CV Advice
Your CV is a vital marketing tool and its sole purpose is to secure interviews for you.
When considering how to construct it you should consider the following points:
- Your CV will help the client form a first impression about you, it's vital that this is positive.
- It's likely that your CV will be one of many that are being reviewed, so it must have an immediate impact.
- A client or consultant will only spend a short time reviewing your CV.
General Points
When constructing your CV there are some general points that you should consider:
- Your CV should ideally be no more that 3 pages long and should be laid out logically and simply.
- Use headings so that the information required can be found immediately.
- Ensure that it’s written in a consistent tense, third person (e.g. A number of tasks were completed, such as) or first person (I completed a number of tasks, such as).
- Consider tailoring your CV for each application so that you include the experience that is relevant for the job you are applying for. One way of doing this is to prepare a master copy that includes every responsibility that you have held, every project that you have been involved with or every major sale that you have made, and delete the ones that aren't relevant for the application in hand.
Constructing your CV
An example of a good CV structure is as follows:
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Name
Address
Telephone
Mobile (if appropriate)
Email
Date of Birth (not essential)
Driving Licence
Foreign Languages
PROFILE
Briefly state in no more that two paragraphs the type of work that you are looking for and/or major achievements. This could be tailored for each application.
TECHNICAL SUMMARY
This section may only be relevant for candidates applying for jobs that require technical skills.
Include a summary of all of the technologies, operating systems, computer languages, applications, etc that you have used, ideally with an estimation of your competency (e.g. expert, average, basic knowledge). Remember that most agencies search for skills using keywords so include everything that is relevant to the type of role that you are interested in.
WORK HISTORY
This should be in reverse chronological order (i.e., the most recent job at the top).
Assume that the reader doesn’t know your employer's business and briefly state this for each one (e.g. “Global Car Manufacturer” or “CRM Software Vendor”).
Include the year and month that you started and ended each job (August 1999 - September 2001), not just the year (1999 - 2001). Where and when you've worked is important and both employers and consultants will ask for this information and will discuss the reasons for any gaps in employment.
For each job in your employment history include your main tasks and responsibilities (e.g. "responsible for selling high value bespoke general insurance solutions" or "responsible for developing web based billing applications using Java"), the scope of your role (e.g. “responsible for a budget of £x, managed three people,” etc) and your main achievements (awards or accolades, major projects completed, or sales made, etc).
EDUCATION/PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
Include education history, professional qualifications, certifications and training courses attended, including dates, institutions and grades.
INTERESTS/HOBBIES
Briefly state some personal information such as your interests, hobbies, charity work that you are involved with, personal achievements, etc. This helps to give employers an insight into you as a person.
Before you send your CV
- Always ask someone to proof read your CV. They will probably spot errors that you may have missed yourself and give a valuable opinion regarding the layout and appearance.
- Use different fonts, heading sizes and underlining to make your CV easier to read and more attractive.