CV Tips

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CV Tips

• Keep it short, sweet and clear
  • Choose the right structure for your CV.
  • Focus on the important information
    • i.e. key skills, recent experience which be near the top
  • Include your Profile, Achievements, Experience, Special Skills (languages / computers), Education, Training, and (if you wish) Interests.
  • CV should normally be two pages in length; you can expand on specific details in your covering letter or if specifically requested.
• Make it look good
  • Clear, attractive presentation is also important.
  • Keep it uncluttered, with key points easy to spot.
  • Use bullet points and keep the sentences relatively short.
  • Make it easy on the eye.
• Most recent first
  • Put your employment history in date order, starting with the most recent first.
  • Briefly explain any gaps.
  • Don’t go into detail about positions you held over 10 years ago.

• Include many facts
  • List your job duties beneath each position.
  • List your achievements, responsibilities and results.
  • Talk about results – what difference did your presence make?
  • Use numbers for achievements wherever possible, e.g. “Boosted sales by 20% in first year”.
  • Always write in a slightly formal manner and never use the word “I” – e.g. “Supervised the team” rather than “I supervised the team”. Use the past tense for previous jobs and the present tense for your current job.
• Not too many lists
  • Include specific skills, such as languages, administrative or computing skills, in a separate section in your CV.
  • Don’t relist them for every job you’ve used them in.
  • This is particularly so for IT work – lists of tools and packages make dull reading and won’t make you stand out from other people with the same abilities.
• Breathe some life into it
  • Remember the employer wants a sense of the kind of person you are, as well as what you can do.
  • Are you punctual, conscientious, or motivated? Do you rise to a challenge? With each point you write, ask yourself “What does this say about me?”
• Be accurate
  • Always check for errors. Run a spelling and grammar check and ask someone else to read it for you. Read it aloud to the dog. The employer isn’t going to believe you’re a good communicator if your CV is full of mistakes.
• Adapt it
  • You don’t have to use the same CV every time.
  • You can have two or three versions, each for a different kind of job. Or you can tailor your CV to suit the job you’re applying for. It isn’t a case of one size fits all.
• Send a covering letter
  • Unless the advert tells you not to, always send a covering letter. This should highlight the two or three areas of experience from your CV that are most relevant to the advertised job.
• Be truthful
  • Although you obviously want to present yourself well, don’t go too far and embellish the truth. It can easily backfire on you.