I’m updating my CV, and I need to know which jobs to put where. I’m planning to put them in chronological order, listing the first one last. My problem is that some of my job duration dates overlap. I’ll explain.
I have the following dates for different jobs:
2012-2014
2006-2015
2008-2012
2011
Would there be a best way to put them in order? Should I order them by start date or end date?
Thanks.
End date, since you want a prospective employer to see that you are still employed. It seems to make a difference.
Only exception would be if one job were significantly more attractive than another.
Yes, I was actually wondering if I should list the more “important” jobs first. Though which job is the most important would vary according to what I’d be applying for.
Just order them by end date, with your latest (or current) job first. Don’t over-think this. 
You want to show some degree of increasing responsibility and job quality. If the jobs are very different, and you have two threads of employment, it might even make sense to separate them. The only example I can think of is someone who is a local politician but also has a real job. Mixing them would be confusing - the job thread and the political office thread separated would be easier to read.
Hard to say more without more details about the jobs you had and the positions you are applying for. But I agree that putting relevant work experience on top makes sense. And you might even want to explain the second job if it is not obvious.
I read lots of resumes. If I have one which raises and does not answer questions and another which is straightforward, the one with the questions gets pitched. What they say is true - those of us who read resumes are looking for a reason to pitch them, not keep them. Don’t give us one.
The general rule would be by end date, and always with your current or most recent job first.
But if some of these are clearly side jobs (I have a lot of random consulting, for example), you can place those below the full time job you were working at the time. I usually add a parenthesis to explain the nature of shorter jobs. For example:
2008-2015 Chief Widget Engineer
2009-2011 Bounce House Inflation Expert (Consultant)
2008-2010 Party Princess (Internship)
2004-2008 Junior Widget Engineer
2005-2007 Renaissance Fair Organizer (Summer position)
They key is just to make sure that you have a continuous work history (or as much of one as you can claim) and to tell a story that makes sense to the reader.
The last time I did a resume, I put the job history in order of relevance to the job that I was applying for, with the most relevant first. In a separate section, I put a list of all of my jobs with start and end dates, most recent first. I did this because a few of my past jobs had no real connection to the job that I was applying for. The separate section gave an overall look at my job history.
Not sure that this helps for a CV though.
End dates, most recent first.
As a hiring manager that reviews several resumes a month, I prefer to see the work history listed in order of end date, most recent first, as many have suggested. And this works best regardless of relevant experience, etc. It’s just easier to read that way and what is normally done.
Thanks to all who have responded so far.
If you have a lot of small jobs then you should group them together if possible. Something like
2005-2010 Consultant Frangelator