CV Tips

A CV is the most important document when applying for a new position. This is the document that will introduce you to a prospective employer so you must spend time and effort making sure that your CV sells your skills and experience in the best possible way.

Employers receive a lot of CVs for each advertised position - jobs advertised in national papers can attract many applicants so your CV has to be that bit special to stand out if you want to obtain interviews. The good news (for you) is that most people do not know how to write a CV and only spend a short time preparing a CV. Writing professional CVs is a skill, which these people have not learnt.

Of course your CV can continue to work in your favour even after it has obtained an interview for you. It can help you at an interview by carefully focusing the interviewer's mind on your good points and on your achievements. Once you have left the interview it will continue to work in your favour as the interviewer will probably reread it before making a decision, either on who should be invited to the second interview stage or who the job should be offered to.

When it comes to salary negotiations a well written CV can help. If your CV conveys your full worth you are likely to get a higher salary offer than you might have done with a poorer CV.

Why are CVs rejected?

First impressions

Your CV must make an impact at the first impression. If your CV doesn’t make an impact in the first 20-30 seconds of reading, then your chances of obtaining an interview are cut very short.

Recruiting a potential employee is time consuming and distracting for an employer and they probably only have a couple of hours in which to make their selection.

A CV must be structured. Structured in a way in which the client can obtain information quickly and effectively. What an employer really wants to know is why they should invite you for an interview. A good CV always starts with a brief introduction to you skills and experience. A half page paragraph outlining your whole career with certain key words associated to the role you are applying for can be added here.

Poor visual layout

Making your CV attractive to look at is very important, although don’t over do it. Remember you are not painting a picture. The visual layout of a CV is very important. Even though the wording you use may be correct, if people cannot find the information they want quickly they will move on to someone else's CV. You should use plenty of 'white' space in your CV and appropriate headings and section breaks.

Length of CV

Many agencies and educational resources suggest you keep your CV to two pages of A4. This depends on how you structure your document. A well presented CV can be any length depending on your background. If you show on your first page, a brief outline, and personal details, your CV can be any length. A client will see a particular skill in your brief description and then look further within your details.

Too little information

A lot of people do not include enough details about their previous jobs and experience and an employer therefore does not have enough information - they will therefore have to reject your application. Make sure you detail your experience as much as possible. A good idea to writing a successful CV is the use of bullet points. This also helps you when structuring a CV. 

Not results orientated

You need to detail your achievements. Please remember that your CV is your sales document to an employer. If it does not tell an employer why they should employ you then it has failed. An employer will only want to employ you if they can see a benefit in it for themselves. So do tell them the benefits of employing you.

Misspellings, typo errors, poor grammar

Your CV must be carefully checked for errors before you send it out to employers. Tiny errors in your CV can detract from an otherwise good CV and make you look lazy or careless - not the sort of qualities you want to portray to an employer. A good suggestion is to get someone else to check your CV for grammar and spelling errors.

What information is required?

You should gather all of the information required below. You will probably not use all of this information in your CV but it will provide you with useful reference material when it comes to preparing for interviews.

Personal Details

• Full name

• Address

• Home and Mobile telephone numbers

• Date of birth

• Marital status (put only single or married down on your CV, if you are divorced then put single, if you are separated you are still married - never list any sort of failure on a CV)

• Nationality (you may want to include this if you are applying for jobs abroad or if you are a British/EU national and your name does not sound British)

• Do you have a full driving licence? Is it clean?

Education / Qualifications

List your qualifications and education history, for example:

• BSc (Hons) 2.2 in Biochemistry at the University of Warwick, 1980 - 1983.

• GCE A Levels: Maths [C], Biology [B], Chemistry [C] at Farnham School, 1978 - 1980.

• GCE O Levels (or GCSEs if you did them): Maths [B], English Language [C], History [C], Geography [C], French [C], Chemistry [C], Biology [C] at Farnham School, 1973 - 1978.

If you have a degree you probably will not need to list all your O Levels/GCSEs; just listing the number is probably sufficient.

