CV's

Your CV is your personal specification, documenting your abilities to potential employers and work experience providers in a comprehensive summary.  Employers usually have a pile of CV’s on their desks from other hopefuls, and from those applicants only a few will be chosen for interview.  So it is crucial to have a well written CV in order to get you that interview.  Therefore, you might want to consider being economical with words, while ensuring content is honest and accurate throughout and include only information that adds value.  This means demonstrating that your career aspirations are suited to the job and presenting information in a format that highlights experience, skills and achievements in a way that can be quickly assimilated and understood.

But before you start writing your CV, it may help if you look in a newspaper or browse the internet for advertisements for the kind of job you are applying for.  This will give you an idea of the terminology and language you should use.

Your CV should not exceed two A4 pages and should record information that includes your personal details, a brief personal statement, employment history, education/qualifications and skills relevant to the role.

Personal Details

A typical CV should open with your personal details.  Include your full name, address, contact phone numbers and an e-mail address.  It is not necessary to include information such as your date of birth or marital status unless specifically requested. 

Personal Statement

Under this section, you should write a brief statement – three or four lines – explaining who are and defining your objectives.  This is your chance to market yourself so you might want to consider including the personal qualities the job requires and personalise this, building it into your statement.  You might want to sum up your key qualities and define your long term career objectives, detailing why you want the opportunity to work for the company.  This section will focus your CV and provide a context for the information that follows.

Document all your work experience – even work that seems irrelevant - in reverse chronological order.  Include starting and leaving dates for each position, as well as responsibilities held.  Your work experience can be of value to prospective employers because you can transfer the skills you developed from one job to different working environments.  For example, if you have experience working in pubs and bars, you will have acquired good communication skills, know what it is like to work under pressure and have an awareness of the benefits of teamwork. 

Even if your work experience is thin, don’t worry: employers often look for your potential to develop, rather than your existing knowledge or experience.

Education and Qualifications

As with your work history, list details of your education and qualifications in reverse chronological order.  The name of your school/college/university along with qualifications gained will be sufficient enough.  It is not necessary to go into great detail about the modules you have studies unless it is relevant to the role you are applying for.  It may not be in your best interest to list GCSE and A-level grades unless you gained fairly good marks.  Besides, most employers pay little attention to school grades because they are less important than your degree.  

Employment Skills

This is chance to tell your prospective employer what skills you have developed and are able to offer.  Again, you might want to look at skills the job requires and list some of this if you have developed them at some time.  Skills you developed during your time in education and work can be listed.  Foreign languages, I.T, communication and numeric ability are much sought after by employers so you should include these if they apply to you.  List your skills in bullet point format as it saves space and makes an impact.

This is your opportunity to give an insight into your personality and highlight your uniqueness.  Evidence of any special achievements or qualifications you have can reflect your dedication and commitment.  You could use this section to record your interests and hobbies.  Fitness and team sport activities can be indicative of someone that is a team player and not adverse to a challenge – something which is bound to be an asset to employers.

At the end of your CV, you should add ‘References available on request’.  Employers normally use referees to confirm job offers, therefore are not taken up until after your interview.  However, it is courteous to inform your two referees that you are planning to use their names to support a job prior to giving their details.

NOTE: Employers are busy people and need to digest information quickly.  The person who reads your CV may devote only 20 or so seconds to scanning it, therefore you have to capture their attention very quickly.  You might want to slip in a few industry buzzwords and think about presentation.  The document needs to be easy to read with an attractive layout.  To preview samples of professional CV’s, click the links below.

Finally, always check your CV for spelling and grammatical errors.  A careless mistake on your CV could spell the end of your chances to your dream job. 

http://www.alec.co.uk/cvservice/examcv.htm

http://www.handsoncv.co.uk/CVexample.asp

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