Career Advice - CV Writing Tips

The purpose of your CV is to establish the relevance of your skills and experience to the position you’ve applied for and hopefully, secure an interview. It is potentially your first point of contact with a new employer and is your opportunity to create a good first impression.

Presentation

This is key; the employment market is very competitive and your CV should stand out for the right reasons. Your CV should instantly command attention from the person viewing it, so use a sensible font such as Arial or Times New Roman Helvetica and generally keep the content within 3 pages. Be concise, accurate and professional. Nobody wants to read your life story, just ensure that your skills, experience and achievements are clearly visible.

Ensure that your education and employment history has no mysterious gaps. Unemployment and illness are neither a problem nor an issue for employers, especially if it can be shown that such time was utilised in a productive manner. For example, participating in voluntary work or undertaking a period of personal development. However, gaps can lead to suspiscion!

Be positive and emphasise success, strengths and transferable skills.

Content

Personal Details (name only – you are not obliged to discriminate against yourself by disclosing age, marital status, parental responsibilities etc)
Education
Qualifications
Employment History - in reverse chronological order (ie current position first)
Responsibilities - with achievements listed against professional experience
IT and computer skills
Languages
Reference details

Be sure that your CV is accurate and can be verified. It will form the basis of the interview/discussion so you need to be able to support any claims made.

If a CV is to be emailed, ensure that it is easily readable. The employer will not undertake major re-editing in order to read your CV. Creating it in a universally used format such as PDF or MS Word should overcome this (although beware – current version produces a slightly different file format .docx, so remember to save as .doc)

Review your CV

Whilst a friend or member of the family can review your CV, try to find someone objective and independent to critique it as if they had never met you. Insist that they tell you what’s wrong with it – you’re looking for feedback, not praise.

• Job Hunting • CV Tips • Interview Tips