Professional Qualifications

List your professional qualifications, membership of professional associations and professional ID numbers.

If you recently completed a college or university degree or HND or Diploma, etc, then you may want to list the courses you studied if the subject you studied was relevant to your target job.

Training Courses

Document related training courses which you attended; including company courses and any you attended on your own initiative. If you obtained a qualification on any course please list it. You only need to list the important courses you attended.

Work Experience

If you have been working for a number of years you probably do not need to include any part-time jobs, vacation jobs, voluntary work or unpaid work experience. Charity work could be included in your interests. However you might want to include these jobs if they covered a period of unemployment, or a time when you were not working for any other reason, or you feel that some of the experience you gained will be useful in your next job. You should normally concentrate on your two most recent jobs (unless you were only there for a short time), because employers are usually most interested in these.

Start with your most recent or last job and work backwards. For each position (treat internal promotion as a new job and record the dates separately) list your job title (e.g. Manager, Supervisor, etc), the job title of the person you reported to (e.g. Director, Manager, etc) and when you started and finished in each job.

Give the name of the company and include a brief description of the service they provide (using the terms they would use to describe themselves). Set out your main responsibilities, achievements, duties, and skills that could be transferred to another employer. Be specific and positive about your skills, e.g. 'good written skills' may be a better description of your abilities rather than 'good communication skills'.

Include your level of responsibility if any, e.g. 'responsibility for departmental budget of £100K and managed 10 staff'. In particular list any achievements you had in each position, including increases in sales/productivity and cost savings made. Quantify your achievements if possible. 'Increased sales by £100K' is more interesting and positive than just saying 'Increased sales'. You should try to include some achievements such as meeting deadlines, budgets, etc, and any information that may be relevant to your next job.

Major Achievements

When you are listing your achievements in this section, only list a few of your most important work achievements; your other achievements can be described under the work experience section. You should only list achievements which are relevant to your next job and indicate how you achieved them.

This section is very important as an employer will only invite you for an interview if they can see a benefit in doing so. Your achievements may sell you to an employer and make them choose you for an interview rather than someone else. For this reason it is vital that you think carefully about your achievements.

Other Experience

List any computer skills you have, including the make and type of equipment you are familiar with, the software and operating system used, e.g. IBM compatible PC, Microsoft Windows 95, Microsoft Office 97.

If you have foreign language skills which may be relevant for any jobs which you are applying for, please list them and indicate whether your skills are spoken, written, business or technical. Please also indicate your level of fluency: fluent, good working knowledge, etc. You should only list these skills if they are relevant to the jobs you are applying for as no one really wants to hear about a French language course you did at school a long time ago.

Interests / Hobbies

List your interests, hobbies and any sports you play. List any positions of responsibility you hold or have held in any club or organisation, and say what your responsibilities and achievements were.

References

You do not normally need to list referees on a CV, but it is a good idea to think about whom you could ask now. For some professions however it is normal to list referees.

 Summary

List your major skills, strengths, personal qualities and achievements. Be specific, e.g. good team player, excellent written skills, versatile, able to motivate others, etc. Look at your staff appraisals or at your references.

What should you leave out of your CV?

The following is a general list of things not really needed within a CV.

• Photos - the only people who need to include these are models, actors, actresses and possibly air cabin crew.

• Any sort of failure - exams, marriages, businesses, etc.

• Reasons for leaving each job.

• Salary information - this can only be used to reject your application. If an advertisement specifically requests this information you can always include the information in your cover letter.

• Fancy patterns/borders - these detract from your presentation

• Title pages, binders and folders are usually unnecessary and can be off-putting (though if you are doing a special presentation, enclosing your CV in a binder may look more impressive)

• Do not include a list of publications if you are a scientist, unless they are asked for.

• Leave out age (put in date of birth instead), weight, height, health, or any other personal information that is irrelevant to your application.

Do not use poor quality photocopies of your CV - they make it look as though you are sending off your CV to lots of companies and that you may not be too bothered who you work for.

And always remember to include a copy of your passport!