitative skills and make me appear like a 2012 college grad instead of a January 2008 one. Though it is definitely not necessary for a finance major to take econometrics, derivatives, etc. On the other hand, I remember very little from those courses after 8+ years.

[DaShi]

I don't have my address on my resume or cover letter. Seems useless to have. No one is going to mail you anything.

Actually, it does matter. It the difference between hiring Johnson who lives on 15th street and Johansen who lives in **** if I know. That said, since you actually live in ****hole U.S.A., it's probably working in your favor as much as it can.

[Elok]

I would definitely add "Relevant" in front of experience, it's what I do to notify employers that I'm leaving out food service work from 2009, etc. Re: personalizing, I don't know how utterly interchangeable the banks you're applying for are, but perhaps you could personalize by the exact job you want to do there instead? Obviously you don't want to yammer on about how you're looking to deliver world-class customer service with GLOBOBANK the industry leader in blah blah blah. The guy's probably reading dozens of these things, and if he's a banker he can afford to get fellated by professionals. But there's got to be some way to make your letter not seem like a precise copy of the one you sent to three other employers that morning.

Or so I think. Bearing in mind that I've never been on the employer's side of the table.

[Al B. Sure!]

And is it not just Bank of New York, rather than the Bank of New York.

No. It is The Bank of New York Mellon.

[Al B. Sure!]

Is it ever appropriate to include letters of recommendation (such as the one I posted in the OP from a Lieutenant Colonel) on online applications along with the cover letter and resume?

[rah]

I Don't know if it's a bad thing. I always ignored them since even the worst employees can get convincing recommendations.